Action

ARSENAULT, Dominic (2023 [2014]). « Action ». In : M. J.P. Wolf & B. Perron, (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies. 2nd edition. Routledge, p.223-231. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003214977-42/action-dominic-arsenault

This chapter describes two different phenomena: action games, understood as a genre of games in which the player’s sensori-motor skills prevail over his cognitive activity, and a general theory of action-taking in the context of the game-playing practice. Through a short history of the main genres and sub-genres traditionally identified with “action games”, from Crawford’s original divide between skill-and-action and strategy games to the first arcade games, fighting games, shooters, and real-time strategy titles, it is concluded that such a categorization pertains to a mode of action rather than a given genre. A general model of actional modalities is proposed, and action games are identified as favoring the execution mode of action, which involves a standardized repertoire of actions, emphasis on sensori-motor skills, and short-term action sequences to be performed, as opposed to the resolution mode (puzzle-solving) or the strategy mode (long-term planning).