Réflexions

Parlons des problèmes avec Starfield

Il est de bon ton de ridiculiser la première nouvelle propriété intellectuelle du studio Bethesda depuis plus de 25 ans avec des propos outranciers. Non, Starfield n’est pas « juste de la marde ». Une série de billets sur le jeu et ses problèmes de design.

Bonjour monde!

Il est usuel en informatique de publier un message « Hello world » comme première publication. Voici ce bonjour jeté à la face du monde, en espérant que l’affichage fonctionne et qu’un « moment eurêka! » se produise!

Video Game Narrative: Concepts and Practices for Structuring and Infusing Story in Games

2023, in Introduction to Screen Narrative: Perspectives on Story Production and Comprehension (eds. Paul Taberham & Catalina Iricinschi), Routledge, p.199-219. Exposes three core concepts for understanding narration across the landscape of modern video games: the narrative program, or the ambitions and relationship between a game’s story and gameplay; the narrative structure, or the way the …

Narratology

2023, in The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (2nd edition, eds. Mark J.P. Wolf & Bernard Perron), Routledge, p.475-483. This chapter provides an overview of the different types of study that can be conducted when considering the narrative aspects of video game play. It contextualizes this research among the larger movements of narratology, particularly …

The Retrospective and Retrocursive Stances in Retro Game Aesthetics: How DuckTales: Remastered Got the Last Quack

This chapter uses DuckTales: Remastered (WayForward 2013) as an exemplary case to understand the differing conceptions of authenticity and nostalgia that are mobilized when discussing the “retro” phenomenon. Retrospection involves looking backward towards the historical past from our contemporary present, while retrocursion involves walking backward and displacing ourselves into a historical past while maintaining our …

Fifty Key Video Games

This volume examines fifty of the most important video games that have contributed significantly to the history, development, or culture of the medium, providing an overview of video games from their beginning to the present day. It covers a variety of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and …

Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Most other accounts declare the Super NES the undisputed victor of the “16-bit console wars” of 1989–1995. In this book, Dominic Arsenault reminds us that although the SNES was a strong platform filled with high-quality games, it was also the product of a short-sighted corporate vision focused on maintaining Nintendo’s market share and business model. …

Narration in the Video Game: An Apologia of Interactive Storytelling, and an Apology to Cut-Scene Lovers

2008, VDM-Verlag, Saarbrücken, 104 pp. How and why do video games tell stories? Through the battlefield of ludology and narratology in video game studies, this master’s thesis finds that narration, as a process, is intrinsic to video game playing, independently of the « cut-scenes » often favored in interactive storytelling. A novel perspective on a …