Abraham - What is an ecological game? - ecological dynamics and metaphors in survival-crafting games

Sep 4, 2026

This paper examines ecological and environmental metaphors in survival-crafting videogames, a genre shaped by Minecraft’s success and defined by environmental interactivity and simulated plant and animal behavior. It analyzes survival and crafting mechanics to show how the genre often shifts from ecological concerns toward economic logics, prioritizing resource acquisition and mirroring capitalist accumulation processes. The work concludes that a truly ecological game is only thinkable through “the ecological thought” by connecting digital play with broader ecological assemblages.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatDOCX

Pages24

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Ecological and environmental metaphors in game discourse

The survival-crafting genre and its ecological claims

Survival mechanics and economic logics

Crafting mechanics, technological progress, and mastery narratives

Conclusion: toward an ecologically grounded game

What is an ecological game? Examining ecological dynamics and metaphors through the survival-crafting genre Benjamin Abraham University of Technology, Sydney Abstract This paper takes as its focus the genre of games known as ‘survival-crafting’. These games, popularized in the wake of Minecraft’s (2010-present) success, often feature high degrees of environmental interactivity and simulation of plant and animal behaviors, as well as a heightened sense of dependence upon the natural environment for shelter, sustenance, entertainment and other necessities. Beginning with an examination of the ecological and environmental metaphors embedded within terms commonly used to describe features of the genre, I will then focus on its two nominal pillars: survival and crafting. Analysis of both these mechanics reveals their role in creating game dynamics that are less ecological and more economic in character. Many games lead players to prioritize resource acquisition, and structure their play experience according to rates of resource accumulation that mirror capitalist economic activity. Often these processes resemble a simplified and stylized re-enactment of industrialization. This paper concludes that a truly ecological game only becomes conceivable in a partial and fragmentary way through what Timothy Morton (2010) calls ‘the ecological thought’ – by thinking across the connections and assemblages involved in digital gaming as an activity or experience. Keywords Videogames, genre, ecology, survival, crafting, economic activity Introduction Digital games discourse has long made a habit of borrowing ideas, terminology and metaphors from other fields and media, most frequently in its early period from film discourse, with terms like cutscenes, cameras etc. (Buecheler, 2006). More recently games have sought to distance themselves from other media by highlighting their distinct formal characteristics (Aarseth, 1997; Juul 2005; Bogost, 2007). As an extension of this drive, games discourse has begun to borrow ideas from ecology and systems theory, as well as associated natural and environmental concepts, to describe the systemic and procedural aspects of certain genres. This adaptation process has occurred in the course of marketing individual games and during the creation and maintenance of entire genres and the markets that support them. This is visible in the work of theorist Graeme Kirkpatrick (2012, 2016), who examines the discursive construction of the term ‘gamer’ through advertising and marketing materials in the 80s and 90s. The take up of spatial and environmental terms in more recent times follows a slightly different trajectory, with ideas often initially employed by developers and spreading into popular and scholarly discourse after adoption by journalists in the enthusiast press. This includes some key terms like ‘environmental storytelling’ (Jenkins, 2004) – the technique of embedding fragmentary evidence of the past history of the game world via spatial arrangement of objects (think of a decomposing skeleton hidden beneath a freshly-dislodged boulder) – and also rather more fraught ones, like the term ‘realism’ deployed to describe visual verisimilitude in games. The saturation of ‘natural’ and even ecological metaphors throughout virtually all game discourse reaches its greatest extent around a popular genre of digital game which has emerged over the past decade, one that re-combines many pre-existing design tropes into the highly successful generic edifice defined loosely under the moniker of ‘survival-crafting games’. The ‘survival-crafting’ genre and the games that are developed, marketed and categorized as such is what this paper takes as its primary focus. I describe common features and dynamics of the genre in order to illuminate its structural or formal implications, and investigate whether they measure up to the ecological and environmental claims that have become implicit in the discourse around notions like ‘emerge

FAQs

What is the main focus of the paper?

The paper focuses on survival-crafting videogames and investigates how ecological and environmental ideas are embedded in the genre’s discourse and mechanics.

Which genre mechanics does the paper analyze to evaluate ecological claims?

The paper analyzes the two central pillars of the genre: survival and crafting, using close readings to assess their structural implications.

What is the paper’s conclusion about what makes a game “truly ecological”?

A truly ecological game becomes conceivable only in a partial and fragmentary way through “the ecological thought,” which emphasizes thinking across the connections and assemblages involved in digital gaming.

Sep 4, 2026

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