New Publications HUMOUR IN HITMAN AND (POST)HUMANITY IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL GAMES

Screenshot from Hitman: Blood Money (IO Interactive, 2006) taken by Steam user hooster (2018)

Manchester Metropolitan Game Centre member Rob Gallagher has recently had two new publications out: a chapter on the Hitman series in the edited collection Video Games and Comedy and an open access article on autobiographical video games for Convergence. 

Titled ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman and Gamer Humour(lessness)', Rob’s chapter in Video Games and Comedy explores a series that has been lauded for its expansive gameplay and its mordantly satirical humour, but criticised for its off-colour promotional stunts and its focus on violence. How does Hitman turn virtual murder into a punchline? Do its gags still land in an era of wholesome ‘slapstick stealth’ games like Octodad: Dadliest Catch and Untitled Goose Game? And what do responses to the series tell us about the dynamics of gamer culture in the wake of #GamerGate? 

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 Autobiographical games like That Dragon, Cancer have been received as evidence that videogames – a medium still associated in the minds of many with violence, addiction and vacuous thrill-seeking - are finally becoming more human. Rob’s article ‘Humanising gaming? The Politics of Posthuman Agency in Autobiographical Videogames’ asks what lies behind this response. Part of a special issue on the theme ‘Politicizing Agency in Digital Play After Humanism' edited by Aleena Chia and Paolo Ruffino, it draws on game studies, life-writing theory and posthumanist philosophy to offer an alternative perspective on the relationship between game design and autobiography.