KRZ Freewrite

Is Kentucky Route Zero a magical realist work?

Here’s a list of some of the elements of the genre:

  • Fantastical elements
  • Real-world setting
  • Authorial reticence
  • Plenitude
  • Hybridity
  • Metafiction
  • Heightened awareness of mystery
  • Political critique

There are descriptions of each of these elements at the wikipedia page on magical realism.

Choose one of the items from this list and write a paragraph or two about how that element is used within KRZ to invite players to think about and engage with the world around them.

Gamecast: Skyrim and Transit

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How is transit relevant to Skyrim?
Does a fictional world send a better message than a digital real world?
What does transit open you up to?

Gamecast: Candy Crush and Habituation

This podcast episode, by Jasmine and Graciela, details the game Super Smash Bro. Brawl. The episode goes into explaining the features of the game as well comparing and contrasting the game to other fighting games. Why do people keep playing this game continually? We turn to Ian Bogost’s chapter on Habituation and how the certain aspects of the game pull players back in for more to answer that question.

Illimat


The indie band The Decemberists has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a board game called Illimat that they helped to design, along with Portland game designer Keith Baker and publisher Twogether Studios.

The band began to design the game by accident in 2009, as part of the production of a music video for the album The Hazards of Love. They were doing what most bands do in preparation for such an event: trying out new hairstyles, inviting people to be in their band, and participating in photoshoots. They were searching about for something to do in a photoshoot when they decided to pretend to be a secret society that met in out-of-the-way places to play a strange, inscrutable board game. They tasked Carson Ellis (Colin Meloy’s wife and a renowned illustrator and artist in her own right) and photog Autumn DeWilde to make a game board for a prop. Then once they had the game board they got into games more while on their various tours and decided they should make a real game to go along with their board.

Here’s another video, of Chris Funk from the band playing through the game on an episode of One Shot:

Perhaps something in all of this sparks some podcast episode ideas or raises questions for you about games and gaming?

Unpacking Manuel’s Revisions

By sometime Thursday 10/6 publish the revised version of your Unpacking Manuel’s analysts as a page on your site. Included underneath that page should be at least two subpages — the draft that you completed on 9/22 and the research process write-up that you completed at the same time.

Once your revised page is up, publish a post on your blog that reflects on what you learned from drafting and revising. That post should include a link to the new final version of your essay. It should also include one or more links to the learning outcomes that you’ve addressed over the course of this assignment (notice that each learning outcome is its own individual post, with its own unique permalink).

Unpacking Manuel’s Reflection

Once you’ve completed your revisions on the Unpacking Manuel’s assignment, write a reflective blog post of about 250 words.

Begin your post by stating the controlling idea for your analysis. Then explain how you went about revising the final version in order to explain that controlling idea effectively. In what ways did you make the revised version stronger than the first draft?

How do you see your work on the Unpacking Manuel’s assignment helping you to achieve the learning outcomes for this course? Link to one or more of the specific learning outcome posts that applied to your work on this assignment, and explain how you met that outcome with your work on this assignment.

Make sure you address the sets of questions above and then also consider one or more of the questions below and address them in your reflection (you definitely won’t be able to answer all of these, so go through the list and pick some that seem to be most of interest for you and write about them):

  • Were the strategies, skills, and procedures you used effective for this assignment?
  • Do you see any patterns in how you approached your work on this assignment? How was your writing on this assignment similar to or different from writing more traditional essays?
  • What have you learned about your strengths and areas in need of improvement?
  • How are you progressing as a learner?
  • How can you apply the skills you used in crafting this analysis to future writing projects, in this class, other classes, or in other arenas? Where can you use these skills again?
  • What are you most proud of about the project?
  • How does the close reading analysis of your one object fit into the larger project of Unpacking Manuel’s, or at least of the readings of the Main North Wall that you and your classmates have produced?

Gamecast: Cytus and Music

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In this episode of Gamecast, Cindy and Niky discuss the game Cytus, analyzing its plot and mechanics. We also raise the very important question: does playing a music game help a person learn a real instrument? We hope you enjoy!

Gamecast: Don’t Starve and Reverence

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Listen in to our conversation about the survival game Don’t Starve. While Don’t Starve certainly might come across as a leisure game with its cute style and cynical mini monologues, there is much more to it. The game tests your creativity and forces you to think outside the box about where to find resources. You have to think again about how one person can affect the world and the impact of your actions. To check out how all of it is presented within the game and how it ties to Ian Bogost, click play!

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