Girina, Ivan (2015) Cinematic games : the aesthetic influence of cinema on video games. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview

PDF WRAP_Theses_Girina_2015.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (287Mb) | Preview

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

During its first decade, Game Studies debate mainly revolved around the juxtaposition between two perspectives: the one of ludology and the one of narratology, each positing a primary quality of video games against the other. The study of the relationship between cinema and video games got somehow caught in the crossfire between these two fields. In this work, I investigate the extent to which representation in video games is connected to cinema and its representational codes. A number of authors before challenged this assumption, theorising models that only partially connect the cinematic form to video games. Such investigations have always started from the ludologically educated assumption that video games are different from cinema and, therefore, for the premises of this comparison to be considered “vitiated”, only tangentially useful due to the irreconcilably different nature of the two media. The adjective “cinematic” is a concept constantly evoked in cultural discourses concerning video games. Magazines, reviewers, critics, but also designers, artists, users and commentators (even scholars) often summon the idea of cinematic games in the attempt of describing some peculiar features that share affinities with films and suggesting that video games possess the aura of the big screen. Cinematic games are born at the crossroads between interactive movies and video games, for which the cinematic expression is retained by means of audiovisual representation while keeping the action in the hands of the player. Due to the vast scale of the subject, my work focuses on relatively recent developments in game design which have yet to be fully investigated, and seeks to extend existing attempts to apply the tools of film theory to Game Studies. A secondary value of this work is an annotation on the disengagement of moving image scholars with video games, and it partly serves as an invocation for this to change.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Video games
Official Date:	March 2015
Dates:	Date Event March 2015 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Film and Television Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Salvestroni, Simonetta
Extent:	361 leaves : illustrations (colour)
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads