“WALKING SIMULATORS”, LITERATURA ELETRÔNICA E OUTRAS FORMAS DE CONTAR HISTÓRIAS: O CASO DO JOGO EVERYBODY’S GONE TO THE RAPTURE

Abstract

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, a video game released in 2015 by the game developer The Chinese Room, challenges the divisions between the ‘game’ and ‘narrative’ aspects of Electronic Literature. An example of the genre sometimes derogatorily referred to as a ‘walking simulator’, Rapture questions the conventional boundaries between gameplay and storytelling. In this article, we examine Everybody's Gone to the Rapture within the context of the emerging field of Electronic Literature, arguing that the genre popularly known as ‘walking simulator’ not only underscores the narrative and literary potential of video games but also challenges narrative forms centered around a hero and violence as a means of action and narrative progression. To accomplish this, we provide a brief description of the origin and characteristics of this genre. We then delve into the discourse on Electronic Literature, applying it to the materiality of Rapture’s narrative and establishing a possible framework for the broader analysis of video games. Finally, we conduct a brief analysis of Rapture as a narrative in the form of a 'pocket,' drawing on the conversation between Donna Haraway and Ursula K. Le Guin about the emergence of new storytelling forms.