Human-Nature Relationships through Video Games: An Exploration of Players’ Sense-Making

Research Background and Issues

• Challenges Identified by the Author:
  This paper explores the theme of human-nature interaction in video games, a topic that requires deeper research and understanding. While video games are considered a potential medium for showcasing nature and exploring ecological relationships, their representation is often limited, falling into the framework of nature as "background" or "resource," neglecting more complex human-nature relationships. How players understand nature through video games and how this medium can be used to reflect on real-world environmental issues remain underexplored.

• Significance of the Issue:
  Humanity is currently facing severe ecological crises, including climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. These challenges demand a reevaluation of the human-nature relationship. As a widely consumed interactive medium, video games could become a critical tool for fostering this dialogue. Moreover, understanding how players perceive and interact with digital nature holds significant implications for future design and cultural production.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  This study extends previous academic discussions on the interaction between nature and technology, drawing on perspectives from ecocriticism and cultural studies to further reveal how video games function as "digital ecosystems" and "environmental texts." Unlike prior research, this paper focuses on players' subjective experiences and meaning-making to explore the diverse and dynamic human-nature relationships in the digital realm.

Solution

• Research Methodology:
  The author conducted an empirical study involving interviews and "show-and-tell" sessions with 16 players to explore their perspectives on experiencing nature in games. These sessions included semi-structured interviews and opportunities for participants to showcase video games they considered relevant to "nature."

• Innovative Methodological Approaches:
  This study adopts a mixed perspective of phenomenology and inductive thematic analysis, emphasizing players' subjective voices and specific experiences rather than constructing universal theoretical models. Additionally, the interactive approach of engaging players and inviting them to showcase games adds nuance and contextual depth to the findings.

• Key Implementation Steps:

  1. In the first interview, players shared their personal experiences with nature, gaming, and the intersection of the two.
  2. In the second interview, players showcased games and engaged in reflective discussions to articulate how digital nature is expressed.
  3. Researchers conducted a six-phase thematic analysis to code and synthesize the interview content, summarizing key themes and insights.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  The study identified three themes:

  1. Nature in Games as "The Other in Relationship": Players perceive nature in digital worlds as meaningful interactive systems, sometimes transcending the role of mere background or resource to become a relationship requiring respect and reflection.
  2. Nature in Games as a Promoter of Diverse Perspectives: Through digital nature, players reflect on the complex interactions between humans and ecosystems in the real world, exploring alternative ecological relationships such as post-human perspectives and interspecies equality.
  3. Nature in Games as a Personal Pastoral Refuge: Digital nature provides emotional and spiritual solace for many players, especially in the absence of real-life access to nature.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:
  Unlike most research centered on game objects or systems, this study focuses on players' lived experiences and meaning-making, offering a more humanized perspective. Furthermore, the research not only examines the direct representation of nature but also reveals players' personalized interpretations and cultural representations of digital ecosystems.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  Players commonly linked their experiences of nature in games to real-life nature, demonstrating sensitivity to complex ecological relationships. By designing non-violent interactions, exploratory gameplay, or unconventional roles (e.g., playing as a cat or wolf), some games were found to challenge traditional frameworks of nature as a resource.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations:
     • The study is based on a small sample, and the selected participants may have a strong awareness of nature and a passion for gaming, potentially not representing all players.
     • The study period may have been influenced by the unique social context of the post-pandemic era.
  2. Future Directions:
     • Expand to a broader and more diverse group of players, especially those who have not significantly engaged with nature-themed games.
     • Investigate how game designers construct nature within cultural contexts and explore more dynamic, decentralized human-nature relationships.

Conclusion

This paper, through an empirical study, reveals how players reconnect with their relationship to nature in the real world through the representation of nature in video games. The research data clearly demonstrate that games can serve as tools for meaning-making, fostering ecological awareness by expanding people's understanding of natural and social dynamics. Additionally, the study provides designers and developers with insightful suggestions for creating more diverse and meaningful "nature-game" experiences.