POSTHUMANISM AND PLAYER AGENCY IN DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN AND NIER: AUTOMATA
DR. LAKSHMI MENON
Assistant Professor
Department of English
HHMSPB NSS College for Women, Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Abstract: The theme of androids – robots that resemble humans – obtaining characteristics traditionally associated with humans is not new to contemporary media, having been extensively explored in film, television and literature. These representations have frequently been analysed through the theoretical lens of posthumanism, which interrogates the boundaries between the human and non-human. However, when this theme is explored within the medium of video games, the posthuman condition acquires a more complex and interactive dimension. Unlike passive spectators of visual media, video game players are active participants who co-construct narrative meaning through gameplay. As games evolve in complexity and interactivity, the player’s agency becomes integral to the game’s unfolding, effectively transforming the player into the cyborg figure envisioned in Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto. This participatory role not only challenges the notion of a fixed human subject but also reconfigures the relationship between technology, identity, and embodiment. This paper will examine two games: Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream, 2018) and NieR: Automata (Square Enix and PlatinumGames, 2017), both of which foreground android protagonists within speculative futuristic settings. While these games thematically engage with the android’s relationship to humanity, they also enact a subversion of traditional posthuman narratives. In both cases, the android characters exhibit distinctly humanistic values, such as empathy, morality, and self-sacrifice. Conversely, it is through the player’s interaction –through choice, control, and emotional investment – that the games achieve their posthuman and transhuman dimensions. These texts suggest that the locus of posthumanism does not reside solely within the fictional android but is instead co-produced through the dynamic interface between player and machine.
Keywords: Androids, game studies, posthumanism, agency, cyborgs, Detroit: Become Human
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