Project 4

Survey: 

Please respond to the following questions on your blog page:

 

1. What is your preconceived notion of what "academic writing" is supposed to be? 

2. How does this expectation make you feel? Explain.

3. On a scale of 1-5 (1 least, 5 most), how would you rate your "love of knowledge" and "intellectual curiosity" (Teletheory 1)

4. Was it easy for you to see video games as dreams in order to proceed with the project?

 

5. Compare and comment on the various kinds of composing that you did for this project. 

(dream work is "abductive guesswork", 88) How did you grapple with the impossibility of composing a"correct" dream interpretation?

6. Describe your "argument" by way of your design choices (use & placement of images, video, text, font choice, pages, etc.)

?

 

7. How has or has your experience with the project changed how you think and feel when composing, your attitude toward the subject in general.

8. What was your emotional experience when playing video games and how did this affect how you crafted/invented your multimodal argument (web design techniques, interpretations, etc.)? What & how did this assignment teach you about society's well-being?

UPDATES: 

***DEADLINE EXTENSION - You must submit the link to your web-based platform via Blackboard by Tuesday, April 8 at 8 a.m. 

***SOURCE REQUIREMENTS MODIFICATION - Instead of the requirement that you must use at least 4 hardcopy books from the library,  you are allowed to use two eBooks and two hardcopy books. Our library website for the project states what hardcopy books have been placed on reserve for the project and other recommendations. Please make use of them. The sources are useful and interesting.

 

Good Book / Possible Source: 

Hall, James A. Jung: Interpreting your Dreams. Audiobook.

Project Research Page:
Clemson Library - Project 4 Research / Resources Page

Documentary: 

The Wisdom of the Dream

What is Jung's purpose?
How does he make personal and cultural associations?
What concepts does he mention that can be applied to your own work?

Sample Work 

"Dreams of a Gamer" by Grayson Bonds

Citations

Ref Works 

Create Account (Must be on Campus to Create) 

Password: 

rwclemsonu

Assignment Description and Context 

Next week we will begin to talk about Project 4 (see description below)--it is a project that asks an essential question, what does how you play video games tell you about yourself? Society? Using dream interpretation techniques to answer this question, you will construct a multimodal argument to convey your findings. To get you thinking about games and their cultural context, here's a TedTalk entitled, "David Perry: Are Games Better Than Life?" Think about the binary suggested in the title . . . games are separate from our lives. Do you think this is true? Can game reality actually be part of our reality? These are questions to think about as we work toward our project.

Work Cited
Perry, David. "Are Games Better Than Life?" Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading. 2008 October. Web.

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION

PROJECT 4 – THE MULTIMODAL ARGUMENT 

Video Games and Dream Work 

This project challenges you to think analogically and non-logically in order to derive new & significant meaning about yourself and society by playing video games—that is, you will work through a kind of fiction as if it were real; you will suspend your disbelief so you can see that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to gaming. So what are you supposed to do? First, a framework: There's a sense of place in game narratives, wouldn’t you agree? There’s a landscape that just feels a certain way, and characters, a sequence of action, conflict, patterns, repeated images, maybe a plot, perspectives (your perspective as the gamer, for one; you as the avatar), exposition, conflict, maybe a resolution/conclusion. Do you think these narratives, which Mackenzie Wark calls allegories, are like dreams in a way? I argue that they are—thus the analogy. And when we use Carl Jung’s dream interpretation techniques, each element could symbolize/signify something pertaining to our own lives and society. 

Like dreams, game narratives often consist of archetypes, mythological figures, etc. But Wark sees games as self-contained—meaning, they mean nothing beyond the game (i.e. the game is just for fun!). How lame. To do this project, you must see otherwise. What you do in the game world can tell you a lot about yourself and society – and you can uncover/create this meaning when you employ Jung’s dream interpretation techniques. So for this assignment, you'll employ dream interpretation techniques and conduct innovative research to find out what your game playing means about yourself and society, and then you’ll make an argument about it via a multimodal platform. Apriori (before anything else), set up a web-based platform to keep track of all of your data, this includes your findings of Jung’s step-by-step process, enumerated below. (Eventually this database will transform into a multimodal argument.)

1. Write down the video game narrative: describe what happened when you played. Ex. “In Guild Wars 2, I was given the option to choose a caricature, and I chose the hunter. I also chose a wolf as a sidekick. The first challenge was X. We ran through the woods, fighting Blackrock Worgs, etc...”;  
2. Identify the narrative structure: a. exposition -- time, place, people involved; b. plot -- how does the story go and what is the developed tension?; c. what changes? an action takes place that shifts the plot / character; d. what was the solution? how did things end? identify any motif (theme & mood, consists of pattern of images, characters, sounds, etc.) (to help you do this, you might want to do a screen recording with QuickTime Player as you play the video games). THERE ARE NO WRONG ANSWERS!!!!;

3. Make personal associations: How does each image relate to your own life (personal)?

4. Make cultural associations: How does each element relate to our culture (collective)? Ex. A wolf …what are its natural behaviors, and how do the symbols or representation of it differ in the video game? The language . . . “Blackrock” is a financial powerhouse controlling global capital.

5. Make archetypal associations: Identify those corresponding images & motifs found in mythology, folklore, religion that have appeared throughout every culture over time and everywhere. This is where you'll use your research techniques that we learned last class. Ex. In Guild Wars 2, the hunter fights Blackrock Worgs in the woods – the woods is a symbol of nation, the motherland, Mother Nature. A dragon appears and then disappears at one level; The dragon could refer back to Babylonian mythology . . . Tiamat, the dragon, is the mother of God. We could argue that she has overpowered nature, the nation, Mother Nature, the hunter.  Like the Worgs, she is a threat, maybe a traitor. As a starting point re. archetypes, here's a link to Carl Jung’s discussion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYst_MkepOQ

6. Place the game narrative in the context of your life, and culture: What connections do you see? Ex. We could argue that Blackrock is infiltrating the nation; it’s a threat to individuals and society.

7. If need be, look at game narratives in a series, or identify “non-logical repetition” (i.e. “repeated presentation of a word, an image, an idea”): Like dreams, repeat game narratives can happen (i.e. maybe you make the same mistake in Walking Dead just at different levels). Repeat dreams means an important message needs to be addressed.

8. Interpret you're findings. So what does the narrative tell you about yourself and society? Ex. The game playing experience serves to warn us about the financial entity, to wake us up and make us aware of the threat.

Follow the procedure for two different games. Then make an argument that compares and contrasts your findings for the games. Use the web features and data stored on your website to support your argument.

In your research process, FIND EXAMPLES of dream interpretation by Jung or others. I also sent you a link to a series of movies by Marie-Louise Von Franz, who has interpreted 65,000 dreams. She talks about the process, and the meanings she has made/uncovered for specific dreams, for archetypes, etc. Use the course page that the librarian made for us if you want some additional examples and info about the process.

Notes: 

-The argument must consist of ten sources and it must be the equivalent to a 2,000-word paper.

-Note about sources: You must use at least four hardcopy sources, including at least one rare manuscript, which can be obtained via Yale University’s digital collection through Beineike Library, or via in hardcopy at the library. Books have been placed on reserve for you to take out over night. The librarian is currently putting together a course page filled with resources for this project.

-Note about game play: You can play individual and multiplayer; role-play games are best.

-Library page for project: http://clemson.libguides.com/engl1030hanzalik

You must submit the link to your web-based platform via Blackboard by Tuesday, April 8 at 8 a.m. 

Thinking Multimodally . . . 

Joe Sabia, "The Technology of Storytelling," TedTalks

"The art of storytelling has remained unchanged and for the most part the stories remain 

recycled,but the way humans tell the stories has always evolved."

"How World of Warcraft Can Save Your Business and the Economy" by John Seely Brown

Samples
The Gamer Ego - Marston Conti
Reid Hayes
Subin Shaji

Sample Interpretation
Guild Wars 2
Can we explore games as allegories for the world we live in?
Gamer Theory by McKenzie Wark