Fathers in games are in no short supply. The term “Dadification” for has recently cropped up in game criticism circles to illustrate how frequently AAA titles are plotted around explorations of fatherhood. Yet where are the mothers in these narratives? Often the “presence” of mothers in games is defining by the fact that they are missing. The trope of “Missing Mom” describes the narrative of a mother’s absence—often caused by death—becoming a vehicle through which child and father can form a relationship. The storyline is centered on cutting the mother out of the equation, leaving her to fade in the light of the dadification plot. Horizon Zero Dawn’s story focuses on a missing mom, but is she a “Missing Mom”? The game’s main character Aloy is made painfully aware that she is motherless and that makes her an “other” within her matriarchal society. From a young age, she has decided she will uncover the truth about her mother. This paper will trace the ways in which Horizon Zero Dawn resists the more misogynistic aspects of the Missing Mom trope through resisting dadification, complexing the meaning of motherhood, and bringing our missing mother Elisabet Sobek to life via her own narrative rather than other characters’.
About the presenterSloane Kazim
Sloane Kazim is a recent graduate of Ithaca College. They majored in Cinema & Photography with minors in Writing as well as Women’s and Gender Studies. Their study interests usually revolve around game studies, fan studies, and queer theory.