Failure: Failure Beyond. The Philosophical Ludonarrative Analysis of Existential Videogames

This document is a doctoral research proposal from Sebastian R. Richter of the University of Regensburg, presented at DiGRA 2025, that aims to develop a philosophical analysis of failure in video games. Its central argument is that failure in games is not merely a ludic or performative problem but an existential one, touching on questions of freedom, choice, and the individual's position between subjective agency and external forces such as society and birth circumstances. The author contends that existential ludology, though established in prior work, lacks concrete analyses of philosophical games, and that existential philosophy can supply an analytical toolbox for examining how failure is represented and communicated in interactive narratives.

The methodology centers on three case studies: Disco Elysium, Dark Souls, and Aurion: The Legacy of the Kori-Odan. The author proposes to compare Disco Elysium with Aurion, examining how each game uses metaphor and metaphysical framing, such as the "Pale" in Disco Elysium and the fate of the "Zama" in Aurion, to address uncertainty and to connect the divergent narratives that failure produces. The research deliberately departs from Aristotelian poetics, which the author regards as inadequate because drama lacks the interactivity central to games.

The stated goal is to construct an "existential philosophies toolbox" grounded in these case studies, treating videogames themselves as a form of philosophical communication. The proposal positions the avatar as a key site for understanding the relationship between player, game, and ludonarrative existential meaning.

Notably, the document is an early-stage proposal rather than a completed study, and it provides no empirical data, survey results, or sample-based findings. Its contribution is primarily conceptual and theoretical, and the case-study analysis it describes is presented as forthcoming work.