This study focuses on video game developers and their working environments in a growth industry. While some research documents the culture of video games and the people who play them, much less is understood about the labor environment for those who make games. I conducted 20 personal interviews with game developers in order to learn more about what inspired them to select this field, how they gained entry to it, and what their work is like today. Using insights from the interviews, I analyze how workers contend with its male-dominated culture and how creative skilled laborers deal with the challenges of corporate control and precarious work in the new economy.

Video game adaptations of the classical world are becoming increasingly intricate, and the study of video games as artifacts of classical reception and adaptation is likewise becoming increasingly important for the field of historiography. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, set during the Peloponnesian War, recreates, among other aspects of the Greek world of the period, the political setting of Periklean Athens. This thesis examines instances of Athenian political representation within the game which depart from the typical image of Athens' politics as informed by primary source accounts, knowledge of sociocultural practices, and archaeological finds. It argues that the game depicts the Athenian democracy as a republic with a strong aristocratic element rather than as a direct, participatory democracy. The paper recalls the tradition of reception and adaptation of democracy in political thought and examines some of the resulting attitudes towards democracy. It suggests that the game's depiction of democracy as an oligarchic republic is a result of the developers' passive adoption and repetition of popular theories regarding the form and function of democracy, past and present. Players' likelihood of adopting and perpetuating a misshapen image of democracy is briefly discussed. The conclusion considers the potential for video games to influence players' perceptions of political systems and participation in them and, in light of that capacity, advocates for closer scrutiny of adaptations of the classical world which engage in political representation. It also ponders the possibility of novel interpretations of democracy as the next step in the tradition of democracy's reception and adaptation.

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Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio‐visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Cette recherche propose une analyse du jeu de stratégie en temps réel StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998). Il s’agit de questionner le concept de stratégie dans le jeu sans s’en tenir à ce qu’on peut voir et entendre. Ce mémoire débute sur une description du jeu en détails afin de faire ressortir comment la stratégie joue un rôle dans l’ensemble des compétences qui y sont mobilisées. Ensuite, le cercle heuristique du processus stratégique offre une modélisation du fonctionnement de la stratégie en tant que processus cognitif, basé sur les états du jeu inférés chez le joueur et sur ses plans stratégiques. Ce modèle et les concepts qui en découlent sont consolidés par des analyses de parties spécifiques de StarCraft. / This thesis offers an analysis of the Real-Time Strategy game StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998). Its goal is to explore beyond the visible and audible part of the game to elucidate the concept of strategy into play. Following a description of the game and its constraints, it demonstrates how strategy plays a major role within the skills needed to play. Then, our “heuristic circle of the strategic process” describes how strategy works as a cognitive process, and how it interacts with both the game states inferred by the player and his or her strategic plans. Finally, this model and its underlying concepts are supported by close analyses of StarCraft game sequences.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de certains documents visuels et audio‐visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée à la Division de la gestion des documents et des archives. / Cette recherche propose une analyse de la figure de la ruine post-apocalyptique dans le jeu vidéo. Il s’agit de questionner les effets de cette figure sur la construction d’une mémoire du lieu vidéoludique exploré, ainsi que ceux sur la formation d’émotions. Ce mémoire débute par une mise en contexte et la définition des différents concepts de base que nous utiliserons, tels la ruine, les utopies et l’apocalypse. Ensuite, nous procédons à une analyse de la formation d’une mémoire d’un lieu vidéoludique et des effets des ruines post-apocalyptiques représentées sur ce processus, le tout appuyé par une étude de notre corpus : Bastion, Journey et Fallout 3. Finalement, nous faisons le même cheminement afin d’analyser la formation d’émotions en réaction aux différents éléments de design qui forment les ruines post-apocalyptiques dans les jeux observés. / This research proposes an analysis of post-apocalyptic ruins in video games. We will question the effects of this figure on the creation of a memory based on the explored space and on the formation of emotions. This thesis will begin by establishing the context of our definitions and the different concepts we will be using throughout, such as ruins, utopias and the apocalypse. We will then analyse the creation of a memory based on a videogame space and the effects of the represented post-apocalyptic ruins on the process, all of this backed up by a study of our corpus: Bastion, Journey and Fallout 3. In the last part, we will do a similar work to analyse the formation of emotions in reaction to the different design elements that constitute the observed games.

Cette recherche propose une analyse du jeu de stratégie en temps réel StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998). Il s’agit de questionner le concept de stratégie dans le jeu sans s’en tenir à ce qu’on peut voir et entendre. Ce mémoire débute sur une description du jeu en détails afin de faire ressortir comment la stratégie joue un rôle dans l’ensemble des compétences qui y sont mobilisées. Ensuite, le cercle heuristique du processus stratégique offre une modélisation du fonctionnement de la stratégie en tant que processus cognitif, basé sur les états du jeu inférés chez le joueur et sur ses plans stratégiques. Ce modèle et les concepts qui en découlent sont consolidés par des analyses de parties spécifiques de StarCraft. / This thesis offers an analysis of the Real-Time Strategy game StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998). Its goal is to explore beyond the visible and audible part of the game to elucidate the concept of strategy into play. Following a description of the game and its constraints, it demonstrates how strategy plays a major role within the skills needed to play. Then, our “heuristic circle of the strategic process” describes how strategy works as a cognitive process, and how it interacts with both the game states inferred by the player and his or her strategic plans. Finally, this model and its underlying concepts are supported by close analyses of StarCraft game sequences. / Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio‐visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

A concept of underworld runs through many cultures. These realms of spirits and the dead generally share several key characteristics, despite their varied and separate traditions. The commonalities among these different mythological places make it possible to generalize certain characteristics as chthonic for descriptive and analytical purposes. The underworld has appeared widely in video games throughout their history. I argue that the remarkable prevalence reflects a formal relationship between the underworld and video games; specific elements in mythic underworlds comprise a chthonic poetics that resonates with video game worlds and affordances. Video games uniquely support the spatial, thematic, and narrative elements that characterize underworlds and the philosophical questions they engage. Embodiment binds these elements together; they are unintelligible without this core perspective. The body sits at the axis of experience in mythic underworlds like the one described by Dante in the Divine Comedy and in game worlds like the one in World of Warcraft. It provides the medium through which we can experience these simulations as worlds rather than mere information structures. Other formal elements give context and direction to that embodied experience, and exploring how these interact with embodiment can expand our understanding of chthonic embodiment and the experience of space in virtual worlds. Three primary forces acting on the agency, subjectivity and control of the body structure that experience, which in turn reflects the ways of being that emerge from chthonic contexts. By incorporating these forces into their gameplay and narrative structure, games provide more direct access to the mythic power associated with the underworld than previous media forms.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels. / Cette recherche propose d’identifier comment les jeux vidéo narratifs peuvent susciter l’émoi de leurs joueurs en empruntant des moyens qui sont propres à leurs potentiels d’expression. Ainsi, en se positionnant à la suite des travaux de Bernard Perron, il s’agit d’étudier comment, à travers le contrôle et le gameplay, les émotions vidéoludiques viennent trouver leur place aux côtés des émotions fictionnelles et artistiques pour former une expérience que le joueur pourra appréhender avec sa sensibilité d’agent, et non seulement à travers l’histoire pré-scriptée par les développeurs. Pour ce faire, divers jeux sont analysés: Heavy Rain, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, The Walking Dead, Life is Strange et Papo & Yo. En prolongement des travaux de Roger Odin, ce mémoire offre une ouverture vers un nouveau type de mise en phase : la mise en phase émotionnelle. / This master’s thesis analyzes how story-driven video games can trigger players’ emotions in their own way. Following Bernard Perron’s research on emotion in video games, our purpose is to explore how, through player control and gameplay, gameplay emotions find their place along fictional and artifact emotions. We will observe how all these contribute to an experience for the player to understand through his sensibility and agency, and not exclusively through the high-level story written by the game developers. To this end, a range of videogames are analyzed: Heavy Rain, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, The Walking Dead, Life is Strange and Papo & Yo. Prolonging Roger Odin’s work, the thesis opens up a new type of attunement: emotional attunement.

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