For your midterm, you’ll perform an extended analysis of any video game that we have covered in class up to that point. As you explore your topic, you may turn to formal approaches as well as a cultural theory or philosophical methodology of your choice. The best analyses will combine 1.) medium-specific and formal reading practices, 2.) critical theories and methods such as historicism, feminism, critical race theory, Marxism, anthropological ethnography, genre theory, media theory, and/or an approach you can import from another humanities or social science course, and 3.) a clear definition of a concept that you are exploring and complicating.
Keep in mind that a persuasive analysis of different forms and media requires specific vocabularies and close reading practices proper to the work in question. For example, if you analyze a film, you must attend not only to plot or character development, but also to features such as shot distance, lighting, costume, mise-en-scène, cut type, sound effects, etc. When you think about a video game, on the other hand, you might consider elements including (but not limited to) aesthetic style, interface design, navigability, (non-)interactivity, game mechanics, platform affordances, networked dimensions, and so forth.
Instead of writing a paper, we are asking you to create a short video that includes your own verbal analysis combined with footage of gameplay that you are analyzing. You will receive additional instructions and resources for creating these essays. Samples of published versions of video essays, which analyze video games and film, include:
- Ian Bryce Jones, “Special Effectivities” in [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies 6.3, 2019.
- Allison de Fren, “Ex Machina: Questioning the Human Machine,” Vimeo.
We are not expecting video essays of this quality but they can serve as models. Both essays grapple with sophisticated theoretical concepts and questions via close readings and media examples. You might also find it helpful to look at YouTube videos reviews of games that analyze their formal or thematic issues, such as:
- What’s So Great About That?, “Night In The Woods: Do You Always Have A Choice?,” YouTube, 2017.
- Ben Plays Games, “How Halo Makes Players Despair,” YouTube, 2020.
Note that there are elements of these videos that are appropriate to your videos, but that these are not precise models. The level of analysis in your videos should be directed not toward a generalist audience (as these videos are) but toward an audience familiar with the kinds of game studies frameworks and analytical categories you’ve been studying in this course. Your video essay should introduce your game, include a close reading, develop an argument, and foreground implications (the “So what?” of your argument). In addition to footage from your primary game case, you can include footage of other games if they serve your argument.
