For a Pragmatic Study of the Generic Categorization of Video Games: The Case of Survival Horror

The study of video game genres has been largely inspired by theories from other media, notably literature and film. In doing so, it has also taken up the aporias of these other theories, the question of genres never having found truly satisfactory answers. I will focus here on the case of survival horror in order to explore three types of generic theory (formalist, emotional and semio-pragmatic) and to expose their strengths, their weaknesses, in particular by pointing out the relative artificiality of certain approaches. Then, on the basis of the comments made, I will set out the criteria that should be considered as part of a generic classification close to the actual use of gamers, who remain the main people interested in the use of genres. However, the exact methodology for taking such criteria into account has yet to be defined.