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Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity - Couverture rigide

Livre 15 sur 21: Playful Thinking

Svelch, Jaroslav

 
9780262047753: Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0262047756 ISBN 13 : 9780262047753
Editeur : The MIT Press, 2023

Synopsis

An ode to the gruesome game characters we love to beat—from the monsters of D&D to the mutants of The Last of Us—and what they tell us about ourselves.

Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture’s conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Monster explores the past half-century of monsters in games, from the dragons of early tabletop role-playing games and the pixelated aliens of Space Invaders to the malformed mutants of The Last of Us and the bizarre beasts of Bloodborne, and reveals the common threads among them.

Covering examples from aliens to zombies, Jaroslav Švelch explores the art of monster design and traces its influences from mythology, visual arts, popular culture, and tabletop role-playing games. At the same time, he shows that video games follow the Cold War–era notion of clearly defined, calculable enemies, portraying monsters as figures that are irredeemably evil yet invariably vulnerable to defeat. He explains the appeal of such simplistic video game monsters, but also explores how the medium could evolve to present more nuanced depictions of monstrosity.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Jaroslav Švelch is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Charles University in Prague. His monograph Gaming the Iron Curtain (MIT Press, 2018) explores the do-it-yourself computer game culture of Communist-era Czechoslovakia.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
The MIT Press
Date d'édition
2023
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0262047756
ISBN 13 
9780262047753
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
240
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
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