Transformation of Media Culture: Pastiche, Simulacra, and Remediation in “The Last of Us” and “Cyberpunk 2077” Franchises

The article attempts a critical philosophical analysis of the ways to reinvent the production of contemporary media culture on the example of two franchises, “The Last of Us” and “Cyberpunk 2077”. Modern media culture is a complex mechanism ensuring the transmission of various messages through the production and subsequent human consumption of media products. Douglas Kellner, following Jean Baudrillard, positions media culture as a spectacle for pleasure. In the digital space, media culture includes a number of mediums, such as video games, movies, music, etc. Since postmodernism is an integral part of modern capitalism, the production of media culture for profit involves the (re)invention of various media texts. Using philosophical vocabulary, the example of the franchises “The Last of Us” and “Cyberpunk 2077” show how such media culture products are created. Simulation, pastichization, and remediation become tools for the production of contemporary media text and thus refer to what has already been produced. The article presents an analysis of video games as a simulative space within the framework of the philosophical categories of Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, and Gilles Deleuze. The author also analyzes the genre component of franchises using the proposed by Fredric Jameson terminology of pastiche, and the developed by David Bolter and Richard Grusin concept of remediation. Within the “The Last of Us” franchise we can see that the transition from one medium to another, from a video game to a film, is an actively used way of copying media text. When such copying occurs, there is a loss of interactivity with the media text, which can negatively affect the consumer experience. In the “Cyberpunk 2077” franchise the same transition not only does not impair the consumer’s interaction with the media text but complements it by connecting the stories of two different mediums with each other. It is concluded that the analyzed franchises, having a similar base of production, diverge in terms of creativity, showcasing the potential approaches through which media culture products can undergo reimagining and reinvention. 

Keywords: media culture, critical analysis, pastiche, simulation, simulacrum, remediation, cyberpunk, horror, zombie