- Author
- Simon Dor, Université de Montréal
- Published
- Undated
- Kind
- Academic journal article in game studies, using 1990s magazine reviews
- Original
- www.kinephanos.ca/2014/real-time-strategy/
- Subject
- Games and game design
- Themes
- How forms evolve
What it is
Simon Dor is at the Université de Montréal. The article draws on Michel Foucault's idea of discourse. It asks how real-time strategy became a genre and how common strategies emerged. The method comes first, and the full history is left for later.
What it says
- Dor, citing Lowood, says game history concerns an activity, not objects.
- Dor defines an actional statement as commentary that describes an action or series of actions.
- Dor contrasts decryption play, learning designed patterns, with prediction play, anticipating opponents.
- Dor says Dune II guides advise scouting and restarting, tactics useless in multiplayer.
- Dor says none of 21 Dune II reviews, 1992 to 1994, used the genre term.
- Dor says most reviewers did not see Dune II as a breakthrough.
- Dor concludes the genre formed slowly. Modem Wars may matter as much as Dune II.
What evidence it gives
The article reads magazine reviews, strategy guides and walkthroughs of Dune II, mostly from 1993. It adds a 1996 Warcraft II review and a 1997 article. It counts 21 reviews. It gives no player data and no experiments. The Foucault framework is argued, not tested.
Interests and limits
Dor presents the piece as a methods proposal. The full project is called too ambitious for one article. Most evidence concerns one game, Dune II, and its reviews. The page text carries no publication date.