University of New Mexico
Zombie Economics: Violence and Economics in three first-person shooter zombie-themed video games.
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThis thesis presents a textual analysis of three zombie-themed video games: Left4Dead, Call of Duty: Zombies, and Killing Floor. The relationship between violence and economics presented in the in-game actions is analyzed to demonstrate that when capitalism is seen as ideological in nature, the zombie-themed games observed can be seen as evidence of the reiteration of that ideology. A gradation of economic systems becomes apparent through a comparison of these video games to the zombie myth presented in film, using a combination of the methods of narrative examination and ludology. The games which imitate the capitalistic market do so by utilizing the money-for-bodies ludic system, where players earn points of money for killing. Money-for-bodies raises questions about the subjectivities that arisein first-person shooter games—as the embedded capitalistic actions within video games which focus on killing leads to a combination of the two subjectivities connected to Empire, the worker-consumer and the citizen-soldier. Violence and economics are also connected through multiplayer interactions where players enact counterplay by committing avatar suicide to financially assist teammates, making life a resource and enacting a type of capitalism with moral haziness.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Thesis
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
- Year
- 2013
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Shaw, Brynn S.
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Cheek, Pamela
- Carr, John
- Umurhan, Osman
Subjects
dc:subject × 3Rights
- Language dc:language
- English
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:fll_etds-1064