Horror Video Games and the “Active-Passive” Debate

Bibliographic Data

ID18969448
AuthorsD Christopher (0000-0002-2386-5088, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, corresponding author), Aidan Leuszler (University of the Fraser Valley)
Year2023
Volume18
Issue2
Pages209-228
Publication date2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/15554120221088115
OpenAlexW4293187552
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

In Perron’s edited compendium of essays regarding horror video games subtitled Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (2009), much of the argumentation orbits debate regarding the definition and creation of the experience of horror compared between an ostensibly passive cinema reception (from whence the games take most of their conventions) and the ostensibly more active reception of ludological horror. As the argument goes, ludic activity creates greater identification with diegetic characters and therefore heightens the player’s experience of horror. But is this true, or is it a specious contention that does not really account for the complex mechanics of identification with characters in the ostensibly “passive” experience of cinema viewing, nor for the fact that lacking realism and “active” gameplay may actually compromise the experience of “transportation”

Aesthetics · Argumentation theory · Art · Compendium · Compromise · Epistemology · Linguistics · Movie theater · Multimedia · Realism · Sociology · Video game · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Media Influence and Health · Philosophy

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