Juul, Half Real (Intro, Ch 1, Ch 2)

Parental Concern about Gaming

A blog entry on online role-playing games, posted by a former student who has since graduated, has attracted two long comments from concerned parents who rue the day they let their teenagers play computer games.

Anna Rendon writes, "He won't take walks, play with his sister, or even eat with the family anymore because he has to run back to the game. In other words, he has no life other than whatever he has created in this game and I know that regardless how good he is as a son, this simply cannot be healthy, yet, I don't know what to do about it. He just began highschool on a scholarship and doesn't have any bad habits that I could point to as a problem, but what possible good could there be in his spending every free second on the computer, playing this game?" She ends her comment with a plea for help -- "what is so intriguing about a game that can consume someone like this?" I must not have noticed this comment when it was first posted in September, 2004.

Diana, who just posted her comment a few hours ago, writes with a similar story: "It started in middle school. My son used to have fun with his friends playing outside, fishing and traveling. Then one dim day my son and his friends wanted to play computer games. I thought computer games were no different than his X-Box,Playstation. God was I ever wrong! Talk about time comsuming. If I only knew I would have never let him get started on computer games!"

The Revenge of the Son of insert name here: Social problems in MMORPGs and first steps taken to correct them.

I don't think it's fair to tell these commenters that they are off their rockers, or that they are meddling (remember, they are talking about teenagers -- parents are legally required to meddle with the lives of their teenagers).

I'm not posting this as a required homework essay, but I'd welcome your thoughts. (I'm closing comments to this entry -- post your comments on The Revenge of the Son of insert name here.)

Workbook Juul 1

Ex 4: Proposal for Term Paper (40pts)

Two parts, including a bibliography in MLA style (minimum 5 sources, incuding 3 academic sources not on the syllabus; 20pts) and a preliminary thesis paragraph (20pts). The handbook you received in STW has a section on MLA style; you can also consult two of my online resources -- the MLA Bibliography Bulider and a set of instructions for formatting a paper in MLA style.

Analyzing Game Studies

What were your experiences as you searched for 5 scholarly items to include in your thesis proposal?

Daily Update

I look forward to seeing what you have to blog about the first selection from Jesper Juul's Half Real.

Those of you who are interested in cultural responses to video games should take a look at the comment posted by Diana, the concerned mother of a teenaged gamer.

I have extended the deadline for Exercise 4 until tomorrow morning, but I'll offer feedback before then if you like.

Today's dicsussion question is Analyzing Game Studies: what achievements and challenges did you face as you started compiling sources for Exercise 4 (your term paper proposal)?

Tomorrow:

Chapter 3 of Half Real (Note that there is no separate set of J-Web questions for this selection.)

Ex 5a: Close Playing 2

A discussion topic related to Juul.