Understanding Genre as Atmospheric Assemblage: The Case of Videogames

Abstract

This article advances an affect-based theorization of genre as atmospheric assemblage by applying such a framework to an analysis of videogame genre. The affective excess originating from the relations between the components of the assemblage is experienced by the player as a specific type of thinking-moving-feeling understood as a wholistic atmosphere. By looking at the cases of the soulsborne, rouguelike, and metroidvania genres, the article explains how an assemblage framework is useful to explain how players experience individual videogames as belonging to the same genre despite noticeable differences between them. On the other hand, a final example, that of the puzzle game, illustrates how minimal changes to the articulation of an assemblage enables quite different experiences for the players that may result in the establishment of a different genre. This article suggests that the atmospheric assemblage framework could be applied to other media forms, such as television and film.