Ka as shomin-geki: Problematizing videogame studies

The paper addresses limitations of strictly interactive theories of videogame genre, proposes a supplementary, historicist inter-media alternative, and interprets the videogame Ka as a ludic worked based in the shomin-geki tradition of Japanese cinema. Keywords Japanese cultural history, videogame genre theory, shomin-geki, domesticity, intertextuality Rather than looking at videogames in general, this paper examines one game in particular as a cultural artifact: Ka, produced in Japan in 2001, and later released in the US and Europe as Mister Mosquito. By bringing a historicist sensibility to the study of individual games in the aftermath of the initial ludology/narratology formalist discussions, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a way to access videogames as texts in ways that recognize their inherent, media-specific structure as videogames, yet also explore their inevitable intertextualities. To begin with, I look at some general aspects of genre theory as they affect the ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: DIGRA
• Authors: William Huber
• Keywords: DIGRA 2003, Genre Theory, Videogame Genre, Videogame Genre Theory