bookwarmgames Special Topics

Time for TexMoot

Suddenly here we are. Beyonce’s album dropped a week ago. It’s already the first Saturday in April.

At 10:55 and again at 4:15 Central Time, we’ll be talking video games as part of TexMoot, one of Signum University’s regional gatherings. This year’s theme is Storytelling Through Play: Games and Immersive Narratives. Many thanks to the organizers!

Here’s what I hope to talk about.

First, the morning’s discussion panel on Teaching Video Games.

In recent years, video games have become the subject of critical thought and inquiry, giving rise to engaging works of scholarship and amateur discourse, as well as featuring prominently in other artistic media such as novels, films, and music. My own contribution to this discourse has taken the form of online courses for kids and adult learners, in-person electives in public schools, and long-form podcasts, essays, and interviews. I’ve read and listened to a fair amount of the literature on games, but I know I am still only scratching the surface. Inviting participants to share their own experiences studying and teaching about video games in academic settings, ranging from higher ed to K-12 schools, we’ll discuss the value and meaning of video games as a topic of research bridging STEM fields and the humanities.

A prospectus for an unwritten chapter on the topic.

Slides to look at from SPACE. (Spoilers for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.)

Yet another approach, for teaching at the college level: Alyse Knorr’s Video Games and Meaning.

Then in the afternoon, time permitting, a paper presentation: Rat Tail and Knights of the Round: Summoning King Arthur in Final Fantasy IV and VII.

Video games play a significant role in transmitting images of heroism in contemporary culture. This talk concerns allusions to King Arthur in the Final Fantasy video game series, read in the light of mythic narratives present in the role-playing game genre. I focus on representative Arthuriana in Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VII, which I take to be illustrative of the tension between crystalizing and splintering tendencies at work in the series. I draw comparisons between two major examples, the Excalibur weapon and Knights of the Round summon magic. For a tentative framework of theory, I make reference to Tolkien’s imagery of light as refracted by Verlyn Flieger’s analysis in Splintered Light.

More slides.

…But seriously, have you listened to Cowboy Carter yet?!

bookwarmgames Year in Review

The Break at the End of the Year

By fireplace nook or snowy windowpane, wherever this finds you, I hope you make some time for a little catching up with us at the Video Game Academy during the holidays.

Browse the post archives, poke around in the course links and resources, and generally stir up some dust revisiting the classic games and books we like to discuss.

Speaking of which: “At the present rate of progress,” Sir Philip Pullman says of Roses from the South (as yet unconfirmed title of his Book of Dust Volume 3), “it would be late next year” that it’s ready to release. That was in September 2022, according to Twitter/Reddit. So we have a while to wait yet. This time next year, perhaps, we’ll have more to say about it, and about the as-yet-imaginary games this and much of his work might yet be made into.

Though given his (and our) history of such prognostications, particularly with third and presumably final books in a series, perhaps not so fast.

In the meantime, there are a few more of Pullman’s stories to tide us over. From The Haunted Storm and Galatea to Serpentine and The Imagination Chamber, along with more reviews of the BBC/HBO adaptation and a playthrough of Undertale to balance things out media-wise, there’s plenty to look forward to in the new year.

So I hope this finds you well. Thanks again for reading, listening, and playing along.