The article deals with the analysis of video games and the use of VR technologies in the gaming sphere. The trend towards increasing gamification of modern man's being is examined and problematized. The main question raised by the author is what is the actual status of video games in the existence of modern man. The aim of the research is to study the ontoanthropology of video games, and VR games in particular, and search for their correlates with archaic practices. This, in turn, led to the consideration of the ontoanthropology of the virtual and the ontoanthropology of the game as its variety. The author comes to a conclusion that video games are a substitute for initiation which is most fully and safely performed by means of immersive equipment and taking rite-ritual activity into virtual reality. The results of the study can be used for an expert assessment of video games, identifying the prospects for their implementation in pedagogical, psychological or other consulting activities aimed at achieving a sense of inner transformation of the person in the direction of greater completeness and authenticity of existential experience. The findings can form the basis for philosophical conceptualization of modern mechanisms of digital identity formation and contribute to the growth of socio-humanitarian reflection on the problem of human self-identification and methods of achieving a sense of ontological fundamentality and wholeness of being in a virtual reality.

This paper reviews A.M. Lobok's monograph, The Anthropology of Myth. It was published in 1997 in Ekaterinburg by the publishing house Bank of Cultural Information, but is still little known in the scientific community and belongs to the philosophical underground. This has necessitated the creation of a review work to present The Anthropology of Myth to a wider readership. Despite an almost quarter-century gap between the year of publication and the present, the reviewed monograph is one of the most interdisciplinary to date and may be of interest to researchers specialising in mythology, general myth theory, philosophical anthropology, cultural philosophy, physical anthropology, pedagogy and body studies.

The subject of the review is the monograph “Peter I in Media Memory” by Denis S. Artamonov and Sophia V. Tikhonova. Like their previous study on historical memory, the scientists rely on a variety of empirical material, including microformatted Internet content, cinema, animation, and video games. One of the central concepts of the book, mediatization, is explored through its application to the legendary historical figure of Peter the First. The analysis focuses on the well-known events and processes of Peter the First era that exist in historical memory and have entered the digital environment, as well as iconic mythologems. “Media memory” is not presented as an alternative source of knowledge about the past that exists alongside traditional forms of recording and broadcasting history. Instead, the authors argue that it functions as a resource for the formation of collective identities and the transformation of historical knowledge. The book delves into the mechanisms of contemporary discourses, providing insights into concepts such as the politics of memory, memorial war, media oblivion, and more. Despite its high theoretical level, the study is intended for a broad audience interested in digital culture.