Playing Anachronism in Time: Towards the Ludobiography in the Context of Chinese Indie Games

The article explores the concept of "ludobiography" within the context of Chinese indie games, analyzing how these games utilize anachronism as both a critical and aesthetic strategy. Ludobiography, as defined, refers to games that are autobiographical in nature, reflecting creators' lives while also challenging humanist notions of individual agency and control over identity. The analysis focuses on how videogames function as time-critical media, extending player agency across multiple temporalities and engaging with historical dislocation and fractured experiences, encompassing both human memory and posthuman subject formation.

A key finding is the contradiction faced by Chinese indie game creators: balancing the appropriation of traditional cultural resources with the pursuit of authentic, realist expression. Many globally recognized Chinese indie games are visual novels driven by strong autobiographical impulses, often stemming from resource constraints that lead creators to depict lived social realities and personal vulnerabilities. However, these grassroots narratives must navigate compromises with capital, censorship, and platform infrastructures, which can lead to homogenized expressions, such as folkloric spectacle or self-orientalizing representations, driven by market conditions and neglect of national game-cultural traditions.

The article further identifies two layers of anachronism in player engagement. First, players are guided to acknowledge collective histories of gendered trauma, as seen in games like Laughing to Die, where female ghosts symbolize returning historical trauma and prompt reflection on social oppression. Second, autobiographical games invite players to acknowledge individual tragedies stemming from economic crises, exemplified by A Perfect Day, where cyclical temporality allows players to experience constraints on a child's future. While these games facilitate acknowledgment, the article notes limitations, as game mechanics and temporal regimes can sometimes foreclose deeper reflective thought, displacing social contradictions into individualized numerical predicaments.

Finally, the article proposes a distinct mode of ludobiography through games like Hymer 2000 and Minds Beneath Us, which explore posthuman subjectivity. These games, through interactions with AI and meta-narrative structures, investigate how players engage with posthuman embodiment to make ethical choices. This shift from performing another's autobiography to intra-acting with an avatar allows players to reconstruct the self within multiple temporalities, moving beyond merely experiencing suffering narratives.