Thursday, April 5, 2007

Freewrite #5 (last one!)

For this last one, I'd like you to look at the following three "video games" and discuss them as literary objects. These are due on Monday, the 16th.

Basho's Frogger
http://www.ubu.com/contemp/hennessy/frogger/basho_frogger.html

Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC only, has to be downloaded)
http://www.columbinegame.com/

The Marriage (PC only, has to be downloaded)
http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/

The questions I'd like you to consider are the following:

  • what is the purely literary "content" of the piece (i.e. what does the text, setting, context, etc. provide you about the game)? is it more like a poem or a story?
  • if you were to describe these games as "narratives," which of Henry Jenkins types of narratives would apply (please quote from the text)?
  • how do the "game" elements contribute to this literary content (for example, the GUI, the interactivity, the rules of play, the goals or "dramatic need" of the player)?
  • how does the content of the game relate to elements of the world (i.e. its specific analog: poem, news event, marriage)? does it tell us something new about the thing it is commenting on?
  • how does this game challenge or confirm values and morals of our present society? does the game have a deeper philosophical component?
  • is the game art?
Please be sure to read all of the assigned video game readings before writing this. Also, be sure to do some research on those pieces that require a bit of background info (Basho and the Columbine Massacre, for instance).

The Super Columbine Massacre RPG was banned from a recent festival of independent video games on moral grounds, so that is worth reading about as well (the link above brings you there, but also Google it). It also has some problems on my computer -- it seems to double-up on my screen, so I have two very short versions of the game screen at the same time -- but you can still play and read it.

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