On October 2nd, GI members Pamela Maria Schmidt (Interdisciplinary Research and Communications Manager) and Sid Heeg (PhD Candidate in Sustainability Management) presented at the Beyond Play 2024 Conference in Bremen, Germany. The conference was organized by the University of Bremen’s Centre for Media, Communication, and Information Research (ZeMKI), and brought together a global audience of games scholars to discuss ongoing research interests that expand “beyond play” and the transformative power of digital gaming in a deeply mediatized society.
Schmidt and Heeg presented “Horror as a Medium: An Examination of Environmental Horror in Video Games” as part of the “Epistemic Games” panel. The presentation featured work from their upcoming chapter in Epistemic Genres: New Formations in Digital Game Genres which is edited by Drs. Gerald Voorhees, Joshua Call, Matthew Wysocki, and Betsy Brey along with a second volume titled Emerging Genres: New Formations in Games - Approaches to Digital Games Studies. Their presentation focused on their criticisms of the horror genre within gaming, and how our understanding of horror should pivot to viewing it more as a medium (a mode of communication) rather confining it to tropes and stereotypes. This involved a discussion around the horror elements on non-horror games through case studies of Far Cry 6 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The panel was organized by Dr. Mark Nunes and featured fellow collaborators PhD Candidate Alex Hurezeanu and Dr. Kyle Moody. The presenters are all featured in two upcoming collections, which are geared to be released in November 2025.
Left to right: Sid Heeg, Dr. Mark Nunes, Alex Hurezeanu, and Pamela Maria Schmidt