Submitted! Journal of Games Criticism

I'm happy to announce that I submitted a version of my final paper to the Journal of Games Criticism.

Wohoo!

Essay Submitted!

I just finished formatting my final paper (who knew Chicago style was so similar to MLA?) and sent it in to Digital America, so now it's just a waiting game. As a teaser for my presentation on Saturday, I just wanted to post a couple of pictures for you to look at. And by a picture, I mean two pictures, one of which is real, and the other of which is a painting. One of the ideas I'll be talking about on Saturday is the almost indistinguishable line between reality and non-reality in the digital world. Anyway, that's all for now. Oh, and the answer after the jump break, just in case you were wondering.

Audiences for Videogame Scholarship

Social Proofers:

• Ian Bogost. He's a busy guy, but he's also probably the single most qualified person I know of to respond to my paper. I could send him a draft and just see what happens.
• reddit community /r/truegaming. There's a lot of very serious discussion going on in this group. I'm sure that I would get thoughtful feedback here.
• My own blog. I have built a very limited community through my own videogame writing. If asked directly, I might get some feedback here as well.

Conference:

• Dr. Burton told me and Greg there's a guy at BYU trying to start a conference on videogames. It would be really cool to contribute to the debut session of a new conference.

Journal:

• Journal of Games Criticism. I think this will be my final submission destination. A solidly academic journal but still new enough that they're looking for any good writing, not just professors.
• Game Studies. This is "the" journal of the field of game studies. Getting published here would living the dream.

Blog:

• Definitely a lot more options here, but I think of all of them, I'd go with Ontological Geek. I just like the way they do things.

Two Ideas on Awe in Videogames: Paper Treatments

So, ever since Dr. Burton met together and came up with my creative project idea, I've kind of been lost on my paper topic, but I think I've come up with something that will work and that I can get published. I just need to pick which of two angles to take.

FIRST ANGLE

Basically, I want to write a theoretically grounded, detailed look at the specific ways game designers can elicit awe in players. Rather than just listing the ways games can inspire awe, I want to get deep into the techniques used and the psychology employed. I'm inspired by Greg's more theoretically-grounded posts and I want to follow that example more. This paper will read as much like design advice as it will a scholarly paper. I plan on including analysis of specific techniques employed by different games and how those techniques function. Here's an outline of how I expect it to go:

1. Intro
1. Art and awe-discussion on how awe is associated with great art and expression
2. What is awe? How is it elicited? How do games elicit awe?
2. Definitions of awe
1. Theoretical definitions of awe
2. Reasons we've developed awe as an emotion
3. Mechanics of awe
1. Theoretical strategies for developing awe in an audience
2. Examples from other arts that are often cited as great at eliciting awe
4. Videogames and awe
1. Re-examination of theories of awe in light of videogames
1. What strengths does the videogame medium give designers specifically in creating awe in the player?
2. What weaknesses does the medium present, and how can they be compensated for?
2. Examples
1. Wide range of examples of innovative games that have elicited awe in their respective moments, and how they did it--could include work from emotions post here
3. Technology's role
1. How dependent is the medium on its technology to create awe?
1. Examples of games that have caused awe with technology
2. Games that have inspired awe despite technological limitations
4. Story
1. Strengths and weaknesses of telling stories in videogames
2. Strategies for successfully producing awe in videogame narratives, with examples
5. Reasons to cultivate awe in and through videogames
1. Awe, when done right, is both intellectual and emotional, and that's exactly the spot games need to hit to continue expanding their audience and importance
5. Conclusions
1. Summary of given strategies and arguments
2. Final statement of importance of continuing progress of the medium to the wider world of art and culture.

SECOND IDEA

This other idea is actually a paper idea I had last semester while anticipating this class and had gotten really excited about, then completely forgotten until I sat down to write this outline post. I don't know which idea I should go with, though, so I'm giving both of these and asking you all to help me pick.

This paper is specifically on the connection between awe caused by advancing videogame technology and to what extent the actual content of the game is meant to inspire awe. For instance, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was perhaps the most technologically advanced game ever made when it came out, and at the same time, it had an epic storyline involving fighting dragons, saving cities from death, and travelling all around the world. My argument is that so many videogames stories use tropes and conventions of awe because they are also trying to inspire awe through showing off their technology. This is an alternative explanation to why games are so focused on fantasy and violence and escapism--because those things inspire awe, and awe has been an implicit fundamental goal of the medium ever since its inception.

1. Intro
1. Outline argument: videogame content is determined in large part by the implicit fundamental goal of videogames to inspire awe through innovative technologies.
2. Brief history of videogames
1. Give a background on goals and drives in the early videogame industry to show how that created a certain mindset about the purposes and potentials of the medium that still influence designers today
2. Spacewar! and early games--meant to justify computers
3. Pong and the rise of arcades--meant to draw players back again and again through both mechanics and novelty
1. This is why graphics mattered, the novelty enhanced the fantasy, which drew revenue
4. MUDs, the text adventure, and online gaming--first time story was emphasized over technology (no graphics), but introduced idea of online muliplayer gaming, promising awe scales of participation (good for both revenue and player engagement)
3. Modern games have inherited this legacy and continue to push technological boundaries to increase player engagement
1. Each try to couch that technology within the proper epic storyline to merge form and content into an irresistible "mind-blowing" experience that gamers can't avoid.
1. Examples (Skyrim, Shadow of the Colossus, GTAV, etc.)
2. MMOs--blurring lines of fantasy and reality to further inspire awe on both technological and narratological levels
1. Examples (World of Warcraft, Halo community challenges, Destiny, DayZ)
4. The converse is also true
1. Rise of "nostalgia" and "retro" game design techniques has actually inspired the downgrading of the storylines as well
1. Examples (Papers, Please, Rogue Legacy, Braid)
2. This is why "art" games often de-emphasize graphics, because it lets them pull back to realistic and grounded "human" stories that the traditional art crowd has always loved
5. Therefore, the reason game narratives have so often taken the shapes they have is not simply teenage power fantasy, but the tropes of awe that have always been present and a tacit requirement of the medium to justify itself and the technology it's built upon
1. Games beginning to recognize this and break trend to serve new goals
1. The Last of Us, grounded human story, mind-blowing tech, goal of "art" on every level
1. Gone Home similar track (tech not as impressive, but meant to appear realistic)
6. Prediction: as games become less dependent on constantly improving technologies (especially graphics), the medium will break further from the constant power fantasy as the medium will become less concerned with justifying and showing off its underlying technology.
1. Comparisons to film--follows same pattern of epic technology, epic story, had similar pattern of first films having to justify and explain film itself, then were set free to exlore whatever they wanted, now you can make a film about anything
7. Conclusion
1. There's more to the content of games than just power fantasies and ruining our children. The history has dictated a lot of patterns, but the medium will break free from those patterns, and in many ways has already begun to do so.

There are my two ideas. If you made it this far, you already deserve my thanks. Thanks for reading. Also, if you made it this far, please take the extra couple seconds to leave on a comment on which idea you think I should pursue.

Possible Venues

All of the venues I scoped out for my previous possible venues post would be appropriate for either of these papers. If I did the first idea, I would add Gamasutra, a site specifically geared at game designers. If I do the first idea I would likely send a shortened version there. However, I think the venue I will most focus on as I write is Journal of Games Criticism. It has the level of sophistication I'm aiming for as well as the subject matter, and they're pretty new so my likelihood of publication is higher.

Next Steps

I now just need to figure out which idea to pursue. If I do the first idea I'll have to do a lot of research into theoretical backgrounds of things. For the second idea I'll also need to research, but I have a lot of resources readily available on a lot of those things, especially vidoegame history.

Spreading the Wonder: Possible Publication Venues

1. Buzzfeed. I found this on just about every social network simply by existing. In that Buzzfeed is the subject of some of my more biting criticism, I see it only fitting to make a Buzzfeed Communities post to talk about how un-awe-inspiring Buzzfeed really is.

2. Tracking Wonder. I came across this site while doing some research earlier this semester. Davis is active in posting about wonder and awe (posted about a month ago), so he might be willing to do a collaborative post or let me guest blog if I were to contact him.

3. Communication, Culture, & Critique. I found this through a Google search for cultural critique, which I then refined to search for calls for papers. The journal itself is published by the international communication association, and the topic corresponds rather nicely to the overall emphasis of the journal (i.e. communication and cultural criticism).

4. Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Scholarship. I found this through a Google search for "digital culture critique call for papers." The journal accepts submissions on a variety of topics related to the arts, humanities, or social sciences. Of especial interest in their list of potential topics were applied psychology and cyber-psychology, both of which relate to my study of the chemistry/physiology of awe.

5. Cyberpsychology. I found this one thanks to a keyword that I found in researching the last one: cyberpsychology. This journal publishes works dedicated to social science in cyberspace, so my study of awe in cyberspace should fit in nicely, especially in light of the more psychological components of my research.

6. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies. I found this through the UPenn listings for calls for papers. The journal has an emphasis on interdisciplinary cultural studies, so I think it would be a good fit for my research.