“Now, I no longer say that I will play, I say that I will study! “Claudine Douville can thus, for a year, “justify” herself to her husband when she goes to settle in her PS5.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
It is that the descriptor of the Sports Network (RDS) began, in January 2021, a minor in video game studies at the University of Montreal.
By learning the thing, one wonders in the first place if the will comes here from RDS, which has already broadcast video game competitions on its platforms. Would the channel be tempted to embark further on this adventure by offering training to the voices of its network?
This is not the case, assures us Claudine Douville. The idea is well and truly his own.
“I’m not even doing this for the diploma,” she says on the phone. I’m really doing this out of personal interest.
“Now that they know [que je suis passionnée de jeux vidéo], maybe I can become an option. But honestly, I didn’t do it for that purpose. »
The sports journalist, who has been working since 1980, has worked for RDS since the channel began. His voice is particularly recognizable in the description of soccer matches.
Claudine Douville is also the author of six adventure novels, including the trilogy sacred mission. During our telephone interview, she reveals a little secret.
There is a small project that I cherish. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it one day, but I would like to do screenwriting. […] I wrote a series called sacred mission. I would like to adapt it into a video game.
Claudine Douville
This is therefore one of the reasons that led her to enroll in this program, which she follows at the rate of one class per semester. “I want to give myself tools,” she explains.
But don’t talk to him about programming. What interests him, “is the story side, the scenario”.
“The computer is a necessary evil. I don’t have the curiosity to start looking for codes and all that.
“By doing these courses, there are a lot of things that you see and understand differently. It’s super interesting. »
“I have always played”
Claudine Douville’s passion for video games is not new.
I have always played. I’ve always liked that. The first Nintendo that came home was because I wanted one.
Claudine Douville, sports journalist at RDS
“I played the first Zelda, I played with the little sharks of Intellivision,” she adds with a laugh. The little sharks are those of the game Shark! Shark!, released in 1982: the player embodied a fish and had to swallow creatures smaller than him, while avoiding the black shark that prowled the screen.
SCREENSHOT FROM HIGHRETROGAMELORD YOUTUBE ACCOUNT
A scene from the game Shark!, Shark!
But she concedes that “the real caught up with the virtual” in the 2000s. With work, young children and her many expeditions around the world, she only played “sporadically”.
Until his sons start talking to each other about Dark Souls, one of the most influential games of its generation. We are in the early 2010s.
“They had totally hermetic conversations,” she recalls.
” If you can’t beat them, join them. That’s exactly what I did. I started playing to participate in the conversation. And there, it was my husband who found it boring, because he was the one on the outside. I really got into it. »
Games Dark Souls- there are three, followed by a derivative titled Bloodborne- are RPG (role-playing game) type and set in a gloomy fantasy universe. They stand out with a level of difficulty almost unattainable for the average video game adventurer, and with deep and complex combat mechanics.
The author of these lines also considers himself a gamer, and believes that patience is a virtue. But he almost destroyed his console in frustration while playing Bloodborne. Needless to say he quit the game.
But not Claudine Douville. She went through the whole series. And asking for more: she is “impatiently” waiting for the game Elden Ring, of the same kind and designed by the same company. The release is scheduled for the end of February.
” GoldenEye, I didn’t really trip”
In the meantime, she has to combine her full-time job and her university courses.
As part of the video games and cinema course, one of his assignments consisted of analyzing two works. She did her end-of-term work on her “favorite game”, Red Dead Redemption 2, a western adventure in an open world.
And his other exercise was on GoldenEye 007, a Nintendo 64 classic. “I suffered so much! she giggles.
” It’s horrible ! The gameplay has improved so much, it’s amazing. I found it very difficult to go back. […] I didn’t have a great trip. The game is interesting, but it’s the gameplay that I found difficult. »
Nevertheless: when Claudine Douville undertakes something, she completes it.
“Even if it’s not super important, I want good grades. There’s no way I’m sinking, and there’s no way I’ve got a pocket note. »