Kubek bezpieczeństwa. O kawie w polskich grach komputerowych

Krzysztof Chmielewski

doi:10.21697/kmt.2025.61.08

Published: 2025-04-26

Vol. 61 No. 1 (2025)

Safety Cup. About Coffee in Polish Computer Games

Krzysztof Chmielewski

Kultura Media Teologia

Section: peer-reviewed article

https://doi.org/10.21697/kmt.2025.61.08

Abstract

Presentation of coffee in computer games derives from the social norms, regional preferences and historical contexts. The reflection of coffee-carried variety of cultural landscapes and consumers’ habits in digital entertainment is quite natural. Polish sector of computer games explores this area frequently, both in the café-focused games and these containing coffee as a part of the plot or a daily routine.

This paper gives a closer look at the ways of coffee representation in computer games, as well as trying to answer the question, whether it is possible to notice the distinction in treating the topos of coffee between the Polish authors and the foreign market.

Content of 212 Polish titles have been subject to a ludological analysis expanded by a game designer’s perspective, with a certain focus on the Schell’s Elemental Tetrad. The results of this research show that the motif of coffee appears in Polish computer games particularly as three variants: 1) mechanical support of the character; 2) social ritual characterized by ordinariness, honesty and reliability; 3) interlude slowing down the action and lowering the tension. Some level of diversity in the coffee symbolics has been confirmed between the one used by the Polish and the global authors of the computer games.

Keywords:

coffee, video games, Polish game studies, ludology

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Chmielewski, Krzysztof. “Safety Cup. About Coffee in Polish Computer Games”. Kultura Media Teologia, vol. 61, no. 1, Apr. 2025, pp. 113–123, doi:10.21697/kmt.2025.61.08.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Krzysztof Chmielewski

k.shaman@ukw.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8927-1207

Affiliation:

Kazimierz Wielki University Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

mgr, MBA; asystent badawczo-dydaktyczny w Katedrze Badania Gier i Kultury Cyfrowej na Uniwersytecie Kazimierza Wielkiego, członek zarządu głównego Polskiego Towarzystwa Badania Gier. Praktyk projektowania gier z 20-letnim stażem, obecnie producent we Flybridge Studio. Zainteresowania badawcze: silniki gier, sztuczna inteligencja a prawo autorskie, komparatystyka kulturowa gier. Z wykształcenia prawnik, politolog.