"I owe some people some apologies"

The Culture of Debt and Digital Media in Kentucky Route Zero

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59616/cehd.v1i5.1396

Keywords:

Kentucky Route Zero, Videogames, Debt, Digital Media, Cultural Studies

Abstract

Videogames are a large and growing cultural-economic medium, a fact alone that makes them worthy of critical attention. Focalising one text, Kentucky Route Zero (CARDBOARD COMPUTER 2013-2020, hereafter referred to as KRZ) this essay argues that videogame media functions as a unique and powerful tool for navigating the phenomenological experiences of neoliberal capitalism and its principal mode of expression -- debt. We argue that KRZ functions as an exemplar of the ways in which games respond to and mediate social and economic structures in terms of content, design, narrative and production. We delve into the game in full, parsing through it, its approaches of economic insecurity, hauntology, debt and how a single text can portray and be part of a wide cultural and economic moment.

Author Biographies

Frank Rudiger Lopes, Universidade de São Paulo

Tem experiência na área de História, com ênfase em Teoria e Filosofia da História, pesquisou sobre a recepção das ideias evolucionistas no Brasil do século XIX. Atualmente pesquisando Ficção Científica e literatura utópica ligados à autora Ursula K. Le Guin. É membro do grupo de pesquisa História e Literatura, coordenado pelo professor Júlio Pimentel, da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). É também secretário da Revista Angelus Novus (RAN), publicação discente dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em História Econômica e História Social da Universidade de São Paulo.

Jon, Manchester Metropolitan University

PhD by Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

References

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Published

2024-08-26

How to Cite

Rudiger Lopes, F., & Greenaway, J. (2024). "I owe some people some apologies": The Culture of Debt and Digital Media in Kentucky Route Zero. Convergências: Estudos Em Humanidades Digitais, 1(5), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.59616/cehd.v1i5.1396