👍 Connecting Toward a Future - Asynchronous Collaborations and Affective Communities in Death Stranding and Elden Ring

A paper I had to write for a media class where I was properly exposed to the concepts of affect and futurity - concepts which I'm now very interested in and find myself coming back to in future papers. For some time now, I have had an idea for my masters thesis that revolves around Death Stranding, affective community formation, and a lot of the concepts written about in this paper. Consider this a field test for that thesis, while I also come to grips with some of the concepts myself.

Connecting Toward a Future | Asynchronous Collaborations and Affective Communities in Death Stranding and Elden Ring.

From connecting players through the lived spaces of arcades and games stores, to enabling connections through virtual networks and worlds, the medium of video games has grown to connect players in ways that defy traditional spatial boundaries. In defying these boundaries, the narrative experiences of these digital worlds expose players to new ways of connecting to one another, and in the cases I’ve chosen to research, reinforced by asynchronous mechanics that allow for the formation of affective communities. Alongside these mechanics, these games allow players the opportunity to engage with imagined futures, of worlds both digital and physical. Amidst times where grappling with the future can seem perilous and impossible, the medium of video games allows for the opportunity to form connections towards the future in new ways. Connections that let us grapple with uncertain futures through collaboration, where the spatial boundaries of reality that otherwise limit us are defied through the asynchronous experience, and the formation of affective communities. The two examples which I examine within this paper enable this through both their narratives, and mechanics - allowing players the opportunities to engage with the futurity of digital worlds in a way in which the isolated experience is not tainted by collaboration, but bolstered by it. The examples chosen; Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding (2019), and FromSoftware’s Elden Ring (2022), immerse players within worlds whose futures lie in the hands of the player. The single player experience of these titles allow players to dedicate their agency to the futurity of the world’s narrative, and as such allows them the experience of processing future potentialities. Through asynchronous mechanics, these games enable the  experience of processing this in collaboration with others. Resultantly, these games form affective communities through collaboration. allowing the prospect of exploring future forms of collaboration in which our affective attachments toward cultivating the future can endure through crisis, isolation, and the limitations of immediacy and spatial boundaries.

The medium of games allows this through its intrinsic connection to future-orientation. Barry Atkins highlights this much, describing games ‘as a matrix of future possibility’ where the focus of the narrative is on the player's anticipation of how their actions will affect it (127). The future is ‘always subject to intervention by the player,’ and as such the experience of playing and participating lends to the experience of engaging with futurity (Atkins 138). This allows the medium of games a unique specificity that differentiates it from traditional mediums. The future is ‘always negotiable,’ and so to play, is to orient oneself towards the future, and to allow for ‘plural [possibilities]’ (138). Within digital game worlds where the narrative proposes different possible contingencies, this aspect of future orientation allows the player to grapple with these contingencies, consider their ramifications, and consider their role and agency within the continuity of the game world. In world narratives which then mirror our own, players are allowed a space to engage with the future which they may not otherwise have. They are provided a space to experiment with agency, and to consider the process of future engagement.

Similarly, games provide a space for connection, which like the dynamics of future-orientation in games, surpass traditional boundaries in order to grant players agency, and the liberation of the digital space. Games as a social medium has been proven to be uniquely beneficial in this way - the ‘shared experience of social games’ providing kids an avenue to learn social skills in an environment which ‘can increase the player’s exposure to people from different regions and cultures…promoting the development of empathy and identity formation’ (Wiederhold 213). Games have also been demonstrated to assist in the maintenance of poor mental health, with players ‘[experiencing] high levels of social connectedness and support’ through multiplayer games, combating loneliness and social isolation (Horton et al. 1). Through the dynamics of play, the medium of games allows for the social connectedness of players to be cultivated and maintained, defying spatial boundaries. Within the unfoldings of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw this defying of spatial boundaries take on an all new importance amidst times of forced social isolation. During this time, the medium of games became a vital means to maintain social connections, and we saw its potentiality for social connection expand amidst this time of crisis. Wiederhold identifies peoples efforts to ‘re-create in-person socialization opportunities within video games, embracing the freedom of not being bound by geography or physical capabilities’, using Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) as an example in which people ‘held birthday parties, [went] on dates, and [got] married in game’ (213). Further studies highlight the ‘socialisation’ within games as a contributing factor of games’ positive impact on well-being throughout the pandemic, noting how ‘game-based socialisation’ helped combat loneliness and form communities (Barr and Copeland-Stewart 134-135). This all demonstrates the medium’s capabilities to allow for social connectedness through digital space. In a time of crisis where immediacy was restricted and our abilities to anticipate the future was muddied, games allowed digital worlds to defy physical restrictions of immediacy, and instead substitute an alternative for immediate social connections. This reveals a potential of the medium, a potential to allow us a new scope of possibility for both immediate connections, and futurity engagement. It reveals the medium's capacity to confront crises, and to allow us a means to engage with and collaborate with one another in how we move forward in a way where our intent toward a future takes precedence over our need for immediacy.

The games I examine in this paper propose this exact framework, and through their asynchronous mechanics allow players a unique means to engage collaboratively in confronting crises and engaging with futurity. Death Stranding does this through both its narrative, and mechanics which see the player attempt to reconnect the United States after a cataclysmic eco crisis has left it to ruin. The United States of Death Stranding is one that has been plagued by a phenomenon of the in-game world known as timefall, where the rain rapidly ages and deteriorates all within it. Due to this, humanity is forced to shelter beneath the ground, and the US becomes a barren landscape, rid of everything man-made. Isolation as such is a major theme of the game, as those who survived are forced to hide away in shelters, unable to traverse the lands and reestablish social connections. The future as proposed by Death Stranding is one in which humans are stripped of their agency, social connectedness, and legacy through the constant destruction and natural reformation brought about by timefall. Nicole Falkenhayner interestingly highlights the potential of game worlds, specifically that of Horizon: Zero Dawn’s (2017) in creating ‘an experience of futurity’ where the ‘posthumanist and postnatural plot’, in tandem with the ‘affect creating process of play’ allows for a presentation of dystopia that challenges traditional linear assumptions of ‘late capitalism, globalisation, digitalisation and the destruction of the ecological foundations of the planet’ (1). Falkenhayner refers to Lauren Berlant’s concept of ‘cruel optimism,’ within this context, and argues that the digital world of Horizon: Zero Dawn severs our relation to the objects of desire of cruel optimism, and allows for an affective, aesthetic engagement with futurity ‘in an optimistic mode’, on the basis of the ‘affective experience’ (2). Death Stranding does something similar, the eco phenomenon of timefall creating a future in which all potential objects of desire are erased. In doing this, the future Death Stranding proposes is one in which traditional modes of meaning and connection are defunct, and therefore, new frameworks need to be proposed in considering the potential of a future. This is where the primary objective of the game comes into play; the effort made by fictional company Bridges to reconnect the United States via the chiral network.

After discovering a new resource known as chiralium, a material which can withstand the effects of timefall, Bridges sets out about making a construction network that will allow settlements to effectively 3D print structures made of chiralium in real time. In order to establish this connection to the chiral network, Bridges entrusts the task of connecting the settlements to the player character, a task which requires the player to embark into the dangerous landscapes of Death Stranding, creating chiral structures to assist them along their way. Simon Radchenko identifies the ‘constructivism, social connectivity…and object-oriented ontology’ of Death Stranding as ‘metamodern features’, features that reflect the games ‘imitations of emotional affect, and…[its] community of shared practice’ (33). In tasking the player to establish the chiral network, the core objective of the game revolves around creating a new unification between people, one where there are no barriers, only total unified connection between all in fostering a new future. In attempting to establish connections between other settlements, the player is often tasked with carrying out favors for those in other outposts in order to get them to sign on. This process focalizes the need to assist one another in the new world, and proposes a system of total collaboration without the need for immediacy. It proposes selfless collaboration, built upon a mantra of unity as the character of Die-Hardman professes - ‘For too long we lived as strangers to one another, divided by walls to keep us safe. But now, with the completion of the chiral network, we may at last move forward as a people united’ (Kojima Productions, 2019).

Just as the game proposes unified collaboration through its narrative, its asynchronous gameplay features promote the same concepts between its players. Despite being an exclusively single player experience, throughout Death Stranding, the player will be exposed to items and constructs of other players. Structures made on the chiral network are shared between player worlds, meaning that the bridges, shelters, charging stations etc. made by one player will be available to assist another. In a similar vein, cargo abandoned by one player can be found and delivered by other players for mutual benefits. In this way, despite being entirely isolated, the player is constantly exposed to the effects and help of others for participating in the shared goal of chiral network unification. The game features a mutual rewards system, where player structures and tasks can be liked by other players. The accumulation of these likes expands the player's personal chiral network, increasing the amount of player structures that can appear in the world. The connective effects of these mechanics are felt throughout the game, as the player is often exposed to long periods of isolated expanses on their travels - the loneliness only interrupted by the sudden appearance of another player structure, often liked by thousands of other players. This experience creates an imagined affective community who is partaking in the narrative journey alongside the player, engaging with the common goal of chiral reunification. Amidst a narrative which already establishes the importance of union and collaboration in connecting towards a better future, these mechanics reinforce these themes through the activity of playing the game and engaging with its mechanics. The experience of coming across another player structure across a perilous journey filled with treachery, cosmic horror, and vast expanses of emptiness, is akin to finding an oasis in a desert - it allows the player momentary respite and assurance in the fact that they are not pursuing this quest alone, and allows a moment of reflection which in itself is a vital part of the affective experience of playing Death Stranding.

The way in which the player structures of Death Stranding operate alter our affective attachment to the spaces within its digital world, marking areas with affective significance due to the imposition of player action, not original design. A similar phenomenon can be observed through Elden Ring’s player note system. This mechanic allows the player to leave notes in the form of mad lib style sentence construction, where sentence templates can be filled in with a list of premade words. These notes can be found and read by other players, allowing the players asynchronous communication throughout their isolated playthroughs. As Elden Ring is a notoriously difficult game which famously does little to guide or assist the player - this form of asynchronous communication has enabled the community to assist and guide one another through shared, asynchronous experience. Marco Caracciolo highlights this in On Soulsring Worlds, noting how the community’s opposition to the game's difficulty creates a ‘sense of camaraderie’ and ‘mutual respect’ (64). He further states how both the practical messages which share advice between players, and the non-practical which share in the experience - such as the example he mentions of a note reading; ‘gorgeous view’, awaiting him before ‘the sublime landscape of Liurnia’, one of the game’s set pieces - ‘amplifies the emotional resonance of these worlds’ through the ‘intersubjective sharing’ that the messaging system enables (Caracciolo 66-67). Ultimately, the player note system allows players to mark the world of Elden Ring by their own experiences, and share this with others. Like with Death Stranding, this mechanic enables players to assist one another without the need to be present, and provides moments of emotional connection to the other absent, yet felt players in the digital space.

Elden Ring’s narrative and world is similar to Death Stranding, where a cataclysmic event has sent the world into an uncertain oblivion, and organisations within its high fantasy setting aim at mending the elden ring, which is the in-game equivalent to reconnecting the US. The player’s role in this narrative too see’s them traverse the perilous lands on their own in order to achieve this goal, and like with Death Stranding, the asynchronous mechanics aid in this journey, and create an imagined community of others all aiming to achieve this end. The post-apocalyptic journeys that the players of these games are sent on enables the exploration of a particular affective condition, and moreover allows them to explore this condition both collaboratively, and individually. Apocalypses are ‘existential events’, ones which generate ‘the impulse to re-orient one’s life’, and in the case of these games in particular, re-orientate the very way in which life, connections, and society are cultivated and maintained (DiTommaso 6). In the context of these games’ narrative settings, their societies are in need of an entire new framework in order to operate under the new conditions of being. Death Stranding argues strongly for a new United States where everyone is equal, unified, and connected in order to stand any chance at recultivating human society. Elden Ring’s fantasy world is brought to ruin by the very gods that previously ruled and maintained it, leading many factions in its narrative to believe an entire new age, unreliant on the systems of the past, is needed in order for human society to function as one again. In pursuing these respective ends, the player is mechanically exposed to the necessity of collaboration, regardless of how isolated and distant players are from one another. Despite operating out of entirely different worlds, the emotional struggle toward a better possible future is felt between players, made distinct by the mechanical intervention of the players themselves - their actions marking the lands and narratives of their respective game worlds, and creating an affective attachment to one another's efforts as a natural product of play, lining their respective narratives with reinforced emphases on the need for altruistic collaboration that doesn’t impede individual ambition, but comes about because of it.

Lauren Berlant’s concept of ‘cruel optimism’ explores the barriers between objects of desire, and individual, affective attachment to these objects (1-2). She attests that the ‘affective structure of an optimistic attachment’ is bound to the inclination that achieving ‘nearness’ to an object of desire affirms to the subject that the ‘world [may] become different in just the right way’, it becoming ‘cruel’ when this ‘sense of possibility’ is denied by the object itself (Berlant 2). Within the worlds of Death Stranding and Elden Ring, the objects of desire of the past are no more and are impossible to pursue, instead, these games cultivate an experience of optimism through affective attachment to the overarching goal of reunification, and moreover the efforts made by each player in order to pursue this goal. The experience of discovering another player structure in a time of need, being guided by another player's note, or simply relating emotionally to the state of present being when having a moment's respite at another player's structure which has been a place of respite for thousands others - are fleeting moments of emotional connection to one another's journeys that create an optimistic attachment to the moment of playing and relating asynchronously. Unlike the objects of desire labelled by the experience of cruel optimism, these markers of player effort do not impede the pursuit of optimism, but assist in it. The asynchronous mechanics thus reinforcing the narrative message of unification, and offering the possibility of acquiring unification through collaboration, rather than seeking to achieve immediacy at the detriment of others.

In writing this paper, I too have felt an asynchronous connection of sorts to others’ efforts. It’s affirming to find the written works of others which engage with and explore the same concepts I am actively trying to make sense of. Without knowing one another, or finding immediate presence with one another, our respective efforts assist one another in our goals and provide an emotional affirmation of sorts in knowing we have walked the same path. This is done in the most literal sense in Death Stranding, as players walk the same paths, and shape each other's worlds. Knowing that you aren’t alone during bouts of isolation and detachment is integral to maintaining one’s affective attachment to the future. As highlighted previously, connecting during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite digital, was vital for many in order to retain hope. As the present shifts unknowingly, and we are exposed to crisis, how we connect towards a future is vital. The medium of games allows us a space to connect and reconnect, a space which ignores the boundaries of space and time. Amidst the post-pandemic world, games continue to push the boundaries of how we can reconcile with how the world has changed. Location-based mobile games for one help us ‘activate public spaces, [create] feelings of connection and resilience’, and help us ‘connect together for a better new normal’ (Hjorth and de Souza e Silva 52). In a much broader scope, the asynchronous worlds of Death Stranding and Elden Ring help us engage with completely foreign possibilities. Worlds so far gone by crisis, that all new ways of connecting are required for human unification to prevail. In allowing players the mechanics to engage with this alone and together, simultaneously, they allow us a chance to reconsider what it means to connect. They go beyond narrative and through new, emergent mechanics, allow the experience of play to speak for itself, and for players to discover together what future unification could mean. Above all else, they give players the opportunity to share their asynchronous experience with one another, and to interpret the future together, suggesting that whether the journey be made alone, or together, that there is hope in unification, and in consolidating our shared future attachments, we could cultivate a world no longer hinged on the barriers which deny our desires or immediacy, but the will which we share to overcome them.

Works Cited

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