Month: July 2021

[Literary Games Group] 28/7/21 – Outer Wilds

Hi everyone,

This week we had a look at the second chapter of Matthew Spokes’ examination of “Gaming and the Virtual Sublime”, which contained a history of the sublime and ways we could attempt to define it, as well as a few examples of the feeling of the sublime in video games, such as the moment in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim where you look down from the top of the Throat of the World, the largest mountain in the game, and see the town you visited just a few hours prior as a bunch of tiny pixels on your screen. That discussion also inspired me to return to Morrowind, which I must do at some point…

Next week we’ll be reading the third chapter of the book, entitled “The Contemporary Sublime”.

We also started the long-awaited “The Outer Wilds“, which is already proving to be a perfect match for the book we are reading. The rolling, endless vistas of space, the fantastic architectural flourishes, and the thrill of discovery and engagement in a video game that is both intelligent and fun should prove to be a continually engaging experience throughout the semester.

Hope everyone has a great week, looking forward to seeing people next week!

[Literary Games Group] 21/7/21 – Definitions and Cycles

Hi again everyone,

This week we looked at the first chapter of “Gaming and the Virtual Sublime: Rhetoric, Awe, Fear, and Death in Contemporary Video Games”, by Matthew Spokes, in which Spokes grapples with broader questions regarding the inherent nature of video games as a definable entity. He examined them from a few different perspectives, but there was a section that was plucked out as being particularly relevant to our group. Spokes says:”research on the impact of games, in terms of their power to offer new ‘possibility spaces’ (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004), socio-political engagement and critical tools for understanding a changing world will begin to show the affective resonance of this form of popular culture, and how far removed it has become from simplistic notions of passively consumed entertainment.”

In the simplest words, games can be (and are) more than just reskinned formulas.

Our reading for next week is Chapter 2 of Spokes’ book, “The Classical Sublime”.

On top of that, we started the semester with Silent Hill 4: The Room’s best level, which showcases the spectacular monster, level and puzzle design of Team Silent at work, the “Water Prison World”. This world works by constructing a layered panopticon with a circular design, meaning that at no moment are you safe or unexposed to danger, and there is always a blind spot around each corner, which means that eerie monsters can ambush you at any time. On top of this, the game is narratively and symbolically engrossing, using any number of fantastically clever tricks to rope you in.

You can purchase the game for yourself here.

Next week we should begin our playthrough of “The Outer Wilds”.

Hope to see you all next week!

[Literary Games Group] 14/7/21 – Start of Semester 2

Hi again everyone for another semester,

This week we set up the literary games group for another semester, for meetings from 12 – 2pm every Wednesday.

We have decided to start the semester with a reading of the book “Gaming and the Virtual Sublime: Rhetoric, Awe, Fear, and Death in Contemporary Video Games”, by Matthew Spokes. The first chapter of this book, entitled “What Are Games For?”, is the reading for this week.

Our basic decision for the games we will play this semester is that we will use “The Outer Wilds” as our long-term project, but we also want to have a slot every session open to play a slice of a game, or just finish a shorter experience. I have also created a document that allows us to sort of see what’s coming up on the horizon and allows us to sort of “schedule in” what games we’d like to play next. It can also be a way to chart games that you might like to come in and see played and discussed. The document can be accessed here.

I have set up the first “game slice” to play, a bit of the classic survival horror game “Silent Hill 4: The Room“, which (mostly) works with the controller!

Hope everyone has a great week ahead, looking forward to reconvening and playing some cool games next week!