GAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Ok. Everyone in Dr. Jerz's Media Aesthetics class knows that we got programs that will allow us to create our own text game. And you know what?!? Now I want to finish mine. GNAA! But, for some weird reason, the game I started didn't save to my I drive. Or else, I'm looking at the wrong file. In any case... I have a few questions:
1. How the &*#@ do we make exits?!?
2. How do we create new objects?
3. How do we make the endings?
>.> I'm going to copy all of this to a disk and work on it over the summer. Should be fun. O_o
I actually like blogging. I do. Despite the fact that I seem to have trouble actually posting anything, I think blogs are a great way for students to communicate about their experiences in class.
The problem? Too many times I sat down at the computer and said, "Wow! I should probably blog something!" and when I started to blog I thought, "What the heck am I going to post that has anything to do with class?" Because, lets face it, a lot of students just want to vent about their feelings about class. And knowing that you're supposed to present a blog portfolio at the end of the semester kind of deters that open and free feeling.
So what about blogging assignments? It does work some times. I really like putting my presentations on a blog, because that lets me put up links to other websites with relevant information. Truth be told, I have a lot of problems "journaling" about specific things that happen in class. Or about readings. Mostly, because I prefer to talk about them in class. And because I generally feel obligated to produce something wonderful and grand with a thousand links to wonderfully relevant pages.
And that just doesn't normally happen. Key words: "richly" linked. What, exactly, IS a richly linked blog? Is it a blog that doesn't use a plethora of links, but the links it *does* use are highly relevant and useful? Or is it a blog with a great number of links that aren't of the highest quality? Personally, I like using very relevant links. (and yes, I consider the MST3K and the riff relevant) I don't like wasting people's time with amusing but frankly, a bit useless information.
Lastly. In an "academic" blog, I don't like talking about personal life stuff. Thus, my blog is a bit... bare. ^_^;;
I do like blogging, to an extent, and I do think it is a useful tool. I also think I'm just not the right personality type to provide a plethora of blogs.
And, yes, I know that I'm not putting up a lot of links in this blog. Mostly, because I just don't want to innocently insult someone about their blog.
I'm going to be very honest. I decided to research this topic because of my parents. I come from a very, VERY conservative household with equally conservative parents. So it caused some alarm when I began reading fantasy novels. Over half of my small library is devoted to authors such as Anne McAffrey, Mercedes Lackey, and Brian Jacques. My parents let me go with only a little reprimand. Once they learned I was participating in an fantasy based, online role-playing game, the gloves came off.
My father (who is a paster and looks like Kenny Rogers), surprised me and showed interest in what I was doing. When I explained that it was, essentially, co-authoring a story, he let me go with only a little ribbing. (the title of this presentation and my paper both come from one of his jokes about my gaming). My mother, on the other hand, showed a lot of resistance to the idea. Granted, she let me go about my business, since I was 18 and I would do it anyway, but she often cautioned me about getting too "ensconced" in what I was doing.
When Murray talked about Immersion, I became interested. This was what my mother was afraid of. Of my immersion in the imaginary world of the game. So, I began to look at what some of the critics had to say about role-playing games and what the psychologists said about fantasy and immersion.
The critics were varied. Some were actually very benign, presenting both sides. Others, however, ranged from caustic to ridiculous. The major complaints were that role playing games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons, caused murder, suicide, crime and Satanism.
The National Coalition on Television Vilence, or NCTV, has liked Dungeons and Dragons to 29 murders and suicides between 1979 and 1985 (Lancaster, 71). One such case was the subject of the book, The Dungoen Master, wich talks about Dallas Egbert. Egbert entered college at 14, and later ran away from home. William Dear, the author The Dungeon Master, was hired to find Egert. A year after being found and returning home, Egbert commited suicide. His parents blamed the suicide on the fact that he used to play a live action version of D&D, despite the fact that Dear found out Egbert was a part of a gay student organization and a drug user (Lancaster, 71). NCTV, along with BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) are the two most prominent organized critics of D&D.
Carl Raschke, the author of Painted Black, called D&D an "elementary-level home study kit for 'Black Magic'" (Lancaster, 72). In his book, he states that four percent of a given population are "fantasy prone personalities" who "tend to experience their fantasies as real" (Lancaster, 73). According to this formula, of the seven people who had played a Dungeons and Dragons-like game, 1-2 of those people might commit suicide because their character died.
The problem is that almost 10 million people have played or been exposed to Dungeons and Dragons. Michael Stackpole, a game designer, explains that if Raschke's formula is true, 400,000 people cann't distinguish between reality and fantasy. Therefor, there should be more game related incidents that what has appeared (Lancaster, 73).
There are many different kinds of players, representing different genders, age groups, students, teachers and professional work fields (Lancaster, 69). Though it is a predominantly male game, female players exist. The average player is usually a male in his late teens or early twenties, though since the D&D came out, players are getting both older and younger.
Many critics claim that players become lost in the fantasy world created by the game. Janet Murray calls this immersion, "a metaphorical term derived from the psysical sensation of being submerged in water" where we are surrounded by a completely other reality (Murray, 98). Murray goes on to explain that a good text or game encourages immersion, as does our own mind. We experience immersion through novels, films, games, and television.
According to Gary Allan Fine, the author of Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds who studied both games and gamers, the ability of some players to become their characters, this experience is too temporary to completely subsume the players own identity in the characters. "Players engage in role embracement rather than role merger" (Fine, 206-7).
So, according to the research, immersing in a game is natural, and really too brief to cause much lasting damage. What about indulging in fantasies that normative society discourages? In The Power of Fantasy, Lucy Freeman and Kertisn Kupfermann explain that "fantasy is part of our spontaneous reaction to an experience... it is how our mind reacts to an ameotion... Fantasy may lie at the root of either happiness or anguish" (Freeman, 14).
Sigmund Freud, who is still the primary basis for psychoanalytical theory, states that "if phantasies become over-luxurient and over-powerful, the necessary conditions for an outbreak of neurosis or psychosis are constituded" (Freud, 49). In his other works, Frued explains that fantasy comes from the unconscious part of the mind which holds the primal urges, such as sex, hunger and aggression. While these urges are usually repressed by the conscious mind, not providing them with some form of release results in neurosis or psychosis.
Murray tells us that a good story will give us "something safely outside ourselves (because it is made up by someone else) upon which we can project our feelings" (Murray, 100). While some people find these outlets in accepted pastimes, such as television, sports or novels, players find their outlets in the games they play. "Games use their fantasy to supplant accepted pastimes, and their denial of the workaday world and mass entertainment leads others to perceive them as 'misfits'" (Fine, 47).
Dr. John Suler, a professor at Rider University, suggests that "under optimal conditions, translating troublesome issues from one realm to the other can be helpful, even therapeutic" (Suler). Such is the case of Fred, the 19 year old who slit his wrists. During therapy, Fred began playing a game of D&D with other "frings people" as he called them. He often worked out agressions and negative feelings through the game, which allowed him to discuss them with his therapist during the session, where they would go over transcripts from the game (Blackmon).
Studies done on the possibility of Dungeon and Dragons role playing games causing suicide found that this was not the case. Players have the same likeliness of commiting suicide as non players. It is, rather, what the players bring to the game. Like all hobbies, such as golf, there are people who become extremists. Role Playing games may attract people who have suicidal fantasies and occult viewpoints, because they provide an "accepted" outlet for their own fantasies that normative society does not.
Gamers often have responses to some of the more ridiculous criticisms. For instance, the Jack Chick cartoon seen earlier was both riffed and MST3Ked.
Works Cited
Blackmon, Wayne D. "Dungeons and Dragons: The use of a fantasy game in the psychoterapeutic treatment of a young adult". American Journal of Psychotherapy. Fall 94. p264.
Fine, Gary Allan. Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds. University of Chicago Press. Chicago: 1983.
Freeman, Lucy and Kerstin Kupfermann. The Power of Fantasy. Continuum Publishing Co. New York: 1988.
Freud, Sigmund. On Creativity and the Unconscious. Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc. New York, NY: 1958.
Lancaster, Kurt. "Do role-playing games promote crime, satanism and suicide among players as critics claim?" Journal of Popular Culture Fall 94. p67.
Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck. The MIT Press. Cambridge, MA: 2001.
Suler, John PhD. The Psychology of Cyperspace. Rider University. <
Ok. The long promised Bardic Algorithm for a Lit Game. (I know, I've also been promising a before/after post, but that's getting a little difficult due to scheduling conflicts and technical difficulties) So. The first thing we need to do is to look at a finished game. Or, at least the first part of a finished game.
Now, we take a look at Propp's functions, which make up a bardic algorithm.
We identify the functions that this finished game possess, and can then create a bardic algorithm. As follows:
V = villain (the hunchback)
H = hero (in this instance, Jrali, Riff, Moriph, Mirnae, and Radell)
After the situation is introduced (ie: buying a shirt and dancing at the festival), the story follows this pattern:
V 8a,8b->H9, 10-> H11
The villain steals (villainy, 8a) the food which the whole town has been saving for the festival (lack, 8b). The hero(es) are asked to retrieve the food (9) and agree to do so (10). The hero(es) leave (11).
While this is only the first part of the finished game, it's an adequate start to the entire bardic algorithm for this situation. What's interesting about ongoing games is that the algorithms are repeated over and over again in different situations.
Watched Pod interact with in a group setting where the kids were learning about sinking and floating objects. Pod had to be prompted several times, but mostly because he was distracted by either the other children or the floating/sinking objects.
Played outside. Pod likes to RUN and CHASE other children. He also likes swinging, but can be a little impatient. He doesn't seem to have any attatchment issues, though he does prefer Mrs. Gorly to the student teachers.
Double shift next week. Oy...
For those interested in how lit games are actually played, here's the "system" we generally use.
First, the thing you have to understand about lit gaming, and most gaming in general, is that what is said In Character (IC) is different from what is said Out Of Character (OOC). During the actual game chat, once game has started, OOC coments are bracketed [like so]. Anything withing those brackets is the player talking, not the character.
We begin a game from where we left off in the previous game, with the DM posting the last few lines or paragraphs of the last game so the players can get a feel for where they left off. The DM will usually either let the gamers continue with the previous game, or start a new situation if the players have finished a previous situation.
Players take turns by writing what their character does and how it reacts to a situation. Unlike some RPGs, turns are not determined by "who goes next", but instead by who responds first, thought the DM tries to ensure that everyone has a turn. If, in some instances, a player is having a hard time quickly typing what they want their character to do or say, they will usually mark their turn, either with an asterik [*] or by typing the first word or two of the sentence into the chat. Whenever two players claim a turn at the exact same time, the DM usually decides whose turn it is, letting the other player go after. A turn ends when the player finishes their sentence or paragraph and types a bracketed clear signal, [clear].
This is the system for a game that's based in a chat room. WE uses an AIM chat room where all the players are invited in by the DM. Other Lit Games often use a thread in a message board. In this case, players post blocks of the story as they can, usually not all in one night. These games often take a while to complete, since new posts to the game can take several days to appear.
This form of gaming seems to originate from author communities. In the case of WE, the original five players were all members of the same fanfiction archive. WE developed as a chat-based Lit Game so that the game would progress faster and so that the DM would have a little more control over what happened in the game. Instead of having to delete posts from a thread, the sentence can just be deleted and the player can retype a new turn that will work. In a thread-based game, this maneuver could take a whole month, whereas in a chat-based game, it only takes a few moments.
Tune in Next Post for a look at a before and after shot of a game, as well as interviews with the DM and with another player.
Gah. I am so bad at this blog thing. Ok. I know I've been absent for a while. Hopefully, this will be the first of a series of blogs that will update both my term paper and my little side project on Lit Gaming, as I have dubbed it. Please note that these are both in the early stages of development, and that I may diverge from the intended plan of attack if I get a whiff of something juicy to report. So, first and foremost:
Lit Gaming Project. Status: in development
The Lit Gaming Project started with a presentation I did on Propp's Morphology of Folklore and the Bardic Algorithm. This caught Dr. Jerz's interest and he wanted me to continue. I have to admit, it interested me to. Especially when I learned I was basically participating in an underground gaming movement. So, I agreed to do my best. Unfortunately, do to scheduling conflicts, power outages, computer malfunctions and other bad, bad stuff in the networld, I haven't been able to play a good game until rather recently, and I don't have the time at this moment to put it and the finished product up on the blog. The plan is, therefor, to work on this over Easter Break, along with my term paper, and have it up before the end of the year. I plan on:
1. Applying Propp's Morphology to the setting of the game and the creation of storylines by interviewing the DM (she's old school)
2. Applying the Bardic Algorithm to a completed game sequence
3. Interviewing one of my fellow players about whether or not she is a writer or a gamer first
and 4. Showing the progression from chat to completed product
Oy...
The Term Paper. Status: in development
I have research. I have a thesis. And I have a huge block of time over Easter Break. Yeah, this should be fun. My thesis is:
The fear of immersion in Role-Playing Games, such as Dungeons and Dragons(TM), is primarily based upon a propogandized and skewed psychology.
Yeah. Basically, every D&D player can take my paper to their parents and say, "See! See! I'm not part of some kitty killing cult! Ha!"
Last, to a certain reader, I am sorry for the lack of LoTR related posts. (Hell, I'm sorry for the lack of posts, period!) So, in closing, I would just like to say that the books rule and Peter Jackson is a genius.
Good Night.
