Horror and humour are two very subjective…feelings? Responses? Experiences? I’m really not sure. So, grapple along with me awhile as we delve into the subject in as awkward a way possible.

Waldron, Chris. “How Lone Survivor gets Horror Right” (Nightmare Mode: July 17, 2012) <http://nightmaremode.net/2012/07/how-lone-survivor-gets-horror-right-21313/>.

A big part of Lone Survivor is the rapidly deteriorating mental state of your player character. Subtle hints appear that offer nods to your protagonist’s level of sanity. You have the option to merrily chat away with a stuffed cat and shoot the breeze with a potted plant, with various other choices that can help or hinder your descent into madness.

It’s the psychology of the character, as well as ties to the real world, that make Lone Survivor work.

Hall, Charlie. “Paging Dr. Wasteland: One man’s crusade to heal DayZ’s zombie victims” (Ars Technica: July 18, 2012) <http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/the-healing-touch-dr-wasteland-brings-hope-to-day-zs-grim-world/>.

DayZ is great survival horror because it puts the emphasis on survival while showcasing traditional horror elements (read: zombies). Its broad world allows players to tell their own stories.

Indeed, these stories are often predicated on destroying one’s fellow man. It’s a dog eat dog world. But there are good guys. This is the tale of Dr. Wasteland:

Dr. Wasteland takes the harder path. He is one of the very few people playing the game who is actually here to save his fellow players.

He’s become a folk hero or sorts.

Sterling, Jim. “Lollipop Chainsaw’s James Gunn talks sexiness and sexism” (Destructoid: July 18, 2012) <http://www.destructoid.com/lollipop-chainsaw-s-james-gunn-talks-sexiness-and-sexism-231523.phtml>.

Lollipop Chainsaw isn’t horror, per se, but it has zombies and constant horror references; it relates to cinematic horror in a way comparable to No More Heroes and videogames. Cinematic horror has been traditionally sexist, and some consider Lollipop Chainsaw to be more of the same…so here’s some interesting commentary:

“Nick is objectified by Juliet — he’s literally turned into an accessory, a commodity, and his humanity is denied. Nick is not only emasculated, he is SUPER emasculated…But within this emasculation, Nick has to find some worth other than being the strong one. He needs to find strength through trust. And Juliet needs to learn how to let go of control. So, yes, that is definitely gender role reversal.

Campbell, Brian. “Trail of Fears” (The Escapist: Aprill 30, 2012) <http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9576-Trail-of-Fears>.

Many think Resident Evil when they think about “survival horror”. For Brian Campbell, it’s an old educational game that comes to mind. The Oregon Trail is horror done right because it focuses on two components—not one, like many horror games do—according to Campbell:

[B]ut really the game just skips the more convenient and obvious “bad guys” in favor of two of mankind’s oldest and deadliest foes: Scarcity and Entropy.

These two forces drive all of our most basic impulses. Eventually, everything runs out and everything breaks - including us. Scarcity and Entropy are the world’s timekeepers, and survival is our (ultimately losing) battle to cram just a bit more sand in the hourglass.

Alas, time runs out. Perhaps it’s time to go out with the old and in with the new…

Krupa, Daniel. “Why Horror Games Aren’t Dead And Buried” (IGN: July 18, 2012) <http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/07/18/why-horror-games-arent-dead-and-buried>.

Slender shares a lot with Halloween. It has the same disturbing elegance. Every playthrough starts off in the same way. You switch on a torch in the middle of a forest in the dead of night, and you’re instructed to collect 8 pages of a scattered manuscript…Once you collect your first page, a sinister thumping begins that never stops. It throbs ominously. Something out in the darkness has been alerted to your presence. You’re being watched. And followed.

The Slender Man, like Myers, can’t be reasoned with. And the game’s controls are so limited you can’t plead or even attack. You can only run, terrified, through the darkness.

A collection of horror stories for your amusement. I feel like the Cryptkeeper.

There’s been lots of talk about misogyny in gaming going on right now. It’s a good conversation, but it comes in cycles. So much is retread each and every time. So, here I am, hoping to pull some of the best commentary together so we can, y’know, not totally restart this in three months.

Here’s Jonathan Grey Carter reporting on a recent trigger of this conversation: “Kickstarter Video Project Attracts Misogynist Horde”.

Carolyn Petit, of GameSpot, interviewed the creator of the KickStarter before the harassment really got going. It raises fascinating points, some of which will effectively be reiterated below.

Then there’s Foz Meadows who talks about rape culture in gaming:

Right from the offset, people are confused about how it can apply to digital environments in comparable ways. Because for both sports clubs and fraternities, rape is a significant problem; it is an actual, physical consequence that happens in the actual, physical environments associated with their cultures… But when the term is applied to something like gaming, there instantly seems to be a disconnect between the accusation and the reality, because barring conventions, tournaments etc, gaming lacks the physical spaces in which rape can actually take place.

Anjin Anhut notes 14 common arguments for misogyny, and then tears them limb from limb:

There is nothing intrinsic about the medium itself, that makes it misogynistic. The culture is like that because people make it so. Because companies market to male audiences and male gamers behave like they own the place. For decades.

And finally, Kaitlin Tremblay provides an “Intro to Gender Criticism for Gamers”, saying:

The point here is that we need to make this theory of spectatorship obsolete: there has to be a way for gamer girls to identify with video games without being either the sex -kitten or aligned with masculinity.

There you have it…a hearty collection of writing on the topic.

The Escapist’s Nadia Oxford examines the difficulties associated with typesetting in video games. The industry is basically going through growing pains, by Oxford’s account.

Graphic designer Joel Dersken likens the video game industry to going through a “teenager phase” of sorts, in which it isn’t quite sure what it wants. More frustratingly, though, Oxford notes that good typesetting doesn’t “[require] a great investment of resources”.

Check out the rest of the article for more scintillating talk of text and fonts. And Skyrim!

(Source: escapistmagazine.com)