Video Games and Mourning

On the one hand, video games are places of pretense and play, hardly apt for something as weighty as death. On the other hand, games can bring people together and provide support for the bereaved. This chapter argues that they can provide structured opportunities to remember the dead and reprise relationships with them. This mirrors historical traditions that highlight the importance of longing and simulation, especially Confucian defenses of mourning practices as artificial but valuable ways to channel messy, conflicted natural responses. Video games implement some of the goods promoted by classical ritual spaces, aligning with Confucian defenses of ritual mourning.