Today’s Plan:
- Project 2 Check-In
- Characters and Actions
- Homework
Project 2 Check-In
On Monday I met with groups to refine methodologies and focus on collecting objects for analysis. We’ll meet in the Ross 1240 computer lab on Friday to nail down how to analyze those objects, and produce any slides/sheets/forms we need to facilitate that process.
Any questions? Snags? Victories? Things taking much longer than you expected?
Characters and Actions
Earlier this semester I introduced Williams and Bizup’s approach to revising sentences for clarity by conceptualizing syntax in terms of characters and actions. That is, Williams and Bizup ask us to craft sentences that have characters as subjects and actions as verbs. As the name implies, characters are personae that we can visualize, who have both body and agency. Take the following sentence:
- The mandate is in place to make sure that every student will be vaccinated
The subject of this sentence is “mandate.” But a mandate is not a character–it is an idea, not a body. This sentence is bad because a reader cannot translate it into a clear action on a stage. It is also bad because it hides responsibility for the mandate: there is no “who” connected to the main action of the sentence. So let’s revise it:
- The University passed a mandate to make sure that every student will be vaccinated
Thoughts? Did I trick you? The University might appear to have agency, but the University is not a character. It is a place. To maintain my theatrical metaphor for conceptualizing syntax: it is a scene, one in which characters and actions happen. While this sentence seems to ascribe agency, it hides the actual agents responsible for the action. It might be easier for a reader to visualize than the first, but it is still sketchy (though you might have visualized the action of a vote “passing,” since the verb is more active here).
Let’s revise it again:
- University administrators passed a mandate to make sure that every student will be vaccinated
- University administrators and the Student Senate agreed on a mandate to make sure that every student will be vaccinated
- The University’s Board of Regents conceded to pressure by Governor Polis and mandated student vaccinations
Hopefully you can see how making sure that sentences have characters as subjects gives you more control over an idea, and more precision in illustrating difficult distinctions.
Okay, let’s try revising a few sentences from Williams and Bizup.
The base of this project was uncovering what skills are prioritized in ads for writing jobs, and how best a person can acquire those skills to compete for said jobs.
One of the main elements that helped to make a game ethical was the wicked problem which, according to Sicart in his book Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay, occurred when a choice had no clear answer and several solutions were presented (p. 97).
Meeting halfway is another factor in Sicart’s evaluation of ethical gameplay, in terms of interpretation. He (2013a) writes, “I seek games that are open for interpretation and that regard me as a moral player…” (p.70).
Tricky one:
Rule manipulation is used to create a game that requires the active player to stray from instrumental play and tap into the ludic experience that comes with ethical gameplay.
Let’s talk about If… (and his good friend), Then…
It is necessary for the player to have some type of ethical awareness, face their moral flaws and the consequences of those flaws without risking their moral integrity when an ethical game is being played.
Homework
In Friday’s class I will meet with each group to check in on project progress, and submit a score to Canvas. I will also be working with groups to develop/refine/test your method(s) of analysis/analyses.
