Submitted and Accepted!...Sort of

I submitted my paper to the ScholarsArchive without problems.

I also submitted to the Rocky Mountain MLA, as I've reported earlier. I paid my membership fee (it was only $25) so that the panel chair could submit my name as a presenter. I'm in this weird limbo state, though, because I'm still not sure if it's actually happening because the panel might get cancelled due to lack of submissions. And there's the issue of funding, but I can't really work on that until it's confirmed that I'm actually going. Here's to hoping it all works out.

I submitted to the panel "Games, New Media and Virtual Spaces: At play in new media," found under "Special Topics" here.

Just to save the jump, here's my abstract I submitted:

"Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On": Shakespeare and the Cultural Legitimacy of Video Games

For years now, the debate has raged over "video games as art." While the medium has taken several steps forward and we now have many strong examples of artistic games, they still have not achieved the sense of legitimacy our culture gives to anything considered "art." In many ways, video games are fighting the same battle that English drama fought in Renaissance England, a battle chiefly won by William Shakespeare.  The video game industry is currently in much the same state that English drama was in when Shakespeare entered the scene, and game designers could learn much from his example, as he arguably innovated a new medium as much as he achieved anything else.

Part of Shakespeare’s success depended on looking backward to bring already culturally important stories to the stage in order to prove that this new medium could be a vehicle for powerful art. I will argue that in order for video games to win cultural legitimacy they must prove they can do the same, and this paper specifically includes ways in which a video game adaptation of The Tempest could help expand scholarship of Shakespeare's text and exploit some of the unique mechanics of the video game medium to create a new and excellent artistic experience. This is experience would be beneficial to both Shakespeare and video game scholars, but also to students, inviting naturally the kind of engagement that teachers so often struggle to produce. While video games may not yet have their “Shakespeare,” such a legitimizing influence can and will come soon to the video game medium, and, someday, sitting and playing through a video game can and will be seen as a cultural experience and not just a waste of time.

Here's hopin'!