Infinite Lives Canonvorming Bij Videogames
Infinite Lives Canonvorming bij videogames Bjorn Schrijen (S4134281) Masterscriptie Letterkunde Onder begeleiding van prof. dr. Jos Joosten en dr. Martijn Stevens 2015 Abstract As with most other forms of culture, an implicit canon exists for video games. Though most players and video game scholars will have a general idea about which titles constitute this canon, there has been no academic research yet about the exact contents of it, or – more importantly – about the processes that lead to canonization. This knowledge could however be very interesting, as it would not only give insight in the way the game industry works, but possibly also in processes of canon formation for other media. This thesis therefore tries to gain insight in the way an implicit video game canon is formed. In order to do this, the game industry is observed from a theoretical framework based on the works of Pierre Bourdieu. Canonical games are defined as games that retain a high amount of both symbolic and economic capital over a long time, and the different parties within the game industry are seen as actors that can allocate these forms of capital to specific games. By systematically studying the different actors and existing writings about them, several hypotheses are drawn about the influence of each actor on canonization. These hypotheses are then tested using a dataset containing 77 games that can be considered canonical. This set was created by combining ten very diverse lists with the best 100 games ever made. As most of these lists are already the result of multiple people’s votes, and only the games are selected that appear in a majority of the lists, this dataset gives a fairly good impression of the implicit game canon.
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