Weekly blog assignments appear here on Fridays and are due the following Thursday.

BLOG POST #1: Play as Identity?

Describe an example of play from your own life, then use it to illustrate a main idea of S-S Chapter 6 (Play as Identity). In other words, how is your play "play as identity"? Use at least one quotation from the chapter to make your case. To receive full credit, you must explain your own play using ideas from the chapter so that the reader can tell that you understand the difference between "play as identity" and other approaches to play that we have covered (progress, fate, power, etc.). Creativity in your choice of example is encouraged!

Please post the answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. (half an hour before class begins) on Thursday, 2/2.

BLOG POST #2: Redesign a Play Experience

Choose one of these five concepts from S-S Chapter 10 and 11: flow, performance, subjectivity, nonsense, or frivolity. State which concept you chose. Just like last week, describe an example of play from your own life that illustrates the meaning of the concept. But this week, also consider one additional question: Is there a way to design (or redesign) the playful technology or artifact being played with so that it is more likely to produce the kind of play described by the concept you chose? (e.g., can you redesign the technology or artifact to make flow more likely, to make it seem more like a performance, to increase the experience of subjectivity, or to make more nonsense/frivolity?)

Just like last week, use at least one quote from S-S to make your case. Creativity in your choice of example and design modification is encouraged! If your example doesn't use any artifacts or technologies, you should pick a different example.

Please post the answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. on Thursday (half an hour before class begins) on Thursday, 2/9.

BLOG POST #3: FIELDWORK AND BLOG POST: Play Observation

Carefully read the Fieldwork Guidelines (PDF, 2 pages) discussed in class. Print out the permission letters that you'll need (available on the Help/Handout link). Conduct fieldwork for at least one hour in the site that you signed up for in class. Your fieldwork should provide evidence to help you answer the following question:

At the site you signed up for, how does playful technology affect or shape human play?

To answer this you will need to state the technology you chose, which fieldwork location you chose, and what happened there. It is usually helpful to detail a small number of examples of what happened during play with your evidence (see below) and then refer to them in your answer (e.g., "see figure 1" or "see quote #4").

To receive credit for the assignment, you must turn in TWO BLOG POSTS:
• One blog entry containing your answer to the question above (minimum 250 words). You must cite some of the evidence you found (see below) and you must use at least one course concept, term or quote from any class reading .
• One blog entry containing the evidence or supporting materials that were collected in your fieldwork and that you refer to in your answer. These may be quotations, photographs , transcripts, field notes, or video. The evidence or supporting materials do not count toward the word limit. The kind of supporting materials you post may vary a lot depending on your fieldwork site, but it should be clear to the reader that you actually conducted fieldwork. Do not use real names or disclose private locations in your supporting materials.
• Bring your signed permission letters to the next class.

Very important reminders (also discussed in the fieldwork guidelines):
• Do not use real names in your evidence / supporting materials
• Do not disclose the location of private places

To receive credit, your 2 blog posts must be on time, you must have an answer of at least 250 words, and an evidence / supporting materials post (no word limit). You must address the question.

DEADLINE: 10:30am on Thursday (a half hour before class begins), February 16.

BLOG POST #4: Decide What to Simulate

The Salen & Zimmerman online chapter for this week explains that all games are simulations, and that all simulations are limited. A main job of game designers is to decide what to put in and what to leave out. A variety of reasons for making these choices are given in the chapter.

For this blog post, choose a game that you are already familiar with and describe it as a simulation. In other words, describe what the designer spent their effort simulating. (You may want to mention what they left out of the game.) Provide a convincing argument as to why they made these choices. Or, if you prefer, you can criticize them for making the wrong choices. As in previous posts, justify your argument by citing the chapter's discussion of simulation.

Important notes:
• Please don't include obvious things. (Example of what not to do: "In this World War II game, they chose not to simulate the movement of every grain of sand on the beach in Normandy. This would have been irrelevant, boring, and useless.")
• This assignment may be easier if you choose a game you don't like.

Please post the answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. (half an hour before class begins) on Thursday, February 23.

PROJECT PITCH!!

It's time to finalize your project pitch.
Deadline: Thursday, March 1 during class. Contact those Honey Badgers, and get ready for Play Madness!

#6 BLOG POST: New Gendered Play Spaces

The word "gendered" as used in the Jenkins chapter for this week means having assumptions based on gender or making distinctions based on gender. Jenkins explains how video games for children are gendered in a way similar to books for children: boy games are like boy books and girl games are like girl books. He also explains how spaces in game environments are gendered in a way similar to real life spaces for boys and the activities and play style of boys (especially boys in the 19th Century).

First, choose a recent video game or other playful technology that you have some familiarity with and describe how it is gendered. In other words, how does it make assumptions about the gender of intended players and cater to the supposed taste of one gender at the expense of another? (If it helps, you can talk about part of a game instead of an entire game.)

Second, as evidence, make a comparison with another example of similar gendered boys or girls media (e.g., a children's book you read when you were younger that appealed primarily to girls).

Third, (optional) answer the question: Are gendered play tools are a good idea? Why or why not?

* Important Note: As the chapter says, some play spaces, activities, and games are gender-neutral. If your examples make no distinction between or assumptions about boys vs. girls they are gender-neutral and not a good example for this assignment.

Please post the answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. (half an hour before class begins) on Thursday, March 8.

#7 BLOG POST: Game Analysis, Action vs. Plot

The Mateas and Stern reading argues that successful playful technologies strike a balance between action and plot--what can be done (material constraints) vs. the narrative, plot, or story (formal constraints). They say that bad playful technologies frustrate players in two ways: they provide too many choices (material) but no reason for choosing (formal), or they provide too much story (formal) but not enough for the player to do (material) [see p. 654-655].

For this blog post, choose a playful technology you know well.

First, make a list of the formal constraints (principles of the story, plot, narrative) as they did for Quake on p. 654. [Note that this may be very hard to do for some playful technologies that have no narrative (like puzzles)! You may have to infer a plot where none exists, or pick a different technology.]

Second, make a list of the important material constraints (actions, choices, decisions).

Third, discuss how these two lists fit together in the playful technology you chose, quoting or referencing the reading to make your case clear. If Mateas and Stern are right, any examples of imbalance or mismatch between the two lists should be frustrating. Note examples of imbalance or mismatch between your two lists. (In other words, actions not explained by plot, or story elements that do not connect to actions.)

Optional but useful for your projects: If you like, you can indicate how as a designer you would fix the problems you found. Creativity is encouraged.

Please post an answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, 3/31 (deadline extended for this one).

#8 BLOG POST: How is Commercialized Play Different?

In class and in some of our readings we have focused on the ways that the design of commercial playful technologies are shaped by the organization of the industry. For this blog post, please select an example of a commercial playful technology (e.g., media products, toys, puzzles, games) that will support this point.

In other words, in this post show that the commercial playful technology you chose is different from what might have been designed without the constraints of industry.

Please make the example as convincing as you can by finding as much evidence as you can to support your point. You might include ideas like forced/planned obsolescence, the interests of different industry actors, the profit motive, the desire to save money on production costs, the characteristics of the labor pool (toy designers, game programmers), the history of past products or related industries, features of technology, the dynamics of competition, the differences between some technological components or raw materials and others, the agreements between different companies, and more. (It may also be helpful to refer to your lecture notes from Tuesday's class.)

Please cite at least one real-world example from the Garfield, Birdwell, or another chapter from the S-Z anthology to support your point (e.g., from Magic: The Gathering or Half Life 2). For instance, you could compare or contrast one of your examples with an example given in the reading.

Please post an answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. on Thursday (half an hour before class begins), 4/5.

#9 BLOG POST: Evolutionary Design

Lucasfilm's Habitat, launched in 1985, was one of the most ambitious and influential early attempts at a multiplayer online environment. In the Farmer and Morningstar chapter assigned for this week, the creators of Habitat narrate many of the unexpected events that happened during the world's design -- all of them involved the players doing something that the designers didn't expect. They conclude that virtual world design needs to avoid "central planning" and evolve incrementally along with the players.

In class we have been talking about how game designs can evolve with players and technology designs evolve with users (e.g., last week's discussion of Actor Network Theory in class and the discussion of the European hotel room key). In this blog post please use Habitat and your own experience to illustrate this phenomenon.

For this blog post,
* Choose one example of something the users of Habitat did that the designers didn't expect from the Farmer and Morningstar chapter.

* Think of an example from another play environment that is similar in some way. This could be a multiplayer online game or it could be any play setting that involves technology. It may be something you've experienced, observed, or just heard about.

* Compare and/or contrast the two examples. How do they illustrate that technology designs evolve with users?
Please be creative and try to think of creative, compelling examples to illustrate how games evolve with input from both users and designers. Significant changes in the design are probably more compelling than minor ones!

Important Note: If you can't think of anything that relates the Habitat example and your example, or you can't think of anything to write about them, choose different examples!
Please post the answer to your blog. Minimum length: 250 words (about one page).

DEADLINE: 10:30 a.m. (half an hour before class begins) on Thursday, April 12.