ThatGameCompany

Slow Gaming: Applying Slow Movement to Post-anthropocentric Play

This paper introduces "slow gaming," an approach to play that draws on the broader slow movement, which champions mindful, sustainable alternatives to fast, consumption-driven life.

• Slow gaming applies the broader slow movement's ethos of mindful, sustainable pacing to play, resisting the speed, efficiency, and constant progression expected of contemporary media.
• The paper's central analysis compares Journey (2012) and Stray (2022) as two games depicting post-human worlds, using them to test how slow play operates in practice.
• Journey is presented as an example of coherent coziness, where visual harmony, fluid movement, and minimal conflict sustain a near-meditative atmosphere.