{"id":8594,"date":"2022-01-27T17:18:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T22:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=8594"},"modified":"2022-01-27T19:32:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T00:32:13","slug":"videogamesjanuary27","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/videogamesspring2022\/videogamesjanuary27\/","title":{"rendered":"January 27th: Games &amp; Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for the Day<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/canvas.charlotte.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Canvas Posts<\/a><\/strong>&#8212;<strong>due Fridays at 11:00pm<\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl4750-5050fall2016\/vgcultureseptember01\/\" target=\"_blank\">More Current Game Sales Information<\/a><\/strong> <strong>(ESA)<\/strong><\/li><li>Video Game Definitions<\/li><li>Introduction to Critical Theory<\/li><li>History of Video Games&nbsp;(Time Permitting&#8211;more next week)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WORKSHOP ON &#8220;What Is American Culture? Essay&#8221; (2\/10\/2022)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opening Questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we&#8217;ve been in class for two weeks, this is the first chance we have for dialog, which is vital to the goals of this course. After reminding you about the cellphone policy and participation requirements, I&#8217;m going to ask you these questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What is critical thinking?<\/li><li>What is American culture?<\/li><li>What is interpretation?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Video Game Definitions<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>We don&#8217;t have to delve into the intricacies of the various definitions of games, but let&#8217;s review the authors&#8217; genres&nbsp;and a couple others&#8217; definitions: Marshall McLuhan, Salen &amp; Zimmerman, and Jesper Juul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith, &amp; Tosca<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Four genres of video games:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Action Games<\/li><li>Adventure Games<\/li><li>Strategy Games<\/li><li>Process-Oriented Games<ol><li>Simulation games are &#8220;a subgroup of process-oriented games [that] try their best to mimic concrete, real-world experiences&#8221; (p. 58).<\/li><li>What&#8217;s the fun of simulation?<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The authors note that Mark Wolf (2001) &#8220;outline[s] 43 distinct genres,&#8221;&nbsp;and Gamespot.com&nbsp;has over 30 video game genres (p. 53). Why have so many? Why have just four?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Marshall McLuhan<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Where have you heard the name Marshall McLuhan before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>p. 40: &#8220;Games are popular art, collective, social reactions to the main drive or action of any culture. Games, like institutions, are extensions of social man and the body politic, as technologies are extensions of the animal organism&#8230;.providing release of particular tension.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Salen &amp; Zimmerman<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>p. 47: &#8220;A game is a <strong>system<\/strong> in which <strong>players engage<\/strong> in an artificial conflict, defined by <strong>rules<\/strong>, that results in a <strong>quantifiable outcome<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jesper Juul<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>p. 47: &#8220;A game is a <strong>rule-based<\/strong> formal <strong>system<\/strong> with a variable and <strong>quantifiable outcome<\/strong>, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the <strong>player exerts<\/strong> effort in order to influence the outcome, the <strong>player<\/strong> feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interesting&#8230;what&#8217;s Hitman&#8217;s codename in the <em>Hitman<\/em> series?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Introduction to Critical Theory<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>As I mentioned before, we&#8217;re only scratching the surface of critical theory. Our discussions are an opening but aren&#8217;t a replacement for reading the original (or translated&#8230;) texts of these major theorists. These links provide overviews to help you formulate questions for future work. This isn&#8217;t the end of the critical theory discussion; it&#8217;s <em>a<\/em> beginning (notice I didn&#8217;t write <em>the<\/em> beginning).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with two theories important to cultural studies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/videogamesspring2022\/videogamesjanuary27\/vgpostmodernism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Postmodernism<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/videogamesspring2022\/videogamesjanuary27\/vgmarxism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marxism<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Celebrating Ignorance<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s discuss how these texts reflect anti-intellectualism and trite, nationalistic <strong><span style=\"color: red\">ideology<\/span><\/strong>. In addition to the links below, if you have time, you can read <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2020\/06\/Kaepernick-AmericanContradiction_excerpt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a short piece about &#8220;American Contradiction&#8221;<\/a> from a rather interesting book (opens as a PDF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?reload=9&amp;v=e4ujS1er1r0\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Zac Brown Band celebrates ignorance<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azlyrics.com\/lyrics\/alanjackson\/wherewereyouwhentheworldstoppedturning.html\" target=\"_blank\">Alan Jackson really celebrating ignorance<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are You Normal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the US Census Bureau&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/visualizations\/2017\/comm\/cb17-51_educational_attainment.html\" target=\"_blank\">One-third of the US populations has a bachelor&#8217;s degree (or higher)<\/a><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/stories\/2019\/02\/number-of-people-with-masters-and-phd-degrees-double-since-2000.html\" target=\"_blank\">In 2018, &#8220;13.1% of U.S. adults have an advanced degree&#8221;<\/a><\/li><li>In 2018, it looks like 2.6% have doctoral degrees (same link)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Next Week<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, keep up with the reading and do your <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/canvas.uncc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Canvas posts<\/a><\/strong>&#8211;notice the plural. We&#8217;ll get back to the Video Game history discussion because Ch. 4 of <em>Understanding Video Games<\/em> is titled &#8220;History.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For your <strong>What Is American Culture?<\/strong> (02\/10), I&#8217;m not sure how we&#8217;ll exactly do the workshop, but I will require you to have a draft on Google Docs. Not having a draft will disappoint me and lower your grade. Although you&#8217;ll hear me say consulting Wikipedia is great to start research, you should never end your research there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the Day Canvas Posts&#8212;due Fridays at 11:00pm More Current Game Sales Information (ESA) Video Game Definitions Introduction to Critical Theory History of Video Games&nbsp;(Time Permitting&#8211;more next week) WORKSHOP ON &#8220;What Is American Culture? Essay&#8221; (2\/10\/2022) Opening Questions Although we&#8217;ve been in class for two weeks, this is the first chance we have for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":8505,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8594","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2eC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8610,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8594\/revisions\/8610"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}