Outline

First step: to define the contemporary utopianism:

Utopia is the title of the work first coined by Thomas More in 1516 and also the
name of the fictional island in the book. The social constitutions of Utopia can be
viewed as the solutions corresponding to the issues in contemporary England which is
haunted by self-interest and greed for power and riches. From these perspectives,
utopia should be interpreted from two aspects: the satire of contemporary present and
the vision of a better society that is much better than present one.
Nowadays, since people had lost the faith that the future will get better and better
after two World War, the concept of utopia turns from the political plan into the
philosophical thinking, the utopian thinking, which encourages people not to be
limited to predict what is bound to happen, but to keep questioning the present and
explore various possibilities of future.

Key words:
More’s utopia: served as the satire of contemporary present and the vision of a better
society
Utopia nowadays: the driven force encouraging people to keep questioning the
present and explore various possibilities of future

Second step: to point out how digital games are different other medias
Digital games have become a new form of media which plays the crucial role in
popular culture. Like other medias, games can also inscribe cultural meanings and
knowledge, but due to the specific technology and mediality of computer games, the
forms and patterns of meaning construction and user perception differ from those
found in other media like books or films. The differences are closely related to the
terms like interactivity, simulation, or virtual environment.
The interactivity of digital games implies that the players no longer play the roles
as outsiders who only receive the messages passively, like readers or audiences of
movies. On the contrary, they initiatively engage in every event and make response to
the feedbacks from the games. The interactivity can be interpreted as two different
forms according to how gamers interact with games. The first type is between gamers
and the game itself, which will alter how the game is supposed to serve players.
Games are not just served as the tool of entertainment, but with the creativity coming
from gamers, the outcomes of games can have various possibilities, which might even
beyond the imagination of developers. The second type is the interaction between
players and the content in games. This type often related to the change of players’
personal feeling or experiences and even contribute to their cognitive development.
while playing digital games, players will undergo the process that passionately
transforms the players’ experience, their knowledge, and themselves. In reacting to the
missions and challenges presented in games, players will modify their previous thoughts
or cognition and retry. Thus, the interactivity opens up more possibilities of players’
experience during the playing process.
Interactivity could further influence the experience of immersion during playing.
Immersion is also an important element of gameplay experience, which is described
as the degree of involvement with a game. It could be seen as a confluence of
different psychological faculties such as attention, planning, and perception that when
unified in a game lead to a focused state of mind, in which players are less aware of
the world around them and become immersed in the game. Even though immersion
cannot be categorized with any other existing concepts such as attention, flow, and
fun, it can be usually experienced alongside all of them and the pleasure of being
immersed in a game makes immersion an important component of the gaming
experience that players actively seek when they play games. Thus, immersion seems
to be the necessary conditions of gameplay experiences.
However, the concept immersion is not limited in the field of games. It also can
be seen in the discussion of books and movies. While, the difference between the
immersion of games and other medias is that the interactivity can make players easier
to empathize the emotion of avatars in the screen, experience the atmosphere of the
scene, and enjoy the fantasy of the storytelling. When we read a novel or watch a
movie, we are just watching them doing something as if we just watching the
documentary films. While, in the gameplay experience, the movements of the
characters are totally controlled by players. It is us who force them to make actions
and cause the results.

Key words:
Interactivity: the mechanism that can alter the nature of games and the players’
experiences or cognitive
Immersion: a state of mind that players’ senses and emotion feel like being absorbed
in game worlds. The interactivity can differentiate it from the ones felt in
movies or books.

Third step: to demonstrate how utopia is connected to digital games

The formation of utopia and the nature of digital games share lots of similarity.
Utopia and the game world are both the products of imagination which come from
nothing and cannot be found in the real world, but in their description, we still can
find some settings simulating rules or social conditions in the real life. In this sense,
the worlds of utopia and digital games are re-created fictional worlds which are
designed based on the real world but added with new elements. Another similarity is
that they are both full of possibilities. With humans’ creativity, the customs, cultures,
world views, landscapes can all breakthrough the limits of reality. Therefore, basically
speaking, utopia and digital games share the same essence. Designing a game is just
like creating a new utopia.
In addition to the similar logic of formation, the space of digital games
unexpectedly fits the function of utopia. In literatures, utopia is served as the critical
examination of present societies and the proposal of possible way of future
development. The simulation in game space can be served as the experimental station
allowing players to explore different kinds of future. A specific advantage of video games
and interactive digital narratives is that they are not bound by the restrictions of the real
world, yet can simulate probable scenarios with great detail.
The pattern of how the image of utopia is exactly implemented in games can be
divided into two categories: (1) the utopian thinking within the games, and (2) the
utopian thinking out of the games. For the first type, the utopian thinking would be
generated through the players’ interaction with the virtual environment. The
stimulation coming from the interaction can motivate players to think from different
perspectives and make reflection on the present life. As for the second category,
utopian thinking happens through the players’ reflection on the issue presented in
games. Digital games are more than a medium; the fictional world is used to compare
with the empirical world so as to inspire critical thinking on the daily norms,
conventions and social habits.

Last step: use two cases to demonstrate the pattern mentioned in the 3rd. step.
(1) Elden Ring
(2) Detroit:Become Human