Zootycoon

Capitalism, Nature, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Dados Bibliográficos

ID15021896
AutoresAndy Opel (0000-0003-0768-2799, Indiana University, autor correspondente), Jason Smith (0000-0002-6143-0421), Jason Kemmitt Smith
Ano2004
Volume9
Fascículo2
Páginas103-120
Data de publicação2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEthics & the Environment (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1085-6633 • E-ISSN: 1535-5306
EditoraIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/ete.2004.9.2.103
OpenAlexW2035109543
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas16

This paper is a cultural studies analysis of the Microsoft computer video game, ZooTycoonTM. Through a critical reading using the "circuit of culture," questions of the gamer's subject position, the role of wildlife and implicit and explicit messages about contemporary attitudes toward the environment are explored. Drawing on Susan Davis' book, Spectacular Nature: Corporate Culture and the Sea World Experience (1997), this paper unpacks the virtual theme parks created in Zoo TycoonTM for their (dis)continuities with Davis's findings. The virtual animals are found to serve as both labor and products in this game that teaches capitalist business strategy and managerial skills. This popular culture text is an example of a product that harnesses the environmental impulse and redirects that impulse back into commodity capitalism

Aesthetics · Art · Capitalism · Commodity · Economics · Game engine · Game studies · Happiness · Impulse (physics · Market economy · Media studies · Multimedia · Political science · Politics · Product (mathematics · Reading (process · Sociology · Subject (documents · Theme (computing · Video game · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology