Cute, interesting, zany ghosts: Examining aesthetic experiences of ghosts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Genshin Impact and Hades

This paper draws from Sianne Ngai’s work Our Aesthetic Categories to identify and discuss three different aesthetic categories of ghosts: cute ghosts, interesting ghosts, and zany ghosts. I examine the appearance of ghosts in three video games: the cute Wisp in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its relation to acquiring rare and unusual items; the interesting puzzle givers of Little Nine and Dusky Ming in Genshin Impact; and the hardworking zany shades of Hades who, reflecting the game’s own thematic interest in continued effort, exist as eternal water-cooler gossips and workers in the Administrative Chamber in the House of Hades. In doing so, I examine the aesthetic experience these ghosts produce in their respective games, and use Ngai’s aesthetic categories of the cute, interesting, and zany to explore how the form and function of this occult being has evolved in the context of the Capitalocene.