Your one-stop shop for Sources Britton Is Has Used to Write His Paper.
Thesis: Video games are a significant, progressive medium of the modern age and should no longer be denigrated in regard to their capacity for social, intellectual, artistic and emotional effect. By comparing the themes, context and rhetorical strategies of Shakespeare's plays to those employed by modern video games, I will demonstrate how video games are the most important art form of the age.
Sources
Social Graph—having picked the same topic (albeit with different approaches), Paul and I have begun a dialogue concerning video games and their various relevant attributes. Although we haven't been able to collaborate very frequently as of yet, we have plans to do so in the future. Also providing support and advice is Bailey, our resident pop-culture scholar. She and I have conversed several times regarding the development of art in its current form and I hope to continue working with her as our papers develop.
New Media—making up the bulk of my sources thus far, I have found that most of the discussion concerning video games to date has taken place on various blogs and internet discussion boards. Due to the relative modernity of the video game medium, it is natural that it is being discussed using the rest of the "new media." For example, the video game blog Kotaku is a hotbed for discussion concerning the current issues facing video games. Its sister blog io9 (which discusses genre art, specifically fantasy and sci-fi) also keeps me up to date on the state of other artistic pursuits. Blog posts from The Creator's Project and Sexy Videogameland (all links completely SFW) have also helped me consider my topic in relation to the current critical discussion.
Social Networks—I haven't really had any progress in this arena of "scholarship," but hopefully I can discover some kind of avenue into these resources as I continue to hunt around for resources.
Traditional Scholarship—most significantly, at this point, is the New York Museum of Modern Art's exhibit of video games, viewable online through their website. I suppose the fact that I'm accessing the museum online may violate the "traditional" aspect of this category, but hopefully you'll forgive my reluctance to fly to NYC in the midst of my schoolwork. Anyways, the exhibit is an incredibly open-minded display of various video games in the interest of showcasing the artistry of their "applied design." There are a couple of books I plan to examine as well—The Medium of the Video Game and How to Do Things With Video Games—but I have yet to get my hands on them as of yet.
Hey man, I don't know what happened, but I can't click any of your links.
ReplyDeleteBritton, we spoke in class, and I just wanted to make sure you had a copy of the information we talked about:
ReplyDelete-God of War 1 is, essentially, a Greek tragedy. Shakespeare tends to follow a different model, but I think he draws close in Othello and perhaps Act III of A Winter's Tale.
-Kotaku (Kotaku.com) accepts guest blog posts. I don't know how you would go about doing so, but I know it's happened.
-Extra Credits (http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits) is a webshow about video games with a surprisingly scholarly tone, and you could perhaps use it as a source. Of special note are the first two episodes of Season 5 (which talk about Spec Ops and insanity), and the fifth episode of season 1 ("No Redeeming Value") which talks about God of War as a tragedy.
-Also of note is Zero Punctuation's review of Spec Ops, which does a good job of giving an overview of the game, as well as a brief discussion of the insanity aspects. Language warning, though.
I hope that helps. Good luck!