Genre, like any sort of cultural artifact, is deciding in conversation. It is a combination of the meaning placed by the producers, the details of the thing, and the meaning placed by the receivers. This is also heavily dependant on the cultural context that the thing is produced in and received in. (What is horror in 1840 might be a classic in 2011).
A producer may aim to create a horror game.
A receiver may receive the game as a comedy.
What happened? Well, this is when investigation of details and context has to come in. Was the producer incompetent in their understanding of the cultural codes for the context he or she was producing in--so basically no one receives the game as a horror game? Or was the producer expert at manipulating the codes, but this particular receiver is idiosyncratic? No particular person has ultimate authority, but when I do cultural analysis, I tend to look to see where critical mass is. I see where the disagreements are and what they are over. So if almost everyone thinks the game is horror, and a few people think it is a thriller...there is probably not too much interesting to look into. If half the population think the game is horror, and half think it is the first romantic comedy video game...then something really interesting is happening. Now, when I go to investigate the game, it isn't so interesting what the "right" answer is (because there really isn't one)--but it is interesting to understand where the sides are coming from, why the argue the way they do, what is at stake, and what that means for the video games industry, for the genre boundaries, and for the fans and producers of those genres.
That said, it is also important to note that the horror genre tends to have two subgenres: survival horror (which tends to try to go for "scary"--though it may not be successful at it)...and those horror games where you shoot up lots of zombies...which are classified as horror games by the games industry...but don't tend to go for scary...more...Killing zombies is awesome!! But that is about the peculiarities of the games industry genre titling practices.
But to answer the OT. The Shalebridge Cradle level of Thief: Deadly Shadows was really scary to me! Awesome sound design!
A producer may aim to create a horror game.
A receiver may receive the game as a comedy.
What happened? Well, this is when investigation of details and context has to come in. Was the producer incompetent in their understanding of the cultural codes for the context he or she was producing in--so basically no one receives the game as a horror game? Or was the producer expert at manipulating the codes, but this particular receiver is idiosyncratic? No particular person has ultimate authority, but when I do cultural analysis, I tend to look to see where critical mass is. I see where the disagreements are and what they are over. So if almost everyone thinks the game is horror, and a few people think it is a thriller...there is probably not too much interesting to look into. If half the population think the game is horror, and half think it is the first romantic comedy video game...then something really interesting is happening. Now, when I go to investigate the game, it isn't so interesting what the "right" answer is (because there really isn't one)--but it is interesting to understand where the sides are coming from, why the argue the way they do, what is at stake, and what that means for the video games industry, for the genre boundaries, and for the fans and producers of those genres.
That said, it is also important to note that the horror genre tends to have two subgenres: survival horror (which tends to try to go for "scary"--though it may not be successful at it)...and those horror games where you shoot up lots of zombies...which are classified as horror games by the games industry...but don't tend to go for scary...more...Killing zombies is awesome!! But that is about the peculiarities of the games industry genre titling practices.
But to answer the OT. The Shalebridge Cradle level of Thief: Deadly Shadows was really scary to me! Awesome sound design!
