Literary Games Group 3/9/24

Hi everyone,

It has been a frenetic few weeks for me, with a lot going on. I have been trying to take the mid-semester break as a bit of a rest period before we get back into the final half of semester 2, 2024. How did that happen?

The last couple of weeks we have been playing through Silent Hill 2, a game which holds a lot of significance for me. Alongside games like Pathologic and The Void, Silent Hill 2 was one of the games that first opened my eyes to the possibilities that video games had as an art form and as a medium for storytelling. It is always a joy to watch people play it through for the first time, so thank you to everyone for indulging my own biases. I hope that it engenders the same feeling of appreciation in those of us in the group, who are playing it in a group setting rather than alone.

What interests me most is Silent Hill 2‘s use of space, and how it unfolds in very special ways. It is worth considering how film grain impacts our interpretation of events as well – some hate it when it comes to video games, but grain can be a part of a visual style so much so that we consider it to add a sense of history and reality. Finally, how do we imagine games outside of actually playing them? We can create our own imagined game worlds, and they can become incredibly personal. That is how I find myself experiencing many game spaces given the time I spend in them for both relaxation and research purposes.

For this week, I’ve selected a reading on video games and space – specifically, video games and tourism. This is a topic that (evidently) always fascinates me and holds my attention. I have been using tourism as a lens in relation to how I discuss ruins recently in my thesis. I hope you find some enjoyment from this week’s reading, the introductory chapter from Tom Van Nuenen’s book “Traveling through Video Games“.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for the remainder of the semester. If there is anything you would like to discuss or read about, I would be more than happy to oblige. I was even thinking of having a longer session to cap the year off and perhaps celebrate with food afterwards. Let me know if you would be open to that. It’s been a long and very busy year, and would love to commemorate getting through it somehow with a resurrected Literary Games Group!

All the best everyone, have a good relaxing rest of your mid-sem break and a cruisy start to the second half of semester 2!

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