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A Contemporary Take on Victorian Lunacy: Representations of the Asylum in the Neo-Victorian Video Game Alice: Madness Returns
by Jéssica Iolanda Costa Bispo Published November 2025 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract The asylum, like the workhouse, the prison, the hospital, or the boarding school, was an institution of crucial importance in Victorian England. Initially conceived to support people afflicted by mental illness—promoting outdoor activities, work-based therapies, and physical exercise—these spaces soon Continue reading
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Character Affectivity in Newton and the Apple Tree
by Henri M. Nerg Published February 2024 Download full article PDF here. Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze and explain character affectivity through a case study of a Japanese visual novel, Newton and the Apple Tree (Laplacian, 2017). The paper analyzes different affects and emotions the game’s characters are coded to evoke Continue reading
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The Wounds That Never Healed: Videoludic Trauma in Cry of Fear
by Samuel Poirier-Poulin Published September 2023 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract This article offers a conceptualization of trauma in horror video games, and in Cry of Fear (Team Psykskallar, 2013) in particular. It argues that video games can cut across the reality/fiction divide, deeply affect the emotional organization of the player, and leave Continue reading
The Journal of Games Criticism is a non-profit, peer-reviewed game studies journal that strives to connect the conversations between traditional academics and popular game critics. The journal strives to be a producer of feed-forward approaches to video games criticism with a focus on influencing gamer culture, the design and writing of video games, and the social understanding video games and video game criticism.
ISSN: 2374-202X
Recent Articles
- A Contemporary Take on Victorian Lunacy: Representations of the Asylum in the Neo-Victorian Video Game Alice: Madness Returns
- Investigating Development Crunch in Games and its Impact on Creative Expression
- Character Affectivity in Newton and the Apple Tree
- Colonized Morality Mechanics: The Struggle to Be Good in Telltale’s The Walking Dead
- Videogame Distribution and Steam’s Imperialist Practices: Platform Coloniality in Game Distribution
Journal of Games Criticism 