University for Continuing Education Krems Reflecting the Avatar’s Purpose in a Dystopian World. A Case Study of Inside This paper analyses the subversive potential of the player-avatar relationship through a case study of Inside (Playdead 2016), a cinematic platformer set in a dystopian world. With each of the three different spectra categorising this relationship (tool/character avatar, designed/desired performance, grievable/nongrievable death) is associated a hierarchised binary that is subverted in Inside. The blurring of anthropocentered categories pushes the player toward a meaningful posthuman experience. This experience relies on the embodied, double-situated, non-linear and cathartic properties of video games that the unsettling world, narrative and mechanics of Inside enhance. en TEXT book part Buchkapitel Capitolo di libro Testo Capitolo di libro Text book part Text Buchkapitel player-avatar relationship posthuman 2025-11-14 2025-11-14 Ellie Chraibi University of Krems Press