Only you can save the world (of videogames): Authoritarian agencies in the heroism of videogame design, play, and culture

Abstract

Joseph Campbell’s classical monomyth claims to describe a universal human narrative: the hero’s journey. For decades, it has commanded a revered position in American literary theory, global media production, and the world of videogames. Although the monomyth is still one of the few recognized approaches to videogame writing, there have been few critical examinations of it as a dominant design paradigm. This article therefore interrogates the power dynamics of monomythic videogames, especially concerning authoritarian agencies in the ‘world savior’ model of many AAA titles. Understanding authoritarianism as an agentic modality of gameplay, the study uses an assemblage-based approach that encompasses the agencies of popular designs and their embedded ideologies; labor conditions of videogame production; gaming culture; political contexts; monomyth- and authoritarianism-saturated media landscapes; exertions of nonhuman actors and player’s subjectivities. To illustrate the patterns of authoritarian modalities in world-savior videogames, I conduct an analysis of Horizon Zero Dawn as an exemplary case study. Finally, I turn to gaming culture for evidence of the potentials that these videogames have to nourish authoritarian sensibilities, highlighting the parallel authoritarian agencies of heroic gameplay and harassment campaigns like GamerGate.