Introduction

Rise(s) and Fall(s) of Video Game Genres

Abstract

Since video games have come to acquire the status of major cultural objects, their structuration and categorization become an important challenge for their studies. The tenth art thus follows its predecessors in the constitution of strong analytical canvases allowing for the mapping of a vast production. It was notably the case of literature, from which we can mention The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (Todorov 1970), Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes (Fowle, 1982), Théorie des genres (Genette & al. 1986) or Qu’est-ce qu’un genre littéraire ? (Schaeffer 1989). The analysis of genres is also well developed in film studies with major works such as Theories of Film (Tudor 1979), Film/Genre (Altman 1999), Genre and Hollywood (Neale 2000) or Cinema Genre (Moine [2002] 2008).