It's been awhile.

So I haven't updated this in awhile.

Things are going a long alright. Our Lit Review is in the works - meaning it's "done" but is now going through editing. We've compiled our list of games and almost have our master list completed to analyze.

Next week we need to write our Methods section, but that shouldn't be too hard. Then all we will need is our introduction and our results/analyzation of those results.

I would say I am excited to see what we find out, but after compiling the list of games, I can tell how the data is going to look without even going into the minute details.

Either way, I think this project will look halfway decent when we're done.


- Leslie

Accepted

So, we've been accepted into Senior Project for Fall semester 2010. I'm pretty excited about our idea, and I'll post here as we work on it over the course of the semester. School starts up on the 23rd, so expect more news after then!

- Leslie

Proposal: Halfway

The proposal is halfway finished. Or maybe it is 2/3'ds? The main proposal page is done, and 10 out of 20 articles for the lit review. We'll be able to submit it soon and relieve this pressure. It will be fantastic.


- Leslie

Final Project: Finally.

So, our last idea of narrative was scrapped, as I said. In order to graduate on time, we decided to play it safe and replicate another Sociological study. The study were are replicating is: Sex, Lies and Video Games: The Portrayal of Male and Female Characters in Video Game Covers by Melinda C. R. Burgess, Steven Paul Stermer and Stephen R. Burgess.

Instead of looking at Gender, we decided that we want to look at the concept of 'Race.'

We are currently working on a 20 article Literature Review.

I will be updating this Blog more as time goes on.


- Leslie

Project Scrapped

With all our hard work in getting our initial proposal submitted, it was rejected. It's painful, since we approached our professor with the idea before we even started to work on it - and it was approved. Apparently there was mis-communication somewhere. We are currently trying to establish a new project idea in order to graduate on time next semester.

- Leslie

Senior Project

Our Senior Project is finally in the works. We hope to address the topic of Video Games as a legitimate narrative medium. One of the main arguments against this viewpoint, is that since the player is interacting with the game, there are always new stories being made. A game, in a sense, never tells the same story twice.

Whereas I agree with this fact, that a story is flexible due to player interaction, I still think that games can (and do) successfully tell stories - just as well, if not better - than some books and movies.

We are currently looking in to the literature at the moment, and hope to start work on our project over the summer. As we work on it, I hope to update this blog some more.


- Leslie

Attorney General Michael Atkinson on Video Games

This article was posted recently on Game Poltics' website. If you don't know already, Michael Atkinson is the South Australian Attorney General.

This article caught my attention since I'm interested in how Australia is doing with it's video game rating laws. It's been a pretty hot debate in recent months. Atkinson's quote from the article:

I accept that 98%, 99% of gamers will tell the difference between fantasy and reality, but the 1% to 2% could go on to be motivated by these games to commit horrible acts of violence.

You don’t need to be playing a game in which you impale, decapitate and dismember people.

That last sentence really irks me. The same thing can be applied to movies. The folks over at Treat Us Like Adults make a good point on this subject. Just thought I'd mention it too.



- Leslie