33: What Comes After the Apocalypse? Theories of History in Horizon Zero Dawn

33: What Comes After the Apocalypse? Theories of History in Horizon Zero Dawn

Carolin Gluchowski, @CariGluchowski, University of Oxford The retro-futuristic PGR Horizon Zero Dawn (HZD) asks one crucial question: What would life after an apocalypse be like? Would we Build Back Better, or fall back into the Middle Ages (stereotype)? –Guerrilla's (the studio behind HZD) answer is complex: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qtytPUy_Q2s HZD is set in a 31st-cent post-apocalyptic world. Survivors have little knowledge about the former civilization, called The Old Ones. Their once-great cities have become ruins & their cultural/technological achievements are forgotten. Humans are now organized in tribes: the hunting Nora, the trading Carja, the metal-working Oseram, & the nomadic Banuk. Throughout the game, the player gets to know the each tribe and its distinctive culture. https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Tribe Players perform the Nora huntress Aloy. Anointed as a seeker, Aloy is sent out to investigate the rise of the Eclipse, a cult that had attacked the tribe. On her journey through the known world, Aloy learns about the events of the apocalypse & uncovers her past. Aloy learns that the Old Ones were destroyed by robots that caused the extinction of life on Earth (Faro Plague). Humanity’s only hope was Project Zero Dawn, a large terraforming system (GAIA) to restore life on Earth after its extermination. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_FSsbZ GAIA created large animalistic machines, now the dominant species on Earth, to support the terraforming process. Originally peaceful, these machines recently became corrupted & turned violent against humans. https://youtube.com/watch?v=G1f6QRBN2_M https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Machine. 299 years into the terraforming process, the first humans were born in cradle facilities. But due to a malfunction of the APOLLO-system, the future generations never learned about humanity’s past. https://youtube.com/watch?v=o20cJn

HZD is an experimental setup demonstrating the macro-patterns of human history in the game medium. It does not simply replicate the stages of history in a postapocalyptic setting. Rather, HZD imagines how humanity would evolve in the new world dominated by machines. Doing so, HZD draws from research debates. Its understanding of the development of human societies is informed by theories in anthropology and history. Diamond (1997) and Morris (2010) identified geography as a key motor in social deveopment. https://youtube.com/watch?v=wnqS7G All known tribes in HDZ developed from a single proto-tribe which settled in the Savage East close to the ELEUTHIA-9 cradle facility. With time, the proto-tribe split, and fractions migrated to various different areas located in today’s Arizona https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_R. Without the APOLLO archives, the HZD tribes developed freely. Each culture reflects how the HZD societies adopted to their unique environment: The tribes had different #resources at hand, and thus developed in different directions https://youtube.com/watch?v=Us_S7a. Some game elements, especially in the Oseram culture, evoke the Middle Ages, but without falling into a nostalgic medievalism. What counts is geography! Aloy’s story will continue in the Horizon Forbidden West! http://play.st/30PvHTE

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