Assignment 3 - Major Essay

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Assignment 3 - Major Essay

For the final essay, you can choose out of four topics or develop your own.

DESIGN ESSAY

Analyse both the design and development of a particular videogame using a combination of academic analysis and publicly available material about the game.

The key articles to use as a starting point for your academic analysis:

"The Uncredited: Work, Women and the Making of the U.S Game Industry"

“Studying Game Development Cultures”

“Playboring in the Tester Pit: The Convergence of Precarity and the Degradation of Fun in Video Game Testing”

“Reading Ren’Py: Game Engine Affordances and Design Possibilities”

"Casio Loopy: The Videogame Console for Women"

To analyse both the design and development of a game, you are making an attempt to go beyond facts and figures and understand what the design does, what the design means, and what the development of the game meant. For example, how the development of the game responded to feedback, or wasn’t tested sufficiently before release.

Notes: 1) Pick your game after searching for available material, not before. 2) Not an evaluation of why a chosen game is "good" or "bad."

STREAMING AND ONLINE CULTURE ESSAY

Analyse a subset / genre / trend in videogame coverage on streaming, social media or streaming platforms. For example, charity streams, let’s play videos, competitions and tournaments in a particular game. The more specific, the easier your analysis will be. Perform this analysis with a combination of academic material and publicly available resources.

The key articles to use as a starting point for your academic analysis:

“Mediatization of a card game: Magic: The Gathering, esports, and streaming”

“Laboring Artists: Art Streaming on the Videogame Platform Twitch”

“Golden Ticket: Money Games at the Dota 2 International Championship in China”

To analyse your chosen subset/genre/trend, you will need to go beyond facts and figures and attempt to answer what it means and how it functions socially and culturally.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS ESSAY

Analyse the content and themes or representation that are readable in a specific videogame. Common examples of content, themes and representation that are readable are: race, nationality, gender, sexuality, political formations. These are usually readable in characters, story, systems, and world design - but like any artform, this can vary wildly from text to text (in our case, game to game). To perform this analysis, you will closely read the game and use both academic analysis and publicly available materials.

The key articles to use as a starting point for your academic analysis:

"Dancing with the Living Dead: Videogames, Avatars and Arms of the Brain"

"Playing to Lose: Burnout and the Queer Art of Failing at Videogames"

"BEN Drowned and the Fallibility of Technology in Game Fan Fiction"

Or.. develop your own question…

DEVELOP YOUR OWN QUESTION

Choose a question relating to a topic concerning games and play that interests you deeply. Consider that your essay will be led by finding, reading and responding to academic research, so not all topics will make easy choices. You will need to find a minimum of four academic pieces of work.

To write the question, use the pre-existing ones as a guide:

+ Begin with your general topic area and guide yourself towards the thematic of “what does this phenomena do culturally and socially”? For example, if you’re interested in the disappearance of arcades, your question might be to ask what the disappearance of arcades has meant socially and culturally for cities.

+ Finding out if there’s good reading material for you is part of the process. If you have something you’re interested in but you can’t find good material using the methods we’ve covered (Google Scholar, RMIT Library search especially), then keep changing key terms and tactics. The lock will eventually open.

+Keep in mind we’re looking for close reference to at least four academic pieces of writing. You can use any of the key readings from this course or other courses as your starting point - but it should be obvious that independent research is encouraged.

Some Tips:

The question should be of such a format that it will interest or excite you to be able to answer.

The question should not provoke a simple “yes” or “no” answer - it should provoke discussion and inquiry. Explore the "grey area/middle", resist simplified binaries.

The question should not be too broad eg: “How do games function economically?” is too broad. Add some specifics to your question to sharpen and limit the zone of enquiry eg: “How has the practice of loot boxes evolved and been approached by MMORPG companies since a wave of legal changes in Europe between 2018 and 2020?”

An essay planning template is available here

(https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/129305/files/36934805?wrap=1)

(https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/129305/files/36934805/download?download_frd=1) . It can be altered and does not need to be submitted with your assignment.

Assessment Criteria

You will be assessed on the basis of:

- Academic writing skills: evidencing clarity of expression, logic of argument, excellent referencing, and adherence to word length: 2000 words (excluding reference list).

- Evidence of research and integrated critical thinking: a minimum of 4 scholarly references - see the Assignment 1 page for links to games journals

- Evidence of topical planning; using prior planning to effectively manage a larger research task and to make adjustments on the development of the assignment

Late Penalties

For assignments submitted late with no extension (arranged up to 24 hours before the due date), or assignments submitted after an agreed extension date:

Students will receive a 5% per day penalty up to a maximum of seven days (35% of the total possible grade)

After seven days, the grade will be an automatic fail and graded 0.

Final Essay Rubric