Today’s Plan:
- Games as Tragedy Project
- Meakin et al
Games as Tragedy Project
Overview: For the next 5 weeks we will think about how video games reflect, amplify, or defy the traditional Western genre of tragedy. We will read and discuss theory on tragedy, especially its most slippery term, catharsis. We will read and discuss theory on how, as players, we relate to the games/characters we play (as): particularly Miguel Sicart’s concept of “player complicity.” We will also read a few works that analyze games in terms of tragedy as ideas for how to approach your paper. In class, we will play and discuss Naughty Dogs’ iconic The Last of Us, which I think epitomizes the aesthetic potential for the genre (tragedy) and the medium (video game).
Outside of class, you will be responsible for playing a game (any game other than The Last of Us, which we will be playing in class. As you play, you will keep notes in a gaming journal, thinking about how some of our key tragic terms (listed below) show up in your game and your experience of that game (meaning, in part, that your paper can think about the space between what a game is trying to do, how it is trying to make you feel, and whether/why that is/n’t working).
That was the short version, now for the longer one.
Hypothetical Timeline
Here is what I am thinking:
- Thursday, Feb 1st: Santos lecture. Discussion of Meakin et al. Building a vocabulary for analyzing tragedy. Homework: Identify a game you will play outside of class. Play it for two hours.
- Tuesday, Feb 6th: Introduction to Aristotle’s Poetics (and the best/worst definition of tragedy). Close reading activity. Homework: Read Curran.
- Thursday, Feb 8th: Start Developing our Handbook of Tragic Terms. The Last of Us, “Hometown / Prologue.” Homework: Play your game for 2 hours and finish Gaming Reflection #1.
- Tuesday, Feb 13th: Last of Us, “The Outskirts: Capitol Building.” Play your game for 1 hour.
- Thursday. Feb 15th: Santos lecture: Player complicity. “Reading” Sicart together. Last of Us, “Suburbs”. Homework: Read Potzsch and Waszkiewicz. Play your game for 2 hours and finish Gaming Reflection #2.
- Tuesday. Feb 17th: Discuss Potzsch and Waskiewicz. HW: Play your game for one hour.
- Thursday. Feb 19th: Last of Us, “Hospital” (time for “Epilogue”?). HW: Play your game for 2 hours.
- Tuesday. Feb 20th: Writing the Paper Workshop. HW: Start drafting your paper.
- Thursday. Feb 22nd: Writing Time. Presentation expectations.
- Tuesday and Thursday Feb 27 & 29: Writing Conferences
- Tuesday and Thursday March 5 & 7: Presentations
Parts of Tragedy–catharsis, hubris/hamaritia, anagnorisis, peripeteia, epiphany, aporia (? not expected, but Meakin), “action,” mimesis. Sicart: player complicity.
Play your game. The list:
- Last of Us 2. 24-30 hours.
- God of War. 20-30 hours.
- Shadow of the Colossus. 7-9 hours.
- The Walking Dead. 12-13 hours. (Many sequels).
- Bioshock Infinite. 12-16 hours. (Not sure).
- Spiritfarer: Easing into the Steps of Grief. 25-30 hours.
- Heavy Rain. (Haven’t Played). 10-12 hours.
- Beyond: Two Souls. 10-12 hours.
- What Remains of Edith Finch. 2.5 hours.
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Firewatch (?). 4 hours
- A Plague Tale: Requiem. 15 hours
- Life is Strange: True Colors 10 hours.
- Life is Strange. 14 hours
- Doki Doki Literature Club. 4-8 hours (but really 8 hours)
The syllabus maps out 10 hours for playing games. If you play a short game, then I expect you to play it twice or for you to compare it to a second short game (minimum of 6 hours of play for this project).
Not all of these games are tragedies by a strict definition. But all of these games should help us think about how video games, and their interactive nature, utilize/transform catharsis. Papers can argue that games function as tragedies or argue that games fail to meet their cathartic potential.
For this project, papers will be academic conference length (meaning 8-10 pages double-spaced, about 2000-2500 words). Some papers will be much longer than that, and that’s okay. It is virtually impossible to do all the things this paper has to do in less than 8 pages. Papers will have a title and a works cited or reference list (MLA or APA, your choice).
Let’s Discuss Meakin et al
