The Last Guardian

Posthumanist Attitude Towards Animals in Digital Games

This paper, presented at DiGRA 2022 by Eleonora Imbierowicz, examines how animals are represented in digital games through a posthumanist lens.

Bonding with Horses and Other Animals in Breath of the Wild

This extended abstract, presented at DiGRA 2018 by Frederic Seraphine of the University of Tokyo, examines how the animal and horse systems in Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017) foster player attachment to non-human artificial agents.

• Imperfect, variable animal behavior, such as a horse's delayed readiness for riding and unpredictable control responsiveness, gives animals a sense of personality, while fully trained, predictable behavior risks making them feel impersonal.
• Generic and repetitive animal mechanics strip creatures of subjectivity and expose the game's artificiality, undermining player attachment to non-human agents.
• Naming and accessory customization function as appropriation mechanics that let players project personality onto animals and support emergent, player-authored narrative.