• Endless Nineties: the perennial aesthetic of 'grimdark' games

    Author(s):
    Jon Garrad (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Subject(s):
    Computer games--Design, Arts, Gothic, Video games
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    Gothic Styles, Gothic Substance
    Conf. Org.:
    Manchester Metropolitan University
    Conf. Loc.:
    Manchester
    Conf. Date:
    28 October 2017
    Tag(s):
    games, tabletop games, Game design, Gothic
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6RN75
    Abstract:
    The early 1990s saw a kind of crystallisation in gaming aesthetics, centred on games that either squinted towards Gothic or outright claimed a place in the culture and tradition: Warhammer 40,000 and Vampire: the Masquerade on the tabletop, Alone in the Dark and Wolfenstein on the PC. These games are genre-defining, persistent, and - to varying degrees - pretty damn Gothic. They’ve lasted for twenty, twenty-five years, and have carried their core aesthetic projects into the twenty-first century. Why? What is it about the Nineties ‘grimdark’ aesthetic that makes it last so long? To answer that question I look at each of these titles and establish its core 'negative aesthetic', establishing how Gothic shaped gameplay during the early 1990s and beyond. I approach each in terms of aesthetic theory, following in the footsteps of Graeme Kirkpatrick by establishing literally how the games make us feel, and go on to collectively place them in the context of a recurring fin-de-siecle cultural moment which has previously seen the flowering of the Gothic novel and Decadent art/writing.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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