This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms PLAYING NATURE This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Electronic Mediations Series Editors: N. Katherine Hayles, Peter Krapp, Rita Raley, and Samuel Weber Founding Editor: Mark Poster 58 Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games AlendA Y. ChAng 57 Sensations of History: Animation and New Media Art JAmes J. hodge 56 Internet Daemons: Digital Communications Possessed FenwiCk mCkelveY 55 What Is Information? Peter JAniCh 54 Deconstruction Machines: Writing in the Age of Cyberwar Justin Joque 53 Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames stePhAnie Boluk And PAtriCk lemieux 52 The Perversity of Things: Hugo Gernsback on Media, Tinkering, and Scientifiction hugo gernsBACk, edited BY grAnt wYthoFF 51 The Participatory Condition in the Digital Age dArin BArneY, gABriellA ColemAn, Christine ross, JonAthAn sterne, And tAmAr temBeCk, editors 50 Mixed Realism: Videogames and the Violence of Fiction timothY J. welsh 49 Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet JenniFer gABrYs 48 On the Existence of Digital Objects Yuk hui (continued on page 295) This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  P L AY I N G N AT U R E ECOLOGY IN VIDEO GAMES AlendA Y. ChAng Electronic Mediations 58 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS MINNEAPOLIS • LONDON This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Every effort was made to obtain permission to reproduce material in this book. If any proper acknowledgment has not been included here, we encourage copyright holders to notify the publisher. Different versions of portions of the Introduction and chapter 1 were previously published as “Games as Environmental Texts,” Qui Parle 19, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2011): 57– 84. An earlier version of chapter 2 was previously published as “Think Galactically, Act Microscopically? The Science of Scale in Video Games,” Sustainable Media, ed. Janet Walker and Nicole Starosielski, 215– 31 (New York: Routledge, 2016). Portions of an earlier version of chapter 4 were previously published as “Back to the Virtual Farm: Gleaning the Agriculture- Management Game,” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 19, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 237– 52, reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press. This project was supported in part by funding from the University of California Presidential Faculty Research Fellowships in the Humanities, MR- 15328710. Copyright 2019 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chang, Alenda Y., author. Title: Playing nature : ecology in video games / Alenda Y. Chang. Description: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2019] | Series: Electronic mediations ; 58 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lCCn 2019007795 (print) | isBn 978-1-5179-0631-3 (hc) | isBn 978-1-5179-0632-0 (pb) Subjects: lCsh: Nature in video games. Classification: lCC gv1469.34.n37 C43 2019 (print) | ddC 794.8—dc23 lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007795 UMP BmB 2019 This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms For Ed who made this possible This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:07 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Contents Introduction: Edge Effects 1 1. Mesocosm 17 2. Scale 69 3. Nonhuman 107 4. Entropy 145 5. Collapse 187 Acknowledgments 237 Notes 241 Gameography 275 Index 283 This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:10 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:10 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Introduction Edge Effects Perhaps it is precisely in the realm of play, outside the dictates of teleology, settled categories, and function, that serious worldliness and recuperation become possible. — donnA J. hArAwAY, Staying with the Trouble Walden is now a video game, and that’s really not as heretical as it sounds. In April 2016, I watched as Tracy Fullerton, director of the Game Innova- tion Lab at the University of Southern California, ambled through a nearly complete prototype based on Henry David Thoreau’s classic nature memoir, Walden.1 Fullerton is one of the first game designers to receive funding under revised and more inclusive National Endowment for the Humanities grant guidelines, and she and her team have spent more than a decade transform- ing this staple of nineteenth- century American literature into a compelling playable experience. Over the years, they have purposefully engaged with a diverse network of specialists, not just game designers and developers, but also experts on Thoreau’s life and literary philosophy. Even those unfamiliar with Thoreau’s writing are likely to associate him with his two- year stint at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, from late March 1845 to Septem- ber 1847, what he dubbed an experiment in self-r eliance but what today we might anachronistically label “going off the grid” or an early form of surviv- alism. And despite some recent disfavor, Thoreau remains an indispensable name in the nature-w riting canon.2 Walden, a game was released in July 2017 to coincide with the bicentennial of Thoreau’s birth, and has since garnered 1 This content downloaded from (cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)103.242.197.52 on Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:00:31 UTC(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:0) All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms