I'm attending the Midwest Popular Culture Association's annual conference.
So far it has been extremely enlightening and the networking has been fantastic. It has restored my faith in professional studies and understanding of popular culture as well as brought to light some fantastic "food for thought".
So much of what has been discussed also has implications for research in social media. It has been nothing short of amazing.
The first annual video games panel presented today. Despite having acquired the death plague the night before leaving I was able to make it through the entire presentation. It went fantastic (although I wished I'd had gotten the memo from my panelists that purple was the in color to wear).
Will and Jameson were not only great speakers/presenters they also had great, well thought out and discussed topics.
Will discussed historical narrative (or the lack thereof) within Panzer General but make it clear that it extrapolates to many other historical games. "It's history without memory".
Jameson presented on the narrative of the Playstation 2 game "Siren". I found the talk to be of particular interest, looking at how we understand classical narrative and how we can use narrative theory to understand video games.
I presented, using World of Warcraft as an example, on understanding how fun isn't what we typically think and play is work. Virtual and real are blurred distinctions that we need to not think as dichotomous.
I recorded the panel (cut off some of Will...I forgot to turn it on to record...sorry Will!!!). As soon as I get home I'll uploaded this for you to watch which should provide context for my presentation and allow you to see the other two panelists. (You can't see me.... lol...but you can hear me. I promise that's me!)
Here is my presentation. Keep in mind this was designed to be orally presented. I'll try to get some notes on at a later date to make it easier to understand and follow.
For some reason it's cutting off the presentation here on the blog...you can access the presentation directly at: HERE
