Summary of Trevor Strunk's Ph.D Story Mode

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Trevor Strunk's Ph.D Story Mode in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Once considered niche, fringe, and the hobby of only outsiders or loners, video games have rapidly become one of the most popular and influential artistic forms of this century. Their imagery is near ubiquitous—children, adults, and even professional athletes know what a Fortnite dance is without having played the game, and every conversation about violence in media eventually turns toward Grand Theft Auto. We’ve reached a point where, through streaming platforms like Twitch, games don’t even need to be played to be enjoyed, as whole robust communities form around watching others play. Games have grown into more than just products; they’re touchstones, meaning that they’ve become popular enough for something radical to have happened: even while culture shapes our games, games have simultaneously begun shaping our culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638158059

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Trevor Strunk's Story Mode

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

What elements of horror games make them so scary to us. What makes them so relatable and affecting. These are all important questions to ask, and understanding them can help explain why certain games become such a big deal among certain groups of people.

#2

The 1980s were full of slasher films, which were typically about a killer chasing and killing teenagers. Many have argued that these films can be interpreted as metaphors for sexual conservatism.

#3

The horror genre is meant to scare its audience. It reflects the fears of the times, and is meant to be relatable.

#4

The horror genre in games reflects the fears of its player base, and those fears change as the games themselves change. It's a pure expression of the sort of creator-audience feedback loop we see more and more of in this medium.

#5

Survival horror, which made its debut in the early 1980s, added a new layer of fear to video games by making the player feel as though they were actually in danger.

#6

The real test of expression in these games isn’t when the player is experiencing them, but when the player looks back on them years later and compares them to their original impressions of the game.

#7

The feeling of being alone in a dark, unfamiliar place is a powerful source of horror, and video games are able to