Elements of anti-world in the game universe <i>The Witcher</i>

The significance of the study of philosophic aspects of building a new game universe in an RPG, abbreviation for a role-playing game, stems from the popularity of this type of virtual reality entertainment. The paper gives an analysis of the anti-world, a key concept of role-playing gaming, basing on the RPG project The Witcher (Ved’mak). The game is founded on the original series of works under the same title created by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski. The case under consideration serves as a good example for looking into the patterns of forming the space of the game universe that can be equally regarded as a moment when a cultural landscape of virtual entertainment is formed. In this case, RPG can be considered as a socio-cultural practice of the global information society and/or one of the variants of the performance society. The methodological basis of the study is comparative analysis, which implies the identification of borrowings in the process of developing a culture of virtual entertainment and requires learning about basic cultural codes and archetypal designs that are specific to RPG. As a result of the research, the specificity of the new imagery form inherent in the game universe of The Witcher was revealed. The cultural landscape created in the game includes elements of the medieval laughter culture integrated into the unique system of dynamic images and meanings, constantly evolving and functioning in a way analogous with the established cultural and symbolic reality. The effect of the double symbolic analogy is determined by the creative nature of the game, in which players in addition to participating in the gaming process also contribute to the creation of the game. The introduction of game images into the language and thinking of the players causes the emergence of new forms of dialects, fixing the peculiarities of perception by the group (sociolect) and the individual (idiolect) of both primary and secondary reality. These dialects are geographically localized and at the same time multicultural. The article substantiates the conclusion that the instrumentalization of the performance society occurs due to the active use of grotesque symbolism, which, due to its archetypal nature, ensures the formation of a new social mythology that enables the discovery of Eastern Europe by the rest of the world. Thus, the anti-world of the new universe turns into an integral part of the modern information space