FAMST 189CG: COZY GAMES

University of California, Santa Barbara

Provides an opportunity to probe deeply into the genre of “cozy” games, whi ch came to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic with games like Animal C rossing: New Horizons (2020). We consider not only how gentle, wholesome, a nd domestic games predated the “cozy” label, but also how the moniker “cozy ” predates cozy games (for instance, in cozy mysteries). In addition to que stioning the typical gender coding of these games and their players, we wil l read and play extensively in order to think about the genre’s contested b oundaries and why its classic themes of comfort, domesticity, and interpers onal relations often dovetail with (implied) violence, nature and the outdo ors, and even death.