ABSTRACT
Shooting regimented rows of insurgent pixilated aliens, speeding through dark tunnels inside an alien planet in a super-charged spacecraft to rescue kidnapped scientists, amassing and deploying resources to do battle with House Harkonnen, banding together to wage tactical war on the alien enemy, tracking down replicants, using cool moves to dance aliens to death … One of the challenges for contemporary critical analysis is to understand the longstanding relationship between sf (themes, iconography, narratives) and digital games. This may be achieved by differentiating sf games in terms of genre, style, and narrative, and by exploring the potential gains and shortcomings of conceptualizing games in terms of the models used in the analysis of sf.
