Gameology

Visiting Assistant Professor in Professional Writing

2008-05-08T14:54:54-04:00

Visiting Assistant Professor in Professional Writing Position, U of Central Florida, Department of English, PO Box 161346 Orlando FL 32816
The Department of English at the University of Central Florida seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor specializing in Professional Writing to be employed at our Southern region campus. The non-tenure track position requires a PhD in English, Rhetoric/Composition, or a related field with specialization in technical and/or professional communication from an accredited institution and the ability to teach undergraduate and graduate courses. Position begins August 2008. Teaching load is 4/4. Possible assignments will include courses in our online Graduate Certificate in Professional Writing and our online M.A. in Technical Communication as well as our undergraduate professional writing and technical communication courses. Face-to-face courses and office hours will be primarily on UCF's Southern region campus in Cocoa. Must have expertise in developing and teaching web-based courses or be willing to teach online after receiving training on campus.
The Department has over 60 full-time faculty and awards the B.A. in three fields-technical communication, literature, and creative writing. The Department also offers M.A. programs in these three fields as well as a graduate certificate in professional writing, the M.F.A. in creative writing, and a Ph.D in Texts and Technology. The sixth largest university in the country, UCF is located in Orlando, Florida, one of the most dynamic metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Send letter of interest, curriculum vitae, an article-length writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to Dr. Dawn Trouard, Interim Chair, Department of English, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 161346, Orlando, FL 32816-1346. Review of applications will begin on May 22 and will continue until the position is filled. Because of our commitment to diversity, we actively seek applications from women and minorities. UCF is an EO/AA employer. Search documents may be viewed by the public upon request, in accordance with Florida Statute.

Grand Thesis... ah I can't bring myself to finish this pun

2008-05-07T16:48:07-04:00

Now I realise that videogame academia isn't about spruiking specific products - Anatomy of the FPS anyone? - but Grand Theft Auto IV has just come out! Just what grad students and academics need in addition to papers, teaching and unwritten theses.
Even for those of us who aren't playing/researching the GTA IV, it's fascinating how hard it is to avoid the game's cultural splash damage. Within hours of the release, I saw online videos of people doing stupid things in Liberty City or hunting out Easter Eggs. Apparently the in-game radio stations are pitch-perfect parodies of grating deejays and cretinous shock-jocks as well as the mellifluous , expansively liberal tones of NPR's All Things Considered (the latter interview also interesting for those who want to hear Lazlo Jones' take on Stravinsky).
GTA IV has prised open existing issues surrounding videogames, and thrown up new ones. Concerns about violence and sex, of course, are doing the rounds; but also their converse - Australia, which lacks a 18+ designation for games, has a censored version appearing in shops (apparently New Zealand also has to suffer the indignity). Does the increasing realism of games such as GTA IV affect the status of sexuality and violence within them? How do we read the portrayal of race and the function of stereotypes in such a text? Is there any political potential to the vicious satire, or is it simply symptomatic of consumer culture's morbid self-obsession? Does the success of this iteration highlight a growing preference for sandbox style game design over more tightly structured advancement through virtual space and time? What are some of the most interesting peripheral cultural forms arising from the game and how does the fan culture work? Is there more to this all than succès de scandale?
So are any Gameologists hanging out in Liberty City? What are your thoughts?

Video Game Canon

2008-05-01T00:05:54-04:00

A little over a year ago the NY Times and various other media outlets and blogs reported on Henry Lowood, Warren Spector, Steve Meretzky, Mario Bittanti, and Christopher Grant's list of the ten most important games of all time.
Many referred to it as the creation of the first video game canon.
Certainly we are all aware of the problems of creating any kind of canon yet I think we all recognize their usefulness as well---if only as the subject of critique.
I am faced with this same dilemma now that I am creating exam reading lists for my Ph.D. exams. One of my professors thought it would be a good idea to have, in addition to the theoretical texts I am reading, a list of objects of study which might include games, films, art works, etc. It's an interesting problem that few others in my department have to grapple with. I am in an English department therefore most of the other students have a readymade canon to draw from given the literary period or genre they study.
Has anyone out there attempted to compile such a list of artifacts they either believe should comprise some kind of canon or, perhaps, simply find most useful in their research?
The only other list I have found is available at Georgia Tech's Literature, Communication, and Culture website. There they have all of the books and cultural artifacts listed which their Ph.D. students can select from to compile exam lists. The games available for selection are: Space War, Pong, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. 3, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Adventure, Zork, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Myst, The Last Express, Civilization, Sim City, The Sims as well as various Interactive Fiction and "Narrative Computational Research Projects" such as Facade. A rather eclectic mix.
My specific interests are in games which deal with race, gender, and power, however, I would enjoy hearing from anyone who has created a list of key texts. I know I am finding it really helpful as a preparatory exercise prior to dissertation writing to try and construct a list of games which I think are important to look at.
UPDATE 5/2/08
With help of microscopiq, I am putting together a preliminary list of games which feature black characters. You can take a look at my list on my blog.

Gameology on Twitter

2008-04-27T22:20:35-04:00

A few Gameology folks are on Twitter. Thus far, I've found Zach and Matt B., and I'm on it too, but I'll be looking to find others, and hopefully those not on will join. I'd previously abstained from microblogging/twittering because I thought it was too short and quick to be as useful as I wanted, but it's all I have time for lately and that makes it much more useful than the alternative. Plus, it's fun right now and anything fun is especially nice at the end of the semester and with the ever-rising heat of summer. It's more fun with more people so those with the time should join and follow their Gameology friends. (Be a follower, and have others follow you--such great wording for a social app!)

Research Software and Tools

2008-04-03T03:12:49-04:00

The time for Ph.D. exam preparation is fast approaching (I really should start this summer) and I have been trying to develop strategies for successful note taking, organization, research, and scheduling.
I was initially inspired by D. Travers Scott's blog courageously chronicling his exam reading. After some more searching I stumbled across David Parry's excellent blog discussing a variety of different tech tools for academics, Academhack.
So far I have gotten a hold of EndNote on the recommendation of a colleague, but have yet to really play around with it. I have been told it is incredibly helpful in terms of managing and implementing citations.
I have also started my own blog which I hope to utilize, at least until I find a better solution, as a space for venting and filing of notes.
I have taken a brief look at some other applications for note taking but none seem to be quite as functional as a basic blog. Blogs have a decent interface as well as good categorization, linking, and commenting functionality. However, I am sure there must be something better.
Are there any killer apps people would recommend for academic work? Or perhaps even general suggestions and advice for exams and dissertation?

Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds

2008-03-25T13:10:32-04:00

[The deadline for this call has already passed.]

What: Journal, "Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds"

Deadline For Submissions: 1 May 2008

Details:
The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds is a peer-refereed, international journal which focuses on theoretical and applied, empirical, critical, rhetorical, creative, economic and professional approaches to the study of electronic games across platforms and genres as well as ludic and serious online environments such as Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and Second Life. The Journal aims at researchers and professionals working in and researching creative new media and entertainment software around the globe and seeks to document, harmonise, juxtapose and critically evaluate cutting-edge market trends, technological developments, as well as socio-cultural, political, economic and psychological concerns. It informs its readers about recent events such as conferences, and features long articles, short papers, poster abstracts, interviews, reports and reviews of relevant new publications, websites, virtual environments and electronic artefacts.
Contributions are invited from all fields of game studies research, design and development. We seek to provide a platform for vivid information interchange between academia and industry, between scholarship and professionalism, between theory, criticism and practice. Typical subject areas include
• Theory and criticism: e.g. narratology, ludology, philosophy, gender, race, identity, history (of and in games), rhetorical approaches, discourse analysis and semiotics, genre criticism and cultural studies
• Social and psychological concerns: e.g. (online) communities, participation, interaction, identity formation, networks, violence and addiction, emotion, children’s social behaviour, cognitive effects, e-learning and education
• Design issues: e.g. developments in 3D modelling, authenticity and realism, mimesis, screenwriting, sound effects, composition, static vs. moving image, cut scenes, background vs. foreground, multimodality, simulation and game engines
• Reception and production: e.g. ethnography, customer research, therapeutic and hazardous effects, serialisation, adaptation, franchising, commercial vs. serious games, transmediation, intermediality, artificial intelligence, and new literacy studies.
Submission deadline for publication in October 2008: 1st May 2008.
Please send your manuscript as a Word-file e-mail attachment to a.ensslin@bangor.ac.uk or e.muse@bangor.ac.uk.
Word limits:
Long articles: 4,000-6,000 words
Short articles: 3,000-4,000 words
Conference reports: 500-1,000 words
Reviews (books, websites, games and other relevant software) and interviews: 1,500-2,000 words
For questions on formatting and spelling, please consult the Intellect Style Guide: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/auth/links/StyleGuide.pdf and/or contact the Editors at a.ensslin@bangor.ac.uk.
For book reviews, please contact the Reviews Editor, Dr Matthew S.S. Johnson at matjohn@siue.edu.

Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures on the Internet

2008-03-23T19:26:19-04:00

View more information about this reference.

Lisa, Nakamura,. Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. <http://www.amazon.com/Digitizing-Race-Cultures-Electronic-Mediations/dp/0816646139/>

Lisa Nakamura's Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures on the Internet focuses on race and the Internet within a contemporary frame where Internet usage has moved from niche interest to mainstream, everyday use. Digitizing Race uses visual culture studies as a method, explaining visual culture studies and then moving to focused critiques in each of the chapters. Using visual culture studies, Nakamura offers Digitizing Race as a book on "digital race formation, which would parse the ways that digital modes of cultural production and reception are complicit with this ongoing process" (14). As a whole, Digitizing Race is an excellent introduction to media and culture students and a needed work for its focus on race in relation to a post-Internet world. Not only does Nakamura examine the forms and their uses, but also the methods by which visual artifacts and cultures of the Internet are created, used, understood, and communicated across media and culture.
Digitizing Race enhances visual culture studies and media studies through its focused analysis, or parsing, of visual culture on some of the earlier, but continuing forms on Internet, including forums, chat avatars, and film, music videos, advertisements, and other forms on and based on some of the norms from the earlier or at least less academically explored cultures of the Internet. Digitizing Race is divided into several chapters, many of which have overlapping and interrelated concerns as they all offer different means of parsing digital race formation on the Internet and through the culture surrounding the digital. The chapters are:
Introduction: Digital Racial Formations and Networked Images of the Body
1. "Ramadan is Almoast Here!" The Visual Culture of AIM Buddies, Race, Gender, and the Nation on the Internet
2. Alllooksame? Mediating Visual Cultures of Race on the Web
3. The Social Optics of Race and Networked Interfaces in The Matrix Trilogy and Minority Report
4. Avatars and the Visual Culture of Reproduction on the Web
5. Measuring Race on the Internet: Users, Identity, and Cultural Difference in the United States
Epilogue: The Racio-Visual Logic of the Internet
In the "Introduction," Nakamura covers the emergence of visual culture studies from the "initial disavowal of the digital by art history" (9) as a factor leading to and subsequently supporting visual culture studies for its ability "to help parse the complex visual fields that we inhabit and that condition our interactions when we use shared digital networks" (10). She continues to argue that "studies of digital visual culture have yet to discuss networking, social spaces, or power relations in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender, but have done a superb job at parsing the history of digitality's address to the eye. Studies from a communications perspective have discussed the dynamics of online interaction quite exhaustively but fail to integrate their findings into readings of what the sites do visually" (10). The rest of the book builds from this argument and expands into how digital visual culture studies can correct this absence while performing just this sort of analysis on a variety of media objects and their uses within different communities. The early sections begin with more concrete examples, including a Jennifer Lopez video and AIM chat buddy icons, offering a close study of the artifacts and their uses and then building to more complex examples and their interactions, while still including complementary concrete examples and thus avoiding so much potential confusion given the multitude of factors and their even more varied dependencies.
The first official chapter, "'Ramadan is Almoast Here!' The Visual Culture of AIM Buddies, Race, Gender, and the Nation on the Internet" offers a close study of AIM icons and their placement and function for identity politics given that their relationship to signatures and avatars, commercial products as non-mass produced objects, relationship to the community as shared cultural creations, their visual status as non-cartoon and non-photorealistic. The fourth chapter "Avatars and the Visual Culture of Reproduction on the Web" also deals with many of the same concerns related to signatures and icons, but it does so within the frame of pregnancy communities on the web. Nakamura moves fluidly from pregnancy guidebooks and websites to forum and community signatures or "siggies" of ASCII and simple images, and then to related DIY cultures and "reborn dolls" with modified doll parts to seem closest to real babies to DIY and hacking as part of computing and women's cultures (as many sites like Etsy and Ravelry can attest), and to other dolls and their relationship to androids and cyborgs as with the American Girl dolls which are created with memories and cultural memories at that, and then connects all of this to a critique of "taste" for higher culture and to questions of ownership with ideas of a website homepage as a virtual room of one's own as compared to those coming later to the internet because of restricted access/representation, so the signature becomes a mark indicating spaces of one's own. All of this is covered in a single chapter, along with the relationship of all of these elements and their connections as they become memorializations of the past and memorials for the future with digital scrapbooking as "memory consultation" and women's web work as an extension of the offline work in keeping family histories and memories.
Film serves as a backdrop and a source for the second and third chapters "Alllooksame? Mediating Visual Cultures of Race on the Web" and "The Social Optics of Race and Networked Interfaces in The Matrix Trilogy and Minority Report." The second chapter, "Alllooksame" begins with the Navajo codetalkers in Windtalkers (2002) and the ability of a language to be a code through its placement "'off the map' of known languages" (73). Working from this example, Nakamura explores how language functions as a code for normalcy and racial identity, relating language and race to the Turing Test, judicial and legal systems, and the site Alllooksame.com. Through a deep exploration of Alllooksame.com as a site of community investigation and creation, Nakamura offers an excellent analysis of how language and race function as codes in text, speech, and image. Like "Alllooksame?", the third chapter "The Social Optics of Race and Networked Interfaces in The Matrix Trilogy and Minority Report" uses popular film to concretize her analysis. Using The Matrix films and The Minority Report, Nakamura studies the creation of the interface as white in both fictional film worlds and nonfictional world examples; the culture of whiteness for viral marketing (using the example of Agent Smith and his injection of himself into others for reproduction as a parallel) and surveillance culture; film and advertising that both engender and market "coolness" using people of color; and the manner that all of this feeds into formulations of race as property (97).
The final chapter and the epilogue are, in some ways, the most important of the book because of their ability to quickly explain the purpose and method of the book. The final chapter, "Measuring Race on the Internet: Users, Identity, and Cultural Difference in the United States" uses not fictional media but surveys to argue against the normal assumptions on Internet culture. In it, Nakamura explains that the trope of Asian affinity to technology develops in part from skewed research like surveys of Internet access, which are not given in Asian languages because of cost and difficulty and thus lack feedback from those who are not fluent in English. This lack creates an inaccurate measurement of the pervasiveness of access because: "reports that cut out non-English speakers are looking at a very small slice of the Asian American population, one that is already selected for affluence and linguistic assimilation" (172). After unpacking the meaning of statistics on Asian American Internet access, Nakamura goes on to unpack its related significance, including critiquing arguments for removal of race in cyberspace versus the realities of variations in access in relation to race; critiquing the concept of "cool" in relation to technology and how that also plays into race, with "Asian" being "cool" as "technological" while also being feminized with an example of a Details magazine article that asked "Gay or Asian?" (189); and studying the emphasis placed on Internet usage, which is often valued higher than television watching and represents a bias toward a media source for information and as representing access (for more on media bias, Kathleen Fitzpatrick's The Anxiety of Obsolescence offers an excellent critique of the bias against television and toward certain types of fiction).
Digitizing Race's final chapter concludes with a call for a rigorous interrogation of what constitutes meaningful participation online. Nakamura writes, "It is imperative that we devise rigorous methodologies to help us understand what constitutes meaningful participation online, participation that opens and broadens the kinds of discourse that can be articulated there" (201); and this is exactly what she has offered readers--an explanation parsing digital visual culture studies as a method and then the application of that method through several very different examples. The Epilogue, "The Racio-Visual Logic of the Internet," solidifies the argument, explaining that the work of digital visual culture studies applies to the Internet as "a visual technology, a protocol for seeing that is interfaced and networked in ways that produce a particular set of racial formations" (202). The investigation is particularly important because the racial formations produced by the Internet obscure others that are un- and under-represented on the Internet.
Overall, Digitizing Race is a needed and timely work for digital media studies and for visual culture studies, especially as the rhetoric around the Internet continues to grow once again with "Web 2.0." As with the earlier rhetoric, so much of this is focused on how the Internet is empowering for users on an assumed-to-be-equal playing field despite the vast differences in access.

CCCC Roundtable: Reading and Writing Virtual Realities: Computer Games and Writing Instruction

2008-03-21T16:01:18-04:00

In the spirit of Laurie's post on the Serious Games SIG at the upcoming Cs, I thought I'd let you all know about another games-related event.
Reading and Writing Virtual Realities: Computer Games and Writing Instruction
Session: A.25 on Apr 3, 2008 from 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM
This roundtable brings together instructors who have used computer gaming as either texts that are engaged and read by student writers or as texts that are (at least in part) produced by student writers; the participants will present brief overviews of their experiences (both positive and negative) and offer suggestions for instructors interested in exploring the potential of computer gaming in writing instruction. The goal of this roundtable is to advance the argument that games are not only important cultural texts that should be available to rhetorical analysis in our writing classes--much as we currently use film and websites--but that games can provide opportunities for both critique and production that bridge the gap between students' self-motivated out-of-school literacy practices and the literate practices of writing that we hope to teach them in our composition courses. While much work has recently been done to connect computer games and learning in general and computer games and literacy (Gee, 2003; Selfe & Hawisher, 2007), the presenters in this roundtable are interested in using computers games specifically for writing instruction, thus moving theoretical perspectives on gaming and literacy into the composition classroom itself. The presenters will discuss pedagogical and curricular tasks that primarily require students to use games as objects of critique (writing about games) or that ask students to use games as locations of rhetorical production (writing in games). Each speaker will present a different facet of the argument, from theoretical approaches to gaming in composition to examples of specific applications of gaming in writing instruction; these scenarios and vignettes will be brief, thus allowing time for interaction with the audience. A brief description of the roundtable participants' statements follows.

Games+Learning+Society 4.0 Conference

2008-03-10T05:18:38-04:00

[The deadline for this call has already passed.]

What: Conference, "Games+Learning+Society 4.0 Conference"

Sponsor: University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and the Academic ADL Co-Lab

When: 10 July 2008

Deadline For Submissions: 31 March 2008

Website: http://www.glsconference.org/2008

Details:
The fourth annual Games, Learning & Society (GLS) Conference will be held July 10-11, 2008 in Madison, Wisconsin. Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and the Academic ADL Co-Lab, the GLS Conference fosters substantive discussion and collaboration among academics, designers, and educators interested in how game technologies – commercial games and others – can enhance learning, culture, and education. Speakers, discussion groups, and interactive workshops will focus on game design, game culture, and games’ potential for learning.
For three years the GLS Conference has been the space for academics, industry leaders, educators, and policy makers to meet and to engage, not just in industry building, but in serious discussion about the current state of the field: where we ought to be headed, and what impact games can and ought to have on culture and society. We are planning the biggest and best year ever for this very important gathering, and we hope you will join us.
This two-day conference will be held at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace Convention Center, overlooking downtown Madison’s beautiful Lake Monona. Conference highlights include: a special session of hands-on workshops designed by and for videogame researchers and designers; a two-day lounge featuring Chat 'n' Frag sessions with key scholars and designers; fireside chats with industry leaders and special guests; a game room; webcasts of selected conference sessions; and our signature Thursday night dinner party.
We invite creative and interactive proposals for presentations, discussions, symposia, workshops, debates, respondents, and exhibits on topics and issues related to conference themes. To continue providing a high-quality program, all submissions will go through peer review and be evaluated with respect to quality, originality, clarity, and relevance to conference themes. Based on positive feedback from last year's conference, we especially encourage interactive session formats such as workshops, debates, and hands-on events for the GLS lounge.
Complete submission guidelines are listed inside the submissions site at http://glsconference.org. Submission format includes: Title; Abstract (500 words or less); Author name(s), picture(s), and short bio(s); and lastly, whether you would like your presentation to be considered for an interactive (workshop, chat ‘n’ frag, poster) or more expository (symposium, plenary) session. Submissions are due online by March 31, 2008.

The Critical GeoWiki Experiment (and maps and stuff)

2008-03-07T02:59:10-05:00

For one of our seminars this quarter, Bola King and I are experimenting with the concept of a Critical GeoWiki. The idea behind it is to take a map, make it publicly editable, and try to put it in the hands of academics as a plaything/tool. I've created one of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and was hoping some people around here would like to play around with it.
An excerpt from my how-to page:

For games like those in the The Legend of Zelda series, movement through mapped territory is central to the game's components, both narratively and ludologically. Maps play prominent roles in these games, acting at once as tools for completing tasks as well as records of past travels. The Critical GeoWiki Experiment aims to inscribe the stories and deeds of the hero on the overworld map and provide a collaborative forum for academics to mark and analyze patterns that develop on the map of one game.

The map is powered by worldKit, a pretty versatile Google Maps clone that allows any jpeg image to serve as the landscape, making it well suited to video game applications.
For those of you with more Second Life leanings, Bola's GeoWiki deals with
mapping issues in that environment. We will both have extended individual writeups in the next couple of weeks, as the quarter is coming to a close!
Anyway, feel free to poke around and add some stuff to the maps. It's not super user-friendly, but I don't yet have the coding expertise to tailor the program specifically to my needs. If the idea proves to be useful, I'll focus my energies on developing a more custom tool.
I'd love comments on how well you feel a tool like this would work in an academic setting. The Zelda games, with more or less fixed environments, are well suited to this application, but are there other games that could benefit from a Critical GeoWiki, as well? How theoretically sound is the idea of looking at a game from a zoomed-out perspective like this?

Co-editors sought for journal 'Electronic Games and Virtual Environments'

2008-02-26T14:46:58-05:00

[The deadline for this call has already passed.]

What: Journal, "Co-editors sought for journal 'Electronic Games and Virtual Environments'"

Deadline For Submissions: 1 March 2008

Website: http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=161089

Details:
Co-editors are sought for a new journal to be published by Intellect from 2009, titled 'Electronic Games and Virtual Environment'. The journal will integrate theoretical and critical approaches to computer game studies, studies on virtual environments and online communities as well as commercial, industrial, design and marketing aspects of the entertainment software industry.
Associate Editors: Dr Astrid Ensslin and Dr Eben Muse Research Centre for Video Games and Virtual Environments, National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries, Bangor University, UK
Please send your expression of interest including a CV outlining your bio, research interests, publications and prior editorial experience to a.ensslin@bangor.ac.uk by 1st March 2008.

Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives

2008-02-24T16:45:45-05:00

View more information about this reference.

Howard, Jeff. Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives. Wellesley, MA: AK Peters, 2008. <http://www.amazon.com/Quests-Design-Theory-History-Narratives/dp/1568813473/>

The other day a student asked me to explain what World of Warcraft was. We were talking about how universities are using Second Life for an article the student was writing and I referenced WoW as an easier, more familiar game. This is a minor anecdote like so many others that show that students don't always know as much as we think they know, but it points to a larger issues of a critical gaming literacy.
While "language arts" or "English" is taught in middle and high schools and includes literature, film, plays, and basic rhetoric (normally argument and debate in some form or another), gaming hasn't yet hit the mainstream curriculum, leaving more possibilities for literacy gaps. Given that students are interested in games--or even if they aren't, games are part of the transmedia world around them--and many don’t have core gaming knowledge, we need a gaming and game studies primer. The primer needs to connect what they do know to what they don't because many students do have parts of a the core gaming knowledge from other areas or from games, but simply of the games they have played and enjoy and not a critical understanding of the games or gaming elements and how those operate. Jeff Howard's Quests fills that need for a primer as an interdisciplinary text grounded in theory while focused on practice. Quests is an excellent tool for teachers who are new to games and want to use games in their classrooms, for teaching games, media, writing, or other areas that include theory and application. Many other books exist that are excellent for game studies classes and for game creation classes (Fullerton, Swain, and Hoffman's Game Design Workshop is in its second edition and it's excellent), but Quests fills the particular niche of classes that often have titles like "introduction to media studies," "writing for new media," "first (or second, or later) semester writing across the curriculum." Quests would also be an excellent choice as a supplemental text for more advanced classes, helping graduate students or faculty connect their research areas to new ways to represent, research, and teach using games.
Quests is a focused, practical book on quests as a core conceptual link between narrative and game that explores the concept through hands-on projects. As such, Quests is like a workbook and could be used as a supplemental or primary text for a variety of courses and uses, especially because it includes links to other online tutorials and references to other game studies works for greater context and research. Those teaching introductory writing or media courses and those wanting to explore games as a factor affecting a particular genre or a similarly focused class will likely be pleased with what they find what in Quests.

Special Interest Group at CCCC in New Orleans on "Serious Games"

2008-02-07T22:20:27-05:00

Cynthia Haynes and Jan Holmevik are hosting a Special Interest Group at CCCC in New Orleans on "Serious Games,"
Session: FSIG.22 on Apr 4, 2008 from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Details on the session are:
This special interest group will focus on the study and application of serious games relative to communication, rhetoric, and creative expression. 'Serious games' is defined by a variety of game platforms, designs, and purposes. While the obvious 'serious' application of games is for education (and training), many games are studied rhetorically as a means of critiquing broader cultural phenomena. Thus, this SIG is designed to concern both theoretical and practical aspects of 'serious games,' and build a community of rhetoric and composition game studies scholars, designers, and users. As a new SIG, we aim to build this community through collaborative and open source social technologies that support both game play and enable teaching and communication practices. Our combined experience with such systems over the past 13 years, and our connections with both U.S. and international game studies scholars and journals gives us an important basis for forming this group. We developed Lingua MOO in 1995 and the enCore system on which many MOOs are still based. Most recently, we have organized the Serious Games Colloquium of the new Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design PhD program at Clemson University (Directed by Victor Vitanza). And we recently spent a year teaching in the Computer Game studies research center at IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. We are also on the editorial board of both Game Studies e-journal and the Sage Publication journal, Games and Culture. We plan to form this SIG as a research collective studying various serious games such as America's Army, Second Life, World of Warcraft, and other massively multi-player games.
During the first Serious Games SIG there will be a demo by Jason Helms (Clemson University PhD candidate) of his interactive fiction game based on Jacques Derrida¹s essay, "Structure, Sign, and Play." In addition, Cynthia Haynes will demo an excerpt from her talk, "muddy waters/serious games," also based on Derrida's essay and delivered inside World of Warcraft.

Brains and method

2008-02-06T20:58:09-05:00

Medical researchers at Stanford have shown that the areas of the brain associated with 'reward and addiction' are more highly activated in males than females when playing videogames. The researchers suggest that this is due to a more pronounced instinct for 'territoriality' in men.
The researchers designed a game involving a vertical line (the "wall") in the middle of a computer screen. When the game begins, 10 balls appear to the right of the wall and travel left toward the wall. Each time a ball is clicked, it disappears from the screen. If the balls are kept a certain distance from the wall, the wall moves to the right and the player gains territory, or space, on the screen. If a ball hits the wall before it's clicked, the line moves to the left and the player loses territory on the screen.
Now, this is hardly an example of the cutting edge of game design, nor is it (in my opinion) representative of videogames, as it assumes that all games are based on this notion of territoriality. Indeed the lead researcher seems to contradict himself a little:
Reiss said this research also suggests that males have neural circuitry that makes them more liable than women to feel rewarded by a computer game with a territorial component and then more motivated to continue game-playing behavior. Based on this, he said, it makes sense that males are more prone to getting hooked on video games than females.
"Most of the computer games that are really popular with males are territory- and aggression-type games," he pointed out.
Reiss said the team's findings may apply to other types of video and computer games. "This is a fairly representative, generic computer game," he said, adding that he and his colleagues are planning further work in this area.
If 'games that are really popular with males' are based on territory and aggression, then surely using a game based on the same is like asking a leading question in a survey? And by the same logic, the game used in the study can't be held to be representative of videogames that aren't based on territory and aggression.
I suppose it's important to remember that this is medical research and so the team seems to be working with some received notions of what a videogame is - but perhaps they could do with a game designer or a game academic on their payroll?

Fatworld

2008-02-04T11:00:08-05:00

Fatworld has been released! I've been waiting for this and then I missed the release date. In case anyone else missed it as well, check it out. The "weighty topics" page on the Fatworld website even lists one of my favorite publications, the Nutrition Action Healthletter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (which has great information and a "food porn" item in each issue). Read through the Fatworld site, check out the game, or see Watercoolergames for more on the release.