PRESS PLAY WHILE YOU SCROLL IF YOU DARE
10AM-6PM June 4-5 1988
Terrordale Community and Convention Centre
FIGHT ZOMBIES, KILL ALIENS, DEFEAT POLTERGEISTS + MORE
ONE WEEKEND ONLY!
OVER 200+ GAMING SYSTEMS WITH 1000S OF GAMES ON SALE AND AVAILABLE TO PLAY
AN UNMISSABLE EVENT!
COMPETITIONS, WORKSHOPS, AND SPEECHES BY THE GAMING WORLD'S BIGGEST NAMES
BRING YOUR FRIENDS FOR SOME ENDLESS FUN!
AGES 12 AND UP
(UNDER 18S MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT)
HORROR GAME CON
WHAT IS HORROR ?
Horror is a popular genre which involve the supernatural, violence, and fear-inducing narratives and topics. Tension is a key theme in horror, where there is a "struggle for life" between humankind and monsters (Wells, 2019). Common aspects include creatures, hauntings, gore, and issues originating from folktales, religions, and myths.
FILM vs GAMING
Like any media, horror gaming is a convergence from a history of horror film and literature. Therefore, the gameplay is inspired by common characters, topics, and skills seen within these previous media (Habel & Kooyman, 2013). There are many differences between horror film and games, including the interaction with and world-building of the media. While horror films typically provide one finished narrative through one perspective, games offer the player the ability to make their own choices and experiment with skills and identities. Therefore, the player's experiences are heightened (Habel & Kooyman, 2013) when playing a game due to the option of choosing one's own story.
FIRST HORROR GAME
The 1980s is perhaps known to be one of the most influential and booming times for video games, particularly in the horror genre for general audiences. Perhaps the first survival horror game was called 'Haunted House',launched in 1982 and was released for the Atari 2600 which required puzzle-solving (Mediawiki, n.d.). The story centred around a character, presented as a pair of eyes in the dark, aiming to escape the haunted mansion of Zachery Graves by collecting pieces of an urn, "avoiding tarantulas, bats, and the ghost of Zachery Graves himself" (Garcia, 2012, para. 6). It belonged to the category of "survival horror" (Mediawiki, n.d.) which was known for the main character's vulnerability and action needed to defeat creatures in order to survive.
It was one of the first of its kind to display multiple rooms and "scrolling graphics" which would see itself become a main feature in 1990s video games (Garcia, 2012, para. 6). In its official release, it was received negatively by critics, however, it's known to have been a foundation for most horror games since.
RELATIONSHIP TO REAL LIFE
There has been a conversation around the idea that the increase in horror games and violent themes in media has lead to a community numb to violence, otherwise known as a lack of 'moral panic' (McRobbie & Thornton, 1995). Media plays a large role in the formation of ideas and values in a society, controlling what is considered right and wrong (McRobbie & Thornton, 1995, p. 561), therefore there is a concern that the people who govern these should reconsider the level in which content is deemed dangerous.
There has been a history of blaming real life violence on the violent themes within horror games. The ongoing argument if video games do or don't affect real life violence began due to the high number of homicides in the U.S. by young shooters and the viewed target demographic of video games being the youth (Ferguson, 2014, para. 1). Amid many other reasons, escapism is common among game players; escaping from the duties of real life to fulfil repressed desires. As games become more and more realistic in mimicking aspects of reality, there is not enough evidence to prove a correlation between video game violence and real life violence.
