REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CITY IN THE SCIENCE-FICTION CITY-BUILDING SIMULATOR «FARLANDERS

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore how the video game «Farlanders» models the functioning of a Martian city through gameplay mechanics and to determine whether myths typical of the city-building genre are preserved in this speculative setting.
Methodology. The study combines descriptive and analytical approaches. «Farlanders» is considered as a form of audiovisual art and spatial storytelling in which rules, landscape design, resource management, and infrastructure placement shape representations of urban order. The analysis is based on the digital Steam version of the game and uses an authorial classification of urban myths developed from critical studies of city-building games.
Results. The article demonstrates that «Farlanders» reproduces several genre myths, including the myth of the all-powerful planner, the myth of functional segregation as an efficient planning principle, and the myth of technology and financial capital as universal solutions to urban problems. Other myths, including the simplification of social conflict and the city as a blank slate, appear only partially, while the myth of automobile-centred urban development is absent. It is concluded that such ideas can be interpreted not only as a manifestation of genre convention and the dominance, in the cultural dimension, of neoliberal ideas about urban culture and politics, but also as an expression of the public demand for a rationally ordered urban life.
Novelty. The study to analyze the Ukrainian city-building simulator «Farlanders» to identify distorted representations of how the city functions. The article also supplements Bradley Bereitschaft’s critical findings on «SimCity» and «Cities: Skylines» by applying and further developing them in relation to a Ukrainian science-fiction game. At the methodological level, the author proposes an original classification of common urban myths based on Bereitschaft’s research.
Practical significance. The findings may be useful for further research on Ukrainian video games, spatial storytelling, and digital representations of the city, as well as for critical reflection on the educational use of citybuilding simulators.