Zoos as Utopian Enclaves in Ark Nova

This paper analyses the economic board game Ark Nova (Wigge, 2022) and its portrayal of zoos as utopian enclaves, using a ludo-textual method that combines close reading of game mechanics with ecocriticism and critical utopian theory. Its central argument is that the game departs from earlier zoo-themed games such as the Zoo Tycoon franchise and its board game adaptation, which frame zoos purely as profit-driven entertainment parks rooted in colonial logics. Instead, Ark Nova presents zoos as institutions where capitalist pressures and conservation goals collide, using two forms of capital, economic and ecological, and requiring players to balance ticket revenue against contributions to research and conservation to win.

The analysis identifies two further distinguishing features. First, animal cards are shuffled into the same deck as human cards, such as scientists, so that human and nonhuman actors are treated as functionally equal in construction and play, though animals still carry a capitalist ticket value. Second, the zoos players build are spatially isolated from the outside world and idealized, with biological needs of animals assumed to be met once they are placed in appropriate enclosures. Drawing on Jameson's concept of utopian enclaves, the paper argues that these omissions shift attention from animal welfare toward abstract balancing of interests.

The paper situates the game within the ongoing debate about zoos, including critiques by Sørensen (2016) calling for radical reform or abolition and defenses by John Regan Associates (2024) emphasizing conservation value. The author argues that Ark Nova's procedural rhetoric aligns with the latter position, framing zoos as modern equivalents of Noah's ark. The study is presented as a conference contribution to DiGRA 2025 and is primarily a qualitative, theoretical analysis of a single game rather than an empirical study with survey or sample data.