Thought Experiments in Video Games: Exploring the (Un)Ethics of Motherhood in Frictional Games' Amnesia: Rebirth

The essay explores the philosophical potential of Frictional Games' Amnesia: Rebirth (2020), a survival science-fiction horror game, which heavily focuses on story elements and deeply explores the idea of motherhood-a subject matter rarely encountered in this medium. By offering the semblance of control over space and time, suturing the player to the first-person perspective of a character only to gradually problematize the very notion of acting and suspending choice via highlighting any option as an ethical impasse-revealing a neither/nor nature of gamic choice-the game transforms itself from a Deleuzian action-image to a time-image, from an image favoring action to the one that problematizes time. What is more, the game functions as a thought experiment, juxtaposing epistemology and ethics via the idea of motherhood, which is shown to be an ethical choice from the perspective of individual action but unethical from the perspective of temporality.

Automated summary

The essay discusses the philosophical potential of Frictional Games' Amnesia: Rebirth (2020), a survival science-fiction horror game that focuses on story elements and explores the concept of motherhood, which is rarely encountered in this medium. By giving players the illusion of control over space and time, the game gradually problematizes the notion of action and choice, revealing a complex nature of game choices. Furthermore, the game functions as a thought experiment by juxtaposing epistemology and ethics through the idea of motherhood, highlighting the ethical implications of individual actions versus the perspective of temporality.