Abstract

Online presentation

Keywords: Video games, multi-semiotics, awareness, utopia, dystopia, apocalypse

In this work, we perform an analysis of the videoludic discourse in SOMA (2015), selected because of its high diegetic, philosophical and, ultimately, discoursive content. Its main topic, mind uploading, is taken as a point of departure and revised considering other works of fiction. We advocate for a conception of video games as electronic multimodal discourses, in such a way that, to analyze a videoludic discourse such as that of SOMA, we must consider its different multi-semiotic elements and not only the text. We take presuppositions from narratology as a point of departure and we propose six discoursive indicators that channel the multimodal discourse of SOMA: diegetic chronotopes, narrative metamorphic elements, actants with ceasing power, dialogues, moral choices and the survey. All in all, the fact that SOMA is a walking simulator promotes that its discourse about transhumanism is perceived in a more straightforward way, making it the video game that has dealt more deeply with this topic in the medium.

• Álvaro Pina Arrabal, Universidad de Jaén, Spain

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