tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82333594822134126972024-02-07T22:45:34.771-07:00Team AhabGideonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328578010572353558noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-17450776450147287852013-12-18T16:38:00.001-07:002013-12-18T16:38:45.609-07:00Proposal: Creating a Class All About Ebooks<div class="MsoNormal">
In this time of the digital age, people have had to make a
lot of adjustments to a new digital culture. One of these adjustments is to how
people are reading and consuming content; it’s not just in print format
anymore. With today’s technologies, people can have access to lots of
information virtually anywhere, provided there is an internet connection. People read texts on their phones, computers,
tablets, and e-readers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ebooks are gaining more and more popularity. To adapt to
this change from a print culture to a digital culture, there needs to be a
greater understanding of how ebooks work and also how they are published. To
ease into this adaption, I suggest that universities start offering more
classes regarding how to publish ebooks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Benefits to learning about ebooks will be of great use to
those who are interested in the future of the publishing business and those who
are interested in self-publishing. To start, people should get used to the idea
of using them. Some people are just not used to the technology quite yet.
Getting them used to the technology as it is now will prepare readers for the
future when books will be on a digital reader and when they will be more interactive,
such as infusing images, video, and audio with the text. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be prepared for studying literature in the digital age,
we should know how to consume and create content in the form of ebooks. Despite
the resistance of a few traditional-styled people, this is where the technology
is going. People who are interested in publishing, commercial or self, should
especially be adapt to this new format, because it is still changing and has
the potential to change even more. So, as an editor who is excited about the
future of this technology, I propose that a class about ebooks, how to use them
and how to make them, should be an added class to the editing minor.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-2003002137350941292013-12-18T16:20:00.000-07:002013-12-18T16:20:05.545-07:00Humans versus Machines<div class="MsoNormal">
Humans use machines to make a task simpler in some aspect.
They are generally thought of as two separate entities—the human, which is
living, can think, can feel, and the other is the machine, not living, can’t
think for itself, unfeeling, and soulless. When these two are put together,
however, they can accomplish things that wouldn’t have been possible without
it. In Moby Dick, there are a few examples of humans working with machines in order
to accomplish something or have new meaning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We talked
about in class how Ahab used his crew as a machine to sail to find Moby Dick.
The crew itself only followed Ahab’s orders and didn’t think of a different
viewpoint together. It was essentially a static figure that lended itself to
Ahab to use for only Ahab's purposes. There were a few other examples that I
thought fit this example of humans and machines. Queeueg shaves his face with
his harpoon, using an unconventional tool to do a normal thing. To Ishmael, and
probably to some others, this would seem barbaric; however, it got the job
done, so why should it matter? Another point to bring up is about Moby Dick
himself. In the chapter, The Whiteness of the Whale, Ishmael is describing the
good—it’s purity—and the bad--of the color white in the whale, in other words,
the human and the machine parts that make up Moby Dick. See Shelly’s post for a
little more elaboration.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The two working together make a new
kind of hybrid—part human and part machine. This hybrid, because of it is part
human, is still considered to be human, however there are few exceptions to
that. The biggest one I think was in the example of Ahab’s crew hybrid chasing
Moby Dick, something that was also hybrid. Which won in the end? Moby Dick.
Why? You could say that in the end, it was his humanity, his instincts that
saved him. The crew still acted together as a machine in order to capture Moby
Dick. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-7246344366283015162013-12-18T16:17:00.001-07:002013-12-18T16:17:42.391-07:00Broadening our Scope: Incorporating New Media Forms into Formal Literary Studies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The study of literature is integrally connected to the study of culture as a whole. Traditionally, literary scholarship has embraced not only a study of texts but also art, music, and other forms. Truly understanding literature and its import within our modern culture, then, requires that we acknowledge the interconnectedness of textual and other artistic forms and integrate novel media forms into our study of literature. Curricula for literature and writing classes within the English department need to instruct students in the use of novel media formats as a part of the formal research process. This includes not only digitally mediated interpretations of traditional forms like music and art but also contemporary forms like user-created videos, video games, blogs, and a wealth of other creative media formats.<br /><br />Matthew Arnold proposes that great literature is possible only thanks to the “current” of ideas that exists within a given culture, citing Shakespeare’s success as a clear demonstration of this point. This current depends on a diversity of media formats, as Paris’s Lost Generation of Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald, etc. demonstrate in their close association with prominent painters and musicians like Pablo Picasso and Cole Porter. Incorporating a broader study of media, both modern and traditional, as part of an academic study of literature will improve students’ understanding not only of the works themselves but also in the cultural relevance within a modern context and will additionally provide for a richer stream of ideas and influences upon which students can build their personal writing. Novel media forms prove especially pertinent in their ability demonstrate the relevance of the literary studies to modern audiences and to adapt seemingly “old” ideas to new contexts. By modifying curricula to include new media studies as a part of a formal study of literature, the English department would thus be able to improve the breadth, relevance, and vitality of students’ research and of the department as a whole.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-36448791891358202662013-12-18T16:03:00.000-07:002013-12-18T16:03:22.852-07:00Final Exam Essay 2: English Major Update<div class="MsoNormal">
Updating the English Major to the
digital age could be advantageous to professors, students, and the broader academic
community in several ways and could keep the major relevant in a world that
increasingly questions its importance. One such way to update the major to the
digital world would be reshaping the course outcomes to always include a
project that somehow extends beyond the classroom into the broader world and
enter the real-world conversations happening on that topic, rather than just
live and die in the classroom. We've studied ways to do this in our digital culture class this semester, both discussing ways to <a href="http://prezi.com/dtvqlmns_gqd/socially-optimized-research/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy">socially optimize</a> our research to both prove its relevance and find communities interested in it and ways to <a href="http://mobydigital.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-real-reach-of-student-research-four.html">reach beyond the classroom with our research</a>. Ideally, students would have the flexibility to
follow their own research topics and trends from class to class, building over
the course of their college career a portfolio of work as well as an individual
voice, style, and research expertise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such an approach would actually be
closer to the original spirit of university study, to come and follow a
specific passion and study it out over a long period of time, building skills
and talent through mentoring and professorial guidance to prepare to go out
into the world and show a new and unique idea. Ironically, updating to the
digital age would in this way also be a return to the roots of higher education.
Such a system would allow students to leave their university not only with a
degree, but with a reputation and a direction for further study and work that
would lead more naturally into graduate study and/or the workplace.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Increasingly, the digital world
requires students to have not only degrees, but portfolios to enter the work
field. Graduate schools also always require a writing sample and a clear sense
of research direction from a student to be considered for admission. The
current model doesn’t allow much time or room for students to build such a
unique voice and direction in their research. By updating the English major for
the digital world, we can allow students to not only build such a voice and
direction, but also build connections, communities, and networks by way of publication
and sharing of their ongoing research such that by the time students graduate,
they already have in place everything they need not only to apply to graduate
school or the workplace, but to continue to succeed there as they have a wide network
and body of work to pull from and build on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Currently, such a model isn’t
followed because the focus of undergraduate study is to expose students to a
broad range of literary genres, periods, and works. This ideal is not wrong,
and could still be preserved in the proposed update to the English major. For
instance, I have gone through my college education according to the traditional
English major, taking classes from a broad range of time periods and genres to
fulfill the major requirements for graduation. However, over the past school
year, I have also pursued research relating videogames to literature, and have
been able to apply every one of my classes to such a study. In Early American
Literature, for example, I studied how <i>Edgar
Huntly</i> set up many expectations for the American novel that have persisted
into American videogame story tropes, specifically the <i>Assassin’s Creed</i> series. In Advanced Studies in Genre, my section
was focused on the rise of the British detective novel, and I was able to
explore not only film adaptations of <i>Sherlock
Holmes</i>, but videogame adaptations as well, and deal with the issues of a
videogame trying to make the player feel like a detective as intelligent as
Sherlock Holmes. In a Shakespeare class, I was able to explore how Shakespeare
legitimized English language drama as a high form of art and relate that to
possible ways videogames could become a culturally legitimate art form in our
own time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I began to follow this single
strain of research in all of my classes, I opened opportunities that I hadn’t
even considered before for myself. I ended up presenting alongside a Ph.D.
candidate and an established professor at the annual conference of the Rocky
Mountain Modern Language Association, and scarcely two months later had three
offers for publication on three separate articles I had written in the vein of
videogames as literature. I started <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/">my own blog</a> to get more of my thoughts out there, and within a month of starting it had over a thousand page views and several comments that led me to people interested in similar topics that I could connect with. Also within a year, I had connected with some big names in the field by keeping to socially optimized research methods and had personal feedback from major writers and creators that have lent intelligence and credibility to my research. My prospects for graduate school and a career have
increased considerably as a result.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This kind of path through the English
Major should not only be more accepted, but encouraged as it is the best way to
ensure that students land on their feet after graduation and have a clear
direction with their education. Without such an update, the English major faces
increasing obscurity and ridicule from the world at large. The world has
moved into a new age; the English major must go there with it.<o:p></o:p></div>
pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-74014844585818298372013-12-18T15:53:00.001-07:002013-12-18T15:53:32.776-07:00Reading Digital Culture: How Literature Aids in Understanding the Digital Age<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Literary works like <i>Moby Dick</i> help us to make sense of digital culture by investigating key themes pertinent to digital interaction. One of these themes is the idea of isolation, a concept that I discuss in some detail in "<a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-sea-and-solitude.html">The Sea and Solitude.</a>" <i>Moby Dick</i> essentially presents the reader with a number of disconnected individuals and asks what is necessary to bring them together. This theme shows up early in Queequeg's and Ishmael's relationship, but other relationships, like that of Queequeg to Tashteego or of Ahab and Pip further illustrate the idea that even though these individuals are from different backgrounds, the mere fact that they are together serves as a foundation on which they can build meaningful relationships. The Internet works in a similar manner, facilitating powerful relationships for people from different countries and backgrounds and providing means for people who feel isolated or left out to find a "home" of sorts. Kristen, for example, shows how digital tools can be used to help returned missionaries who return home early to feel connected and loved despite the negative feelings or comments that others might hold against them. It demonstrates that those who feel excluded or separate can, in fact, find a place where they belong in digital culture.<br /><br /><i> Moby Dick</i> likewise investigates identity, a theme that is pertinent to to digital culture on a number of different levels. <i>Moby Dick</i>'s famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael," is perhaps the book's most well-known and robust exploration of this idea. In three little words, Melville establishes an identity for his narrator, and throughout the rest of the book, as we hear more of his stories and see more of his interactions with others, we learn more of who he really is. This is similar to how identity is established on the Internet, where often, we have only a name and a picture or a catchphrase to go off of in terms of defining a person. Gradually, through their comments, posts, pictures, etc. we come to understand more of who they are, yet we understand that even these "facts" are in some sense constructed specifically for the Internet: just as Ishmael reveals only that which he wants to share about himself, so also are Internet identities constructed to convey certain ideas, qualities, or images. This is a concept that <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/12/you-are-what-you-pin-analysis-on.html">Aleesha</a> investigates to some extent in her study of Pinterest, where users define themselves by the clothes, accessories, decorations, and quotes that they post to their respective pin-boards. Others, like <a href="http://teamishmael.blogspot.com/2013/12/finally-made-it-to-level-7-lizys-term.html">Lizy</a> and <a href="http://teamstubb.blogspot.com/2013/12/educational-fandoms-final-draft.html">Victoria</a>, look at identity as parts of a larger collective, as in fandoms.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-55715400646279134832013-12-18T15:51:00.002-07:002013-12-18T15:51:16.719-07:00Final Exam 1: Moby Dick in the Digital Age<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Moby Dick</i> helps us
understand digital culture because it deals with a vast array of themes that
have only become more pertinent and important in the digital age. One such
theme is that of fixation. In the digital age, it’s easier than ever to get wrapped
up in just one interest as it is easier than ever to find massive amounts of
content on that topic. This has caused problems in several ways, perhaps most prominently
with videogame addiction, fandoms, and social media and other forms of digital
communication that take a lot of time and energy to keep up with. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Moby Dick</i> teaches us of the dangers of
obsessive fixation, but also explores the psychology of it in realistic ways
that could help us understand the mindset of those who become too fixated on
the digital world and begin to neglect the real world. Also, it helps to show
the merits of fixation as well that can easily go overlooked. For instance,
Ahab was certainly crazed, but he also created a strong sense of community and
brought different kinds of people together for a single cause. Obviously, Ahab’s
methods and reasons were wrong, but that doesn’t mean that passionate interest
can’t also lead to a strong sense of community among a diverse group of people.
<i>Moby Dick</i> shows both sides of this coin,
and both obsessive fixation and healthy passion have only become more important
in the digital age as new technologies provide greater connectivity and
greater access to content and people than ever before, raising both opportunity
and danger. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Literature and art have always instructed humanity on how to live,
and <i>Moby Dick</i> proves that they will
continue to do so in important and powerful ways that expand people’s perspectives
and open their minds to the broader world around them. In some ways, you might
say that <i>Moby Dick</i> is <i>more </i>important in the digital age than
ever before, and its study has only become more important. <i>Moby </i>Dick can and should be applied to aspects of digital culture
whenever it is taught.<o:p></o:p></div>
pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-58404172741864466632013-12-18T09:57:00.000-07:002013-12-18T10:31:26.358-07:00Reflections on Digital Culture<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFBK4ST1mVWgWq8ukc8S9HUoRj3ELKqixGtVwZV_Am8k9o5w6ai32EVwnay2PMwncbva8SZTIRZJPG_BkNHMSx6b9s3sQ6vH2vsXpAi3xQEZrYDrOdQyiWG2iBpjSGSG15Q6YC-WR6Pdch/s1600/Industrial_Robot_Painter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFBK4ST1mVWgWq8ukc8S9HUoRj3ELKqixGtVwZV_Am8k9o5w6ai32EVwnay2PMwncbva8SZTIRZJPG_BkNHMSx6b9s3sQ6vH2vsXpAi3xQEZrYDrOdQyiWG2iBpjSGSG15Q6YC-WR6Pdch/s320/Industrial_Robot_Painter.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitale_Kunst">Wikimedia</a> Creative Commons License</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">O</span>ne of things that has been impressed upon me most this semester is the idea that the digital age allows us (and in some cases, requires us) to specialize. Whereas in traditional settings creators, innovators, <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-of-my-final-products.html">Paul</a>, <a href="http://teamstarbuck.blogspot.com/2013/12/venue-for-article.html">Heidi</a>, <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/12/civilization-in-digital-age-virtual.html">myself</a>), fandoms (<a href="http://teamstubb.blogspot.com/2013/12/educational-fandoms-final-draft.html">Victoria</a>, <a href="http://teamishmael.blogspot.com/2013/12/finally-made-it-to-level-7-lizys-term.html">Lizy</a>), rethinking print literacy (<a href="http://teamstubb.blogspot.com/2013/12/final-paper-improving-literacy-through.html">Shelly</a>, <a href="http://teamflask.blogspot.com/2013/12/completed-final-project-guide-to.html">Kayla</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/08643123285821459055">Danielle</a>) and social media for social change (<a href="http://teamstubb.blogspot.com/2013/12/quantitatively-and-qualitatively.html">Kristen</a>, <a href="http://teamstarbuck.blogspot.com/2013/12/final-paper-using-tablets-to-help.html">Cheri</a>) are just the beginning. For me, digital culture is a loose term, because it's composed of so many diverse and sometimes isolated culture so much so that to make broad generalizations in an attempt to classify the culture as a whole would likely exclude vast subsets of digital users. Nevertheless, I'm going to try.<br />
and enthusiasts are limited by the accessibility and popularity of certain ideas or sub-cultures, the Digital Age is a time of fandoms and specialization and unbridled creativity. Chances are that if someone, somewhere is interested in an idea, then there are likely others talking and thinking about those same ideas, and the Internet provides the means to connect those people together. It has been interesting to see different themes and subsets of digital culture evolve even in our own class: gamer culture (<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n my view, digital culture is about the following:<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Personal and group expression</li>
<li>In light of the first item, the somewhat paradoxical recreation the self</li>
<li>Resistance to traditional forms and paradigms</li>
<li>Accessibility of information and means of creation</li>
<li>Sociality<a name='more'></a></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he first four are obviously important, but I think the final component is where digital culture really diverges from more traditional modes of human interaction. In some sense, the onset of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> signaled digital culture's ideological severance from previous eras, and we are now witnessing the true power and wisdom of "the crowd" as social media platforms and other people-driven communities and enterprises become more prominent within society. I guess the thing I realized most is that that same sociality fulfills human needs that just weren't being met in a post-industrial world: where is the home for gamers who are scorned for their hobbies, for returned missionaries that can't find acceptance in the real world, for people whose rights are infringed upon not because they themselves are bad or wrong but because they are different? Where is the sense of belonging for all those kids whose dads left them and whose moms works 'til seven at night? Where are they supposed to turn? Well, the answer is, they turn to all the other <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-sea-and-solitude.html">lonely people</a>, all the downtrodden, all the individuals and groups striving to shatter the false, post-industrial illusion that things are fine just as they are. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlY8s-lxQWaALMbbZKI6JoS3WT2iDfFL0yV3sZVLD9LWMiAnVLwiXCL3mwNpYRcJjNhfdQJZwY8I5pQQQ8yw-VDhGeroiQIVDlhEGj_-TbcZyUc_MF77FriZQVOndXyninY9Y2RAbPQgSN/s1600/humanist-with-brain-flipped.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlY8s-lxQWaALMbbZKI6JoS3WT2iDfFL0yV3sZVLD9LWMiAnVLwiXCL3mwNpYRcJjNhfdQJZwY8I5pQQQ8yw-VDhGeroiQIVDlhEGj_-TbcZyUc_MF77FriZQVOndXyninY9Y2RAbPQgSN/s320/humanist-with-brain-flipped.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n a lot of ways, the Digital Age shimmers with the same concepts as Renaissance humanism. It is an age of novel expression and exploration of the ideas of the past; it is an age of social change, of religious reform and (sadly) secularism, a movement toward aestheticism, a fusion of<span style="background-color: white;"> supernaturalist fiction and modern scientific discovery, an age dominated by both a critical attitude and an unwavering humanist/populist streak. The Digital Age in some sense builds upon the humanist concepts of variation (remixing), amplification, and <i>copia</i> (if not in the traditional sense of the word then in its sheer abundance), and while there are definitely some big distinctions between the two eras, the "moment," I think, is the same. More than anything, I've realized that digital culture is about the individual's potential not only to belong and to express himself but also to have a meaningful and lasting impact on the world around him. It is about tearing down stilted social structures and false paradigms and about building up new ones as we seek inspiration in the past.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-49930532088351796392013-12-17T17:39:00.001-07:002013-12-17T17:39:12.718-07:00Final Reflections: "How I Have Come to Understand Digital Culture"<div class="MsoNormal">
I came into this class knowing a good amount about digital
culture already. I had taken a course from Dr. Burton before in which he
emphasized academic blogging and using social networks for social discovery and
social proof. I had already been researching and writing about videogames as
art and literature for a while. However, what I really took away from this
class is a view of the truly digital world we’re now living in. That world is
open, complex, beautiful, even though in many ways not exactly new.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The new digital world I saw through this class is open in
more ways than I thought. It’s open access, open opportunity, and largely open-armed.
I learned a ton about copyright law and the complex issues of fair use and creative
commons that I hadn’t understood before as I saw just how much information
really is entirely open and free to be accessed through the internet, and how
much creative content is being made open source for anyone to use and add to or
adjust (the Linux operating system, for example, or Wikipedia). Our lectures on
<a href="http://mobydigital.blogspot.com/2013/09/collaborative-creativity-and.html">crowdsourcing</a> were especially eye-opening to me because I hadn’t understood just
how complex, powerful, and beautiful projects done asynchronously by people
from all over the world could turn out to be, like <a href="http://bravenewdigital.blogspot.com/2012/09/creativity-and-big-picture-for-new-media.html">Eric Whitacare's virtual choir</a>. I saw
also a wider range of opportunity provided by the internet as we talked about
the do-it-yourself movement and maker culture, as well as e-publishing, social
networks, and tinkering. This especially hit home to me in the video we watched
of a <a href="http://vimeo.com/15091562">homemade space craft</a>. I also saw how open-armed the digital culture really
can be as we talked about all the different <a href="http://mobydigital.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-real-reach-of-student-research-four.html">opportunities to share undergraduate research</a>, and how communities can and have formed around almost any topic somewhere
on the Internet. I especially felt these three aspects of digital culture—open access,
open opportunity, and open-armed—as I started <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/">my own blog</a> to collect my
thoughts on videogames and ultimately published <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-success-two-more-potentials.html">with one blog and am now in the works with two others</a>. In gathering resources to put in my writing, in
collecting and forming my own thoughts, and in working with other people
through the internet to get my ideas out there and receiving feedback, I have
seen digital culture at work in all three of these meanings of the word “open.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two students who have
especially helped me take my understanding of digital culture even further as I’ve
gone throughout this course are, unsurprisingly, the other two students in my
blogging group, <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/search/label/posted%20by%20Greg">Greg Bayles</a> and <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/search/label/posted%20by%20Aleesha">Aleesha Bass</a>. Greg showed me how the three
meanings of open in the digital world can become the foundations for an
entirely new kind of civilization—how real human organizations can exist
entirely within the digital world, and how most physical organizations are
becoming increasingly digital as well. Aleesha helped me see how our digital
activity reflects our true identity in a clearer way than I ever had before. As
I went through the course, I understood more about how our online actions
express our identity, but as Aleesha looked specifically at Pinterest and we
talked about it together, even concluding that one could tell the personality
and major life events of a person based on their Pinterest boards alone,
something clicked in my brain and I saw just how our digital selves connect to
our real selves in a clearer way than I ever had before.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve truly seen a whole new world throughout the course of
this class. Even though our readings of <i>Moby
Dick</i> have proven that the concepts, issues, and foundational ideas of the
digital world certainly aren’t new, new technologies are allowing us to take
those ideas and concepts and deal with those issues in bigger, faster, and
deeper ways than we ever have before. It truly is a brave new<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">—</span>digital<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">—</span>world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-80909054185468784182013-12-11T23:00:00.000-07:002013-12-12T12:19:36.975-07:00You Are What You Pin: An Analysis on Pinterest IdentityBelow is the link to my final paper.<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByE7tud1xQwBM3duYW1HRlRTVTA/edit?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByE7tud1xQwBM3duYW1HRlRTVTA/edit?usp=sharing</a></div>
<div>
<br />
P.S. Sorry about the screenshots from the survey. They are getting messed up when the .pdf is uploading to Google Docs, and I'm not sure how to fix it. Here are the links to the pinboards if you would like to look at them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/extroverted/" target="_blank">Extroverted</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/introverted/" target="_blank">Introverted</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/sensing/" target="_blank">Sensing</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/intuition/" target="_blank">Intuition</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/feeling/" target="_blank">Feeling</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/thinking/" target="_blank">Thinking</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/prospecting/" target="_blank">Prospecting</a><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/judging/" target="_blank">Judging</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-14155352852614074532013-12-11T21:50:00.000-07:002013-12-12T10:28:24.817-07:00Civilization in the Digital Age: Virtual Spaces and Hybrid Reality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well, the White Whale is slain. My final paper is done. Soon the Rachel will come round to pick up the surviving orphans from the sea, and I'll go back home to warmth and solitude.<br />
<br />
In any case, I decided to include a link to the paper in a .doc format, as I know I hate reading papers like this on blogs. I hope you enjoy!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oHVteZi_KNWHZsMWxIdUhXQ0U/edit?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_oHVteZi_KNWHZsMWxIdUhXQ0U/edit?usp=sharing</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-2817369113747680932013-12-11T08:58:00.000-07:002013-12-12T16:36:23.088-07:00UPDATED: (TWO of my) Final Product(s)Like I said in <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-success-two-more-potentials.html">my last post,</a> my final project has kind of broken into many different pieces, but I made good on the promise from <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/final-project-proposal-complicate.html">my proposal</a> and made a little ebook of my essays on games and literature, which you can find <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RwVhUiqCmfUXFsa3RfNDdzdm8/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>. It's in epub format, which most e-readers, tablets, and smartphones should support with the right app, or you can read it on the web through Firefox or Chrome with the right add-on/extension. A good Chrome e-reader add-on I found is <a href="http://readium.org/">Readium</a>.<br />
<br />
Also, I can't post my paper on the classical unities in videogames online because it's going to be published at First-Person Scholar, but <a href="https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=6925CE3A10640D76!3951&authkey=!AMCMmG36YHXiI1g&ithint=file%2c.docx">here's</a> a link to a doc of it.<br />
<br />
If e-readers aren't your thing, all of the essays are also available (along with some other stuff I've written on games) at my personal gaming blog, <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/">Complicate the Narrative</a>.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading! Enjoy!pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-13156333037571232752013-12-10T20:45:00.000-07:002013-12-10T20:45:29.140-07:00One Success, Two More PotentialsSo my final project has fractured into many different things all at once, but I've submitted three different articles/essays to three different people, and they've now all responded.<br />
<br />
First of all, the gaming blog/game blogging aggregator <a href="http://www.critical-distance.com/">Critical Distance</a> accepted and featured my piece "<a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-romantic-dead.html">The Romantic Dead</a>" in their feature "<a href="http://www.critical-distance.com/category/this-week-in-videogame-blogging/">This Week In Videogame Blogging</a>" for this week (week of December 8). That's a big deal because it puts my name right next to a lot of the biggest in the business of videogame writing right now (and it's given a healthy spike to my blog views for the past couple days, too).<br />
<br />
Next, Dr. Olvier Turle, founder of the literature blog <a href="http://interestingliterature.com/">Interesting Literature</a> and now writer at the Huffington Post, liked my post "<a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/journey-and-epic.html">Journey and the Epic</a>" and has said he wants to feature it as a guest blog piece in the near future, but it busy right now and will get back to me in a couple weeks.<br />
<br />
Finally, the guys over at <a href="http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/">First Person Scholar</a> liked my "Romantic Dead" piece, but said they don't host things already hosted somewhere else (even my personal blog), so I wrote a new piece entitled "All in One: Open World Games and the Classical Unities" that I've sent to them and they said they'd like to feature it, I just needed some revisions and a few more references. So I'm hard at work on that.<br />
<br />
Anyway, so far at least that's 3 for 3, as long as those last two work out. This is amazing results and I'm so excited to see where this goes.pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-62996519714536684542013-12-04T22:23:00.004-07:002013-12-04T22:27:02.798-07:00Digital Spaces: Working Outline<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I.
Introduction</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.234375px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.234375px;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A.
What is a <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/monuments-of-our-age-foundations-of.html">civilization</a>?</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.16in; text-indent: -0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1.
"[A] grouping of at least several thousand people with a common
culture, usually a common language, usually a geographic locale, some
significant (usually monumental) buildings and architecture, and a
political structure that is not necessarily unified” (Blaha 2002).
</span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.16in; text-indent: -0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2.
"Civilization is fundamentally a cultural infrastructure of
information and knowledge that serves survival and continuity. What
distinguishes a civilization from a culture is that this
infrastructure, having reached a critical level of complexity,
becomes autonomous from constituent cities, nations, and empires"
(<a href="http://www.wmich.edu/iscsc/civilization.html">Bosworth
2003</a>). At what point will digital/Internet culture
reach its critical complexity?</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.65in; text-indent: -0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">B.
With a majority of the world's physical frontiers having been
swallowed up in expansionism, many are looking to digital spaces as a
new frontier—a place where they can establish their own culture and
stake their claim in a rich and vibrant future within the Digital
Age. Whether independent civilizations will emerge from this new
frontier is yet to be determined, but already we see the close
integration of real and virtual 'civilizations' as we know them, and
the future will surely witness further advances in this area. Though
at this stage of its progression the Internet and its substituent
communities are still very much so dependent on real-world
authorities and spaces for their being and maintenance, the
foundations are already in place for the eventual emergence of
virtual civilizations. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.65in; text-indent: -0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">C.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Working
Thesis: </b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Virtual
spaces are becoming increasingly independent, and while they
necessarily remain linked to the real world, they nonetheless provide
the social underpinnings for the genesis of digital civilizations
through their facilitation of virtual government, economy, and
culture.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.65in; text-indent: -0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">II.
Digital Governance</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.66in; text-indent: -0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A.
The concept of digital governance is already taking root among many
Internet communities and has likewise served a model for real-world
governance. This suggests that digital paradigms could be applied
more broadly as a foundation for digital states.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.66in; text-indent: -0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">B.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hybrid
forms of digital governance are already in place in a number of
online communities, virtual worlds, and video games.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> 1.
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">EVE Online representative
council</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Confederation_of_Democratic_Simulators">Confederationof Democratic Simulators</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">C. <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">True
Democracy / Opt-in Citizenship</span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1.
Speaking back: a </span></span></span><a href="http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2013/11/2013-iprights-email-from-uccsl-to-peter.html"><span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">list of grievances</span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> to LindenLabs </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">D.
Use of digital tools in hammering out real-world governance</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1.
<a href="http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/crowdsourcing-icelands-constitution/">Iceland</a>'s
use of Facebook to crowd-source its constitution</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2.
<a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/geek-life/profiles/rewriting-the-constitution-on-facebook">Turkey</a>
considered doing the same</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />III.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Virtual
Economies</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A.
While virtual economies still exist primarily as subsidiaries to real
economies, emerging currencies</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> and globalized economic paradigms
have provided the necessary underpinnings for independent </span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">digital
monetary systems.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">B.
Recent years have seen a number of virtual currencies emerge and
fall, but each of these has </span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> been a step toward stable virtual
economies/currencies (tie into social surplus)</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">C.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Interconnection
of virtual and real markets</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1.
Much of modern trade takes place in digital spaces. In an age where
economy is king, </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">digital markets are more agile, competitive,
cost-efficient</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2.
Flow of money real money into digital economies: <a href="http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2010/11/an-exodus-recession.html#more">exodus
and recession</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.46in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">a.
“Potentially, the economic value in free digital goods — regarded
as a big “zero” in traditional GDP measurements — is actually
worth quite a bit to the economy in terms of advertising (the
consumer “attention” factor) and the enhanced innovation
delivered across various business sectors. Brynjolfsson </span></span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><span style="background: transparent;"><a href="http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2012/proceedings/EconomicsValue/9/">pegs</a>
</span></u></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">this
value at about $300 billion a year to the U.S. economy alone.”
<a href="http://m.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/gdp-measurements-totally-miss-digital-economy/17212">(Link)</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3.
<a href="http://mises.org/daily/6435/A-Virtual-Weimar-Hyperinflation-in-a-Video-Game-World">Hyperinflation</a>,
devaluation of yuan, etc. (</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Reality
is Broken</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">D.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bitcoin
as a new and potentially stable digital currency</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1.</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">Gaining
legitim</span>acy: <a href="http://www.itproportal.com/2013/10/31/worlds-first-bitcoin-atm-machine-goes-live-vancouver/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+itproportal/rss+(Latest+ITProPortal+News)">first Bitcoin ATM</a></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> 2</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Recent
trends: appreciation, recognition by U.S. Courts as legal tender,
integration</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.65in; text-indent: -0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">E.
Economy/Currency as representative of a nation: “</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bitcoin
nation – On </span></span></span><a href="https://bitcointalk.org/"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">bitcointalk.org</span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">,
one Bitcoin user suggested that in maintaining a currency distinct
from other world currencies, the Bitcoin community had already
defined itself as an independent nation (as distinguished from a
state). He</span></span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=171412.0"><span style="color: navy;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">wrote</span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">, "Currencies
have always represented a nation and I think that we ARE a nascent
nation, albeit a virtual one, a legitimate one nevertheless." He
later called for "native products" and "national
industry" as means of stabilizing the volatile virtual currency.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[I'm considering dropping my third section on art, so I haven't formatted it yet and it's not included here. Additionally, the conclusion is more so a conglomeration of ideas that I would like to address but which as of yet lack a clear tie-in to the thesis.]</span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">IV. Conclusion</span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> A. As n</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">ew
technologies make worlds more </span><a href="http://www.designntrend.com/articles/8780/20131029/oculus-rift-games-coming-iphone-alongside-pc-consumer-release-brings-virtual-reality-mobile-video.htm" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 0.19in;">immersive</a><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">, we will increasingly see the overlaps between</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> virtual and real </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">worlds, and an understanding of virtual worlds will prove increasingly vital.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> 1. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">Even </span><a href="http://www.ideaconnection.com/new-inventions/taste-simulator-adds-flavor-to-virtual-worlds-07745.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 0.19in;">taste</a><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> mechanics becoming possible in virtual worlds </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> 2. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Luke
McKinney, a contributor on the gaming website Cracked.com, </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-most-absurdly-expensive-items-in-online-gaming_p2/" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;">jibed</a>,<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> “</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If
you're</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 0.19in;"><span style="font-size: small;">noticing wire frame graphics in your peripheral vision, don't
worry, that's just the borders</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 0.19in;"><span style="font-size: small;">between reality and fantasy breaking
down.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 0.19in;"><span style="font-size: small;">”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;"> 3. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0.19in;">Externalization of digital—integration into reality. "</span><a href="http://beekn.net/2013/10/virtual-worlds-and-the-internet-of-things/">The Internet of Things</a>,<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 0.19in;">" 3D printing, etc.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; line-height: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">B. William
McGaughey: <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/monuments-of-our-age-foundations-of.html">primary institution of power</a> in our modern age is the Internet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> C</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">C</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">all
for virtual settlers</span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Puritan; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-88858492405965584052013-12-03T01:20:00.000-07:002013-12-03T01:20:17.406-07:00Pinterest Project Proposal<b>Working Title</b>:<br />
You Are What You Pin: Analyzing People Identities Based on Pinterest Pins<br />
<br />
<b>Working Thesis</b>:<br />
As people become involved with Pinterest, they not only showcase their interests but also show their identities through their likes, pins, and repins on Pinterest.<br />
<br />
<b>Preliminary Exploration</b>:<br />
For my preliminary exploration, I have been gathering data via Google Alerts--not that much comes up regarding Pinterest and identity, but I have found some good articles on social media in general and identity, which I think have pointed me in the right direction.<br />
<br />
My previous blog posts have also looked at <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/comparing-moby-dick-to-pinterest.html" target="_blank">Moby Dick and Pinterest</a> and a couple of curation posts <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-curation-of-pinterest.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/curating-with-pinterest.html" target="_blank">here</a>. What got me interested in this topic in the first place was reading Girl Wide Web 2.0, especially the chapters that dealt with identity and social media.<br />
<br />
<b>Relevance</b>:<br />
I think that this is topic is relevant because as we are spending more time with social media, we are needing to adjust and find ways to best represent ourselves online. There are different ways that people can represent themselves online, such as personally or professionally. From a Pinterest account, not only can people show their likes and interests but they also can show what is going on with their lives at the current time, such as a decorating for a new house or planning a party.<br />
<br />
<b>Format</b>:<br />
For the format of this project, I've decided to do a survey (click right <a href="https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_etxYMbQBSGBJZDn" target="_blank">here</a> if you would like to take it) about Pinterest and identity to see if I could find a correlation between the two. I will then write a paper describing my background research and my findings and conclusions from the survey.<br />
<br />
<b>Outlet</b>:<br />
As stated from <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/possible-venues-for-final-paperproject.html" target="_blank">my last blog post</a>, I was interested in the <a href="http://www.catacconference.org/" target="_blank">CATaC Conference</a> because its theme is the closest to what I want to present. The papers can be in a short (3-5 pages) or long (10-15 pages) format. Since I plan on including the stats of my survey, the paper will be in the longer length. The paper is due on February 14.<br />
<br />
<b>Curation</b>:<br />
My curation includes gathering data from the survey and pinning images on Pinterest that correspond with the personality traits I used in the survey. The pinboards are as follows: <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/extroverted/" target="_blank">extroverted</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/introverted/" target="_blank">introverted</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/sensing/" target="_blank">sensing</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/intuition/" target="_blank">intuition</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/feeling/" target="_blank">feeling</a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/thinking/" target="_blank">thinking</a><span id="goog_943361929"></span><span id="goog_943361930"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a>, <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/prospecting/" target="_blank">prospecting</a>, and <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/smileyaleesha/judging/" target="_blank">judging</a>--the pins are typical of those personality traits, and I tried to get as wide of a variety as possible.<br />
<br />
<b>Social Proof</b>:<br />
I've gotten lots of people to respond to my survey so far, and I've had a couple of shares for my survey on Google+ and Facebook. I've also shared the survey to communities on Google+ (the Pinterest and Digital Identities communities to be exact), and I am looking forward to sharing my conclusions with these groups after I finish this project.<br />
<br />
<b>Next Steps</b>:<br />
The next steps include to finish gathering data from the survey, compile it all, and see if there really is a strong correlation between personality traits and pins on Pinterest. Since I don't know exactly what they will entail, I want to gather more secondary sources about analyzing identity from personality traits so I can see if the results from my survey might actually mean anything. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.<br />
<br />
That's it for now. I would appreciate any feedback and will offer up my feedback for your proposals as well.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-16509866468878187982013-12-02T14:29:00.002-07:002013-12-02T22:54:36.101-07:00Virtual Nation: Civilizing the Digital Wilds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YLbzu_XygUuk5LK5wnAvDzIgj6AuurRgYG03bo9dTQfmwGAipLCD_yJ818MXIFoMywev4ULO3c_hHrceYOc1I410eJgdMRp2dRPAlujeEDvfRk2oGzarwmHdBoS4hrQucNvJzJrAPfTg/s1600/Urn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YLbzu_XygUuk5LK5wnAvDzIgj6AuurRgYG03bo9dTQfmwGAipLCD_yJ818MXIFoMywev4ULO3c_hHrceYOc1I410eJgdMRp2dRPAlujeEDvfRk2oGzarwmHdBoS4hrQucNvJzJrAPfTg/s400/Urn.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
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Image by Greg Bayles. <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0 Generic</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Adapted from <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jastrow">Jastrow</a>'s public domain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hydria_Boeotia_Louvre_A574.jpg">photograph</a>.</div>
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<b>1. Working Thesis Statement</b><br />
The Internet represents the heir apparent to the cultural and social wealth of the American 'Empire' and will ultimately serve as a crucible for new, transcultural, digital civilizations.<br />
<br />
<div>
<div>
<b>2. Preliminary Exploration</b></div>
<div>
I've explored the concept of virtual civilizations in a number of posts:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/digital-nations-new-frontier.html">Digital Nations: The New Frontier</a> takes a look at the historical inheritance of cultural/social wealth that in part led to the rise of the Roman, British, and American 'Empires.' It looks forward to the rise of the digital nation from the cultural and social infrastructure of America. This is essentially my first focused exploration of the concept of digital nations and represents my earliest thinking on the matter.</li>
<li><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/monuments-of-our-age-foundations-of.html#more">Monuments of our Age: Foundations of Civilization in the Digital World</a> addresses the concept of civilization from a historiological perspective, examining the requirements for civilization and providing a number of scholarly definitions for civilization in a modern context.</li>
<li><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/we-people-digital-civilizations.html">We the People: Digital Civilizations</a> is the post that I've used for most of my social proof, because it provides a brief overview of the topic and presents some foundational evidence as to the foundations of civilization already exigent within virtual worlds. This post received a good amount of feedback, and it's been one that I've circled back to at various points. This was also my first real call for colonization of the digital wilds: "Rather than anathematizing video games and virtual realms as base and 'savage,' we need settlers who will actively shape the digital frontier for good. Rather than complaining that digital worlds are mindless and violent, maybe we need to be the ones to find out how we can make them thoughtful and exalting."<a name='more'></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Other posts relate more generally to virtual worlds but nonetheless have some pertinence to the matter of digital civilizations:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/herman-melville-virtual-world-builder.html">Herman Melville: Virtual World Builder</a> explores the common goals and nature of books and virtual worlds through the lens of Melville's <i>Moby Dick. </i>This post also gives a good discussion of the word <i>virtual</i> and how understanding its semantic roots might aid in making better use of virtuality as a means for exploring reality.</li>
<li>My study of Jane McGonigal's <i>Reality is Broken </i>was pivotal in my understanding of the potential of virtual worlds to serve as models for improving reality--"life hacking," as it's sometimes called. I prepared a <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/book-review-for-jane-mcgonigals-reality.html">book review</a> and a <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/video-book-review-jane-mcgonigals.html">video review</a> to share some of the work's central points. </li>
<li><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/creating-worlds-immanuel-kant-and.html">Creating Worlds: Immanuel Kant and Virtual Reality</a> looks at the concept of world building as one wherein the virtual world becomes an externalization of the imaginitive representation as defined by Kant. </li>
</ul>
<b>3. Relevance</b></div>
<div>
This topic bears relevance to modern discourse on the value of virtual worlds and additionally examines digital interactions and culture on a number of different levels, namely economic, socio-political, and artistic. It is especially of interest for those who populate or study virtual worlds and for those who have, in recent years, been pressing for self-governance in online worlds like Second Life or EVE Online.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>4. Format</b></div>
<div>
I plan on presenting my findings in the form of research paper or scholarly article, though I hope to broaden the relevance of the topic by creating a video synopsis that I can post in some of the online communities that I've been exploring. The main component of this project will be the paper itself, though at some point I'd like to adapt my work to a more media-rich, hypertext format.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>5. Outlet (more </b><a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/potential-presentation-venues-for.html" style="font-weight: bold;">here</a><b>)</b></div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/53949">Interrogating Colonization and New Politics</a> is a graduate conference held at Bowling Green State University, but I've contacted the conference coordinators to see if they will consider an undergraduate paper. I haven't heard back yet, but my topic ties in really well with one of the conference's main topics, which involves "digital frontiers" and "colonization." The deadline isn't until March, so this might give me the chance to really figure out what they are looking for and adapt my work to the requirements in hopes of getting accepted despite my undergraduate status.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.blogger.com/">EDUCAUSE</a> is also accepting submissions for a conference on digital scholarship, and it has the added benefit of being online as well as in-person. That might prove necessary, as the conference is during the regular school year, and assuming I'm in grad school, I may not have the time nor resources to go gallivanting around Florida for a conference.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>6. Curation</b></div>
<div>
I've been curating a bunch of content through <a href="https://www.diigo.com/list?token=36fdac4757609538fa05088fd31f63dc">Diigo</a>, using <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=site%3Ateamahab.blogspot.com+google+alerts&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fteamahab.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F10%2Fgoogle-alerts-now-what-who.html&ei=_eycUsWFCM2ThgeArYDABQ&usg=AFQjCNHxC66AST3zKjm0DK99rO_zq9Gj3A&sig2=Phmlot3YMdqc8dxsrOjgpw&bvm=bv.57155469,d.ZG4">Google Alerts</a> as a primary source of information. I've also collected a lot of resources on the blogs that I list under my preliminary exploration. More recently, I've been trying to focus on more scholarly resources, though there's not a ton on my topic in particular (at least not that I've been able to find). There are a couple that have proven very useful so far, though:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Thomas, David. "Virtual Reailty and the Politics of Place." <i>History and Anthropology</i> 9.2 (1996): 327-357. Web. <i>EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier</i>. 2 Dec. 2013.</li>
<li>Balch, Stephen H. "Nowhere But the West." <i>Academic Questions</i> 24.4 (2011): 469-479. Web. <i>Springer Standard Collection. </i>2 Dec. 2013.</li>
</ul>
As I mentioned in my social proof section, there are a number of communities where I've presented my ideas and received positive feedback, so I will definitely have some places wherein to disseminate my final paper. I've curated those communities through Twitter and Google+ primarily.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>7. Social Proof</b></div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I tried to get going with social proof from the very start, and that's meant that I've had constructive feedback all along the way. I chose my topic originally based on feedback that I got from a general query on Facebook and from this <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-research-your-voice.html">post</a> on our cohort blog.</li>
<li>I've posted preliminary thoughts on <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/wm/1/communities/109040182259626723611">various</a> <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/116381289198134202933">Google+</a> <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/111600560876153068994">communities</a> involving virtual worlds, and a number of community members left some really useful comments on the <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/we-people-digital-civilizations.html">post</a> that I shared.</li>
<li>A number of classmates have expressed interest in the topic, including Paul and Lizzie. Paul curated <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/two-can-play-at-this-game.html">a bunch of great content</a> on virtual world/civilizations, and he got me connected with the <a href="http://www.runemark.com/odin/">ODIN Project</a>, a BYU group dedicated to world-building and theoretical gaming concepts.</li>
<li>A number of Facebook posts (documented in part <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/monuments-of-our-age-foundations-of.html#more">here</a>) have spawned lively discussions on the topic of virtual civilizations (curiously mostly among my Russian-speaking friends), and I've had face-to-face discussions with lots of people about the premise as a whole. People throw sources my way on a consistent basis, and it seems that every time I post something on Facebook, a new person throws in his/her opinions and experiences.</li>
<li>There are a number of scholars who I'll be contacting today or tomorrow with some of my preliminary writing, and I hope to hear back from them over the next week or so. I think most of the feedback will be critical from what I've read in terms of current scholarly discourse on virtual worlds, but even that could be really helpful in terms of crafting an argument.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>8. Next Steps</b></div>
<div>
Really, I feel like the next major steps are simply contacting scholars for social proof and getting down to the writing. I'm hoping to get some writing in later today, and I'll be sending out some of my preliminary work to a couple of scholars as soon as it's written (so hopefully by tomorrow at the latest). The more I think about it, the more I think the video synopsis might be good to do earlier on as a way to streamline my ideas and get a better picture of where I want to go with all this. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm really excited about all this, so check back for updates in the near future.</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-81518064318931163372013-12-02T13:42:00.001-07:002013-12-02T13:42:45.716-07:00I Got a Little EagerSo Greg just sent me a link to <a href="http://interestingliterature.com/2013/08/20/guest-blog-are-video-games-literature/">this great post</a> at Interesting Literature, an academic blog focusing on a wide range of literary topics. I saw that my recent post on my gaming blog, "<a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/journey-and-epic.html">Journey and the Epic</a>" spoke a lot to that guest post, so I just went for it and submitted that to them as a possible guest post.<br />
<br />
Then I figured while I was at it, I should just submit my other post, "<a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-romantic-dead.html">The Romantic Dead</a>" to another academic blog I've been looking at, <a href="http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/">First Person Scholar</a>. So I did.<br />
<br />
Over the Thanksgiving break, I put both of those posts into a word document and discovered the were both already in the 8 page range, and I was worried about how I could translate them into regular papers from a blog format (especially "The Romantic Dead," since I depend on pictures a lot in that one) so I decided submitting to academic blogs was a good idea so I could preserve the original format. Also, I figured academic blogs would be a good idea because they generally get back to you faster and publish quicker, and I'm trying to gather as much clout as possible for my graduate school applications that'll be going out early next year. Since I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing in the Fall, I decided against a conference submission, especially since I just did a conference and wanted to try something new.<br />
<br />
So that was quick, but quite a rush. We'll see what they say and I'll let you all know how it goes.pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-16837168967691414792013-11-30T13:55:00.001-07:002013-11-30T13:55:22.615-07:00Final Project Proposal: Complicate the Narrative/"The Romantic Dead"<b>1. Working Thesis Statement</b><br />
My project is twofold: I want to produce a short e-book with several essays connecting videogames and literary traditions and thinking, and I want to submit one of those essays, "The Romantic Dead," for publication somewhere.<br />
<br />
For the e-book, the purpose is basically "Videogames are a new medium, but they speak to the artistic traditions of the mediums that preceded them and expand on themes and ideas of the past in new ways native to this new interactive medium, and this book shows several ways in which that is true."<br />
<br />
For the essay "The Romantic Dead," the thesis is "TellTale's <i>The Walking Dead</i> and Naughty Dog's <i>The Last of Us</i> are both neo-romantic pieces that update the ideals of romanticism to the post-industrial state."<br />
<br />
<b>2. Preliminary exploration</b><br />
I've done plenty on both these fronts. My <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/">personal gaming blog</a> has several posts I've already written that link literature and videogames. I <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-to-do-things-with-videogames-by-ian.html">read and reviewed Ian Bogost's book</a> <i>How to Do Things With Videogames. </i>I've also curated a lot of content on the debate over videogames as art <a href="http://storify.com/pcbills/video-games-as-art">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Relevance</b><br />
To digital culture: Many lament the rise of digital culture as a kind of death of civilization and great art, but this project seeks to prove otherwise, and instead show how digitally native mediums only enhance art and are just another step forward.<br />
<br />
To a specific audience: I'm hoping the e-book will serve as a kind of primer for humanities students and teachers trying to bring this new form of expression into their classrooms and studies. Also, I feel like serious gamers--especially those who have played the game I write about--will be very interested in these essays just as a way to get them deeper into the worlds of the games they play.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Format</b><br />
Like I said before, I'll have two formats here: one will be a more formal research paper (that could easily be a guest blog post as well) and the other will be an e-book that I'll also have available in PDF format (I have to typeset a book for a print publishing class I'm taking, so I might as well just do this, right?).<br />
<br />
<b>5. Outlet</b><br />
There are several outlets I'm looking at for both sides of this project.<br />
<br />
I really want to submit one or two of the essays to the <a href="http://englishsymposium.byu.edu/">BYU English Symposium</a> to get these discussions going in the BYU community, but there are other venues I'm exploring as well.<br />
<br />
I've been eyeing the online journal <a href="http://gamestudies.org/">Game Studies</a> for awhile, and think "The Romantic Dead" might be a good fit for it. I also like the website <a href="http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/#5">First Person Scholar</a>, and though their call for papers says they focus on graduate students, I still think my work could get accepted there. Finally, the <a href="http://blogs.haverford.edu/rehumanities/">RE: Humanities</a> conference is specifically asking for writing about games, so it could be a venue that is eager to accept my work.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Curation</b><br />
Content for analysis: see the pictures and links in my posts <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-romantic-dead.html">here</a> and <a href="http://storify.com/pcbills/video-games-as-art">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Secondary texts:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Jo Ann Bagerly's doctoral dissertation <i style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/handle/2346/13882" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Henry Treece and the New Apocalypse: a Study of English Neo-Romanticism</span></a></i></li>
<li>Ian Bogost's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Things-Videogames-Electronic-Mediations/dp/081667647X">How to Do Things With Videogames</a></i></li>
<li>Adam Sessler's review of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEs33aWkX2Q">The Last of Us</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
Community:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Greg recently showed me the Google+ community <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109699040042216655232">World of Video Game</a> where he shared a video from one of my posts that currently has 94 +1's.</li>
<li>Subreddits <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/">/r/gaming</a>, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/">/r/truegaming</a>, and <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/">/r/games</a> are all reddit communities interested in games and game thinking</li>
<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108991539698217615018">Video Games</a> is another Google+ community that's very active and encourages a lot of discussion</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>7. Social Proof</b></div>
</div>
<div>
I've worked a lot with both <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299" target="_blank">+Greg Bayles</a> and <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/101937211857446324342" target="_blank">+Gideon Burton</a> already discussing these ideas, and both have reacted positively and encouraged me to move forward. I received a lot of positive feedback when I presented my paper from last semester on Shakespeare and videogames <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/presenting-at-rmmla-my-experience.html">at RMMLA</a>, which encouraged me to keep writing about the connection between literature and videogames. In an information session with the faculty of the MIT graduate program in <a href="http://cmsw.mit.edu/about/">Comparative Media Studies Writing</a>, the director of the MIT Game Lab, Philip Tan said my research works in perfectly with their program and what's going on in game studies right now.<br />
<br />
To be honest, I still feel like I haven't found the community that I know is out there talking about games like I do, but I've found a lot of good people and continue to search all over for like-minded people.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Next steps</b><br />
I have lots of content already, so next steps for me are to figure out the best way to collect these essays into an e-book and how best to distribute that, as well as study the specific submission guidelines for each venue and adapt my work for each of them. I'll also continue searching for communities and venues, just to make sure I get the widest interested audience possible.</div>
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<br />pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-11399597794398543582013-11-30T12:43:00.002-07:002013-11-30T12:47:18.188-07:00Journey and the Epic<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1786747220548711353" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; position: relative; width: 666px;">
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<span style="line-height: 22px;"><i>Here's another re-post from <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/journey-and-epic.html">my personal gaming blog</a> that I'll probably work into my final project.</i></span></div>
<a href="http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-1-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-1-b.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.4;">Journey, developed by thatgamecompany as part of a partnership with Sony, is one of my favorite games ever made. Despite being short, simple, minimalist, and offering virtually no challenge, it has had the biggest impact on me of any game I've ever played, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atyttw6pvjw" style="text-decoration: none;">and</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu9U9LGncPI" style="text-decoration: none;">I'm hardly</a> <a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/why-journey-one-greatest-games-ever-made/" style="text-decoration: none;">the only person</a> <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/997885-journey/62165138" style="text-decoration: none;">to say things</a> <a href="http://www.geekosystem.com/journey-psn-review-best-games/" style="text-decoration: none;">like that</a>. Among the many reasons already given for why Journey is so great, I'd like to add a new one: Journey is actually the simplest, most universal epic poem ever written.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.4;">No matter who you are, where you're from, or what you like, you have had experience with epic poetry. The epic is one of the oldest and broadest literary genres, and nearly every civilization in history has their own epic, or their own version of an epic. The Greeks had <i>The Odyssey</i>, the Romans had <i>The Aeneid</i>, the Anglo-Saxons had<i>Beowulf</i>, the Mesopotamians had Gilgamesh, the Indians have <i>Mahabarata </i>and <i>Ramayana</i>. All of these stories are required reading at some point in school, but more importantly they have shaped their respective cultures in profound ways that continue to the present day.<br /><br />Despite the epic being such a broad and old literary genre, it has a surprising amount of specific characteristics. In <i>A Handbook to Literature</i>, William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman define ten characteristics that most every epic shares:</span><br />
<ol style="line-height: 1.4;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Begins <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_medias_res" style="background-image: none; text-decoration: none;" title="In medias res">in medias res</a>.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Begins with an invocation to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse" style="background-image: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Muse">muse</a> (epic invocation).</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Begins with a statement of the theme.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Includes the use of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithets" style="background-image: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Epithets">epithets</a>.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Contains long lists, called an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_catalogue" style="background-image: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Epic catalogue">epic catalogue</a>.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Features long and formal speeches.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shows divine intervention on human affairs.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Features heroes that embody the values of the civilization.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Often features the tragic hero's descent into the Underworld or hell.</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For a genre that crosses centuries and whole civilizations, that's a surprisingly detailed list of shared characteristics, but it's an accurate list. And Journey features all of them despite just one word of text figuring into the whole experience.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Begins in medias res.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Coming from the Latin term for "in the midst of things," "In medias res" in narrative means starting the story in the middle of the action without any exposition explaining a back story or establishing characters. Journey begins in medias res by nature of the videogame medium. The story opens on the player character sitting in the sand without any explanation about where this character came from, why they're there, or what's going on in this character's life. Indeed, none of these questions are ever fully explained, though we are given some hints throughout the game, especially with the ending.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Journey is not set in our world, but it is strongly implied within the game that what we see constitutes the whole of its own world. In the desert sequences in the beginning, the player can see for what seems like miles in any direction just sand and more sand. The robed creatures, the cloth beings, and their enemy stone snakes are the only living things ever hinted at in the game (excluding the Easter egg references to thatgamecompany's previous games, Flower and flOw, with the flower in the desert and the sea creature in the tower level). The unlockable stone glyphs and the cut scene visions all show only robed creatures and stone snakes--never is it implied that any other living thing inhabits this world, and this struggle of the journeying creatures against the antagonist snakes seems to be all that has ever happened here. This journey to the mountain is all these creatures do. At least, that's how it is now, though it does seem to be implied that thing were different once with all the headstones, the city buried in sand, and the several ruins. In any case, this journey and these characters seem to be the whole world of this fiction.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition to that, however, Journey covers all of our own world as well. As long as the player's Playstation 3 system is connected to the internet, as they head toward the mountain on their journey they will encounter another player's character on the same journey who they can choose to ignore or work with to reach the mountain in the distance. This online multiplayer function does so much more than let you play the game with a friend, however (in fact, it doesn't even do that because you can't choose who you play with, the system just decides which two players will appear in each other's world as they play the same level at the same time and their sessions become linked). By nature of how this multiplayer function is set up, this game suddenly becomes an international, multicultural activity where anyone can play with anyone with no barriers of language, space, religion, politics, or passports. Thus, the world of Journey is literally the entire online population of Earth. So not only is the setting <i>within</i> the narrative vast, but the narrative itself is set as vastly as humanly possible in the largest network humanity has ever produced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Begins with an invocation to the muse.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This element does not appear in Journey, but this trope is linked with only Western epics anyway as it comes from the Greek tradition, and as I've stated before, Journey is trying to be more universal than just European tradition, so it's understandable that this convention was left out.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. Begins with the statement of the theme.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I said before that Journey<i> </i>only has one word of actual text, but even that's a stretch. The one word I was referring to is the title coming on the screen as the player character comes over the very first hill in the game. One could see this as a simple title card typical of many games and films, but in Journey it's also the statement of the theme and the only goal given to the player in the game. As the title appears in a shot where the mountain is central to the player's perspective, the association is obvious and the player concludes easily that the point of the game is to travel to the mountain in the distance. The game doesn't tell the player why they should do this, or even why the player character wishes to do this, but that simple title given in that specific shot is enough to motivate the player to take on the rest of the hour and a half or so that it takes to finish the game. In addition to instruction, however, this title states simply but powerfully the theme of the game as well. The choice of Journey as a title in this case seems especially deliberate. Notice, for instance, how different a feel the game would have if "Go," "Travel," "Walk," or even "Adventure" appeared in that shot with the mountain in the distance. Journeys themselves are a trope of most epics, and a journey is much different thing than a travel or an adventure in fiction. A journey specifically implies struggle, learning, and especially growth and change in the main character. Travel has no such implication, while adventure may imply some growth or change, but it often implies more excitement and playfulness than the word journey. Thus, Journey becomes not only the title, but a statement of theme for the game--this is a game about life's struggles and how we grow and change as we continue on our own life's journeys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. Includes the use of epithets.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Epithets are descriptions of something that reoccur often enough to stand in place of an actual name, or that become part of the name itself. In <i>The Odyssey</i>, Homer uses "wine-dark sea" as an epithet, and titles like "Alexander the Great" are also epithets. In Journey, the lack of any text or speech forces the player to create their own epithets and exclusively use these epithets to describe the characters and places of the narrative. Notice how I myself have dealt with this issue already in this post, calling the player characters "robed creatures" and the antagonists "stone snakes." The settings also have epithets rather than names--"the endless desert," "the buried city," and "the distant mountain." This aspect of Journey as an epic might be completely incidental--there are many reasons to not give the characters or setting names other than to force the player to create epithets for them, but it nevertheless sets Journey still more solidly in the genre of epic poetry.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Contains long lists, called an epic catalogue.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most epics contain long lists of places, people, armor, weapons, or other things. Admittedly, this does not appear in Journey in a traditional way. There are, however, 21 glowing symbols hidden throughout the game that all make the player character's scarf longer (which in turn allows them to fly longer and higher), and 10 hidden glyphs that each show a bit of the history of the robed people. These create a kind of catalogue as players have to pay attention to find all of them, and they spur the creation of text catalogues as players take to the internet to help each other out by listing all their locations. In a way, this videogame version of a catalogue serves a lot of the same function as the epic catalogue as it provides depth to the fictional world with a greater level of detail that allows careful eyes to pinpoint a more exact perspective on the world presented.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Features long and formal speeches</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are obviously no speeches in Journey, but the tone of the whole game is much more formal than most games, and the visions given in the cut scenes between levels seem like a kind of wordless speech from the larger robed figures to the smaller ones as a kind of formal instruction.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Shows divine intervention on human affairs.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This one is featured very prominently in Journey. While it is not entirely clear if they are a deity or not, the larger, white robed figures intervene on behalf of the player to guide and direct, but also to save the player from freezing to death in the final level. Again, while not expressly deity, the white color, the robes, the large size, and the dreamlike scenery in which they appear, as well as they visions they impart to the player character, all link them to common symbols and functions of deity, especially deity that appear in epics. In any case, they have powers beyond the regular player characters and intervene on their behalf, so definitely constitute a kind of divine intervention.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">9. Features heroes that embody the values of civilization.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The player characters in Journey lack all gender, ethnicity, nationality, politics, religion, or any other indicators to mark them as a specific kind of people. Indeed, they only seem like people because they are bipeds with eyes at the top of their head, and seem to wear robes like humans might wear. But their eye color and lack of arms mark them as distinctly not human. However, they still embody the values of the post-modern, post-colonial world by representing truly complete equality. Everyone can relate to these characters, anywhere in the world, and they exclude no human group because they align themselves with none. Additionally, as players from all over the world play together and become equals by playing such equal characters and helping each other through the Journey, these characters further embody the modern world's values of cooperation, diplomacy, and civility across borders and ideologies.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, despite being so aesthetically the same, there are subtle distinctions that make each player still individual. Each player is designated a unique symbol for their "voice" within the game that is totally unique, so that every player has "their own voice," and as players complete the game multiple times the designs on their robes grow more elaborate to symbolize their experience and signal this to other players. Additionally, any player who finds all the glowing symbols in the game is given the ability to change their robe color between white and red. The white robe makes these players look similar to the deity-like characters who guide the player in the end-level visions. Thus, these dedicated players who have found all of the games secrets are allowed to adorn a white robe as a signal to any other players they encounter that they have full knowledge of the world's secrets and can ably guide a less experienced player along. With these nods to individuality inside of characters that symbolize total equality, these characters ably embody all of the modern world's values, just as heroes of every epic have embodied the values of their people.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-9.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The cave sequence of Journey serves as this epic's underworld sequence.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">10. Often features the tragic hero's descent into the Underworld or hell.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is actually the characteristic that brought this whole idea to my attention, as the descent into the underworld is a very stark contrast to the rest of Journey. The colors suddenly change from warm oranges, yellows, and reds to a sudden palate of dark blues and greens. The music and lighting darken, and it is in this portion of the game that the first antagonists appear, the stone snakes that feast on anything cloth and rip the player's scarf away should they cross their path. This section of the game is accessed through a literal descent as the player falls into a deep hole, and the player character's red and orange robes serve as a reminder throughout the sequence of the other-worldliness of the new setting. The descent into this pit from the beautiful and harmonious world of the first few levels makes this sequence feel especially tragic, especially if the snake nabs the player character's scarf and renders them suddenly unable to fly like they have grown accustomed to in the first levels. Even the title of the achievement given to players if they pass this part avoiding any attack from the snakes, "Trials," implies a connection to this trope of epic poetry.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As you can see, Journey successfully adapts the conventions of the epic to the format of videogames, and then takes advantage of this new medium to expand the scope of the epic to a whole new level. Journey is an epic for all people all over the Earth.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once again, I hope this post has shown how videogames, despite being a new medium, speak and react to some of the greatest and most important art in human history, and seek to develop new art aware of tradition but pushing boundaries through modern values and communication technologies.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Images from <a href="http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/" style="text-decoration: none;">thatgamecompany</a>.</span></i></div>
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pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-9268943281996793842013-11-29T14:43:00.001-07:002013-11-29T14:43:45.988-07:00Possible Venues for the Final Paper/Project -- Pinterest and IdentityFinally getting around to posting my list of venues for my final paper on Pinterest and digital identity. I really liked <a href="https://greenfield.blogs.brynmawr.edu/2013/10/17/call-for-papers-womens-studies-area-of-popular-culture-conference-2014/" target="_blank">Greg's suggestion</a> for the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association for the Women's Studies conference, but since the deadline has passed, I thought I should see if I could find something with future deadline and similar subject matter.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rmes.nl/call-for-papers-social-media-and-the-transformation-of-public-space-june-18-20-2014/" target="_blank">Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space</a> -- Although this venue's mission statement says it wants to provide opportunities for doctoral and master's students, it doesn't put that stipulation on those who wish to submit their work. I feel like this would be a good choice for me and lots of other people in my Digital Culture class. It offers a very broad range of topics (such as crowdsourcing in journalism and social media in journalism, <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114944302091911084095" target="_blank">+Kayla Swan</a>) , but the one that I would be interested in is the topic of social media and new practices of identity. Check it out if your topic has anything to do with social media. Proposals are due March 7 and full papers in May.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.catacconference.org/" target="_blank">CATaC 2014 Conference</a> -- Culture, Technology, and Communication (CATaC) holds a biennial publication and conference for subjects regarding culture, technology, and communication. This year's conference is dealing with Design/Production and Practice of the aforementioned topics. The topic that I'm interested in is in the Practice category: the construction of identity using online social media. I think this is the venue that I'm leaning toward submitting to. Because I am focusing on one specific social media platform (Pinterest), I think this will be the best option for me. Papers are due February 14.<br />
<br />
I think that's it for my potential venues. While doing this research, I also found some options for a couple of my classmates. For <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114592885657864829846" target="_blank">+Brittany Hansen</a> I found A Hands-on Approach: The Do-It-Yourself Culture and Economy in the 20th century. Brittany, I'm not sure what your approach is for your paper, but if you have a good historical background connection, then this might be a good venue for you. Next is for <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/103871532342906708511" target="_blank">+Lizy Cole</a>: <a href="http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/48681" target="_blank">Internet Memes and Visual Culture: A Special Issue of a Journal of Visual Culture</a>. According to the description, they said they were very interested in creative formats for submissions in addition to the traditional essay.<br />
<br />
Good luck on your final papers and projects, guys!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-38660873177758234502013-11-26T00:04:00.004-07:002013-12-02T11:11:38.682-07:00Potential Presentation Venues for Digital Civilizations Research<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been looking for different outlets for my research on digital civilizations, so I wanted to post some of my preliminary findings.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/53594">Re: Humanities 2014</a> is an undergraduate conference focusing on digital studies, so I feel like it will be a perfect setting for my research. The submission deadline is fast approaching, so I'm planning on putting together a proposal over the next few days and submitting it to Dr. Burton for feedback so that I can make the December 1st deadline. This would likely be a good venue for just about any of my classmates as well.</li>
<li><a href="https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/53949"><span id="goog_923960486"></span>Interrogating Colonization and New Politics<span id="goog_923960487"></span></a> is a graduate conference held at Bowling Green State University, but I'm going to be contacting the conference coordinators to see if they will consider an undergraduate paper. My topic ties in really well with one of their main topics, which involves "digital frontiers." The deadline isn't until March, so this might give me the chance to really figure out what they are looking for and adapt my work to the requirements in hopes of getting accepted despite my undergraduate status.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_923960491"></span>EDUCAUSE<span id="goog_923960492"></span></a> is also accepting submissions for a conference on digital scholarship, and it has the added benefit of being online as well as in-person. That might prove necessary, as the conference is during the regular school year, and assuming I'm in grad school, I may not have the time nor resources to go gallivanting around Florida (despite the obvious temptation).</li>
</ul>
<div>
As I was looking through papers, I found a couple that might be useful for <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114238132978498635050" target="_blank">+Aleesha Bass</a> or anyone else involved in women's studies in the digital age. <a href="https://greenfield.blogs.brynmawr.edu/2013/10/17/call-for-papers-womens-studies-area-of-popular-culture-conference-2014/">The Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association</a> just recently ended its call for papers for its April 16-April 19 conference, but it may be that they accept late submissions as well. I felt that this would be an especially pertinent area for Aleesha and others. <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/womens-studies-international-forum/call-for-papers/womensgender-studies-and-contemporary-changes/">Elsevier</a> journal also has a call for papers going on right now, though it seems to be more about feminism that about media studies. Anyway, it might be worth looking into.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That's all, though, for now. I'll hopefully post some of my progress by Thursday or Friday, and I'll have a draft up soon for anyone who's interested. Thanks for enduring!</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-43714280316133230202013-11-23T00:11:00.002-07:002013-11-23T00:11:17.901-07:00Virtual Civilizations: Settling the Digital Wilds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Thomas_Baines_-_The_British_Settlers_of_1820_Landing_in_Algoa_Bay_-_1853.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Thomas_Baines_-_The_British_Settlers_of_1820_Landing_in_Algoa_Bay_-_1853.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><div style="text-align: center;">
"The British Settlers of 1820 Landing </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
in Algoa Bay" (1853), by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Baines_-_The_British_Settlers_of_1820_Landing_in_Algoa_Bay_-_1853.png">Thomas Baines</a></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>ell, I wanted to do a video to summarize some of the points that I'm going to be hitting in my research project, but time got the best of me, so for now, it'll have to be just an outline. I'll hopefully get to do a video next week sometime (or maybe tomorrow, if the gods smile upon me). So anyway, here we go with the outline. If you have thoughts or suggestions, <i>please</i> leave them in the comments below! Thanks!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<b>Introduction</b></div>
<div>
-Historical Perspective</div>
<div>
Inheritance of cultural/infrastructural wealth from larger nation (U.S.)</div>
<div>
Requirements for a civilization: what <i>is</i> a civilization?</div>
<div>
-<u>Working Thesis</u>: The Internet represents the heir apparent to the cultural and social wealth of the American 'Empire' and will ultimately serve as a crucible for new, digital civilizations.</div>
<b>Digital Governance</b><br />
-Already taking root among digital communities<br />
Bitcoin nation<br />
EVE Online representative council<br />
Confederation of Democratic Simulators<br />
-True Democracy<br />
-Opt-in citizenship<br />
<b>Virtual Economies</b><br />
-Fiat currency<br />
-Flow of money out of real economy and into digital economies<br />
-Bitcoin and other digital currencies<br />
-Interconnectedness of the two markets: hyperinflation, devaluation of yuan, etc.<br />
<b>Arts in the Digital Age</b><br />
-Arts exploration<br />
Harlem Renaissance<br />
Scottish Highlands<br />
St. Andrews<br />
Museums<br />
Roman Ruins<br />
-Player-authors: crafting our own worlds<br />
<b>Settling the Digital Wilds (Conclusion)</b><br />
<div>
-Monuments of our Age</div>
<div>
-William McGaughey: primary institution of power is the internet</div>
<div>
-Call for virtual settlers</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04730559977449669957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-89068408705701736272013-11-19T16:57:00.000-07:002013-11-19T16:57:11.551-07:00Teens and FandomI decided to be an altruistic scholar on behalf of Victoria (Sorry, <span id="goog_1713433450"></span><a href="http://teamstubb.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-research-on-fandoms-for-victoria.html" target="_blank">Shelly</a><span id="goog_1713433451"></span>, didn't mean to step on your toes!)<br />
<br />
I became interested in the idea of fandom when I was reading the book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10154780-girl-wide-web-2-0?ac=1" target="_blank">Girl Wide Web 2.0</a> for class. It has an article titled “Me/Her/Draco Malfoy: Fangirl
Communitites and Their Fictions” by Jaime Warburton that talks specifically about teen girls and their roles in fan fiction. Although fandom wasn't a prominent point I focused on in my research, I think it will be very helpful for hers. (I have the book if you would like to borrow it, Victoria, since it will not be found anywhere online.)<br />
<br />
I also wanted to look at the sources the author used to write this article to see if they might be any use to Victoria, and I think I found a few. (And of course, there are more listed in the book, but these are that I felt would be of the most benefit to Victoria that I could also find online.)<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Is there a fan in the house?: The
affective sensibility of fandom” by L. Grossberg in <i>The adoring audience: fan
culture and popular media</i> edited by L.A. Lewis. You can find it <a href="http://site.ebrary.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/lib/byuprovo/docDetail.action?docID=5001951" target="_blank">here</a> or by searching on the library website.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Fan Fiction Online: Engagement,
critical response and affective play through writing” by A. Thomas. Australian
Journal of Language and Literacy. You can find it <a href="http://web.ebscohost.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9f42d7b4-4759-4710-9c05-8339de2d91a8%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=128" target="_blank">here</a> or on the library website.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Blurring and breaking through the
boundaries of narrative, literacy, and identity in adolescent fan fiction” in
M. Knobel &C. Lankshear (editors) <i>A new literacies sampler</i>. You can find it <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4Gjs8uT6dxIC&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=Blurring+and+breaking+through+the+boundaries+of+narrative,+literacy,+and+identity+in+adolescent+fan+fiction&source=bl&ots=Fl673rttkt&sig=mTLta765-qwDwaEmYULjtgyeU_4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=swGLUu3TM-amygHT8oHgBw&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Blurring%20and%20breaking%20through%20the%20boundaries%20of%20narrative%2C%20literacy%2C%20and%20identity%20in%20adolescent%20fan%20fiction&f=false" target="_blank">here</a>. I was only able to find this source on Google Books, so it only shows a preview of this particular article, but I still think there will be some useful information for you and I think it is very pertinent to your topic.</blockquote>
<br />
I also stumbled across <a href="http://www.thinkingwithshakespeare.org/index.php?id=390" target="_blank">this website</a> which has already curated a list of articles regarding fan culture.<br />
<br />
I hope this helps, Victoria!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09272503170933937255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-89251900585896305182013-11-19T15:22:00.002-07:002013-11-19T15:22:52.882-07:00The Romantic Dead<i>The following is a post from my personal gaming blog, <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/">Complicate the Narrative</a>. I'm putting it here because it might work into my final project.</i><br />
<br />
<div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">
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<a href="http://i1-games.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/The-Last-of-Us-VGA-2012-Story-Trailer_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #888888; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://i1-games.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/The-Last-of-Us-VGA-2012-Story-Trailer_2.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wrote a little bit last week about my experience with TellTale's <a href="http://complicatethenarrative.blogspot.com/2013/11/thats-not-game.html" style="text-decoration: none;">The Walking Dead</a> and the rise of what I've come to call "film-games." In that post, I also talked about The Last of Us, another of my favorite games of all time. The two games share a surprising amount of similarities (while feeling like entirely different games), but one that particularly catches my attention is that both could are works of Neo-Romanticism.<br /><a href="" name="more"></a><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(*Sigh* I guess I'm morally obligated to tell you, I will be "spoiling" these games, to the extent that the enjoyment of art really depends on the revelations of its plot.)</i></span><div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a name='more'></a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Romanticism, as you may have learned somewhere in high school or college, is an extremely broad term given to art, literature, music, and other forms of expression in the late 18th century in Europe and the US that focused on individual expression, nature, and subjectivity. It is also closely tied with the Gothic, the movement focusing on the supernatural, the dark, and the inexplicable (you know, like zombies). The leading writers of the Romantic period included William Wordsworth, William Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These guys thought that the best thing for humanity was getting away from civilization and getting into nature, letting its beauty and power (a combination they often called "the sublime") wash over and overwhelm the human heart and mind, which would have a kind of cleansing effect on our souls. A man's greatest possession, in their eyes, were his own memories of such moments, which when "<a href="http://www.bartleby.com/39/36.html" style="text-decoration: none;">recollected in tranquility</a>," caused the "powerful overflow of emotion" necessary to inspire truly great art. Basically, they focused on feeling over thought, beauty over meaning, and the natural over the civilized.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br />Perhaps the quickest way to get an understanding of the Romantic movement is to look at some typical art of the period:</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/The_Course_of_Empire_The_Savage_State_Thomas_Cole_1836.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="243" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/The_Course_of_Empire_The_Savage_State_Thomas_Cole_1836.jpeg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Thomas Cole, <i>The Course of Empire: The Savage State </i>(1836)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="http://myweb.stedwards.edu/mcaputo/nature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://myweb.stedwards.edu/mcaputo/nature.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Thomas Jones, <i>The Bard</i> (1774)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Caspar_David_Friedrich_032_(The_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog).jpg/300px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_032_(The_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Caspar_David_Friedrich_032_(The_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog).jpg/300px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_032_(The_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog).jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="312" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Caspar David Friedrich, <i>Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog</i>, 1818</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These pictures (provided by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism" style="text-decoration: none;">Wikipedia</a>), instantly give the sense of awe and wonder the Romantics aimed for. Notice how humans are de-emphasized (if they're even present) either by appearing very small, weak, or in contemplation of the greater nature around them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But did you notice something? Look back from these paintings to the picture at the top of this post. See any similarities? That top picture is a screenshot from The Last of Us, and the that's only the beginning of the similarities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most scholars agree that the original Romantic movement was in large part a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and its mechanizing influence on humanity and the Earth. The Romantics saw value in staying away from the over-regulated and materialistic world of machines and increased production to find the more satisfying and better life among nature. Essentially, the resisted the change from the old "natural" world to the new mechanical world building up around them. In contrast, the "Neo-Romanticism" as portrayed in The Last of Us and The Walking Dead is a reaction against the post-industrial state and a return to the old natural world. For example, contrast how the images above show man's slowly growing influence over nature with the following image, also a screenshot from The Last of Us.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/The-Last-of-Us-1-640x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/The-Last-of-Us-1-640x360.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here, we see the reverse situation, namely, nature's growing influence over the fallen world of humanity. After nearly a century of man's supposed dominance over the natural world, The Last of Us presents a world where man's reign over the earth has failed and nature is quickly reclaiming the land. Notably, it is <i>because</i> of nature itself that man fails in the world of The Last of Us--the apocalyptic pandemic in the game is the fictional mutation of a real-world fungus called <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps" style="text-decoration: none;">cordyceps</a></i>, which infects ants and spiders and causes erratic, aggressive behavior. In the world of The Last of Us, nature gives the original Romantics what they always wanted by subduing humanity and taking back the Earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As a result of this, in both games, those who are closest to nature survive. The Last of Us begins in rural Texas, where the protagonist Joel and his brother Tommy only escape infection because they live outside of "the city." The major conflicts of the game happen in fallen cities (Boston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City), and the few moments of peace in between come from walks in the woods, a dam in the middle of the Wyoming wilderness, and a section of Salt Lake City that nature has reclaimed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Walking Dead is similar in that the disasters happen in fallen cities, and relief is found in the countryside. In the first and second episodes, the protagonist Lee Everett and his group find refuge on farms. The first episode shows a simple farm family surviving by use of manual labor and home-grown remedies, living close to nature and therefore getting by. In the second episode, the relationship between humanity and nature gets more complicated when the group finds a dairy farm owned by the St. John family, who seem to have successfully guarded themselves and their property from the zombie apocalypse by use of an electric fence, leaving the farm a picturesque reminder of the ordered, rational days before the zombie outbreak. However, this illusion of human control is soon lost as (spoilers) it comes out that the only way they've been able to maintain this lifestyle it by turning to cannibalism, emphasizing how unnatural this throwback to the age of humans is in the natural order. In later episodes, characters suggest to Lee that the only safety can be found "in the country" and indeed, the epilogue to season 1 shows Clementine in temporary safety out in the hills of the Georgia countryside.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://www.inmotiongaming.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Walking-Dead-Dairy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://www.inmotiongaming.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Walking-Dead-Dairy.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The St. Johns' Dairy from Season 1, Episode 2 of TellTale's The Walking Dead</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another idea often associated with Romanticism is the "noble savage," an inherently racist conception of native, non-industrialized "other"s as symbolic of freedom from civilization's influence and/or the harmony of nature and humanity. Some popular characters that fall into this trope include Uncas from <i>The Last of the Mohicans</i>, Jim from <i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i>, and even Pocahontas in the Disney animated version of her story and the Na'vi from the 2009 film <i>Avatar.</i> In following with the pattern of reversal that make The Last of Us and The Walking Dead a particular kind of <i>neo-</i>Romanticism, both of these games present characters I propose are instead "savage nobles." Whereas the noble savage represented a non-industrialized society finding wisdom through nature, the savage noble is a <i>de-</i>industrialized character forced into finding his or her way by natural means, which often forces them outside of the moral paradigm of their old life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The protagonists of both of these games are savage nobles. Lee Everett is a history professor whose first act of "savagery" happened just before the actual outbreak when he found his wife with another man and killed him in his anger. After the outbreak, Lee only survives as he descends more into a natural "survival of the fittest" mindset, and the entire game hinges on presenting the player with choices that do not imply exactly a right or a wrong, but almost always present a choice between the morals of a civilized world and the realities of this new natural world. Joel from The Last of Us represents many American ideals before the outbreak, working hard in construction and apparently planning to to start his own company before the fungus jumped to humans and his daughter was killed by a soldier in an attempt to contain the outbreak. From that point, the official description from <a href="http://www.thelastofus.com/characters.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Naughty Dog</a> (the developers of The Last of Us) tells us that Joel takes "numerous de-humanizing jobs over the years to survive in this new post-pandemic world" and that by the time when the main story of the game takes place, he has "few moral lines left to cross." Both characters are forced into a nomadic hunter-gatherer mindset to survive, having to pick supplies up from broken homes and vehicles to get by in their post-apocalyptic worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have used the versions of the word "apocalypse" several times already in this post, as does culture in general when referring to fiction such as The Walking Dead and The Last of Us. In the case of these two games, however, they are not just apocalyptic in subject matter, but in literary form as well. In her doctoral dissertation<i><a href="http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/handle/2346/13882" style="text-decoration: none;">Henry Treece and the New Apocalypse: a Study of English Neo-Romanticism</a>, </i>Jo Ann Bagerly looks at a group of artists and writers actually called the Apocalyptics, a group defined as "any poet adhering concurrently to a deep belief in the decadence of the world, a prophetic confidence in its renovation, and the conviction that his age is the transitional period between the two" (p. 3). Perhaps it is more poignant in The Last of Us, but both of these games carry an inherent environmentalist argument, which is their version of "a deep belief in the decadence of the world." Both games also contain arguments for the necessity of understanding and acceptance for different groups, and warn against over-powerful central governments. However, both offer a glimmer of hope through the power of loving interpersonal relationships, as symbolized by both of the protagonists' relationships to the girls whom they meet and grow close to in their respective stories, Ellie and Clementine (who both become the true protagonists of these stories by their end). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Quoting J.F. Hendry's work "Writers and the Apocalypse," Bagerly also unintentionally gives an excellent summary of the ultimate point of both of these games: "the war is not against the object, since it is hopeless ever to try to free man from matter, but to attain optimum living fusion between man and total environment" (p. 51). Again quoting Hendry, she also unwittingly sums up the goals of the writers of both of these games: "Poets should be concerned with the personal reactions of man to man, where those reactions are honest and individual, not falsified by group propaganda...and those who have eyes to see and ears to hear shall learn from his Apocalyptic utterance his problem and their own problem, his solution and their own solution" (p. 53) Compare this to Neil Druckmann's (head writer and creative director for The Last of Us) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKovsNkPntI#t=273" style="text-decoration: none;">own statement on his goals for the game</a>: "At its core, the thing we kept coming to was that relationship, that bond between these two characters...as these two characters go on this journey, every place they stop, we kind of explore a different faction and how they deal with the lack of supplies, or the threat of the infection, or the threat of other humans." Everything from Hendry's quotes is there: personal relationships, fusion between man and environment, different problems and different solutions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Last of Us and The Walking Dead are great <i>games</i>. They're fun, they're exciting, and they take the player on amazing journeys. But what I hope I've proved here is that they're not just that. These games are directly speaking to literary and artistic tradition--and adding their own voices to those traditions. These two are certainly not the only games out there to do this, and they most definitely will not be the last. Games as intelligent as these are really just beginning, and it is my view that some of the greatest cultural contributions of this century are yet to come from this medium.</span></div>
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pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-40498648267726641052013-11-19T15:13:00.000-07:002013-11-19T21:54:18.064-07:00Two Can Play at This GameAfter <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/breaking-down-video-game-resources-for.html">Greg rained info on me</a> like mana from heaven, I've taken it as a personal challenge to respond in kind. Here we go, <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114528068819576237299" target="_blank">+Greg Bayles</a>. Have some stuff on digital civilizations/nations and virtual worlds.<br />
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<b>Digital Nations:</b><br />
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This <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/the_rise_of_facebook_nation/">article</a> is a chapter from <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-know-who-you-are-and-i-saw-what-you-did-lori-andrews/1105151134?ean=9781451650518&itm=1&usri=i+know+who+you+are+and+i+saw+what+you+did">this book</a> that deals more with privacy, but also suggests that Facebook deserves a constitution, especially since David Cameron (Prime Minister of the UK) met with Mark Zuckerberg as if he were a head of state.<br />
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<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IWG/comments/1cfj9t/digital_nation_constitution_whole_1st_rough_draft/">This is a reddit user's</a> attempt to make a whole constitution for the "Digital Nation."<br />
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<b>Virtual Worlds:</b><br />
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/mKgkX58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://i.imgur.com/mKgkX58.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/mKgkX58.jpg">This image</a> is from <a href="http://www.garrysmod.com/">Gary's Mod</a> which I found from <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1qyws8/pc_gamers_hanging_out_watching_pros_play_a_pc/">this reddit thread</a> where a lot of users talk about how they've "lived" inside the game. In addition to going to a bar to watch professional gamers play another game from inside the game, people have read the entire Lord of the Rings series, watched whole movies, and more.<br />
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<a href="http://kotaku.com/two-astounding-new-everquest-games-are-coming-full-de-1002721647">This article</a> is about the upcoming <a href="https://www.everquestnext.com/">EverQuest Next</a>, a game which is actually two games presented in two phases. The first phase is EverQuest Next Landmark, where players will be free to establish towns, settlements, cities, etc. to establish the world, then when that phase is done and enough of the world is built, they'll start the real MMORPG of fighting and stuff, but you can still build things too.<br />
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I haven't seen Greg talk much about <a href="http://secondlife.com/">Second Life</a>, so here's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Life-The-Official-Guide/dp/047009608X">a book</a> (check out the Amazon suggestions at the bottom for even more--even a guide on building a business in Second Life), <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB118670164592393622">an article</a> about some ethical questions it raises, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyiiWxNguGo&list=PLC31ohsOopvfzBX5a3eazFKwtQTWWUGb4">a video</a> showing how one woman used Second Life to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's and create a "reality in a different form" for herself. (Posting that video on Google+ got almost an instant response from its creator <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114833392168923133604" target="_blank">+Draxtor Despres</a>, whose posts offer endless interesting material about second life as a virtual world.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.smallworlds.com/">Small Worlds</a> is a more cartoony, more social media-centric virtual world, and <a href="http://www.gameguru.in/features/2013/30/games-like-smallworlds/">this article</a> shows a few others like it.<br />
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An idea that seems to be HUGE that I had never heard of before is the Metaverse. From what I can gather, this is a large-scale collaborative effort to guide a single, cohesive virtual world alongside the real world. Get what you can out this website <a href="http://metaverseroadmap.org/index.html">here</a>, but make sure you check out their "Metaverse Roadmap" <a href="http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/overview/">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.uniiverse.com/home">Uniiverse</a> is a digital service to help people meet each other and find events they would be interested in in real life.<br />
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<a href="http://runemark.com/about/">The Odin Project</a> is a group trying to build a virtual world that's based here at BYU. I honestly don't know very much about this group, but they may be able to help you if you get in contact with them. For more info, you can contact <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/105636087146050933042" target="_blank">+Martin Mumford</a> at mysteriousartifact@gmail.com.<br />
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Okay, I'm running out of time to work on this post, and it turns out that I may not have found <i>quite</i> as much as Greg did, but I hope this helps.<br />
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Good luck, Greg!<br />
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<br />pobbleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15019393061809750899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8233359482213412697.post-52443055742877047512013-11-18T11:03:00.002-07:002013-11-19T01:14:50.993-07:00Breaking Down the Video Game: Resources for Reading Video Games<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQzhgU2J5JUkaGxiEioUdB_UmwiP_YBQctHjhYKK5_W7IVZrToL" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQzhgU2J5JUkaGxiEioUdB_UmwiP_YBQctHjhYKK5_W7IVZrToL" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Are video games art? Can we look at them as 'literary' works?<br />
What critical theories aid in understanding and distilling<br />
meaning from video games? How can we 'read' video games?<br />
Hopefully these resources will help to answer some of these<br />
questions!</td></tr>
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I've been really fascinated by <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/116054753762546496983" target="_blank">+Paul Bills</a>'s research on video games, so I decided to take a few minutes to contribute some resources for his study of video game "literacy." Paul has been working on a <a href="http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/11/preliminary-book-outline-for-how-to.html">book proposal</a> for a work on how to "read" video games from a critical pers<i>the medium</i> of the 21st century, so I'm excited to see people like Paul engaging in formal analysis of games. They will, no doubt, play an integral role in the future of media studies, and realistically, they are on track to become one of the most powerful tools for audience engagement and social change.<br />
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I started off by doing a search for "reading video games," and that didn't turn up much of anything useful (mostly just a bunch of pseudo-games that teach reading). I then decided to try searching for "critical analysis of video games," and this turned up some really great material. I've divided into three categories: courses/syllabi, books, and miscellaneous (though still valuable) resources.<br />
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Courses/Syllabi</h3>
<span style="background-color: #eaeef1; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/wiki/level-3-dot-2-critical-analysis-of-games">CN-1331-GAMEDC: Game Design Concepts</a> This is a MOOC taught by Sebastian Sohn on game design. It looks at key concepts in terms of production and critical analysis of games (non-specific to video games). There is a syllabus and a number of other useful resources, but I found the <a href="https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/wiki/level-3-dot-2-critical-analysis-of-games">page on critical analysis</a> to be the most pertinent. Sohn could also be a great contact for social proof.<br />
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<a href="http://people.uncw.edu/tirrellj/sitearchive/fa11/sites.google.com/site/eng496writingandvideogames/index.html">ENGL 496: Writing and Video Games</a> This is a undergraduate senior seminar course taught by Dr. Jeremy Tirrell at University of North Carolina Wilmington. What initially caught my attention was that the course site displays "avatar levels" for the students based on their achievement in the class. I soon realized that this site was a valuable resource for both student and professor contacts, and it addresses a number of topics related to video game analysis. Especially interesting was the <a href="http://people.uncw.edu/tirrellj/sitearchive/fa11/sites.google.com/site/eng496writingandvideogames/assignments/critical-analysis-essay.html">Critical Analysis Essay</a> assignment, which basically asked for a literary analysis of a video game or small collection of games.<br />
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Based on my readings of various syllabi, it<br />
looks like McKenzie Wark's <i><i>Gamer Theory </i></i><br />
is a pretty important work in critical game studies.</div>
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<a href="http://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20111/18375.pdf">CTIN 462: Critical Theory and Analysis of Video Games</a> This course is taught in USC's School of Cinematic Arts by William Huber. It examines video games from different critical perspectives, including post-modernism, feminism, and aestheticism, among others. The links in the syllabus are perhaps the most useful, as they point to a number of articles and thinkers pertaining to critical study of video games. They led me to <a href="http://futureofthebook.org/gamertheory2.0/">Gamer Theory</a>, a site produced by McKenzie Wark in collaboration with the Institute for the Future of the Book. It has a ton of interesting perspectives on video games, and it seems especially interesting that it is supported by an organization espousing the "future of the <i>book.</i>"<br />
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<a href="http://www.tannerhiggin.com/teaching/critical-videogame-culture/">Critical Videogame Culture</a> This is a proposed course, conceived by Tanner Higgin. It integrates games into the actual course (students download Steam games as required course materials!) and uses them to demonstrate certain ideas as pertaining to critical theory. Higgin has a ton of resources on this site, so he'd likely be a good contact. I also thought it was interesting that Higgin quotes McKenzie Wark (from the previous syllabus), in that I hadn't heard of her before. She seems to be a fairly important figure in video game studies. Her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674025199?ie=UTF8&tag=sense&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674025199">Game Theory</a> would likely be a good resource.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sessions.edu/certificate-programs/course-game-analysis-criticism">Game Analysis and Criticism</a> This course, taught by Greg Marlow at Sessions College, looks at what makes games successful and artistic. It's not as pertinent perhaps as the other courses, but it still addresses video games from a critical perspective, and the instructor and/or course content developer might be useful contact.<br />
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Books</h3>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Video-Games-Textual-Strategies/dp/0415960568/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756285&sr=1-7&keywords=interpret+video+games">The Meaning of Video Games: Gaming and Textual Strategies</a> (2008), by Steven E. Jones.<br />
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This is perhaps a little bit outdated, but it definitely goes hand in hand with Paul's study of video game literacy. It basically looks at games from a textual studies approach and builds on the assumption that video games are already meaningful, from a number of perspective.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Forever-Voyaging-History-Storytelling/dp/1480005754/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756285&sr=1-1&keywords=interpret+video+games">A Mind Forever Voyaging: A History of Storytelling in Video Games</a> (2012), by Dylan Holmes<br />
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Holmes looks at the history of storytelling in video games, addressing along the way how how the introduction of moral choices in games has affected the industry, how film techniques have enhanced/detracted from the gaming experience, whether video games can be considered art, and and number of other pertinent topics.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Well-Played-1-0-Video-Meaning-ebook/dp/B003JTHD04/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756406&sr=1-1&keywords=criticism+%22video+game%22">Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning</a> (2009) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Well-Played-2-0-Video-Meaning-ebook/dp/B004HW7DSE/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756406&sr=1-2&keywords=criticism+%22video+game%22">Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning</a> (2010), by Drew Davidson</div>
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The Amazon book info says it better than I could: "This book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. 22 contributors (developers, scholars, reviewers and bloggers) look at video games through both senses of “well played.” The goal is to help develop and define a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. " The only thing that I might add is that both are free for Kindle.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Video-Games-Essential-Introduction/dp/0415896975/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756406&sr=1-3&keywords=criticism+%22video+game%22"> Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction</a> (2012), by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Video-Games-Essential-Introduction/dp/0415896975/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384756406&sr=1-3&keywords=criticism+%22video+game%22#"></a> , and Susana Pajares Tosca<br />
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Examines the predominant analytical theories for evaluating meaning in video games and takes a look at game aesthetics and design. Lays out the history of games and presents a number of modern moral/ethical dilemmas surrounding the game industry.</blockquote>
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Miscellaneous Resources </h3>
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<a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/critical-hit-a-video-game-critical-theory-primer-1428419/">Critical Hit - A Video Game Critical Theory Primer</a> This got me really excited because it comes out of a video game forum rather than a formal/education institution. It has a lot of people who chimed in about how interested they are in these topics, and it provides links to a number of really valuable resources like <a href="http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton">Game Studies</a>, an open scholarly journal about video games. The link I provided should take you to an article entitled, "Game Analysis: Developing a Methodological Toolkit for the Qualitative Study of Games," by Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton.<br />
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Below are some other links. They are less rigorous and/or less specific to Paul's topic, but they provide some interesting insights:</div>
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<a href="http://sites.duke.edu/lit80s_02_f2013/2013/09/30/video-games-a-critical-analysis/">Video Games: A Critical Analysis</a> (We need to study video games because...)</div>
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<a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/greg-madden/2013/05/how-interactive-stories-in-video-games-open-doors-to-critical-interpretation/">How Interactive Stories In Video Games Open Doors To Critical Interpretation</a> (Thinking about games academically)</div>
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Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully this proves useful for Paul and anyone else interested in studying video games from a critical or academic perspective.</div>
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