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Survival Horror: The Perfect Video Game Genre for a Study of Gender
December 5, 2012 at 1:00 PM
| Location: | 303 Paterson Hall |
In this talk, noted cinema and video game studies scholar <b>Bernard Perron</b> will examine survival horror video games as a surprisingly rich and complex site for the study of gender. At first blush, the hypersexualized heroines and militarized, ultra-macho heroes that tend to populate the survival horror genre seem to do little other than reaffirm problematic stereotypes, as do the game design choices that underpin this dichotomy and structure player experience. However, as Dr. Perron will demonstrate, through survival and event flight, the horror game genre ultimately narrows the gap between the sexes, aligning players with empowered, active characters that subvert traditional expectations. In so doing, Dr. Perron acknowledges the indebtedness of survival horror games to their cinematic counterparts, at the same time as he considers their uniqueness as games.