The world of scary video games

Bloomsbury Academic

2018

ix, 471 p.

Approaches to digital game studies ; 6

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781501316197

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: The GenreChapter OneThe Horror: Falling into the Arena of Video Game GenresCrossing Paths with a "Monstrous" ConceptThe Need to Use a New ComboFinding Some DirectionsChapter Two "You have once again entered the world of survival horror. Good luck!"Loading Screen...A Species of Their OwnA Cross-Media GenreThe (Survival) Horror GenreChapter ThreeSomething to Fear: From the Fictional to the VideoludicGut ReactionsThe Answer Is FearFear-Motivated ActionsChapter FourBuilding the Pyramid of Scary Video Games: Toward the Scare Tactics of the Videoludic Horror GenreThe Gaming Apparatus: Technical and Formal AspectsThe Videoludic Treatment of HorrorFigures of Interactivity, Actional Modalities and Scare TacticsThe Pyramid of Scary Video GamesPart II: The HistoryChapter FiveThinking about the History of the Videoludic Horror Genre, Part I: From Teleology to the Initial ClusterTeleology, This Monster (Before 1981)The Scattered Generic Cluster (1981-1991)Chapter SixThinking about the History of the Videoludic Horror Genre, Part II: Crystallization and BipolarityThe Crystallization of the Survival Horror (1992-2005)The Antipodal Clusters: Fight or Flight (2006-2016)Scary Virtual Reality (2017 and the future...)Part III: The Scare TacticsChapter SevenThe Frightening Regimes of Vision The Experience of GamershipThird-Person Frightening Regime of VisionFirst-Person Frightening Regime of VisionSeeing Is Not EverythingChapter EightThe Frightening Regimes of AuditionThird-Person and First-Person Frightening Regimes of AuditionSynch to the Rendering of the Gruesomeness(In) A Fearful MoodDreadful Listening and Terrifying ForewarningsChapter NineScary PlaygroundsSetting the MoodCaught up in the MazeUnsettling ProgressionChapter TenMonsters Meet Scared Player(-Characters)Some Kind of MonsterFigures Under ThreatSeek and DestroySurviving HorrorAfterwordReferences Ludography Index

As for film and literature, the horror genre has been very popular in the video game. The World of Scary Video Games provides a comprehensive overview of the videoludic horror, dealing with the games labelled as "survival horror" as well as the mainstream and independent works associated with the genre. It examines the ways in which video games have elicited horror, terror and fear since Haunted House (1981). Bernard Perron combines an historical account with a theoretical approach in order to offer a broad history of the genre, outline its formal singularities and explore its principal issues. It studies the most important games and game series, from Haunted House (1981) to Alone in the Dark (1992- ), Resident Evil (1996-present), Silent Hill (1999-present), Fatal Frame (2001-present), Dead Space (2008-2013), Amnesia: the Dark Descent (2010), and The Evil Within (2014). Accessibly written, The World of Scary Video Games helps the reader to trace the history of an important genre of the video game.

Английский