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Brett Boessen

What Will They Do? Transmedia Producers as Narrative Architects « Asmedia - 5 views

asmith50.wordpress.com/...ducers-as-narrative-architects

transmedia production liberalarts games

shared by Brett Boessen on 12 Apr 10 - Cached
  • The transmedia producer thus holds a different type of skill set, one that draws connections across media forms and one that involves conceptualizing, analyzing, and designing experiences at the macro-level. It is a person that does not just dive into the transmedia realm with a laundry list of media to explore, but actually has a deep understanding of the relationship between content, context, and culture.
  • transmedia producers must understand the unique storytelling potential behind each media platform. Certain stories lend themselves to particular media and vice versa. And as more narrative complexities threaten to impede comprehension , transmedia producers guard against blatant inconsistencies and contradictions. The narrative structure they design must be durable and organized, all while allowing room for future construction and additions.
  • the transmedia producer will have an incredible knack for activating communities and rewarding collective intelligence.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Transmedia producers possess storytelling talent, yes, but they should also appreciate the complex relationship between story and game, author and audience, openness and closure, art and commodity. They are as well versed in any sector of the entertainment industry as they are in popular culture and fandom as a whole.
  • Brett Boessen on 12 Apr 10
     
    Is there a better description of the concrete skills a liberal arts education offers than the description of what transmedia producers do outlined here?
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Jason Mittell on 13 Apr 10
     
    Brett - Aaron's my former student, so I'll take your compliment once removed! He's a very smart fellow...
  • Brett Boessen on 13 Apr 10
     
    You know, that just makes complete sense now that you say that: it would be hard to imagine someone who was not the product of a solid liberal arts education making such a coherent and persuasive argument for its value in this way.
  • Bryan Alexander on 15 Apr 10
     
    Brett, the liberal arts connection really sings in passages like this: "The best architects draw on a range of influences, disciplines, and perspectives, taking into account history, theory, and criticism to develop innovating concepts. Likewise, I see a similar approach to the emerging field of transmedia studies..."
  • Brett Boessen on 15 Apr 10
     
    Agreed, Bryan. Media Studies has always been deeply interdisciplinary, and transmedia strikes me as pushing it even further in that direction (or perhaps pulling into itself the most interdisciplinary facets of MS).
Ed Webb

Alan Kay, Systems, and Textbooks « Theatrical Smoke - 3 views

wedaman.wordpress.com/...lan-kay-and-why-textbooks-suck

education learning systems LiberalArts gaming

shared by Ed Webb on 26 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • I discuss his key idea: that systemic thinking is a liberal art, and I explain a corollary idea, that textbooks suck
  • if you don’t have a category for an idea, it’s very difficult to receive that idea
  • the story of the last few hundred years is that we’ve quickly developed important ideas, which society needs to have to improve and perhaps even to continue to exist, and for which there are no pre-existing, genetically created categories. So there’s an idea-receiving capacity gap.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Education’s job should be, says Kay, to bridge this gap. To help, that is, people form these necessary new idea-receiving categories–teaching them the capacity for ideas–early on in their lives, so that as they grow they are ready to embrace the things we need them to know. Let me say that in a better way: so that as they grow they are ready to know in the ways we need them to know.
  • cultivate the ability to conceive of, work with, create, understand, manipulate, tinker with, disrupt, and, generally, appreciate the beauty of systems
  • The point is to be able to see connections between the silos. Says Kay, the liberal arts have done a bad job at “adding in epistemology” among the “smokestacks” (i.e. disciplines)
  • a game, or a simulation, thought of as a thing we might create (rather than a thing we only act within), is a visceral example of systems thinking
  • It’s the Flatland story–that we need to train our 2D minds to see in a kind of 3D–and Kay’s genius is that he recognizes we have to bake this ability into the species, through education, as close to birth as possible.
  • Systems thinking is to be conceived of as a platform skill or an increased capacity on top of which we will be able to construct new sorts of ideas and ways of knowing, of more complex natures still. The step beyond seeing a single system is of course the ability to see interacting systems – a kind of meta-systemic thinking – and this is what I think Kay is really interested in, because it’s what he does. At one point he showed a slide of multiple systems–the human body, the environment, the internet, and he said in a kind of aside, “they’re all one system . . .”
  • Seeing systems is an epistemology, a way of knowing, a mindset
  • What happens when you’re stuck in a system? You don’t understand the world and yourself and others as existing in constant development, as being in process; you think you are a fixed essence or part within a system (instead of a system influencing systems) and you inadvertently trap yourself in a kind of tautological loop where you can only think about things you’re thinking about and do the things you do and you thus limit yourself to a kind of non-nutritive regurgitation of factoids, or the robotic meaningless actions of an automaton, or what Kay calls living in a pop culture
  • A downside of being epistemologically limited to thinking within a system is that you overemphasize the importance of the content and facts as that system orders them
  • Bryan Alexander on 30 Apr 12
     
    Seems like, among other things, a call for learning with games.
Ed Webb

Learning through gaming - and game design - 1 views

edwebb.amplify.com/...through-gaming-and-game-design

education fun games gaming NITLE pedagogy students video game

shared by Ed Webb on 25 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Ed Webb on 25 Feb 10
     
    Great example of how the process of game design can be powerfully educational. If they've carried out the R&D process well, including beta testing, then the end-product should be educational as well, of course. I hope we'll see more of this kind of project, particularly from liberal arts institutions.
Ed Webb

The Ballad of Reedybeanz - reedybeanz (grab_bag) - Echo Bazaar [Archive of Our Own] - 1 views

archiveofourown.org/73011

games gaming fantasy steampunk fallen_london echobazaar fanfiction

shared by Ed Webb on 23 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Ed Webb on 23 Apr 10
     
    Nicely done. I wonder about fan fiction as a writing form for liberal arts education. Potential to engage reluctant writers?
Bryan Alexander

Simulating spooks? The CIA, simulations, and analyst recruitment - 0 views

paxsims.wordpress.com/...ations-and-analyst-recruitment

simulation liberalartscampus

shared by Bryan Alexander on 09 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 09 Jan 12
     
    Some liberal arts campuses involved, like SBC: "While many might associate the CIA with dissimulation as much as simulation, the Agency uses serious games and simulations in a number of ways. They are used, for example, in analyst training at CIA University (indeed, one well-known game designer teaches there).
Ed Webb

Ian Bogost - Against Aca-Fandom - 2 views

www.bogost.com/...against_aca-fandom.shtml

culture criticism fandom television games opinion blog bogost

shared by Ed Webb on 04 Aug 10 - No Cached
  • Scholars need to make more kinds of things
  • I also question whether traditional academic distance may not often be as lazy, as simple-minded, as the kind of "vulgar aca-fandom" you are critiquing. It seems to me that it often comes from a refusal to engage with texts and the people who consume them. It often starts from an easy dismissal of the value of the work, a disdain for its fans and creators, and a desire to signal one's distance from anything commercial or popular. It often does not ask the kinds of hard questions you are claiming for the virtue of skepticism. For me, then, there is no special virtue from either starting place -- only the need to be honest about where you are starting from and your own stakes in the analytic process and to be unsettled and multivalient in constantly questioning the texts in which you are engaged. To me, this represents the virtues of the best fan criticism and it represents the virtues of the best outsider criticism.
  • I'm not suggesting that fans of pop culture artifact X (for any X) are wasting their time and ought to read Chaucer instead. Rather, I'm just not sure I agree that intense fans are sharp critics. I think they are pedantically detailed and vehement investigators, but I don't know that such digging leads to criticism. Let's take this further: it's a criticism I would extend to most academics too... many "careful readers" of whatever (Chaucer, even!) aren't really any better. In that respect, I agree with you that traditional academic distance isn't a salve (as I begin to suggest above, most "traditional" academics suffer from the same negative fandom that concerns me).
  • Bryan Alexander on 04 Aug 10
     
    I like the distinction between criticism and investigation. Cf the devoted readers of Tolkien, Austen, etc. I wonder how often liberal arts folks interested in gaming get accused of being (just) fans?
Todd Bryant

Games don't Equal Academic Achievement - 20 views

edugamesresearch.com/...g-home-computers-and-academics

pedagogy research

shared by Todd Bryant on 19 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Todd Bryant on 19 Oct 10
     
    Makes a good point. There's a big difference between showing games help students learn, and finding games that match the much more narrow objectives of a class.
  • ...7 more comments...
  • Bryan Alexander on 19 Oct 10
     
    Sure... compare with reading a book, or doing an experiment. It takes contextualization and reflection, which can be done by a learner (autodictat) or school (pedagogy).
  • Todd Bryant on 19 Oct 10
     
    It's also a higher level of learning that's difficult to quantify. Student A and B take History 101. Student A is given a book on US History after 1870. Gets test on same topic. If he read the book, does pretty well. Student B plays a history game, explains outcome, and compares with actual historical events. Certainly more impressive, but if given the standard 101 exam, would he do better? I think games are likely to get the short end of the stick with most standardized assessments.
  • Brett Boessen on 20 Oct 10
     
    I don't know -- it has much to do with the way the prof articulates her objectives. For us (who use games regularly), we can/will shape our objectives at least somewhat around existing titles (just as others do so around existing texts), or augment those games with other content that they don't cover (as others do with inadequate texts). So it seems the issue is more about trying to articulate why games could be useful to *others*, who don't yet use them. Trying to persuade our colleagues to try games when they've been using texts with which they're familiar to accomplish pedagogical objectives they've been using for years is going to be hard, and that's where identifying games that more directly support traditional objectives becomes a boon.
  • Ed Webb on 20 Oct 10
     
    I wonder if we could develop a few talking points tying games to Bloom's taxonomy (updated version), making clear that like all pedagogical tools, games address some student needs better than others. And, of course, that not all games address the same type of developmental tasks, just as all texts, A/V materials, classroom techniques do not address the same tasks. The computer/radio analogy is a good one. Expecting computers and/or games to replace some other educational and entertainment resource is missing the point - they are their own thing.
  • Brett Boessen on 21 Oct 10
     
    Ed, I feel like such a set of points might already exist and/or have been publicly expressed by game critics/designers, especially from the serious games side of things. But that shouldn't stop us from discussing whether they might be in need of update/reworking/extension. :) I'm interested -- could/should we try to look at some existing texts/posts and then come together in a conference call or something?
  • Ed Webb on 21 Oct 10
     
    I'm thinking something specific to liberal arts educators. We could brainstorm with an etherpad clone (e.g. ietherpad.com) or asynchronously via a google doc.
  • Bryan Alexander on 21 Oct 10
     
    Ed, would you object if I took that Bloom's approach in a forthcoming paper? "augment those games with other content that they don't cover (as others do with inadequate texts)" - nicely said, Brett.
  • Ed Webb on 26 Oct 10
     
    Go for it, Bryan. If you want to kick ideas around, let me know.
  • Bryan Alexander on 26 Oct 10
     
    Will certainly do.
Ed Webb

Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...20655

games gaming liberal arts music composition Berklee

shared by Ed Webb on 20 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Berklee first offered a course exclusively on game audio about four years ago
  • Mr. Sweet, a 1990 Berklee graduate, told the Globe that video games were popular when he was a student but not considered a career possibility. "Now, it's a juggernaut," he said. The quality of artwork and production values are "dramatically higher," he told the newspaper, "and so is the orchestral work."
  • Ed Webb on 20 Jan 10
     
    The World of Goo score is available as mp3 download, and is quite listenable.
Rebecca Davis

Interactive Games Studies Undergraduate Program | St. Edward's University, Austin Texas - 6 views

www.stedwards.edu/...interactivegamesstudies

interactive games gaming liberalarts

shared by Rebecca Davis on 08 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 08 Aug 11
     
    This is a full-time bachelor's degree for students who want a traditional 4-year college experience. The Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Games Studies at St. Edward's prepares you to turn your passion for video games into a fulfilling career.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Brett Boessen on 09 Aug 11
     
    Wow. Is this the first full-size (major) program at an LAC in game studies? Computer Science and I have started some very early conversations here, but I don't think we'd do anything more than a minor.
  • Bryan Alexander on 09 Aug 11
  • Brett Boessen on 09 Aug 11
     
    Cool. I especially like the Design Challenge as a requirement for acceptance into the program. I wonder if they had issues when they started with people declaring the major without sufficient commitment? At ND when I was an undergrad, the Program of Liberal Studies, my major, required a short essay as part of an application to be a major. The Chair later admitted they don't really even evaluate them, but they found just having such a requirement was a deterrent to those on campus who (erroneously) saw the degree as light and fluffy. I'm not sure how I feel about that as the sole motivation for the requirement, but I'd definitely like to see what students who applied to Champlain's program submitted. :)
Brett Boessen

Terra Nova: Game Education: What Should You Study? - 7 views

terranova.blogs.com/...ion-what-should-you-study.html

games gaming industry education teaching learning

shared by Brett Boessen on 18 Sep 11 - No Cached
    • Brett Boessen
      Brett Boessen on 18 Sep 11
       
      The comments for this post are especially interesting.
  • Bryan Alexander on 19 Sep 11
     
    Fascinating. On the one hand, a lot of talk around liberal education. On the other, that classic theory/practice debate.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Brett Boessen on 19 Sep 11
     
    They're certainly two perspectives on pedagogy I myself encounter regularly, though for me it's digital media production instead. Still, I wonder if games is entering the academy at an interesting time in terms of opening up conceptions of learning and pedagogy. A decade or two ago, and we might have seen less interdisciplinary language in the way these folks are talking about games as an object of study.
  • Bryan Alexander on 19 Sep 11
     
    Interesting historical perspective, Brett. How is gaming's incorporation different from digital media's, a decade ago?
  • Brett Boessen on 19 Sep 11
     
    I was really thinking about TV -- guess it's more decades ago than I'd thought -- and the way TV became the younger sibling to film. Of course there are more formal similarities between them than between either and games in many ways, so maybe the comparison is not particularly apt.
  • Bryan Alexander on 20 Sep 11
     
    Will gaming become older media's younger sibling, then?
  • Brett Boessen on 20 Sep 11
     
    I don't really see that, myself, at least not from the production side, because computers and coding are such a prominent component. But it does seem like game studies is overlapping with existing media studies in many institutions. Perhaps we'll see a more demarcated split between studies and game design in a way we haven't seen with film and TV (not that film and TV aren't fairly demarcated at lots of schools; but they're still usually in the same department when they're both available).
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