Walking through the Past: The Mechanics and Player Experience of Haunting, Obsession and Trauma in Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear, a 2016 psychological horror game by Bloober Team, is a story-oriented walking simulator. While many walking simulators focus on uncovering the past, Layers of Fear centres on the experience of being haunted by the past. The gameplay narrates a tragic story and the complex relation of the protagonist with his past from which he cannot escape: his fear, his obsession and the endless cycle of his madness. Most importantly, this experience is not constructed in the game by providing the players with journal entries or letters to read, but by allowing them to literally walk through the past, among material representations of memories and emotions, as the house itself shifts through various layers and moments of time both before and after the tragic events that haunt the protagonist. This paper focuses on the unique delivery of experiencing past events used in Layers of Fear, as well as the concept of haunting, trauma and obsession central to both the game and gameplay

From the will to live European witchcraft: the evolution of Edgar Allan Poe's Ligea

Poe’s works have always enjoyed tremendous popularity within the film medium. Among a large number of adaptations, however, a very original, innovative short story Ligeia seems to remain rather obscure. The two most often referred film adaptations of the story are The Tomb of Ligeia, directed by Roger Corman in 1964, and Edgar Allan Poe’s Ligeia from 2008, directed by John Shirley. Both titles differ significantly, mainly plotwise, but also in other aspects, to an extent much greater than one would expect solely due to the over forty years of time gap between them. Although based on the same short story, each film constructs a narrative and a world of its own, resembling a mirror reflecting changes in modern world and its popular culture as well as the evolution of Edgar Allan Poe’s continuing influence on popular fiction

Independent horror games between 2010 and 2020: Selected characteristic features and discernible trends

The focus of this article are independent digital horror games and their characteristics; the goal was to briefly describe the independent horror scene and highlight some of the artistic and technical trends which manifest themselves in the titles belonging to that scene. Due to the sheer number of available games, the scope of the paper is narrowed down to only selected characteristics and trends distinguishable in game texts published between the years 2010 and 2020. The aim of the article is to present a selection of observations and conclusions concerning the independent games scene and to hopefully point to what these games can tell scholars about the way both the players and the developers perceive the horror genre.The focus of this article are independent digital horror games and their characteristics; the goal was to briefly describe the independent horror scene and highlight some of the artistic and technical trends which manifest themselves in the titles belonging to that scene. Due to the sheer number of available games, the scope of the paper is narrowed down to only selected characteristics and trends distinguishable in game texts published between the years 2010 and 2020. The aim of the article is to present a selection of observations and conclusions concerning the independent games scene and to hopefully point to what these games can tell scholars about the way both the players and the developers perceive the horror genre

Odgłosy w bezgłosie: niesamowitość dźwięku według Davida Toopa

Podstawowym celem artykułu było wprowadzenie spostrzeżeń i refleksji Davida Toopa, jak również proponowanych przez niego podejść analitycznych, do polskich badań kulturoznawczych oraz literaturoznawczych; mimo iż Toop i jego prace są jednym z głównych punktów odniesienia dla sound studies, jego twórczość pozostaje w dużej mierze nieopisana w polskiej literaturze akademickiej. Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia zarys charakteru dzieł i rozważań Toopa, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem jego najważniejszych książek, jak również demonstruje zastosowanie jego refleksji i narzędzi analitycznych w kontekście literaturoznawczym, a konkretnie w kontekście badań nad fantastyką grozy

Memy internetowe: informacja i transformacja w sieci

The paper considers selected aspects of the phenomenon of Internet memes. Beginning with a succinct origins of the term “meme” and its current functions in the Internet environment, the paper introduces various definitions of the term, constructed by academic scholars and Internet users alike. The primary focus is on the way in which memes operate within our culture, as well as on the life-cycle of memes and the manner in which memes migrate from one kind of media into other. The paper also discusses the phenomenon of memes crossing the boundaries between the virtual reality of the Internet and the physical reality of Internet users. All those matters are illustrated by concrete examples

Słowa, wspomnienia i opowieści: poszukiwanie japońskiej tożsamości w Chorus of Mushrooms Hiromi Goto

The novel Chorus of Mushrooms, written by Hiromi Goto, a Japanese-Canadian author, is a peculiar search for identity and the language necessary for expressing that identity. From experiments with words, memories, and stories with which the protagonist attempts to construct her own self, emerges the concept of the scattered, relative Japanese-Canadian identity. The text emphasizes the problem of the dissonance between the ability to speak and the ability to express oneself, and reveals the complicated web of relations between words and communication, body and identity, and truth and memories

Reglamentacja jako instrument polityki gospodarczej państwa — rozważania na gruncie polityki turystycznej w czasach pandemii

Tourism is one of the main sectors of the economy in the world and in Europe. However, tourism was among the industries most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. The publication presents the issues of the state’s tourism policy, especially its models and instruments, including legal and administrative ones, headed by regulation, as well as the impact of the pandemic on tourism policy, and an attempt was made to define the model of the role of the state in the tourism economy during the pandemic. The conclusion is that the model of tourism policy has a mixed character, which in the economic system of the European Union is referred to as deregulation. Additional findings lead to the conclusion that during the crisis caused by the pandemic, there is a visible shift from liberalism towards economic interventionism and the use of all available instruments, of an economic as well as administrative and legal nature.Turystyka należy do głównych sektorów gospodarki na świecie i w Europie. Niestety była to jedna z branż najbardziej dotkniętych skutkami kryzysu wywołanego epidemią wirusa SARS-CoV-2. W publikacji przedstawiono problematykę polityki turystycznej państwa, zwłaszcza jej modeli oraz instrumentów, wśród których poczesne miejsce zajmują instrumenty prawne i administracyjne z reglamentacją na czele, jak również wpływ pandemii na politykę turystyczną. Podjęto także próbę określenia modelu roli państwa w gospodarce turystycznej w czasach pandemii. W podsumowaniu pojawia się konkluzja, że model polityki turystycznej ma charakter mieszany, który w systemie gospodarczym Unii Europejskiej określany jest jako deregulacja. Dodatkowe ustalenia prowadzą do wniosku, że w czasie kryzysu wywołanego pandemią widoczne jest odchodzenie od liberalizmu w kierunku interwencjonizmu gospodarczego i wykorzystywania wszelkich dostępnych instrumentów, a więc o charakterze zarówno ekonomicznym, jak i administracyjno-prawnym