Rozważając zwierzęcą solastalgię z Endling – Extinction is Forever

In his writing on solastalgia, Glenn A. Albrecht, the creator of the term, only stops for a brief moment to ponder on the possibility of an animal solastalgia. While he does not elaborate on the topic, he admits that in his view, it is, in fact, possible for nonhumans to experience similar distress as humans do when feeling homesick for the home they have never left, but which has been transformed beyond recognition. This article explores the depiction of animal solastalgia in a digital game Endling – Extinction is Forever (Herobeat Studios, 2022), which features a nonhuman protagonist: a mother fox, the titular endling – the last of her kind – in search of her lost kit. The reading of the game as a depiction of animal solastalgia comes with several consequences relating to the representation of a nonhuman species in an immersive medium such as a digital game, where the player takes control of an animal body. Another problem lies in depicting nonhuman experiences in paralel with the human experience of solastalgia and struggle for survival in a terraformed world, as if those where one and the same. The analysis of Endling draws from the works of Marie-Laure Ryan on emotional and strategic space and place in digital games, as well as the game studies scholarship on video game aesthetics and nonhuman or animal avatars.