Lecture 5: The Past is Cross-sectional

This week we focus on the concept of the past as cross-sectional. For that reason, we are asking you to watch and listen to the works of scholars and developers dealing with diversity and multivocality in their creative and academic output. The output is reproduced here with permission.

 

Play: Herald

For this week’s play activity, play Wispfire’s Herald. Wispfire is a Dutch indie gaming company. The game will be provided to you via the Steam accounts of the course. You can begin a new game and play for as long as you want. If you already own the game and want to continue your saved game you are also free to do that!

Read:

Shaw, On Not Becoming Gamers: Moving Beyond the Constructed Audience https://adanewmedia.org/2013/06/issue2-shaw/

Lapensée, Survivance as an Indigenously Determined Game https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/117718011401000305

Pavlounis, Straightening Up the Archive: Queer Historiography, Queer Play, and the Archival Politics of Gone Home https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476416631627

Not the end of the rainbow: exploring modern queer game development https://wireframe.raspberrypi.org/articles/not-the-end-of-the-rainbow-exploring-modern-queer-game-development

Watch: optional

This week’s livestreamLet’s Play: Thunderbird Strike and Along the River of Spacetime at www.twitch.tv/valuefnd


Write: Playing the Other’s Past Vignette

In groups of two discuss and play games from each other’s past: play a game from the other student’s past, discuss it with them, and write a vignette about your experience. Your fellow player will play a game from your past, discuss it with you, and then writes a vignette about the experience.