Final grades are finished and they have been posted in WebCT.  There was a WebCT calculation error in your minor assignments grade that resulted in A5 being counted twice and A6 not at all.  That has been fixed so please double-check that your grade is accurate, even if you checked it previously (some grades were raised, some lowered based on the error).  Thanks for a wonderful semester, and happy storytelling!

RM

We covered a lot of material with the readings so far, so I’ve put together a brief one-page reference with several of the main points from the materials we’ve covered.  If you like, you can copy and paste this material into a Word document and continue adding relevant points as you continue with the remainder of the semester’s readings.  This will help you if you ever decide to do work related to digital storytelling in the future and will allow you to get the most out of the readings.

Course Review (PDF format)

Also, remember that I will be out of town until 7/27 and there is no class on Monday the 23rd.  If you need anything just give me a ring.  My phone number is posted in WebCT.

Best,

RM

TSC Quick Reference, v. 4

Based on the voting results, option 2 was slightly more popular than option 1. However, to serve the interests of both groups, I’ve put together a two-part option for our final minor assignment.

For assignment six, you have two options. The first option is to develop a storyline for a yet-to-be-developed action/adventure video game. In your treatment, or short outline, you should carefully describe your hero or heroine, outline the predicament they face, and show how the player will take an active role in meeting the demands placed upon them by the game world. You may choose any environmental theme or gaming subgenre, but your overall game should fit into the action/adventure narrative theme. In this context, a quest, kidnapping, exploration, redemption voyage, or any other movement into unknown, unfamiliar, or dangerous territories would serve as appropriate scenarios for you to place your players into. Remember the three act structure described by Bob Bates in last week’s reading: first, get your hero up in a tree, then throw rocks at her, then figure out how to get her down. In other words, your game story should have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. If gameplay details (e.g. controller actions) are useful for your narrative, then by all means include them. Otherwise, the specific details (gameplay, platform, technical requirements, etc.) are not necessary for this assignment. Keep in mind the tension between narrative and interactivity — you should strive to create a story that is both dramatically satisfying while at the same time leaves ample opportunity for the player to explore your virtual sceneries and to have fun. The overall length of your video game story should not exceed a single-spaced page in Microsoft Word (approximately 500 words). Feel free to include sketches or other visual materials that you feel would support your game’s vision.

If you choose option one, this will be due to your blogs and WebCT by Sunday, July 15th at 11:55PM.

Your second option will be to write a critique to one of your classmates’ video game treatments from the perspective of a narratologist or a ludologist. In other words, you should apply ideas and concepts from the First Person text, from the supplemental readings, or from the Wiki module postings to support an opinion about whether or not that particular treatment would make for a satisfying video game, a successful story, or neither/both. As you write, try to remember the fundamental positions of narratologists (that story is an essential and critical part of video games; that cyberdrama is possible and plausible; that narrative ideas and theories from legacy media may have value in new digital worlds) and of ludologists (that gameplay is more important than narrative; that narratologists are often misinformed or use narrative terminology too loosely; that video games deserve their own theories and rhetorical toolboxes). To complete option two, you will need to read a treatment from one of your classmates’ blogs and then post a critique of their treatment using the comment function anchored to their posting. You must also upload a Word document to WebCT containing your response and critique by the due date. Your response should be between 350 and 500 words, and you may choose to distribute your word count between multiple game treatments if you like (for example, you could choose to respond to only one game as a narratologist, or to two different games as ludologists, or to three games in different modes for each one). I think we’ll find that both positions have their merits and that perhaps the most reasonable method of inquiry lies somewhere in the middle of these polar positions.

If you choose option two, this will be due to your blogs and WebCT by Sunday, July 22nd at 11:55PM. Note that this option will give you an extra week, since you’ll obviously need the materials produced by your classmates before you can begin to critique them. If treatments are posted early, though, feel free to post your analysis or analyses at any time.

Rubric for Both Parts (out of 10 points total):
___ / 2 Completeness (length and content requirements met)
___ / 3 Writing quality (syntactical and grammatical correctness)
___ / 5 Quality of game story (option 1) or Analysis with theoretical support (option 2)

As always, extra collaboration and interaction is highly encouraged! I would love to see an in-depth debate surrounding some of these game treatments, so let’s see what we can come up with! Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for the great comments so far on your peers’ pass two stories.  The responses I have examined so far have been thoughtful and well-written.  I’m currently considering two options for our final minor assignment:

Option 1: Narratology vs. Ludology debate: the class will be divided into two groups: narratologists and ludologists.  We’ll then have a moderated debate on the importance of narrative design versus gameplay design in virtual worlds and online games.

Option 2: Spec Sheet for Video Game Storyline: students will individually craft storyline ideas for video games based on the Bob Bates reading from last week.  Everyone will write a story idea and then respond to a few peers’ ideas.

I’m setting up a voting forum in WebCT.  Please cast your vote for Option 1 or Option 2 by the end of the day and I’ll post the assignment tomorrow.  Let me know if you have any questions about this process!

Download TSC Quick Reference v. 3

To simplify grading, you should also copy and paste each of your comments into a Word file and upload that file to WebCT by the due date. Please indicate next to each comment whose blog the comment was posted to. So, the document you upload to WebCT should contain a listing of all of your comments as well as annotations showing where each of these comments was posted.

You may also find it helpful to read the story proposal for any selected blog so that you have an idea as to the original purpose and target audience the author is aiming for.

Example of an acceptable comment (this is not based on anyone’s story, but shows what I am looking for in terms of depth/analysis): “This was a great read and I appreciate you sharing it. I liked the way that Bob the milkman seemed to be villainous but actually turned out to be the hero in the end. I have a couple ideas you might think about for your later passes. First, how might you better show the relationship between Bob and Mary? Also, I wonder if the picture of the milk truck was more distracting than helpful to the narrative? Good luck on your future passes!”

Example of a poor comment: “This was a nice story and I enjoyed reading it. Your characters were realistic and I liked the plot. The pictures were also pretty. Good stuff.”

In other words, I’d like to see concrete, specific, and authentic reactions to the stories and detailed advice for revision. Of course you are not expected to follow all advice or implement every suggested change, but you should at least carefully consider all ideas and implement those you feel will improve the quality of your work.

Four comments is the minimum you need for full credit. Feel free to comment as many times as you like, though, and also feel free to reply to any comments posted to your own blog. The more interaction and participation we can create for this assignment, the better your final stories are likely to be!

Rubric (out of ten points):
__ / 8: Four helpful, substantial postings are made to student blogs
__ / 2: Correct process is followed to upload posting summary to WebCT

This assignment is due to WebCT by Sunday, July 8, by 11:55PM.

Please be careful about using copyrighted images in your stories.  You can find a large collection of public domain resources here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources.  You should also include a list of sources for any images used (though you won’t be penalized if this is missing from Pass 2, please go back and add them in if you haven’t already done so).

WikiMedia Commons is also a great resource and is available here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.  You can find additional sources using a Google search for  “public domain images” or “public domain music” or “public domain videos” etc.