Can Video Game's Invincible Protagonist Beat Capitalism? : A political genealogy through Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, and Disco Elysium

Abstract: The thesis is a meta-narrative discourse regarding the subversion in the representation of late capitalist realism. Through a post-humanist Marxist perspective, it connects three video game industry’s favorites with the ultimate question of capitalism: Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, and Disco Elysium‪‬.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ By looking through the unanimous retrospective paradigm, the thesis starts an exploratory journey analyzing the three games in terms of their narrative and mechanics lineages. Eventually, it wishes to reveal the possibility of genuine alternatives to our late capitalist reality from the late capitalist entertainment industry. By exposing the retrospective and inquisitive obsession of the three games, it reveals the underlying collective political trauma derived from the inability to defeat the late capitalist realism. While the analysis also leads to a potential solution that favors chance and randomness in order to disrupt the insatiable capitalist desire for the assimilation of originality.