File(s) under permanent embargo
All the animals are gone? The politics of contemporary hunter arcade games.
journal contribution
posted on 2010-03-26, 00:00 authored by Naarah Sawers, Kristin DemetriousKristin DemetriousRecent proliferation and popularity of personal computer and console games has meant that scholarship around video arcade games has been largely ignored. Arcade games had their halcyon days during the 1970s and 1980s when 'Space Invaders', 'Pong' and 'Donkey Kong' were household names. The inception of scholarship into games occurred in the 1990s; a time when arcade games were writ small in the cultural imagination, at least compared to the newer home computer and video games. Thus in games theory they are typically discussed only in terms of their role as antecedents to their more popular kin. Moreover, they seem innocuous because they are so publicly accessible. Against this assumption, and lack of scholarship, this paper explores a selection of contemporary arcade games which we describe as 'hunting' games. Arcade hunting games are first-person shooter (FPS) involving one or more players shooting simulated wild animals. They are commonly situated in cinema foyers, hotels, and family entertainment centres. However, despite a presumption of institutional moderation afforded by the public accessibility of these spaces, this paper argues that this genre works through a range of political modalities that require more scholarly consideration than currently given.
History
Journal
Continuum : journal of media and cultural studiesVolume
24Issue
2Pagination
241 - 250Publisher
RoutledgeLocation
Melbourne, Vic.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1030-4312eISSN
1469-3666Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2010, Taylor & FrancisUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC