The idea for my final paper actually came last semester as I was in Dr. Burton's digital culture class and looking forward to this semester's Literature of Awe class.When this semester started, I got a bit of a special head start on my paper as Dr. Burton gave me the awesome opportunity to present to the class a few games that I thought really inspired awe. In selecting games and moments to highlight, I really considered what about games can inspire awe, which I started to explore in a follow-up post to my presentation.
That led directly into outlining the specific attributes of games I thought created awe, then a list of emotions that videogames could bring at awe-inspiring levels perhaps better than any other medium. In putting together a post about different presentation formats, I came again to a video I had watched before by Chris Franklin about how technology influences the content of videogames. This led me back to the idea I had last semester, and when it came time to give a preliminary outline, I had two strong ideas, but ultimately, feedback from classmates led me to pick the second idea, which was the idea I had last semester. My paper went through some drafts, and the annotated bibliography really helped me gather some solid sources. I asked Chris Franklin for some feedback, but unfortunately never got any (yet). Finally, for my final draft I added a lot more specific treatment of awe itself via Burke and some psychological studies, which really helped define and drive my argument throughout the rest of the paper, which I refined in light of those additions.
I've never written a paper quite this long before, and I think it shows, but overall I'm happy with it and I do think I make some interesting points that add something significant to the study of videogames.
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