Environmentality in Video Games

Cover Image from Super Mario Clouds by Cory Arcangel.
封面图片来自 Cory Arcangel 的作品 Super Mario Clouds。

中文视频： https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Eh4y1p7ue/?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=a58...

The slides of my presentation, about 70 min, during the World Earth Day 2023, about Environment Design in Video Games. The presentation was mainly based on the work of Alenda Y. Chang, especially her book, Playing Nature - Ecology in Video Games.
这是我在 2023 年世界地球日上的演讲幻灯片，时长约 70 分钟，主题是电子游戏中的环境设计。演讲主要基于 Alenda Y. Chang 的研究，特别是她的著作 Playing Nature - Ecology in Video Games。

Since most of video games treated environment as a static background (Super Mario Bros.) or a pile of resources (Minecraft), which paralleled people's attitudes towards environments in real world, quoting the words of Alenda Chang, it is intriguing and instructive to consider how could video games present their environments in a more "tangible" (Colossal Cave adventure) and "responsive" way (Rain World).
大多数电子游戏将环境视为静态背景（如 超级马里奥兄弟）或资源的累计（如 Minecraft），这与现实世界中人们对环境的态度相呼应。引用 Alenda Chang 的观点，思考电子游戏如何以更“可触及tangible”（如 Colossal Cave Adventure）或“有响应responsive”（如 Rain World）的方式呈现其环境，是一件非常有趣且具有启发性的事情。

Despite massive games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild provided great environmental interactions by abundant mechanics and details, it does not mean that good environment design require more. Games can present in game environment greatly by simply limiting players' ablility (Walking Simulators, like Proteus), or changing the form of player's avatar form, like Flower by thatgamecompany.
尽管像 塞尔达传说：旷野之息 这样的游戏通过丰富的机制和细节提供了极佳的环境互动，但这并不意味着好的环境设计需要更多内容。游戏可以通过限制玩家能力（如步行模拟游戏 Proteus），或改变玩家角色的形态（如 Flower）来呈现优秀的游戏环境。

In Alenda's book, games about ecological catastrophy and farming games are further discussed, which were supposed to be discussed in my presentation but finally removed because of the time limit. There will be a second presentation about those games. 
在 Alenda 的书中，她进一步讨论了生态灾难题材游戏和农场经营类游戏，本来计划在我的演讲中涉及这一部分，但由于时间限制被删除了。这部分内容将在后续的第二场演讲中展开。

Instead I chose to present "monsters" in video games and to discuss their ecological connotations, which Alenda might ignored during her discussion about non-human characters. What I found interesting in this part was the game Endling where human became monster character. 
相反，我选择探讨电子游戏中的“怪物”，以及它们所承载的生态寓意。这是 Alenda 在讨论非人类角色时可能忽略的部分。在这一部分中，我发现 Endling 这款游戏非常有趣，因为在其中，“人类”成了怪物角色。

At the end of the presentation, several games with environmental themes were listed, which were selected from a game collection by me after I noticed this intriguing topic. 
在演讲的最后，我列出了一些具有环境主题的游戏，这些游戏是我在发现这一有趣话题后整理的一个游戏合集。

A total of 39 games (or related arts) were discussed or introduced in this presentation:
本次演讲共讨论或介绍了 39 款游戏（或相关艺术作品）：

Introduction, Enviornment in Video Games
引言：电子游戏中的环境

Batty Cave, 2021

Ecco: The Tides of Time, 1994 

Dark Echo, 2015

Flappy Bird, 2014

Super Mario Bros., 1983

Ski Safari, 2012

The Elder Scroll: Skyrim, 2011

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, 2017

Battlefield 1, 2016

Minecraft, 2011

Part I --- More or Less: examples from Walking Simulators
第一部分——多或少：步行模拟游戏的案例

Walkthrough Videos of the Open World games (Skyrim, Wild Hunt and Breath of the Wild)

The San Andreas Deer Cam, 2016 (a stream)

Proteus, 2013

Firewatch, 2011

Walden, a game, 2017

Super Mario Clouds, 2002 (an experienmental art by Cory Arcangel)

The Game of Video Game Objects: A Minimal Theory of when we see Pixels as Objects rather than Pictures, 2021 (a playable essay by Jesper Juul)

Part II --- Player Agents, as non-human
第二部分——玩家的非人类化身

Colossal Cave Adventure, 1975-76

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, 2022

Flower, 2009

Part III --- Monsters, as a part of enviornment
第三部分——怪物，作为环境的一部分

Another World, 1991

Spore, 2008

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, 2016

Rain World, 2017

Endling - Extinction is forever, 2022

Part IV --- Games with enviornmental themes.
第四部分——具有环境主题的游戏例子

The Endless Forest, 2005

From Dust, 2011

Shelter, 2013; Shelter 2, 2015; Shelter 3, 2021;

Meadow, 2016

Everything, 2017

A short hike, 2019

Alba, a Wildlife Adventure, 2020

Crazy Grove, 2021

Sephonie, 2021

Floodland, 2022

Eco, 2018

Spilled! (in development)

Two Times Pi (in development)

I'm working on the English subtitles for the recording of this presentation on YouTube, and I'm considering remake this presentation by English.  This is not a complete presentation of this topic. Please wait for my updates if you are interested.