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This work is devoted to the issue of traumatic futurism in computer games. This type of game has long become an important element of the everyday culture of many people. That is why it is worth paying special attention to the study of their medial psychological capabilities and mechanisms of influence. In the modern world, games have increasingly begun to address issues of existing problems in the field of politics, society and culture, including periodically related to issues of trauma and disaster, which can be experienced by people both personally and remotely through news or works of art. The concept we use is “traumatic futurism”. It means a special form of medial normalization of the crisis experience that the game subject could experience in his real life. The term is intended to indicate the unique features that gaming simulations and procedures can generate. Throughout the work, we build on the research of various authors who analyzed both the problems of disaster and trauma, as well as various features of the normalization or sedation of difficult real experiences by media. The work presents an analysis of game projects that focus either on the private experience of the traumatic or the collective experience of the catastrophic. In conclusion, different outcomes of traumatic futurism are drawn, which can be considered as a positive therapeutic effect, but also as a sedative, normalizing media factor.

This article is a review of Pippin Barr’s book The Stuff Games Are Made Of (2023), which explores various elements of game worlds. Over the course of ten chapters, including introduction and conclusion, the author of the monograph examine samples with stable basic concepts of computer games and their production. Being a game designer and a theorist, Pippin Barr reflects on many ‘medianized’ aspects of computer games, such as goals and rules, calculations and algorithms, graphics and interface, time and space, cinematography prism, cruelty and violence, and monetarization.

The paper is devoted to the issue of virtual naturalism in computer games, in particular, to such a gaming phenomenon as speedrunning. The author of the study analyzes the essence of speedrunning as a special type of cybersport, as well as a form of counterplay that arose in the minds of gamers around the 1990s. Particular attention is paid to the concept of virtual naturalism, which manifests itself in speed running and can be understood as a form of empirical and materialistic study by gamers of various games and their affordances. The purpose of the work is to establish the features of speedrunning as a research and critical practice, similar to some types of academic analysis, but with different tasks. The central place is occupied by the problem of gamers’ experience during the actualization of speedrunning activity, in which speedrunners study the nature of computer game and call into question game design principles and manipulations, leading to some resistance to artificial prohibitions. This form of confrontation, revealed in different types of speedruns, shows certain nuances of the existence of virtual worlds, which makes it possible to better understand the functioning of computer games as modern cultural artifacts. In result, a conclusion is made about the significance of such borderline phenomena as speedrunning and the need for further study of the counterplay practics.

Modern narratological researches are quite well developed and has long gone beyond the purely philological field. One of the applications of narratology is the study of computer games, the most relevant new medium. This paper is devoted to the issue of unusual narrative strategies used in games on the example of Final Fantasy XIII-2. The analysis is conducted via the possible-worlds method, which is currently in demand in modern humanities, but it is less known in Russia. The aim of the research is to determine the function of possible worlds existing in Final Fantasy XIII-2 for a better understanding of the game design. In the course of the work, the author examines the internal structure of the game world with the help of the theory of possible worlds, analyzes the narrative strategy, and makes a game scheme of possible worlds with accessibility links which let to see the deep internal structure of the narrative game world. In conclusion, it is clear that Final Fantasy XIII-2 contains a non-trivial narrative structure with multiple branches that is smoothed out by the gameplay and cinematic experience of the player, although such a composition of possible worlds represents a complex scheme of the game's macrocosm which demands a close attention to the narrative. The article is intended for various humanitarian specialists interested in the study of computer games.

Настоящая работа посвящена анализу специфики исторической рефлексии в компьютерных играх. Автор показывает, как игры могут аккумулировать историю, размышлять о ней, трансформировать ее в угоду игровым условностям, а также в некотором роде изменять культурную память. «Игровая» историография иногда связана с понятиями «эдьютеймент» и «serious game», которые направлены на обучение. Однако в исследовании используется авторский термин «энциклопедическая игра» для обозначения такого вида игр, которые могут быть «прочитаны» как форма достоверных знаний, но при этом были созданы как независимые продукты с частично вымышленным миром. Основной целью исследования является попытка выявить способы организации исторического материала в форме компьютерной игры. В ходе исследования автор описывает общие особенности истории в играх и ее проблемы, обосновывает использование термина «энциклопедическая игра», выделяет различные виды «энциклопедизма». В итоге автор приходит к выводу, что «энциклопедическая игра» является уникальной формой медиума компьютерных игр, способной «говорить» на темы истории повседневности и ментальности в «тотальном» виде.