There is No Planet B: A Milieu-Specific Analysis of Outer Wilds' Unstable Spaces

Media have often brought otherwise inaccessible environments such as outer space to audiences, creating new spaces to test human capabilities and imagine new possibilities. Video games such as Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds (2019) that utilize nonlinear storytelling techniques foster player interactions with game environments that have the power to shape how audiences feel about environmental loss. Using Melody Jue’s method of milieu-specific analysis and Karen Barad’s agential realism, this chapter illustrates how the experience of exploring Outer Wilds, which is designed to allow a great deal of player freedom, creates an opportunity for players to reflect on the dubious lack of ethics in depleting natural resources for the sake of technological innovation. If we can empathize with the grief of the alien inhabitants of the game at the loss of their worlds and, instead of succumbing to fear, collaborate to enact solutions, we can save our world—and each other.