遊戲烏托邦：數位遊戲與當代烏托邦主義

Abstract

從人類史的早期開始，對於理想社會或烏托邦的描寫是文學領域中一個擁有悠久歷史的主題。在不同的時代，人們根據社會現況以及自身對於「完美」的憧憬描繪出富有該時代色彩的烏托邦。然而，隨時代變遷，所需面對的公共議題、「完美」的定義、人們的渴望同樣會隨之改變，而當創作一座烏托邦的背景脈絡不復存在時，對於新時代的人們來說，其設計的社會制度也未必能繼續被視為是理想的。時至今日，過去所創作的各種烏托邦的政治藍圖幾乎無法承受時代的考驗而淘汰，因此烏托邦的概念逐漸脫離描繪具體且不變的制度，不再拘泥於追求單一的理想願景，而是轉為一種探索未來可能性的思維模式。既然內容發生變化，烏托邦的概念也需要相應的新載體。除了傳統的文字、影像媒介，例如小說、電影，有一項新媒體因科技的進步而逐漸蓬勃發展，也就是數位遊戲。不同於傳統媒體，數位遊戲的特點除了文字、影像呈現外，其內容具有互動性。此一差別使其在使用上帶給玩家截然不同的體驗，且讓媒體本身具有高度的可塑性。本文希望藉由釐清當代烏托邦主義以及數位遊戲的性質並加以比對，來說明數位遊戲在本質上與烏托邦實有一定程度的共通點，且其獨特的機制使其具備不同的可能性，適合作為呈現當代烏托邦主義這一思維的新興媒介。The depiction of utopia has owned a long tradition in literature since the ancient time. With time passing, the definition of perfection, the problems of society and people’s needs have changed. Therefore, when the background context of a utopia has gone, it might not be viewed as a “perfect society” any longer. Until now, many designs of utopia have died out in the stream of time. As a result, the concept of utopia no longer pursues the concrete political blueprints, but gradually becomes a way of thinking which encourages people to explore different possibilities of the future.If the concept of utopia has changed, then it would need a more suitable medium. Except for the traditional textual or visual media, like novels or movies, a new one is getting flourishing due to technological development, that is, the digital game. Unlike traditional media, except for presenting texts and videos, a new feature of digital games is that their content has interactivity. This feature makes the content of games flexible and thus provides the experience much different from other media. This thesis intends to clarify the characteristics of contemporary utopianism and digital games to show that they actually share many points in common and that the specific mechanisms of digital games can create various possibilities. Therefore, digital games can be viewed as a new medium suitable for presenting contemporary utopianism.