FROG 2024 | Daniel Singh | Romanticised ruins and provisional shelters

Of romanticised ruins and provisional shelters: Architecture in games after the fall of civilisation.
by
Daniel Singh
Abstract
The first part of the talk (5 min) offers a general overview of different types of architecture in post-apocalyptic games, focusing primarily on ruins and shelters. I will draw on theories originating from cultural geography and architectural theory, as well as game studies. In order to understand how architecture functions as sign and how it relates to its real-world counterpart, I shall refer to the semiotic theories proposed by Eco and Barthes.
Ruins are very much present in contemporary popular culture, according to DeSilvey and Edensor, they are associated with both disastrous futures as well as tension, exhilaration, and excitement (see DeSilvey, Edensor, 478). According to Hill, they combine both fragmentariness and monumentality, and additionally capture human imagination, making recipients envision a past - or a future - for them (see Hill, 294-295).Provisional shelters, on the other hand, are an architectural form which only emerges after an apocalyptic event, resulting in the necessity to ensure one’s survival. With the shelter, humanity’s claim to control the environment is rendered ridiculous. It is possible for players to build their own shelters in certain games.In the second and longer portion of the talk (15 min) I will examine three post-apocalyptic games based on their architectural structures, following the mentioned theories.
Horizon Zero Dawn contains mostly modern or contemporary ruins, having been built during the last 150 years. Some of them are easily recognizable landmarks, serving as witnesses to a failed or defeated humanity and increasing dystopian atmosphere (see Bonner, 41).
Players can construct their own shelter in Fallout 4. These buildings always follow the aesthetics of makeshift shelters, demonstrating not only the scarcity of resources but also the population’s will to survive and their uncertainty about the current situation.
The ruins in Elden Ring are inspired by architectural styles that have been out of use for several centuries. According to Burström, this creates more distance than Horizon Zero Dawn’s modern ruins, since recipients are unaware of their appearance and feel when in active use (see Burström, 122). Furthermore, distance and monumentality create an aura of sublimity associated with the lost, pre-apocalyptic era.
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This talk was part of the conference "FROG - Future and Reality of Gaming" 2024 | "Gaming the Apocalypse" | 11 - 13 October 2024 | www.frogvienna.at
FROG 2024 is organised by the Center for Applied Game Studies (University for Continuing Education Krems) and funded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Sektion VI - Families and Youth).