Games and Bereavement – How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and Grief

Sabine Harrer explores videogames' capacity to model attachment, loss and grief. She proposes an approach to videogame design with and for grievers. How can videogames portray love and loss? Games and Bereavement answers this question by looking at five videogames and carrying out a participatory design study with grievers. Sabine Harrer highlights possible connections between grief and videogames, arguing that game design may help make difficult personal feelings tangible. After a brief literary review of grief concepts and videogame theory, the book deep-dives into examples of tragic inter-character relationships from videogame history. Building on these examples, the book presents a case study on pregnancy loss as a potential grief experience that can be validated through game design dialogue.