Video Game Links

Sissyfight 2000
http://www.sissyfight.com/

Pac-Mondrian
http://pbfb.ca/pac-mondrian/

Legible City
http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net/html_main/show_work.php3?record_id=83

Video Game Auteurs

"Video games do have their auteurs -- Wil Wright, John Carmack, Sid Meyer and Shigeru Miyamoto are examples -- but what they do and how they do it is frightfully opaque."

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004301.html

Video Game links for Freewrite

I put these links together for those of you who might have problems with the next freewrite. You should be sure to read the other articles, by Aarseth and Zimmerman, before writing your piece.

This link has a very brief rundown of how the Frogger piece relates to Basho:

http://pbfb.ca/bashos_frogger

Here's a web version of Frogger for those you who have never played it:

http://www.download-free-games.com/online_games/frogger.htm

Here's the link to download the Columbine game if you couldn't figure it out from the site:

http://www.columbinegame.com/download.htm

Here's a good series of discussions about the game (and if you can't get the game to run on your computer, reading some of this might be enough to discuss the moral issues as related to narrative). It has the open letters written to protest the Slamdance festival:

http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/index.php?s=super+columbine+rpg

Here is a short article by the game designer about "The Marriage":

http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames

Here's a short article on the game with several reader's comments (some of whom hated the game):

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/20/the-marriage-unties-the-games-as-art-argument

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.

11 Weirdest Video Games

If the "story" doesn't mean anything and it's all about play, then why are these games "weird"?

http://www.ugo.com/channels/games/features/weirdestgames/default.asp

Friday's Class

Just a reminder... on Friday, we will:

• see two presentations, by Jackie and Megan
• go over the quiz (be prepared to answer all of the questions on the quiz when I call on you)
• discuss the paper outlines
• assign next presentations
• discuss the next freewrite

Sorry about the confusion regarding this most recent freewrite. I had switched the date for one of my classes and thought I had done it for yours.

The Restaurant Game

This is a game that is created by the users who play it -- you are credited as being a "game developer" once you have played it a few times. I can't explain much more than that, except that it is like Facade and runs on an artificial intelligence engine.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/restaurant/