Today’s Plan:
- Early Paper Feedback
- Introducing Project 2: Games and/as Tragedy
- Games List / Gaming Journal
- Hypothetical Timeline
- Homework
Early Paper Feedback
- Rubric scoring
- Revise and Resubmit
- Minimum score
- Canvas Issue
Also, remember that procedural rhetoric uses mechanics to emphasize/amplify a “theme” or purpose. So–and this might go in the previous paragraph–what is the theme of this game? What is it attempting to persuade? I need to know this before I think about Death Mark’s mechanics.
Even if you are uncertain of the game’s theme/deeper meaning, you should pin down what the developer is attempting to accomplish. For instance, in Death Mark, the developers are a bit cryptic about the theme, but clear that they are attempting to develop a psychological horror game. Okay, how do the mechanics work to amplify that horror?
Remember that a procedural analysis focuses on how a game’s mechaincs *try to persuade us to see the world in a particular way.* At the very least, it explores how a game’s mechanics amplify a particular purpose/aim. I don’t think you ever make the aim/purpose here explicit.
Also–don’t be afraid to use “I” in your paper. Your emotional experience with a game is meaningful. Emotional experience is not and should not be considered universal. How you play and receive a game is an idiosyncratic, subjective experience.
Introducing Project 2: Games and/as Tragedy
Hypothetical Timeline
Here is what I am thinking:
- Tuesday, Feb 1st: Meakin et al
- Thursday, February 3rd: Discuss Meakin. Build worklist of terms/ideas/heuristics. Identify games. Team assignment: research a term other than catharsis and share with the class. Aristotle’s Poetics Start. Homework: Read Curran. .
- Tuesday, February 8th: Read/Lecture: Aristotle’s Poetics (20min), Discuss Curran / focus on Catharsis (30min). Lecture #2: intro to memesis, with discussion of Aristotle and Player Complicity (as “action,” hamaritia, perhaps riff on Meakin and “epiphany,” plot, continuity, rupturing complicity. Homework: Play game and journal #1.
- Thursday, February 10th: Discuss Catharsis (again). Empty time for catch up? Reviewing Project 1 papers? Homework, Read Maetas, 2001, An Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games. Play your game and journal #2.
- Tuesday, February 15th: Discuss Mateas, hammer out working heuristic. Homework: Play game and journal #3.
- Thursday, February 17th: Read Potzsch and Waszkiewicz (in addition to the Meakin, an example of what your paper might look like). Homework: Play your game a lot #4 #5.
- Tuesday, February 22nd: Read more Potzsch, revist Meakin. Homework: Play your game #6. Write Your Paper.
- Thursday, February 24th: Game talk presentations. Homework: Write Your Paper.
- Tuesday, March 1st: Game talk presentations. Homework: Write Your Paper.
- Thursday, March 3rd: Papers due at midnight.
Parts of Tragedy–catharsis, hubris/hamaritia, anagnorisis, peripeteia, epiphany, aporia (? not expected, but Meakin), “action,” mimesis.
Play your game. The list:
- Last of Us. 15-18 hours.
- Last of Us 2. 24-30 hours.
- God of War. 20-30 hours.
- Shadow of the Colossus. 7-9 hours.
- The Walking Dead. 12-13 hours. (Many sequels).
- Bioshock Infinite. 12-16 hours. (Not sure).
- Spiritfarer: Easing into the Steps of Grief. (Not sure). 25-30 hours.
Hmm: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. 7-9 hours.
For this project, papers will be academic conference length (meaning 8 pages double-spaced, about 2000 words).
Homework
For homework, I would like you to finish reading the Meakin et al that we started in class. Your job is to extract from that article 2 different heuristic questions/ideas that we can apply to other games. We will share these and work on our heuristic in the computer lab on Thursday.
