Other Research
Comics
Perron, Bernard. 2017. “Drawing (to) Fear and Horror: Into the Frame of Clive Barker’s The Midnight Meat Train and Dread Comic and Film Adaptations”. In Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (ed.), Clive Barker: the Dark Imaginer. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Perron, Bernard. 2016. “Wandering the Panels, Walking Through Media: Zombies, Comic Books and the Post-apocalyptic World.” In Jan-Noël Thon and Lukas R.A. Wilde (eds.), Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics: Mediality and Materiality of Contemporary Comics, vol. 7, n° 3, p. 306-318. [Online].
Perron, Bernard, Samuel Archibald and Antonio Dominguez Leiva. 2015. “Les traits et tracés des zombies bédéiques”. In Bernard Perron, Samuel Archibald and Antonio Dominguez Leiva (ed.), Z pour Zombies, p. 167-188. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Perron, Bernard, and Pierre Chemartin. 2009. “To Switch back (and Forth): Early Cases of Alternation in Comics and Cinema.” In L. Quaresima, L.S. Sangalli and F. Zecca (eds.), Cinema e Fumetto/Cinema and Comics, p. 115-134. Udine: Forum.
Perron, Bernard. 2009. “Entre bande dessinée, cinéma et fiction interactive : l’écran divisé du BDVD.” In L. Quaresima, L.S. Sangalli and F. Zecca (eds.), Cinema e Fumetto/Cinema and Comics, p. 609-626. Udine: Forum.
Perron, Bernard, and Pierre Chemartin. 2007. “De la vignette à la vue et vice-versa : l’alternance avant le montage alterné.” Cinéma & Cie., n° 10 (Spring), p. 111-132.
Film
Picard, Martin et Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon. 2014. “Remise en cause des modèles et quête de soi chez l’adolescent japonais dans Neon Genesis Evangelion.” In Jocelyn Lachance, Hugues Paris and Sébastien Dupont (eds.), Séries cultes et culte de la série chez les jeunes. Penser l’adolescence avec les séries télévisées, p. 203-226. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.
Perron, Bernard, and Nicolas Dulac. 2007. “Présentation.” Cinéma & Cie., n° 10 (Spring), p. 9-15.
Perron. Bernard. 2002. “Présentation.” Cinémas : Cinéma et cognition, vol. 12, n° 2 (Winter), p. 7-14.
Perron, Bernard. 2002. “Faire le tour de la question.” Cinémas : Cinéma et cognition, vol. 12, n° 2 (Winter), p. 135-157.
Perron, Bernard. 2001. “Le petit glossaire ‘cinématographique’ de la science cognitive.” Cinémas : Eisenstein dans le texte, vol. 11, n° 2-3 (Spring), p. 275-290.
Perron, Bernard. 1996. “Alain Cavalier : visage de style.” Revue canadienne d’études cinématographiques, vol. 5, n° 1 (Spring), p. 23-34.
Perron, Bernard. 1993. “Focalisation: un détour par la scénaristique.” Études littéraires : Le scénario de film, vol. 26, n° 2 (Fall), p. 27-34.
Digital Culture
Perron, Bernard. 2017. “Zombie Escape and Survival Plans: Mapping the Transmedial World of the Dead.” In Marta Boni (ed.), World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Perron, Bernard, and Federico Giordano (ed.). 2014. The Archives: Post-Cinema and Video Game Between Memory and the Image of the Present. Milan: Mimesis International.
Perron. Bernard, and Federico Giordano. 2014. “Preserving and Organizing the New Media Contents: Traditional Archive, Mobile and Living Archive or Anarchive.” The Archives: Post-Cinema and Video Game Between Memory and the Image of the Present, Bernard Perron and Federico Giordano (eds.), p. 9-21. Milan: Mimesis International.
Laurin, Hélène, and Dominic Arsenault. 2011. “La légitimation culturelle.” Kinephanos, vol. 2. [Online]
In this issue, we examine five types of legitimisation processes. There is the legitimisation, and by extension the canonisation, of works through complex intertextual relationships; for circulating a work is, to a large extent, equivalent to inscribing it in the collective memory. One may also wish to legitimise an emerging artistic practice or form, with the help of rhetoric aimed at legitimising authorities: this was particularly the case with cinema as ‘filmed theatre’ and, a century later, with video games as ‘interactive cinema’. A third process of legitimisation may stem more from the digital revolution: the decline of ‘legitimate’ culture, which is rapidly losing ground to the proliferation of subcultures that are both more segmented and hyper-accessible. There is room for a fourth process of legitimisation rooted in the popularisation of textual figures or formal mechanisms previously reserved for marginal productions. The balance of power between the Institution and the multiple popular authorities is thus reversed, and the cultural hierarchy dissolved. The fifth process of legitimisation is one that takes place despite itself: bringing cultural artefacts together in one place, even if they have no stylistic coherence, tends towards an ‘official’ and comprehensive understanding of these artefacts.
Picard, Martin, and Marc Joly-Corcoran. 2009. “Imageries numériques : culture et réception : Présentation.” Kinephanos, vol. 1, nº 1 (December). [Online]
Video Games
Arsenault, Dominic, and Jonathan Lessard. 2018. “Introduction à la section 3 : histoire et jeux vidéo : construction, stratégie et aventure.” In Marc-André Éthier, David Lefrançois and Alexandre Joly-Lavoie (eds.), Mondes profanes: Enseignement, fiction et histoire. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval. [Pre-publication PDF]
Vollans, Ed, Stephanie Janes, Carl Therrien et Dominic Arsenault (eds.). 2017. “‘It’s [not just] in the game’: the promotional context of video games / le contexte promotionnel des jeux vidéo.” Kinephanos, vol. 7, n° 1 (November). [Online]
Perron, Bernard, and Felix Schröter. 2016. “Introduction: Video Games, Cognition, Affect and Emotion.” In Bernard Perron and Felix Schröter (eds.), Video Games and the Mind. Essays on Cognition, Affect and Emotion, p. 1-13. Jefferson: McFarland.
Perron, Bernard. 2016. “Emotions in Video Games: Are You Concerned?.” In Bernard Perron and Felix Schröter (ed.), Video Games and the Mind. Essays on Cognition, Affect and Emotion, p. 189-209. Jefferson: McFarland.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Maude Bonenfant. 2016. “Dire, faire et être par les jeux vidéo : L’éthique et la performativité au prisme des rhétoriques procédurale et processuelle.” Implications philosophiques, (July-August). [Online]
Perron, Bernard, and Benoit Melançon. 2016. “L’art en jeu ou le jeu de l’art.” Sciences du jeu, n° 6. [Online]
Dor, Simon. 2016. “Rejouer le même récit dans différentes adaptations ludiques de l’univers de J.R.R. Tolkien.” Sciences du jeu, n° 5. [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic, and Jonathan Lessard. 2016. “The Character as Subjective Interface.” Conference proceedings for “The Ninth International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS),” Los Angeles: University of Southern California. [PDF]
Arsenault, Dominic, and Louis-Martin Guay. 2015. “Canada.” In Mark J. P. Wolf (ed.), Video Games Around the World, p. 105-118. Boston: The MIT Press.
Canada is widely regarded as a subset of the US market, with differences in sales patterns between the two countries “not of a serious magnitude”. Canada’s relatively small population, together with the continental proximity, permissive trade agreements, and close cultural exchanges between the two English-speaking countries, have all contributed in minimizing Canada as a distinct territory. This chapter details the history of game production in Canada, from the establishment of foreign industry giants to the Canadian independent developers and their challenges and strengths.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Bernard Perron. 2015. “De-Framing Video Games from the Light of Cinema.” G|A|M|E: The Italian Journal of Game Studies, n° 4. [Online]
In this essay, we shall try to step back from a blinding cinema-centric approach in order to examine the impact such a framing has caused, to question its limitations, and to reflect on the interpretive communities that have relied on film (communities we are part of, due to our film studies background) to position video games as an important cultural phenomenon as well as an object worthy of scholarly attention. Using Gaudreault and Marion’s notion of cultural series and wishing to spread a French theoretical approach we find very relevant to the discussion, we will question the bases on which we frame video games as cinema. This inquiry will focus on the audiovisual nature of both media and highlight their differing technical and aesthetic aspects, which will lead us to consider video games as being closer to other forms of audiovisual media.
Picard, Martin, and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon. 2015. “Beyond Rapelay: Self-regulation in the Japanese Erotic Video Game Industry.” In Matthew Wysocki and Evan W. Lauteria (eds.), Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games, p. 28-41. London: Bloomsbury.
Dor, Simon. 2015. “Identité(s) du joueur et du personnage. Au-delà de l’analyse mimétique des jeux vidéo.” In Charles Perraton and Maude Bonenfant (eds.), Identité et multiplicité en ligne, p. 67-86. Montréal: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.). 2014. The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies. New York: Routledge.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2014. “Narratology.” In Mark J.P. Wolf and B. Perron (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, p.475-483. New York: Routledge.
This chapter provides an overview of the overlap “between games and stories”, briefly summarizing the ludology/narratology debate, providing contextual information on structuralist and post-classical narratology, and charting out the kinds of narrative studies that are done in game studies. Video game criticism has addressed the narrative contents of games, such as plot twists, narrative inconsistencies, rhythm, script and writing quality of games, but by and large, the most common research conducted on narrative content in games so far has focused on the narrative structures or topologies of games, in an attempt to identify the recurrent ways in which interactivity can gate or deploy narrativity and vice versa.
Picard, Martin. 2014. “Levels.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.), The Routledge Companion of Video Game Studies, p. 99-105. New York: Routledge.
Dor, Simon. 2014. “Emulation.” In Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (eds.), Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, p. 25-31. New York: Routledge.
Dor, Simon. 2014. “Strategy.” In Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (eds.), Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, p. 275-281. New York: Routledge.
Dor, Simon. 2014. “The Heuristic Circle of Real-Time Strategy Process: A StarCraft: Brood War Case Study.” Game Studies, vol. 14, n° 1 (August). [Online]
Dor, Simon. 2014. “A History of Real-Time Strategy Gameplay From Decryption to Prediction: Introducing the Actional Statement.” Kinephanos, special issue (January), p. 58-73. [Online]
Perron, Bernard, and Gilles Brougère. 2013. “Editorial : Pour une ‘French Touch’ des études sur le jeu.” Sciences du jeu, n° 1 (Fall). [Online].
Perron, Bernard. 2013. “L’attitude de Jacques Henriot.” Sciences du jeu, n° 1 (Fall). [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic. 2013. “Qui est ‘je’? Autour de quelques stratégies vidéoludiques de design de personnage pour gérer l’actantialité ludo-narrative du joueur et son immersion fictionnelle.” In R. Bourassa and L. Poissant (eds.), Avatars, personnages et acteurs virtuels, p. 249-272. Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Cet article s’intéresse au rôle central joué par le personnage dans la réconciliation de la narrativité et de l’interactivité à travers une étude théorique et critique de quelques stratégies employées par les concepteurs pour réaliser une fusion identitaire du joueur avec le personnage. Il y est question de deux postures d’immersion fictionnelle identifiées par Jean-Marie Schaeffer : l’identification allosubjective et la virtualisation identitaire. Ces postures sont liées à des processus de design de personnage : l’approche avatorielle, centrée sur le concept d’avatar et qui tente d’aplanir les différences intersubjectives, et l’approche actorielle, qui au contraire vise à les accroître en faisant du personnage un acteur autonome plutôt qu’un avatar. Ces deux pratiques ne sont pas mutuellement exclusives; au contraire, il est démontré que pour réaliser l’immersion fictionnelle, la plupart des jeux tentent de conserver une trace du joueur dans l’avatar, et une trace du personnage dans l’acteur. Des marqueurs d’allosubjectivité et de subjectivisation sont identifiés par l’analyse des jeux Metroid Prime, Duke Nukem 3D, Gears of War et Shadowrun. Enfin, l’article étudie également les rapports entre le ludique et le narratif selon le rôle actantiel du joueur et du personnage, écorchant au passage la convention du « héros muet » (silent protagonist) souvent rencontrée dans le jeu vidéo mais ultimement improductive.
Picard, Martin. 2013. “The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Japanese Video Games.” Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research, vol. 13, nº 1 (Decembre). [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic, and Vincent Mauger. 2012. “Au-delà de ‘l’envie cinématographique’ : le complexe transmédiatique d’Assassin’s Creed.” Nouvelles vues : revue sur les pratiques et les théories du cinéma au Québec, n°13 (Winter-Spring). [Online]
Nous proposons d’aborder dans cet article la question des rapports entre le jeu vidéo et le cinéma à travers une étude de cas spécifique : la franchise Assassin’s Creed, qui s’inscrit dans un contexte techno-historico-culturel bien précis : celui des technologies de l’image numérique au Québec. Plus particulièrement, nous nous questionnerons sur le rôle que joue la trilogie de courts métrages Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, réalisés par Yves Simoneau et Hybride Technologies, et diffusés gratuitement sur YouTube dans le but d’attiser l’intérêt des joueurs avant la sortie du jeu Assassin’s Creed II. De toutes les déclinaisons médiatiques de la franchise Assassin’s Creed à ce jour, c’est elle qui incarne le mieux la convergence technologique entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo, mais aussi notre modèle original de constellation transmédiatique. Loin d’agir comme de simples outils promotionnels, les films capitalisent sur les forces du cinéma et contribuent au déploiement de la franchise, mais non sans heurts. Du général au particulier, nous nous intéresserons d’abord à la relation entre ces deux arts, que l’on peut envisager sous deux paradigmes : celui de la remédiatisation et celui de la transmédialité; puis, nous traiterons du cas Assassin’s Creed comme étant la plus récente incarnation des rapports de croisement et de tension entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo. Nous montrerons comment le modèle transmédiatique s’inscrit dans le prolongement des questionnements portant sur la remédiatisation, puis comment il éclaire et met à contribution les spécificités qui distinguent le cinéma et le jeu vidéo comme les points communs qui les rassemblent.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2012. “Nintendo Entertainment System.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, vol. 2, p. 449-456. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2012. “Super Nintendo Entertainment System.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, vol. 2, p. 634-636. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press.
Perron. Bernard. 2012. “Roger Caillois,” Joahn Huizinga” and “Magic Circle.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, vol. 1, p. 85-87, 305-307 and 369-370. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Maude Bonenfant. 2012. “Poiesis and Imagination in the Aesthetic Experience: The Moment of Grace in Computer Game Play.” Conference proceedings for “The Philosophy of Computer Games 2012.” [Online]
What is the nature of a computer game player’s experience? To have a computer game experience is to have a functional experience, one that is tailored to its function as a computer game. This function is defined by the sum of the properties that produce the meaning of a computer game experience, distinct from the other experiences of human existence: the player ascribes this particular meaning to his experience instead of another. The properties of this experience can be divided between its many dimensions, such as the technical (techne), ethical (ethos), aesthetic (aisthêtikos), etc., and account for the richness and complexity of human experience. These dimensions cannot be envisioned separately from their combined effects and function as an inseparable whole that define the meaning of life. However, for the needs of our demonstration, we will focus on a study of the aesthetic dimension of the computer game player’s experience to show how it deploys itself, whether one is playing games as diverse as Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985), Mount and Musket: Battalion (Independent, 2010) or Trauma (Krystian Majewski, 2011).
Picard, Martin. 2012. “Art,” “I, Robot,” Japan.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, vol. 1, p. 38-39, 307-308 and 334-337. Wesport: Greenwood Press.
Roux-Girard, Guillaume. 2012 “Metal Gear Series.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Video Games, vol. 2, p. 395-398. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press.
Dor, Simon. 2012. “Cartridges,” Emulators,” “MAME,” “StarCraft.” In Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, vol. 1 et 2, p. 92-93, 192-194, 423-425 amd 624-626. Westport : Greenwood Press and Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press.
Dor, Simon. 2011. “De la stratégie et de la tactique. La ruse dans les jeux de stratégie en temps réel.” In Charles Perraton and Maude Bonenfant (eds.), La ruse. Entre la règle et la triche, p. 113-130. Montréal: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Perron. Bernard. 2010. “Le lecteur de théorie du jeu vidéo.” In S. Craipeau, S. Genvo., B. Simonnot (ed.), Questions de communication : Les jeux vidéo au croisement du social, de l’art et de la culture, p.15-26. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2010. “Introduction à la pragmatique des effets génériques : l’horreur dans tous ses états.” Loading…Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, vol. 4, no 6. [Online]
Cet article pose les jalons d’une nouvelle approche théorique de la question du genre, la pragmatique des effets génériques. Dans ce cadre, le genre s’exprime dans des effets génériques qui se manifestent ponctuellement à travers la séquence sémiotique d’un objet culturel, que le lecteur/spectateur/joueur peut reconnaître et qui modulent à la fois son horizon d’attentes et sa compréhension cognitive de l’objet. La pertinence et les ramifications de cette approche sont démontrées à l’aide d’une étude de cas qui porte sur le genre vidéoludique du survival horror. Celui-ci est déconstruit en ses deux composantes, soit le genre thématique de l’horreur et le genre ludique du survival. Chacun est étudié à travers deux jeux, Resident Evil et Diablo, respectivement emblématique et étranger au genre.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.). 2009. The Video Game Theory Reader 2, New York: Routledge.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Bernard Perron. 2009. “In the Frame of the Magic Cycle: The Circle(s) of Gameplay.” In Bernard Perron et Mark J. P. Wolf (eds.), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, p. 109-131. New York: Routledge.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P. Wolf. 2009. “Introduction.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, p. 1-21. New York: Routledge.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P Wolf. 2009. “Appendix – Video Games Through Theories and Discipline: Medecine.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf, The Video Game Theory Reader 2, p. 306-307. New York: Routledge.
Picard, Martin. 2009. “Art/Aesthetics in Video Games.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.), The Video Game Theory Reader, p. 333-334. New York: Routledge.
Roux-Girard, Guillaume. 2009. “Film Studies.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (eds.), The Video Game Theory Reader 2, p. 349-350. New York: Routledge.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2008. Narration in the Video Game. An Apologia of Interactive Storytelling, and an Apology to Cut-Scene Lovers. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2007. “Company Profile: Nintendo.” Mark J. P. Wolf (ed.), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, p.113-114. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2007. “System Profile: The Nintendo Entertainment System.” In Mark J. P. Wolf (ed.), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, p.109-114. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2007. “The Video Game as an Object of Controversy.” In Mark J. P. Wolf (ed.), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond, p. 277-281. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Martin Picard. 2007. “Le jeu vidéo entre dépendance et plaisir immersif : les trois formes d’immersion vidéoludique.” Le jeu vidéo: un phénomène social massivement pratiqué?. Conference proceedings for “75ième congrès de l’ACFAS,” Université du Québec À Trois-Rivières. [PDF]
Arsenault, Dominic, and Bernard Perron. 2006. “L’empire vidéoludique : comment les jeux vidéo ont conquis l’univers de Star Wars.” Décadrages, vol.8-9 (Fall), p. 98-105.
Perron, Bernard. 2006. “Jeu vidéo et émotions.” In Sébastien Genvo (ed.), Le game design de jeux vidéo. Approches de l’expression vidéo-ludique, p. 347-366. Paris: Éditions l’Harmattan.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2005. “Abstract of Dynamic Range: When Game Design and Narratives Unite.” Conference proceedings for “DIGRA 2005” (Vancouver), Simon Fraser University. [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic. 2005. “Dark Waters: Spotlight on Immersion.” p.50-52. Conference proceedings for “Game On North America 2005” (Ghent), Eurosis-ETI.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P. Wolf (eds.). 2003. The Video Game Theory Reader. New York: Routledge.
Perron, Bernard, and Mark J.P. Wolf. 2003. “Introduction.” In Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf (ed.), The Video Game Theory Reader, p. 1-24. New York: Routledge.
Perron, Bernard. 2002. “Un regard ludique sur la ville. Se perdre dans le Los Angeles futuriste du jeu vidéo Blade Runner.” Cahier du Gerse : Montréal entre ville et cinéma. Du cinéma et des restes urbains prise 3, n° 4 (Winter), p. 39-52.
Sound and Music
Roux-Girard, Guillaume. 2014. “Sound and the Videoludic Experience.” In Bill Kapralos, Karen Collin and Holly Tessler (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio, p. 131-146. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Louis-Martin Guay. 2013. “RocKonférence sur la création et les hybridations historiques, esthétiques et culturelles entre heavy metal et jeu vidéo.” In Serge Cardinal (ed.). Conference proccedings for “La création sonore et l’OICRM (Observatoire Interdisciplinaire de Création et de Recherche en Musique)” (Montréal, March 15, 2013), Carrefour des arts et des sciences de l’Université de Montréal.
Arsenault, Dominic, and Louis-Martin Guay. 2012. “Thumb-Bangers: Exploring the Cultural Bond between Video Games and Heavy Metal.” In Andy R. Brown and Kevin Fellezs (eds.), Heavy Metal Generations, p.105-115. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Heavy metal and video games share an almost simultaneous birth, with Black Sabbath’s debut album in 1970 and Nolan Bushnell’s Computer Space in 1971. From Judas Priest’s “Freewheel Burning” music video in 1984 to Tim Schafer’s Brütal Legend in 2009, the exchanges between these two subcultures have been both reciprocal and exponential. This paper will present a historical survey of the bond between video games and heavy metal cultures through its highest-profile examples. There are two underlying reasons for this symbiosis: 1) the historical development and popular dissemination of the video game came at an opportune time, first with the video game arcades in the 1970s and early 1980s, and then with the Nintendo Entertainment System, whose technical sound-channel limitations happened to fall in line with the typical structures of heavy metal; 2) heavy metal and video games, along with their creators and consumers, have faced similar sociocultural paths and challenges, notably through the policies set in place by the PMRC and the ESRB, and a flurry of lawsuits and attacks, especially from United States congressmen, that resulted in an overlapping of their respective spaces outside dominant culture. These reasons explain the natural bond between these cultural practices, and the more recent developments like Last Chance to Reason’s Level 2 let us foresee a future where new hybrid creations could emerge.
Roux-Girard, Guillaume. 2012. “Sound.” In Mark J. P. Wolf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Video Games, p. 598-601. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press.
Roux-Girard, Guillaume. 2011. “Listening to Fear: A Study of Sound in Horror Computer Games.” In Mark Grimshaw (ed.), Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments, p. 192-212. Hershey: IGI Global.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2008. “Guitar Hero: Not Like Playing Guitar At All?.” Loading…Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, vol. 2, n° 2. [Online]
This paper studies the Guitar Hero video game as a simulation. This is done by examining the game controller and the visual interface, and how they work to accurately simulate the act of playing the guitar.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2008. “Paysages 8-Bit: musicalité et spatialité dans le jeu vidéo des années 1985-1990.” Inter, no 98 (Winter), p. 9-12.
Perron, Bernard. 2001. “The First Transi-Sounds of Parallel Editing.” In Richard Abel and Rick Altman (ed.), The Sounds of Early Cinema, p. 79-86. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Perron, Bernard. 2001. “Les transi-sons du cinéma des premiers temps.” In Cinema, Richard Abel and Rick Altman, The Sounds of Early, p. 289-294. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Digital Culture
Picard, Martin. 2006. “L’amour impossible entre le théâtre et le cinéma: érotisme et imaginaire du bunraku dans Dolls de Takeshi Kitano”. Coulisses, n° 33 (January), p. 237-251.
Perron, Bernard. 2004. “L’alternance du Médecin du château : scène/hors-scène.” In Michel Marie and Laurent Le Forestier (eds.), Firme Pathé Frères (1896-1914), p. 165-176. Paris: Association française de recherche sur l’histoire du cinéma.
Reviews, reports, articles, notes
Arsenault, Dominic. 2017. “Documentation, Periodization, Regionalization, and Marginalization : Four Challenges for Video Game Historiography.” First-Person Scholar, (November 29). [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic. 2015. “Shovel Knight Redug: The Retro Game as Hypertext and Uchronia.” First-Person Scholar, (November 16). [Online]
Arsenault, Dominic, and Audrey Larochelle. 2014. “Game Studies: From Colonization to Columbian Exchange.” First-Person Scholar, (June 18). [Online]
To rework the old spatial metaphor of game studies as a continent, we’re not facing hordes of imperialists coming from their lands and trying to stake out the New World. Rather, we have game studies researchers doing game studies on this new continent and participating in a great big Columbian exchange between fields of research, a bidirectional sharing that enlightens both worlds.
Maheux, Frédérick, Andréane Morin-Simard, Dominic Arsenault and Bernard Perron. 2014. “Les jeux vidéo au cœur de l’art, de la culture et de la société.” Variations : Objets et savoirs, no.1. Québec: Musées de la civilisation. [Online]
What effects do video games have on individuals? What changes are underway in the world of video games? What types of culture and society do video games create? These questions are answered in this first issue of the series. It includes research papers that informed the content of the exhibition A History of Video Games, presented at the Musée de la civilisation. These texts were written by Frédérick Maheux and Andréane Morin-Simard, with the collaboration of Dominic Arsenault and Bernard Perron from the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the University of Montreal, and the support of Pierrette Lafond, Aude Porcedda and Mathieu Viau-Courville, research fellows at the Musées de la civilisation.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2013. “Post-narratology: A case for object-oriented narrative game studies.” MediaCommons, (November 22). [Online]
Narratology cannot be envisioned as a viable or productive framework for studying every single game. However, it is a relevant analytical frame for a wide variety of game genres and analytic purposes. Game studies have for a long time required researchers to specialize in some theoretical approach, subject or topic. It’s now time for game scholars to embrace some form of specialization as to the objects they study as well.
Picard, Martin, and Dominic Arsenault. 2013. “Exposition ‘Une histoire de jeux vidéo’ au Musée de la Civilisation à Québec.” Kinephanos, (August 21). [Online]
With a focus on culture and aesthetics, the exhibition provides a compelling overview of more than 40 years of video game history, from 1972 (the release of PONG) to the present day, divided into seven sections. However, since the Musée de la civilisation has taken over the French exhibition, the consoles, games and paratexts all come from France. Many visitors will undoubtedly be presented with memories, but in an alternative version, as if they were being described through the eyes of another. This is undoubtedly the main criticism that can be levelled at this exhibition: the history of video games it presents is not quite our own.
Arsenault, Dominic. 2010. “De la bande passante à la bande son : le CODE ORGAN.” CIAC, n° 36. [Online]
C O D E O R G A N is a brand new Flash application, a curiosity that caused a stir on the web as soon as it was released on 19 February 2010. Fundamentally playful, Codeorgan can be ‘fed’ any valid web address; after analysis and according to an algorithm developed by its designers, it translates the site into music and allows the user to ‘listen’ to it. Although it fits into the general idea of computer music, Codeorgan brings a social and collective dimension to what was traditionally the domain of an artist. For while the authors of Codeorgan defined its rules, they established them based on the data available (the various web pages they consulted to test their application during development) in order to obtain certain sounds.