Writing about Video Games

[Snickerd00dle]

Again, what was the assignment?

it was a basic argumentative essay, make an argument about something and support it, mine was about why video games are in fact art

[dsheinem]

Really, I'm tired of this. My professors are pretty much ignorant of video games, but most of the time I'm required to know bits of cinema or other stuff I don't give a shit about because they're supposed to be part of the culture. And also most of the time they are not. Really, Mario is not just a random character, he is ingrained in Western culture, and if college professors do not acknowledge that, it's their fault, their ignorance.

I can excuse them for not knowing about or appreciating the fine differences between tactical and danmaku shooters, but saying that we need to clarify our subject better when we're talking about fucking Tetris, Mario, or Sonic is outrageous. Next thing they'll say we can't reference sudoku, because no one knows what it is.

As a college professor who includes cultural discussion of games in some of his courses and who also teaches about film and other forms of pop culture, I actually want to DEFEND professors who have this exclusionary view on games - for a couple of reasons.

1) It is their course and they can choose what is permissible for paper writing and what is not, and no they don't always have to give you reasons. Maybe they want you to write about certain topics and not others because they want to see how you can apply certain concepts from the course to certain kinds of texts (and not others). It is their prerogative. Any "burden of proof" that another topic should be permitted is on you, not them.

2) It is demonstrable that games have not had the same historical and cross-cultural impact as older visual mediums like photography, film, graphical design, and so on. Consider how these media have been used for personal, commercial, political, etc. reasons over the decades - the same is really not yet true of games. There is no Citizen Kane or Triumph of the Will of video games (Metroid Prime and Night Trapdo not count!). Nor is their a Ansel Adams or Robert Mapplethorpe. Maybe things are changing, but games don't yet have the recognition as art that these other media have - even if you feel they do. Why do you think so many gamers have to try and defend games as art? Because few in the "artworld" acknowledge them as such. And their are good reasons (such as the commercial focus of 90% or more of games). Filmmakers don't have this problem...

3) Most faculty are not familiar with the still emerging (and generally poor) scholarship in game studies. They have to put certain limits on their assignments that allow them to fairly critique what you write. I know the scholarship and can help my students draw on it to write a worthwhile paper - most faculty can't, especially since they were trained before games were considered from a scholarly perspective. Besides, the study of film grew out of the study of photography, so lots of the terminology and theory was transferable (to an extent). Sure, games may seem like a whole new ballgame, but game studies also draws on this background (in addition to computer science and other fields) and you better be able to analyze "simpler" visual media before tackling games with any exactitude.

4) I don't think any professor would deny that "Mario is ingrained in Western culture." I just don't think that many feel that this is an interesting claim by itself - certainly not worth a paper. Too many students who want to write about games just want to gush without employing any critical acumen. They think that the "stuff" about film or other media doesn't matter when they talk about games. In my experience, they often want to choose games as a topic because they think it is a topic that they think they can write about by excluding course content...usually they are the students who haven't/don't want to do the work. So while I encourage my students to say something interesting about games, I shoot down many initial proposals because they look like the kinds of topics proposed in this thread. My guess is your professor(s) have encountered this and are thus very dubious of papers on games.

I could go on... but it is hard to say much more without knowing those all important details of the courses/assignments.

All that said, I have had students write strong papers on games, but most aren't really ready to put in the work. It doesn't take much to say "Mario is culturally pervasive." It does take work to answer "how, why, and so what?" about that claim with any skill.

[Luke]

As a college professor who includes cultural discussion of games in some of his courses and who also teaches about film and other forms of pop culture, I actually want to DEFEND professors who have this exclusionary view on games - for a couple of reasons.

My advice to everyone out there who is a student is to read and remember dsheinem's post.
Your professor controls your grade.
Give him what work he/she asks for. You don't have to kiss his ass, just give 'em what they want.

[MrPopo]

As a college professor who includes cultural discussion of games in some of his courses and who also teaches about film and other forms of pop culture, I actually want to DEFEND professors who have this exclusionary view on games - for a couple of reasons.

My advice to everyone out there who is a student is to read and remember dsheinem's post.
Your professor controls your grade.
Give him what work he/she asks for. You don't have to kiss his ass, just give 'em what they want.

Pretty good advice for life. Give the person in power over you what he wants. Once summer job I had was doing the software for an imager the biology team had built. My first couple weeks I was ramping up on the skeleton code already there, and every week the professor wanted to see what I had done. Then someone gave me the advice, "Have it take a picture," so I worked on the picture part for the next week. He came in, saw the camera taking pictures, and I never saw the prof for the rest of the summer. Give 'em what they want and your life becomes easy.