Posthuman Gaming in a Time of Planetary Crisis: HumanAgency at the Crossroads of Technology and Ecology inSignalis

Huizinga (1955)'s seminal thesis that play precedes human culture draws attention to how digital games can operate beyond human-centered play in our current digital era.The rise of artificial intelligence amidst the convergence of new media technologies and human activity reveals the precipice at which gaming has become a posthuman phenomenon.As such, video games can be viewed as sites where human players are at the crossroads between digital technology and a planet that is in ecological crisis.The video game Signalis (rose-engine 2022) is one of many quintessential examples in which gameplay has become an embodiment of posthumanism.As humans, we not only play for a time of crisis but also play in a time of crisis.In this paper, we propose that "posthuman gaming," as exemplified in Signalis, both embodies (i) the destabilization of human agency and queering of human identities at the onset of planetary crisis, and (ii) the reinvention of horror games as a lens to re-imagine ways to confront ecological crises.