Can We Programme Utopia? The Influence of the Digital Neoliberal Discourse on Utopian Videogames

This article has a dual purpose. The first is to establish the relationship between videogames and utopia in the neoliberal era and clarify the origins of this compromise in the theoretical dimension of game studies. The second is to examine the ways in which there has been an application of the utopian genre throughout videogame history (the style of procedural rhetoric and the subgenre of walking simulator) and the way in which the material dimension of the medium ideologically updates the classical forms of that genre, be it through activation or deactivation. The article concludes with an evaluation of the degree in which the neoliberal discourse interferes with the understanding of utopia on behalf of the medium and with its imaginary capabilities to allow for an effective change in social reality

The king at \u3ci\u3eKaamelott\u3c/i\u3e

French TV‘s M6 aired a ground-breaking television advance, known as Kaamelott, from 2005 to 2009, derived from a long tradition of Arthurian narrative form and a long tradition of that form‘s modernization. Spanning the split, therefore, between the Modern and the Medieval, Alexandre Astier‘s experimental Adventure-Comedy, adapting no single model, this Frankenstein, brought to life through canny theatrical bricolage, provokes the following concrete question: how have the dimensions of the exemplary human life of the King been updated by this installment of an eight centuries (and more) old tradition? Using the frame-work of Berne‘s Games People Play, I explore the respective fields of Childhood, Games, and Loves, in parallel to his Child, Adult, and Parent. To what extent, ultimately, has the self-retracting, pre-historical origin of ―Arthur‖ mutated? Does this literary but transmedia window of history perspicuously describe the internal dynamics of tradition‘s afterlife? And—is King Arthur really coming back

Technopanics, Threat Inflation, and the Danger of an Information Technology Precautionary Principle

Fear is an extremely powerful motivational force. In public policy debates, appeals to fear are often used in an attempt to sway opinion or bolster the case for action. Such appeals are used to convince citizens that threats to individual or social well-being may be avoided only if specific steps are taken. Often these steps take the form of anticipatory regulation based on the precautionary principle. Such “fear appeal arguments” are frequently on display in the Internet policy arena and often take the form of a full-blown “moral panic” or “technopanic.” These panics are intense public, political, and academic responses to the emergence or use of media or technologies, especially by the young. In the extreme, they result in regulation or censorship. This paper considers the structure of fear appeal arguments in technology policy debates, and then outlines how those arguments can be deconstructed and refuted in both cultural and economic contexts. Several examples of fear appeal arguments are offered with a particular focus on online child safety, digital privacy, and cybersecurity. To the extent that these concerns are valid, they are best addressed by ongoing societal learning, experimentation, resiliency, and coping strategies rather than by regulation. If steps must be taken to address these concerns, education and empowerment-based solutions represent superior approaches to dealing with them compared to a precautionary principle approach, which would limit beneficial learning opportunities and retard technological progress

Fantasy proneness, amnesia, and the UFO abduction phenomenon

p. 046-054Fantasy proneness has been viewed as an adaptive response to stress; however, the specific relationship between amnesia and fantasy proneness has not been ferreted out as a research focus. This essay examines the ways in which amnesia appears to play a functional role in fantasy proneness and post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, this essay postulates that persons who report that they have been abducted by extraterrestrials and sexually abused during these abductions may he fantasy-prone individuals who have used systematized amnesia to create a mask memory for repeated instances of violent sexual abuse in early childhood

The Perilous Hunt: Symbols in Hispanic and European Balladry

In the symbolic language of ballads, a lady’s costly dress tells of the beauty of the body beneath it or of the wearer’s happiness; a lost hawk or hound foreshadows the hunter’s fate long before the plot reaches a turning point. In her original and far-reaching study of such familiar narrative elements, Edith Randam Rogers adds much to our understanding of poetic expression in the ballad tradition. In focusing on individual motifs as they appear in different ballads, different languages, and different periods, Rogers proves the existence of a reliable lingua franca of symbolism in European balladry. Lines or even whole stanzas that have defied interpretation often come to life when the reader is aware of the meaning of a particular motif in such an international vocabulary of images. Thus this book makes available important new critical tools sure to have significant results for ballad scholarship. Edith Randam Rogers is professor of Spanish at the University of Colorado at Denver. A considerable achievement in the use of the comparative method in the study of traditional folk balladry”—Choice.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_spanish_literature/1017/thumbnail.jp