The World of Scary Video Games

A Study in Videoludic Horror

Professor Bernard Perron (University of Montreal, Canada)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic USA
31 May 2018

Media studies; Violence in society; Game theory

Series: Approaches to Digital Game Studies

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.

By: Professor Bernard Perron (University of Montreal Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic USA
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: HPOD
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
Weight: 562g
ISBN: 9781501316197
ISBN 10: 1501316192
Series: Approaches to Digital Game Studies
Pages: 488
Publication Date: 31 May 2018
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The Genre Chapter One The Horror: Falling into the Arena of Video Game Genres Crossing Paths with a “Monstrous” Concept The Need to Use a New Combo Finding Some Directions Chapter Two “You have once again entered the world of survival horror. Good luck!” Loading Screen… A Species of Their Own A Cross-Media Genre The (Survival) Horror Genre Chapter Three Something to Fear: From the Fictional to the Videoludic Gut Reactions The Answer Is Fear Fear-Motivated Actions Chapter Four Building the Pyramid of Scary Video Games: Toward the Scare Tactics of the Videoludic Horror Genre The Gaming Apparatus: Technical and Formal Aspects The Videoludic Treatment of Horror Figures of Interactivity, Actional Modalities and Scare Tactics The Pyramid of Scary Video Games Part II: The History Chapter Five Thinking about the History of the Videoludic Horror Genre, Part I: From Teleology to the Initial Cluster Teleology, This Monster (Before 1981) The Scattered Generic Cluster (1981-1991) Chapter Six Thinking about the History of the Videoludic Horror Genre, Part II: Crystallization and Bipolarity The 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 Tactics Chapter Seven The Frightening Regimes of Vision The Experience of Gamership Third-Person Frightening Regime of Vision First-Person Frightening Regime of Vision Seeing Is Not Everything Chapter Eight The Frightening Regimes of Audition Third-Person and First-Person Frightening Regimes of Audition Synch to the Rendering of the Gruesomeness (In) A Fearful Mood Dreadful Listening and Terrifying Forewarnings Chapter Nine Scary Playgrounds Setting the Mood Caught up in the Maze Unsettling Progression Chapter Ten Monsters Meet Scared Player(-Characters) Some Kind of Monster Figures Under Threat Seek and Destroy Surviving Horror Afterword References Ludography Index

Bernard Perron is Full Professor of Cinema at the University of Montreal, Canada. He has coedited The Video Game Theory Reader 1 (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader 2 (2008), The Routledge Companion to Video Games Studies (2014), as well as Figures de violence (2012), The Archives: Post-Cinema and Video Game Between Memory and the Image of the Present (2014) and Z pour Zombies (2015). He has edited Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (2009). He has also written Silent Hill: The Terror Engine (2012) in The Landmark Video Games book series he is co-editing. His research and writings concentrate on video games, interactive cinema, the horror genre, and on narration, cognition, and the ludic dimension of narrative cinema. More information can be found at his research team website: (soon to be changed to LUDOV, Laboratoire universitaire de documentation et d'observation vidéoludiques/Video Vames Observation and Documentation University Lab).

Reviews for The World of Scary Video Games: A Study in Videoludic Horror

It will undoubtedly find a place on many readers' shelves. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE * Thorough and laden with in-depth knowledge, The World of Scary Video Games is an invaluable resource for fans, scholars and artist/designers of horror. * Tanya Krzywinska, Professor of Digital Games and Director, Games Academy, Falmouth Unversity, UK *