Digital Rhetorics
Dr. Michelle Miley
March, 2015
Indie Games and YouTube
Video games have evolved a lot since their conception in the eighties. When I say that I mean it in more than just the graphics and business market kind of way. Originally I wanted this project to focus on indie games that were composed in an artistic way which focused on depicting mental illnesses (like depression or autism). Such games I thought about would be "Presentable Liberty" or "The Static Speaks My Name." However, I feel as if I should probably focus on the digital rhetorical part of indie games, meaning: How did these games come into conception, and why did the developer make them in the first place? To answer that, I realized that a large majority of indie games have been created because of the phenomenon of "Let's Plays." Let's Plays are videos of people playing a video game with added commentary. Most people who watch these are roughly in the 20 years of age or younger category. YouTubers (usually in their twenties) who make Let's Plays and are successful in relation to the amount of subscriptions and views on YouTube, give small-time game developers a chance to show case their work for free without having to struggle with advertising on their own. In the last four years Let's Plays have become extremely popular, with millions of subscribers from around the world watching videos on a daily basis. YouTube staff even designed the copyright filter to ignore people who submit video game footage to YouTube. This means that normally a person would get flagged for uploading a song, footage from a movie or TV show, etc. without special permissions. YouTubers who do Let's Plays get to bypass the filter because people who watch Let's Plays usually keep coming back. Sometimes several times a day. With this project, I won't be focusing on why Let's Plays have gotten popular (as the statistics show for themselves that people enjoy video game commentary quite a bit), but more on the relation between small-time game developers, the types of games they make for a YouTube audience, and YouTube itself.
For my research I'm going to use a few chapters (specifically sections that relate to what I'm thinking about) from "The Filter Bubble" by Eli Pariser and "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy," by James Paul Gee. There's a few places in the filter bubble that talk about how popular and fast-growing sites like Google and Facebook started out and operate. I believe YouTube is also mentioned in that book. Aside from that, the "Filter Bubble" also discusses how certain information is catered to the viewer. You can see this on YouTube when you're watching a video because there is always a suggestion bar off to the side, or a "recommended for you" section on your home page. From personal experience I've noticed that if the last ten videos you've watched in the last twelve to twenty-four hours have been music videos, the "recommended for you" section tends to be filled with music videos in the same music genre you were viewing the last time you visited. For, "What Video Games Have to Teach Us...," the section titled, "Transfer and Beyond in Video Games" in the "Telling and Doing" chapter might help explain why viewers (who are also gamers) want to watch someone else play an indie game before they actually commit to buying and downloading.
My method for this project is that I plan on getting a lot of reading done--preferably, I would like to find more online sources from the school's database like ECAT or any of the others. I'd like to get my reading done before the 4th, and possibly have an outline by that time as well. Ideally, if I knew someone who has made an indie game I'd interview them, but that might be out of the question. I've seen a few developers in the YouTube comments section, but it might be weird to randomly ask them, "Hey, so do you mind telling me about your experiences making this game, what motivated you to do this, and your feelings on it's reception on YouTube?" That said, if I can get a short interview I'd get that done before the 11th. With or without an interview, I'd start working on what the project should probably look like. From the looks of it, this is a paper with video, gif, picture, and hover-links inserted into it. So I'll need to play around and see if I can make those things. I've never done a gif or a hover-link before. Hyperlinks and embedded videos are simple, but beyond that I'm lost. I should have a solid first draft by the 17th, which is when I'm scheduled to show my workshop. And by "solid," I mean it'll be done, but it might need to be revised. The feedback from the workshop should help with the revision.
Works Cited
Gee, James Paul. "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy." Palgrave Macmillan. New York, NY. 2007.
Pariser, Eli. "The Filter Bubble." Penguin Group. 2011.
Shaynna - This sounds totally interesting! And I think your research plan is pretty complete - despite the "read a lot." :-) What I want to make sure you do is tie your research back to our guiding questions. Otherwise - go forth and do! -- Michelle
ReplyDeleteThis sounds awesome! I am always interested in any sort of "indie" anything--I think it will be really cool to find out why these programmers have decided to stay indie rather than go with the big time companies (if they were given a choice?). I think it would also be interesting to learn why some programmers chose to write their games the way they did. Side note here, but I think it'd be cool to learn about these individuals who are writing the story lines. As we saw in your A/V project, video games are a form of art, and artists have a tenancy to have melancholy personalities. Sadness seems like a requirement to be an artist and create beautiful work, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI also thought your original idea of "focus[ing] on depicting mental images" was fascinating. Excuse me for my misinterpretation, I'm sure, as I am fairly unfamiliar with video game discourse and what not, but do you actually mean you wanted to look at video games that incorporated characters with mental illnesses? Or did you mean how they can help with mental illnesses? If you meant the former, I am super interested as to why (well, why not?) video game programmers created such characters. Wow, that sounded ignorant--but I think you understand what I am saying:) If you meant the latter, I think that would be absolutely fascinating!! Either way, I guess it doesn't really matter because you aren't really doing your project on either question...
Anyway, I was just creepin on your blog page because the your A/V project was right up my ally for what I want to do my project on...although, now I am now working on narrowing down what I want to dedicate 8-10 pages to! Lol...I am rambling; this is what happens when Grace drinks caffeine.
This sounds awesome! I am always interested in any sort of "indie" anything--I think it will be really cool to find out why these programmers have decided to stay indie rather than go with the big time companies (if they were given a choice?). I think it would also be interesting to learn why some programmers chose to write their games the way they did. Side note here, but I think it'd be cool to learn about these individuals who are writing the story lines. As we saw in your A/V project, video games are a form of art, and artists have a tenancy to have melancholy personalities. Sadness seems like a requirement to be an artist and create beautiful work, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI also thought your original idea of "focus[ing] on depicting mental images" was fascinating. Excuse me for my misinterpretation, I'm sure, as I am fairly unfamiliar with video game discourse and what not, but do you actually mean you wanted to look at video games that incorporated characters with mental illnesses? Or did you mean how they can help with mental illnesses? If you meant the former, I am super interested as to why (well, why not?) video game programmers created such characters. Wow, that sounded ignorant--but I think you understand what I am saying:) If you meant the latter, I think that would be absolutely fascinating!! Either way, I guess it doesn't really matter because you aren't really doing your project on either question...
Anyway, I was just creepin on your blog page because the your A/V project was right up my ally for what I want to do my project on...although, now I am now working on narrowing down what I want to dedicate 8-10 pages to! Lol...I am rambling; this is what happens when Grace drinks caffeine.