News/Research

Alenda Chang on the Ethics of Eating Pokemon

04 Jun, 2021

Alenda Chang on the Ethics of Eating Pokemon

BCNM alum Alenda Chang was recently featured on the Gamers with Glasses podcast where she discussed video games and environmentalism, among other interesting topics. The episode delved into Chang's writing as the author of Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games and about nature, wilderness, and environmentalism in video games.

Also discussed in the podcast was whether or not the Monster Hunter series really has an ecology, the ethics of eating Pokémon, the pleasures of hiking through the worlds of Oblivion, Everquest, and No Man’s Sky, and the ways crafting games like Cozy Grove, Animal Crossing, and Among Trees complicate any simple opposition between nature and civilization. Alenda Chang graduated from Berkeley in 2013 with a Ph.D. in Rhetoric with a Designated Emphasis in New Media, and she is currently a Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

From the podcast description:

Alenda gives us the lowdown on IndieCade’s Climate Jam and initiatives that some major development studios taking to be more environmentally friendly. We also chat about Housemarque’s neon-drenched arcade games, the weirdness that is NieR: Replicant 1.22…, and our non-game recommendations (a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, music by Porter Robinson, a nature documentary)!

Listen to the full podcast here!