Quickie: SuperBetter
I’ve gotten a few email questions asking “what should I be doing with SuperBetter?” My quick answer here is: us it. If you go through the introductory process, then you have already selected or articulated a personal problem you want to address: willpower, procrastination, weight loss, exercise, confidence, etc. SuperBetter will give you a bunch of quick things (power-ups), daily routines (quests), and big challenges (bosses) that you should “battle/complete” everyday. You’ll find them on your to-do list. You can also download “quest packs” (at least I think that is what they call them). All together, you should be clearing your to do list everyday, starting today. That means 3 quests, 3 power-ups, and 1 boss. Don’t cheat. And, seriously, start doing this everyday. At the end of the next month, we should all be at least level 10. And, I get a daily feed of who has done what (since you all friended me).
Welcome to the Panopticon.
Prepping for Project Two
We will spend much of today talking about your projects: listening to theories of art and celebrating successful and interesting games. That should be a fun conversation!
But I want to take a minute to have what is a bit more somber conversation, in preparation for the weekend’s readings and Tuesday’s class. As I touched upon last week, we will be discussing race and gender. These can be difficult conversations. I want you to feel comfortable to ask questions–I am not attempting to police thought. I often think what makes people hesitant to join these conversations is the ire with which “Social Justice Warriors,” such as myself, will rain fire down upon people who might, out of innocent ignorance, say something that mortally offends their liberal sensibilities. So, up front, I am warning everyone to take a deep breath and extend charity and tolerance to everyone else’s perspective.
I also want you to take a look at this picture:
If you think this picture is funny, that’s ok. Maybe. Often comedy operates by transgressing imposed social norms, giving us a moment of respite from the hard work of being civilized human beings (hey, Archer is one of my favorite shows).
If you don’t realize that this picture is mortifyingly wrong, and that it is socially unacceptable to think this is funny, then we have a problem. And if you think me thinking that this picture is mortifyingly terrible is me making a big deal out of a little joke, then you need to keep that opinion to yourself.
It might seem as if I am not willing to extend charity to your perspective, that I am policing you. In part, yes. Part of my job, especially as someone teaching in the Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Technology program, is to teach you the social boundaries that discourse should not cross. Transforming genocide, or domestic abuse, into a joke is one of them.
I’m pretty sure that if a bunch of black students from a northern university made a sign that said “Let’s March ‘Em Like Sherman All the Way Back to the Sea,” then southern white people would lose their minds. And I know that if a bunch of muslim students made a sign that said “Let’s Blow ‘Em Up Like the Twin Towers,” then people would go absolutely crazy. You don’t get to make a joke about another culture’s tragedies. Period. Being a sophisticated Professional Writer or Rhetorician requires a measure of cross-cultural awareness.
As the fallout of the recent #GamerGate nonsense hopefully shows: you don’t get to purchase your identity, or just have some fun, at the expense of others–especially at the expense of groups that have been historically victimized, enslaved, suppressed, lynched, or disenfranchised.
Homework
There’s a fairly significant amount of reading for next class, so please budget 2-3 hours. As you read these articles, pay particular attention to their methodology, as well as their findings. In Tuesday’s class, I will ask you to use these articles to specify the dimensions of your next assignment. In other words, project 2 will be a response to these two articles (in the form of Sarkeesian’s video). So:
- Tweet something with the course hashtag (#enc3435)
- SuperBetter. One check in everyday
- Read Williams, Martin, Consalvo, and Ivory’s 2009 “The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games”; note: this should be a free download if you access it on the USF WiFi or if you access if from home via the USF library. I recommend you download it now.
- Read Mou and Peng’s 2009 Gender and Racial Stereotypes in Popular Video Games
- Watch Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency video “Women as Background Decoration (Part 2). It is 28 minutes long. The full page has a transcript if you would prefer to read it (but I highly encourage you to watch it, since you will be making one of these videos over the next 4 weeks)
- Extra: If you have time, watch American Enterprise Institute’s response video to Sarkeesian and #gamergate
