New article published at the Journal of Games Criticism: "Black Sun in the Land of Shadow: DLCs and Textual Depletion in Shadow of the Erdtree" by @maxcoombes.bsky.social.
![bstract
In this paper I discuss the relationship between downloadable content (DLC) and base games in producing lack and fantasy, using Shadow of the Erdtree (2024) as an example of a text that retroactively marks the base game (Elden Ring [2022]) as “lacking.” Extant research on DLCs varies as to whether they are exploitative or novel expressions of transmedia storytelling. Scholars, players, and developers, however, tend to agree that DLC “extends the life” (Payne, 2018, p. 71; Genovesi, 2018, p. 1; Tyni and Sotamaa, 2011, p. 311; Lizardi, 2012, p. 34) of a text through presenting itself as a new textual horizon. This article explores how this attempt to extend life figures diegetically and experientially in the relationship between the DLC and original text. I turn to psychoanalysis, in particular Benjamin Nicoll’s (2023) writing on videogames as generators of lack. Through this I read SotE through Julia Kristeva’s (2024) poetics of melancholia to account for how lack and desire manifest in the play experience. I find that SotE attempts to staunch the play of desire by presenting itself as a textual dead end or caesura. This suggests that videogames can draw attention to players’ drive to impossible fantasy, not to absolve them of desire, but to allow them to play with the anguish of being unable to overcome it.
Keywords: Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, DLC, psychoanalysis, Kristeva, desire, melancholia](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zrcvr7b4h6is5y3wrxhupoc4/bafkreifuae532y7jnt7wvaxvvxzg4geumg7e4bb6ib6eqvmyiqwh3o2cp4)
Larry May
@handle.invalid
Lecturer at the University of Auckland – game studies, digital cultures. Author of Digital Zombies, Undead Stories (http://bit.ly/3yTTpvJ) website: http://larrymay.me
The programme for DiGRA Australia's 2025 conference is out and it's shaping up to be a banger. Adelaide + online, 5–7 Feb, check it: digraa.org/post/digraa-...
DiGRAA 2025 Conference Programme – DiGRA Australia
digraa.org
Some good people are putting together a special issue on videogame theory at Media Theory Journal. CFP: mediatheoryjournal.org/cfp-videogam... #gamestudies
CFP: Videogame Theory
CFP: Videogame Theory This special issue will commission articles on videogame theory from scholars in the humanities and social sciences, especially those working in the field of videogame studies…
mediatheoryjournal.org
latest brkeogh release has dropped – essential tool👇
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 2y agoI have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
My buddy @poppywilde.bsky.social mixed up in not one but TWO special issues, and both out on the same day! 😎
Poppy Wilde@poppywilde.bsky.social · 2y ago2 special issues I've co-edited have just been published! Journal of Posthumanism special issue "Posthumanism and Media Studies" co-edited w/ J.J. Sylvia IV, and Journal of Games Criticism special issue "Playing the Posts: post-anthropocene, posthuman, post-apocalypse" co-edited w/ @larrymay.me 🥳
Very excited to share the 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 special issue of the 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮, edited by me and @poppywilde.bsky.social The issue considers the relationship between videogames and the post-Anthropocene, posthumanism and the post-apocalypse: gamescriticism.org/issue-6-a/ #gamestudies
VOLUME 6, BONUS ISSUE A: PLAYING THE POSTS: POST-ANTHROPOCENE, POSTHUMAN, POST-APOCALYPSE
(December, 2024) Introduction Bonus issue editors: Lawrence May and Poppy Wilde Beyond Barren Wastelands: The Greening of the Post-apocalypse in Video Games by M. Bianchi Uniting scholarship about …
gamescriticism.org
godDAMN this stupid milkloving piece of shit dumbass mean spirited sale at briscoes racist sexist 40% off deck furniture piss country #MarsdenSchmarsden
Aotearoa New Zealand's govt removing all Humanities and Social Sciences funding via the Marsden Fund (the NZ equivalent of the ARC) is a national disgrace. My heart goes out to Kiwi researchers. This pushes the country backward in the worst possible way. www.beehive.govt.nz/...
Marsden Fund refocused for science with a purpose | Beehive.govt.nz
Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins today announced the Government has updated the Marsden Fund to focus on core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and contributes
beehive.govt.nz
It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.
Registration is now open for DiGRA Australia's 2025 National Conference, which will be held at University of South Australia on 5-7 February (and online). This is the first DiGRA Australia conference held off the east coast!! events.humanitix.com/digraaustral...
DiGRAAustralia 2025 National Conference
Get tickets on Humanitix - DiGRAAustralia 2025 National Conference . Hawke Building, Hawke Building, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia. Wednesday 5th February 2025. Find event information.
events.humanitix.com
I have created a starter pack for Australian & New Zealand based games academics, particularly those active in the DiGRA Australia community. Please reply if you'd like to be added! bsky.app/start/did:pl...
Very excited to be co-running the workshop "Postanthropocenic, posthumanist, postapocalyptic play" with @larru.bsky.social and Will McKeown at #DiGRA2024 - call for expressions of interest (can be short papers or engagement in wider roundtable) open till 26th April ➡️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...