Circumpolar Gamifications in the Age of Global Warming: Ice Levels, Anxiety and the Anthropocene

This chapter looks at the representations of both culture and nature from the circumpolar north in mixed reality and videogames. It illustrates a history of games set in the Arctic, paired with how polar cultures are or are not accurately represented, what effects the global discussion on climate change has on these representations as well as the role of Indigenous sovereignty and justice. These issues are all compounded by a global anxiety associated with climate change/global warming that leads to eschatological perseverations. The videogame Never Alone is the quintessential example of how northern culture and environmental issues can be used in a videogame without the follies of vestigial colonialist thinking. AR works from the Dirigibles of Denali project by Nathan Shafer and Patrick Lichty are discussed in these new contexts, with an emphasis on biomes, anthromes and a new hybrid concept, the infome, which is a digital anthrome. Conclusions drawn are that Indigenous communities in the circumpolar north need to retain the control over their own infomes, which would include knowledge of their biomes and cultures and how those are represented by the outside.