Playing Utopia

Media narratives inform our ideas of the future - and Games are currently making a significant contribution to this medial reservoir. On the one hand, games demonstrate a particular propensity for fantastic and futuristic scenarios. On the other hand, they often serve as an experimental field for the latest media technologies. However, while dystopias are part of the standard gaming repertoire, games feature utopias much less frequently. Why?
This anthology examines playful utopias from two perspectives. It investigates utopias in digital games as well as utopias of the digital game; that is, the role of ludic elements in scenarios of the future, as they are, for example, often found in the field of gamification as »promises of a better world«.

Benjamin Beil (PhD) is Professor of Media Studies & Digital Culture at the Department of Media Culture & Theatre at the University of Cologne.
Gundolf S. Freyermuth (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media and game studies and a founding director of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln. He also teaches Comparative Media Studies at the ifs international film school Cologne. His research interests include digital games, audiovisuality, transmediality, and network culture.
Hanns Christian Schmidt (PhD) works as a research assistant at the Department of Media Culture & Theater at the University of Cologne and within the project »Literacy of Play / Literacy of Games« at the Cologne Game Lab.