Club de Joc Wholesome

Wholesome video games are presented as a type of game where the main actions of the player are non-violent in nature, creating a safe space to enjoy cosy, ‘cozy’ experiences. They have been sold as an alternative to the violent game mechanics that are prevalent in most mainstream (so-called AAA) and indie titles.

But is it this non-violence and the creation of comforting spaces by players that characterises wholesome games?

Are they really an alternative both in terms of consumption and playable paradigm to AAA or other independent video games?

Can we find alternative ways of creating, critiquing and generating thought about this genre of videogames?

Through seven sessions where we will talk about different videogames, from October to April, we want to create a meeting space to generate discourses collectively in this Wholesome Game Club, to talk about the political charge present in their mechanical and narrative systems, and to question the moral proposal that characterises wholesome games in order to be able to think and play possible alternatives.

We will begin by looking at the origins of the term and its evolution up to the present day and its relationship with the idea of the toy and with the genre, we will continue to think about what it means to play to work and why it is present in the majority of titles in this gender, the colonial and extractivist vision of the spaces available to the player, the treatment of non-human animals, from anthropomorphism to their exploitation for personal gain, and the representation of mental health and care. During the last two sessions, we will consider how we could expand the term wholesome games and what possibilities this genre has and, finally, we will collaboratively create a fanzine that will serve as a compilation of the thoughts generated during the game club.

The vehicular languages will be Catalan and Spanish, but it will also be necessary to understand English to be able to play some of the proposed videogames.

• Session 1 / 18.10.24 / Introduction to the Wholesome Games concept. Stardew Valley.
• 2nd session / 15.11.24 / Playing to work. The Stillness of the Wind.
• 3rd session / 13.12.24 / Extractivism and Cute Colonialism. Summer in Mara and Islanders.
• 4th session / 17.01.25 / Antispeciesism and animal representation. Flock and A Short Hike.
• 5th session / 14.02.25 / Care and mental health. Spiritfarer and Little Man Has a Day.
• 6th session / 14.03.25 / Expansion of the term and closing reflections.
• 7th session / 11.04.25 / Collaborative fanzine with the participants of the Wholesome Games Club on research and thinking about the wholesome/cozy video game.