As an alternative to Empty Stadium Summer, what about some Blitzball and theology? Don’t forget, it’s the Year of Myth in Games!
“So stankin’ good” – Professor Noctis c. 13 min in…
Not that I have the bandwidth to properly join in on the streams and play through FFX this summer, but I so admire that Prof Noctis is up to this right now and wanted to share it.
He also recently presented with Evan DeYoung on “Video Games in Higher Education” at PAX East under the alias Dr T Wade Langer, Jr. Some great insights there on the formation of identity and memory through gameplay!
For his dissertation, he wrote on Teaching Judeo-Christian Kingship Through Final Fantasy XV.
As a research project connected to his course on “Mythos to Logos” in FFXVI, he is engaged in using a bespoke Game Lab at UA to “qualitatively research how using a video game to teach theology impacts a student’s ability to objectively examine religious traditions through comparative study.”
And as a minister, he appeals to games to “speak theologically to nearly any audience.” It is life-affirming and life-saving work.
And somehow he found time to play Kenneth from 30 Rock? Pshaw! Just joshin’ ya.
Prof Noctis makes a great counterpart to The Bible Project, with their “One Story That Leads to Jesus” reading plan on the one hand and to Signum University, with their new Tutorials, on the other. It’s awesome to see the success he’s had and the growth since we first connected when he was Editor-in-Chief over on The Pixels.
Very soon, I promise, I will be sitting down to engage more critically with some of this content–and I’ll say in passing that I like the distinction Wade and Evan make in their PAX presentation between “content-creators” and “-curators”, because I, too, feel more comfortable in the latter designation. In particular, I want to dig into the dissertation, since it’s been a minute since I looked at it, and the video “What is Final Fantasy,” which (along with his sign at the wrestling arena) seems to have really put the FF Prof on the map, social-media-wise. From their conversation about Fantasian as the “Final Fantasy We Never Got,” I’m intrigued to consider the thesis that part of what makes an FF is its seeking to break a historical cycle… But until then…
Roll Tidus!
Video Game Academy 