Global weirding and dark seasonality in video games

Bibliographic Data

ID3133969
AuthorsLaura Op De Beke (0000-0002-6429-2909, Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-07-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTime & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-463X • E-ISSN: 1461-7463
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0961463x251351718
OpenAlexW4413095564
LanguageEN
References cited19

Taking inspiration from literary studies, this article examines how the seasonal mode has been taken up in video games by exploring, first, how seasonality impacts gameplay practices which are sensitive to spikes in temperature, and second, by analyzing an emergent trend in popular game design that points to a growing engagement with climate change. This trend, which this article dubs "dark seasonality," describes the increased thematization of unseasonal and dangerous weather in popular media, reflecting anxieties and concerns about the climate crisis. Rather than engage with extreme weather as a singular, spectacular occurrence, dark seasonality portrays extreme weather events to fall within new seasonal norms, dictating different styles of gameplay that are more cautious, more focused on the long term, and more attentive to environmental uncertainties. In this way, dark seasonality offers players a space to familiarize themselves with tumultuous weather-worlds, whose disturbed seasonal rhythms echo the more protracted ones felt around the globe

Biology · Geography · Globe · Seasonality · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Digital Games and Media · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Psychology · Ecology