Week 8 Notes

The first round of debates were tonight, and it was quite entertaining!  Kudos to the groups 1-4.

Grading on the groups will be determined by a combination of a grade given to yourself and a grade that is given by the rest of your group members.  The worksheet can be found here http://1drv.ms/1cetgwr.  Please fill it out and e-mail it to me.  If you can't remember who is in your group let me know.

There was also a question regarding the Thesis Statement and lenses.  What do I mean by lenses?  See my response below.

I am referring to the lenses of narratology (academic story driven lens) or ludology (industry mechanic driven lens) or a combination of both.  Think of Narratology as the traditional way we look at media; books, movies, art, etc.  This is how most academic papers have been written, for example, let's take the game The Matrix: Path of Neo.  From a narratology point of view, I could write a paper about how the game is a statement on the way we interact in a wired society and are all programmed to do our daily chores and not question authority. This view is mostly based on the human condition.  If I were to take a ludology point of view it would be based more on the elements of the game itself and analytics (measuring success by users, money, etc.)  For instance, in the same game I could talk about how the "focus" mechanic breaks the rule of traditional third person view not only by slowing down the player response but by zooming in at a different angle.  Then I could compare this mechanic to other games that use a standard third person.  Hopefully this helps to discern the two lenses a little better.  More information is also available in my slide deck from week 6.

And finally, oh, how the mighty have fallen!
http://kotaku.com/candy-crush-makers-dont-want-to-trademark-candy-anym-1530680632