I Am Trying to Believe: Dystopia as Utopia in the Year Zero Alternate Reality Game

Alexander Hall's 2009 Eludamos article argues that dystopian narratives, though bleak in content, carry a "utopian energy" that compels audiences to think historically and imagine alternatives to the present order. Drawing on Fredric Jameson, Keith Booker, and Ernst Bloch, Hall contends that this capacity has been weakened within postmodern culture under late capitalism, and that interactive media can help restore it. The paper is a theoretical rather than empirical study, so its contribution rests on argument and interpretation rather than data. Its central conclusion is that games are a legitimate and politically significant medium for dystopian cultural production.

The article situates this argument within a broader Western intellectual history. It traces a shift from pre-World War II technological optimism to postwar pessimism, a change Hall links to the atomic bomb and the Cold War. Against this backdrop, Hall examines the Alternate Reality Game Year Zero (Nine Inch Nails, 2007) as a case study in how contemporary play can sustain critical and utopian impulses. Drawing on work by Jane McGonigal and by Salen and Zimmerman, the analysis argues that the game's dystopian premise, which connects its fictional future to real policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act, invites historical reflection rather than passive consumption.

Hall's close reading focuses on specific elements of the game, including a fictional "Bureau of Morality" surveillance message and a staged "L.A. Resistance Meeting" that culminated in a live concert. The author reads these as satirical commentary on the post-9/11 U.S. government, and interprets the game's real-world events and players' sustained participation as evidence of a utopian longing among both creators and audience. The paper concludes that alternate reality games can function as socially critical cultural production, while acknowledging uncertainty about whether the genre will develop beyond its origins in viral marketing.