Fall 2015: Folklore and Videogames

ENGL 1102
Folklore in Videogames: Mythology and Recollection
Fall 2015

Instructors: Dr. Joshua Hussey; Dr. J. Stephen Addcox
Email: joshua.hussey@lmc.gatech.edu; james.addcox@lmc.gatech.edu
Office: Skiles 315 (Hussey); Stephen C. Hall Building 121 (9) (Addcox)
Office Hours: MWF 9-10:30am (Hussey); MW 8-10:30am (Addcox) or by appointment

Class Meetings
11:05 MWF Skiles 202 (B, B1)
12:05 MWF Mason 3133 (G1, G2)
2:05 MWF Mason 3133 (L2, L3)

Class Description
This course asks students to develop communication strategies through narrative analysis in a variety of interactive media and video games, as well as develop practical skills in presentation, collaboration and multi-modal design. To refine their approaches to LMC’s WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, and non-verbal) communication modules, students will design and compose unique artifacts that respond to material on games and narrative theory.

The purpose of this course is to gain sophisticated abilities in multimodal (WOVEN) communication that build off of ENGL 1101. To navigate those methods, we will investigate a contemporary movement in gaming and games studies that attempts to appreciate the past by both replicating the aesthetics of prior generations of video games and by representing folklore and history through video games. In some cases these two approaches are combined in a single game, as in Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please (2013), which draws upon both the pixelated graphics of 1980s video games while bringing players into an oppressive world reminiscent of the USSR’s eastern bloc in 1982. On the other hand, games like Never Alone (2014), which was developed with the cooperation of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, serve to allow an entirely new audience to share and participate in folklore passed down through generations.

This course will ask students to consider the unique issues that arise when we attempt to pass down folklore and oral narratives through an interactive medium like video games. Games are certainly social phenomena; how do games define cultural areas? How do communities organize around games? Are those communities completely digital or are there physical regions in which they also exist?

Finally, we will examine how nostalgia impacts the way that technology is remembered and curated, and alternatively, how technology lets us remember. Students should expect to work extensively with modern and retro technology in this class. Assignments will encourage the development of communication skills in academic research and argumentation.

Note: While this class has specific content, the emphasis of the course remains on techniques of composition and rhetorical/argumentative strategies. All of our discussions and assignments will engage with Georgia Tech’s multimodal WOVEN communication (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal), which taken together in synergy, will better enable us to describe the material and digital worlds in which we exist.

Required Materials

Reading:

WOVENText (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015)
The Blue Fox, Sjón (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. ISBN: 978-0-374-11445-9)
Other readings available in T-Square Resources

Equipment:

Personal Computer with enough performance to run a variety of games and code using Inform 7

Software:

Blog software (WordPress through blogs.iac.gatech.edu)
Steam account

Inform 7 (Interactive Fiction software)

Games:

Year Walk. Simogo Games. 2013.
Never Alone. E-Line Media. 2014.
Sunless Sea. Failbetter Games. 2015.
Elegy for a Dead World. Dejobaan Games. 2014.

Grade Summary
1. Unit 1: Project 1—10% [100 points]
2. Unit 2: Project 2—15% [150 points]
3. Unit 3: Project 3—10% [100 points]
4. Unit 4 : Project 4—20% [200 points]
5. Portfolio—10% [100 points]
6. Blog—20% [200 points]
7. Participation—10% [100 points]
8. Quizzes—4% [40 points]
9. Common Week Assignment—1% [10 points]

Final Grade Distribution (by points)
A 895-1000
B 795-894
C 695-794
D 595-694
F 0-594

Common Policies for ENGL 1102
Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program has common, program-wide policies regarding these areas:

General Education Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Evaluation Equivalencies
Evaluation Rubric
Attendance
Participation in Class
Non-discrimination
Communication Center
Accommodations
Academic Misconduct
Syllabus Modifications
Week Preceding Final Exams (WPFE)
Reflective Portfolio

You can access these Common Writing and Communication Program policies here. You are required to acknowledge that you have read, understood, and intend to comply with these policies.

WOVEN Communication
This course is designed to increase your abilities and competencies in a variety of communicative modes. Understanding how to write a proper essay is only one such mode of communication. The WOVEN acronym highlights the written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal forms of communication modalities that, as a student at Georgia Tech, you will explore in order to better understand the material world in which you interact as well as a better understanding of how to describe that material world. In all modalities you use—written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal—consider rhetorical factors such as purpose, context, audience, argument, and effective design. In practice, the WOVEN modes work synergistically, not separately.

Written communication. You need to write well, so this semester, you’ll work on written responses to literature as well as non-fiction reading and theoretical texts;

Oral communication. You need to speak well, so this semester, you’ll work on talking in class, and in small groups, using oral communication to organize a significant project;

Visual communication. You need to design well, so this semester, you’ll work on looking at ways image and text coordinate meaning;

Electronic communication. You need to use software well, so this semester, you’ll work on learning new capabilities of applications you already use, and streamlining project workflow to increase efficiency;

Nonverbal communication. You need to use nonverbal communication well, so this semester, you’ll work on (a) eliminating paralinguistic “ticks” (e.g., um, uh), (b) making eye contact with humans (not your mobile device, laptop, or the projection screen), (c) conveying vocal enthusiasm, and (d) using body language to communicate.

Technology

We will use T-Square for this course. This syllabus, course calendar, assignment sheets, deadlines, and grades are available on your respective T-Square site;
Digital Activities. The projects in this course are digital heavy and require skill working with a variety of media. While the instructors are available for tech support and troubleshooting, students are ultimately responsible for learning how to use the necessary technology. Georgia Tech has a wealth of resources for this purpose. For assistance with technology: Multimedia Studio, Communication Center, Lynda.com (a campus-wide subscription);
In-class use of technology:
—Bring your laptops to every class. You may take notes on your laptop, but no web browsing or emailing is allowed (unless specified by the instructor)
—Switch off your mobile phone: no talking, texting, or social media use during class

Late Assignments
Late work is not accepted in this course.

Revisions of Assignments
Revisions are accepted, but must be completed in accordance with the course’s Paper Revision Policy. Make sure to read the policy carefully and note all due dates before completing a revision.

Appointments for Individual and Collaborative Conferences
Please plan to visit our office hours at least once this semester for an individual conference. Drop-ins are welcome, but appointments made through email take priority. Dr. Addcox’s office hours are MW 8-10:30am; Dr. Hussey’s office hours are MWF 9-10:30AM.

Unit I: Game and Folklore Theory
Games: Play games you like. Play a lot of games.
Texts: Janet Murray, Ian Bogost, Jorge Luis Borges; Folklore readings tba
Project: Two blog posts; revise one as 800-word essay (paper submission)

Unit II: Nautical Folklore
Games: Sunless Sea, The Sailor’s Dream
Texts: Nautical Folklore essay, Poe’s The Maelstrom, Coleridge
Project: Interactive Narrative Design & Essay

Unit III: Scandinavian Folklore
Games: Year Walk, Never Alone
Texts: The Blue Fox (Sjon)
Project: Lore project

Unit IV: Inform 7
Games: Zork, Elegy for a Dead World
Texts: Emily Short essay
Project: Interview and Inform 7 game

Project Descriptions

Semester-Long Blog Project (20%) [200 points]:
Throughout the semester you will create and maintain a videogames blog (http://blogs.iac.gatech.edu/). Over the semester, at intervals, you will be required to write and submit 6 posts of 500 words. A handful of these posts will have directed topics; other post topics will be left to your imagination. All posts must include some kind of argument, research question, or purposeful statement that responds to a specific critical inquiry. They must all include research sources, print and online, and have formatted bibliographies at the end of each post. Embedded media is mandatory.
Unit I: 2 posts on readings
Unit II: 1 post
Unit III: 2 posts
Unit IV: 1 post

Unit I: Short essays (15%) [150 points]
Individual assignment.
—Two 500-word blog posts;
—One extended revision of a post, re-rendered in essay form (800 words);
Compose two 500-word blog posts prompted by the readings from Unit 1. Revise one of these posts into an 800-word essay, submitted separately.

Unit II: Tales and Storylets: Nautical Folklore (15%) [150 points]
Individual assignment.
For this assignment, you will be designing a storylet narrative set in the world of Sunless Sea. You will write the text, design the UI in which the player’s story interaction will take place, and design a branching narrative with at least seven nodes. The storylet should incorporate a representation of nautical folklore and its impact on the characters in your storylet. The storylet accounts for 50% of your project grade and will be assessed based on narrative creativity, visual design, and incorporation of folklore.

You will also write a 1000 word essay in which you argue how your narrative attains a single effect and why your narrative fits the style of the game. Your essay should incorporate material from the course readings in order to support your argument. Students are encouraged to include images from their storylet design as supporting materials within the essay.

Unit III: Lore Project (10%) [100 points]
Group assignment. In Groups, at your scheduled time during the semester, visit the GaTech Archives. In the RetroGaming center experience an old game from the manifest provided by the library. Write a reflection about the game and the experience (Blog Post). Research a game and explore the features that support it (characters, user experience, argument, etc). Next, create an infographic that charts those features.

Unit IV: Inform 7 Interactive Fiction (20%) [200 points]
Group assignment. Using Inform 7, compose a game that is built around a short narrative of some kind. Each group’s game should require players to interact with their environment in some way to either progress in the story or in the game space.

Course Calendar
Unit I: CW; Theory on games; Folklore readings

Week 1 (August 17 – 21)
M [8/17]
– Introduction, Syllabus
– Common First Week Assignment

W [8/19]
– Discussion: Garbology, Introduction & Ch. 7

F [8/21]
– Discussion: “Why We Dug Atari,” The Atlantic, 2014
– Common First Week Project Video Due on T-Square by 11:55PM

Week 2 (August 24 – 28)
M [8/24]
– Discussion: “Agency” (Chapter 5) in Janet H. Murray. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. MIT Press, 1999. 126-153.
– Return Statements of Understanding (find in T-Square resources).
– In-class reflections on Common Week assignment.
– WOVENText readings: Table of Contents; sections that appeal to you; flip through the book and skim.
– Set up blogs.
– Start playing some games and taking notes.

W [8/26]
– Discussion: Jorge Luis Borges, “Garden of Forking Paths” (1941) and “Library of Babel” (1941)

F [8/28]
– Discussion: Espen Aarseth “A Narrative Theory of Games” (2012) ; James Paul Gee’s “Learning and Identity: What does it mean to be a Half-Elf?”
– Lab: Oulipo game
– Blog Post 1 due by 11:55PM

Week 3 (August 31 – September 4)
M [8/31]
– Discussion: Ian Bogost, “The Rhetoric of Video Games” (2008)

W [9/2]
– Discussion: Paula Gunn Allen, “Kochinnenako in Academe” (1993)

F [9/4]
– Discussion: Thomas King, excerpt from The Truth About Stories (2003)
– Lab
– Blog Post 2 due by 11:55PM

Unit II: Nautical Folklore & Interactive Narrative

Week 4 (September 7 – 11)
M **No Class**

W [9/9]
– Discussion: Poe, Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales
– In-Class Gaming: “Ridiculous Fishing”
– Begin playing “Sunless Sea”

F [9/11]
– In-Class Lab: The Single Effect in “Return of the Obra Dinn”
– Look at Lucas Pope’s Devlog
– Unit I Essay due in class (print)

Week 5 (September 14 – 18)
M [9/14]
– Discussion: WOVENText Ch. 13 pp. 299-307
– Discussion: Pittman, “Functions of Nautical Tradition”

W [9/16]
– Discussion: Poe, “A Descent into the Maelström”

F [9/18]
– Discussion: Sunless Sea
– Discussion: Alexander Freed, “Developing Meaningful Player Character Arcs in Branching Narrative” (Gamasutra, 2013)
– Blog Post 3 Due

Week 6 (September 21 – 25)
M [9/21]
– Discussion: WOVENText, Ch. 3 (pp. 43-81)

W [9/23]
– In-Class Lab: The Sailor’s Dream

F [9/25]
– In-Class Exercise: Creating storylets
– Look over Failbetter Games’ “Fallen London Writer’s Guidelines” [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]

Week 7 (September 28 – October 2)
M [9/28]
– Project Work Day & Conferences

W [9/30]
– Peer Review & Discussion

F [10/2]
– In-Class Writing: Project Reflection
– Storylet Project Due

Unit III: Scandinavian Sagas and Lore; Never Alone (Traditional Inuit)

Week 8 (October 5 – 9)
M [10/5]
– Sjón, The Blue Fox: 1-34
– Begin playing Year Walk

W [10/7]
– Sjón: 35-76

F [10/9]
– Sjón: 77-115
– Cumulative final quizzes

Week 9 (October 12 – 16)
M **No Class**

W [10/14]
– Lab: Year Walk — Online Instructions
– A.S. Byatt, “Stone Woman” (optional)
– Sjón interviews: The White Review and Tweed’s
– Begin playing Never Alone*
*only purchase Never Alone if your PC meets the system requirements; console versions available

F [10/16]
– Discussion: Year Walk, Never Alone
– Blog Post 4 Due: on The Blue Fox

Week 10 (October 19 – 23)
M [10/19]
– WOVENText: Charts/Infographics, p. 357-365
– Workshop: Infographic

W [10/21]
– Workshop: Infographic

F [10/23]
– Project workday (no formal class meeting)
– Blog Post 5 Due
– Unit III Lore Project due: PDF uploaded to t-square

Unit IV: Game Composition

Week 11 (October 26 – 30)
M [10/26]
– Unit III Lore Project Presentations
– Begin playing Zork I (Mac users install Boxer and download the PC version of Zork; PC users will need to use DOSBox.)
– Begin playing Elegy for a Dead World (on Steam)
– Discussion: Language and Space

W [10/28]
– Continue Unit III Lore Project Presentations
– Introduction to Inform 7

F [10/30]
– Discussion: Zork
– Form an Inform 7 Project Group and complete the group survey: http://b.gatech.edu/1O2P6EN

Week 12 (November 2 – 6)
M [11/2]
– In-Class IF Group Work

W [11/4]
– In-Class IF Group Work

F [11/6]
– Project Work Day (In class)

Week 13 (November 9 – 13)
M [11/9]
– In-Class IF Work

W [11/11]
– In-Class IF Work

F [11/13]
– Project Work Day (No class meeting)

Week 14 (November 16 – 20)
M [11/16]
– Peer Review for IF Games

W [11/18]
– IF Showcase

F [11/20)
– IF Showcase
– Final revisions over weekend

Week 15 (November 23 – 27)
M [11/23]
– Blog Post 6 Due: Reflection on IF Project
– IF Projects Due
W **No Class**
F **No Class**

[Sunday Nov. 29]
– Blog Project DUE: no major content changes; clean up theme, add images, fix references

**Dead Week**
Week 16 (November 30 – December 4)
M [11/30]
– Portfolio and Mahara Introduction
– Course Review: PDF here
W [12/2]
– Portfolio Workshop

F [12/4]
– Course Wrap-Up and Discussion

Portfolios due by the end of your final’s period:
MWF 11:05am: Dec 9 (Wed) 8:00am – 10:50am
MWF 12:05pm: Dec 11 (Fri) 11:30am – 2:20pm
MWF 2:05pm: Dec 9 (Wed) 11:30am – 2:20pm

Research

Related Readings:

Jorge Luis Borges, “Garden of Forking Paths” in Labyrinths. Ed. Donald Yates and James Irby. New York: New Directions, 1962.
“The Rhetoric of Video Games.” Ian Bogost in The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Ed Katie Salen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. 117-139.
“Historical Veneers: Anachronism, Simulation, and Art History in Assassin’s Creed II.” Douglas N. Dow in Kapell, M., & Elliott, A. B. R. (2013). Playing with the past: Digital games and the simulation of history. Available through GaTech’s online ebrary (catalog). Also available on T-Square Resources.
“Learning and Identity: What does it means to be a Half-Elf?” Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (Rev. and updated ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
“Victorian SimCities: Playful Technology on Google Earth.” Patrick Dunae and John Sutton Lutz in Kee, Kevin B. (Kevin Bradley). Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History With Technology. GaTech ebrary.
“Agency” (Chapter 5) in Janet H. Murray. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. MIT Press, 1999. 126-153.
“Mordor, We Wrote.” Ken Levine. The New York Review of Video Games: Medium, 2014.
“Winning isn’t Everything.” Ian Bogost. The New York Review of Video Games: Medium, 2014.
“Simogo and the Modern Myth.” Polygon review of Year Walk, 2013.
“Five Feminist Moments in the History of Video Games.” Anita Sarkeesian and Carolyn Petit. The New York Review of Video Games: Medium, 2014.
“Towards a Theory of Choice Poetics” (Mawhorter, Mateas, Wardip-Fruin, Jhala: 2014). This paper presents possible structures for choice-based narratives in games. From Foundations of Digital Games 2014 conference.
“The Semiotics of Time Structure in Ludic Space As a Foundation for Analysis and Design”. Craig Lindley. Game Studies Journal, vol 5, 2005.
“Video Games are Better without Characters.” Ian Bogost. The Atlantic, 2015.
“Natural Language, Semantic Analysis, and Interactive Fiction” (Inform 7 project). Graham Nelson. St. Anne’s, Oxford. Revised 2006.
“What Her Story tells us about the State of Video Games.” Adrian Chmielarz. The Astronauts.com. August 2015.
“Ability, Disability, and Dead Space.” Games Studies Journal.

Folklore Readings

Bascom, William. “Four Functions of Folklore” (1954)
Bascom, William. “The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives” (1965)
Pittman, Louisa W. “Appeasing Neptune: The Function of Nautical Tradition” (2006)
Sims, Martha and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions (2nd ed, 2011)

Some Curiosities or Resources:

Make cartridge-type games with Pico-8.

Archive.org’s MS-Dos Collection.

Rob Swigart’s interactive novel Portal (1986) on the Internet Archive.
Journal of Games Criticism. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2013-2015.
Games Studies Journal. The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), 2001-2015.
eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture. Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, 2007-2015.
Foundations of Digital Games Conference. Site includes open access to presentation materials.
Games@GT

Digital Media Program in LMC.

VGs into wall-art: Drawings made by Zelda Enemies

Ken Levine’s GDC talk, “Narrative Legos”

The 100 best free online games on PC. PC Gamer, 2014.
Versu: platform for interactive stories with AI. Richard Evans, Emily Short, Graham Nelson.

Comments are closed.