Réflexions sur les jeux avec sucre en poudre, poivre en grain… et un peu de vitriol.
This chapter presents an overview of the concepts and practices of interactive narrative in the vast and heterogeneous context of video games from the perspectives of practitioners and researchers. The difficulties in harmonizing a pre-written fixed narrative with the freedom of gameplay are outlined and traced back to the role-playing
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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 concerning the structuralist roots of the discipline and the parallels between gameplay and narrative structures.
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This chapter makes a short history of the main genres and sub-genres of “action” games. It argues the categorization relies on a mode of action rather than being a genre. A model of actional modalities is presented to distinguish action from strategy and resolution.
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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
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Shipped out at the very end of 1996, Diablo became a hit PC game in 1997, selling more than two million copies and eventually becoming a flagship franchise for Blizzard Entertainment. More importantly, it proved hugely influential in three key domains. Diablo opened a new line in the RPG (role-playing
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Few home video game consoles have had such an impact on the video game industry as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Released in the United States in 1985, it revived the market after the video game industry crash of 1983. This encyclopedia entry details its history, covering its design process,
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Nintendo released the Super Famicom in 1990 in Japan and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991 in North America and 1992 in Europe. Its release allowed Nintendo to successfully counter the PC-Engine in Japan and to mitigate the success of the SEGA Genesis in North America during a
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This chapter chronicles the history of Canada’s video game industry, across its main regional clusters (Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto; Québec City, Ottawa-Gatineau, London and Edmonton). The dynamics of inter-provincial competition, fueled by tax credits and proximity to United States hubs, is discussed, as well as the growth and transformations throughout the
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