#Emma Kostopolus

[luxe-pauvre]

To pull back the scope a little bit and get out from under my own neuroses, we can think about our positionality with Tamagotchi or the care sim of your choice as being the polar opposite of our positionality within most games, especially horror. In the vast majority of our play experiences, we are, in essence, the Tamagotchi: a small and mostly powerless thing screaming into the void of omnipotent and indifferent code. All of our actions within the game are made with the end goal of continuing to survive within the world of the game, but ultimately, we are at the mercy of the game itself whether we live or die. With a Tamagotchi, the tables are turned, and our focus is no longer on our own survival, but the survival of something else, whose life hinges entirely upon the length of our attention spans. We are bestowed not with vulnerability, but great power, and we all know the line from Spider-man about that. And so, I suppose, at the end of the day, the Tamagotchi freaks me out because I am reminded more than ever of my continual obligation to think about and take care of the things for which I am responsible – my cats, my students, my family. No one would die if I occasionally drop the ball in the way the Tamagotchi does if you leave it alone for a day, but it nevertheless presents a constant reminder that we must always be vigilant about our power – over whom we have it, and how we exercise it for moral good instead of negligent indifference.

Emma Kostopolus, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Terror of Tamagotchi

[joeyeschrich]

The fifth issue of our Imaginary Papers newsletter, featuring Emma Kostopolus writing about Mass Effect 3, Malik Toms writing about The Brother from Another Planet, and a feature on the collection Scotland in Space. To receive future issues, subscribe here.