Never Alone, Never Finished: Defining Never Alone’s World Games Genre as Ethical Alternative to Empathy Games

In this paper, I will investigate the genre of world games through the game that launched the genre into the spotlight, Never Alone. This debut title for the first indigenous-owned game company in the United States, Upper One Games, uses this genre to categorize itself within the rest of game experiences, which is significant given the genre's lack of use in games at large as well as what it signifies in its difference from established genres. Based on my investigation, I will argue that the potential importance of the genre as defined through Never Alone comes from its opportunity to answer to the ethical concerns of the empathy games genre.