So, the outline

Here's the comprehensive outline of my research project. Granted, I could have just edited my last post and made things less confusing for everyone, my self-indulgent reluctance to revise will simply not allow it. Every "blog" assignment I do for this class is damned to be spread over over 2 and 1/2 blogs or so. Sorry, everyone. Especially Dr. Chandler, who hopefully will be able to figure out which blogs are which.

Here's the plan.

Detailed statement of your research question

What is electronic literature? How do PC and console based role playing games qualify as electronic literature? What common elements do they share with the other forms of Elit? Finally, what prejudices about refused videogames consideration in academic literary circles?

Information needed to gather

Hayles article on what constitutes as electronic literature will obviously be important. Also, personal observations and any other sources that may have been written about The Videogame Question.


Plan for gathering your information

Revisiting Hales article as well as other essays on Electronic literature. Perhaps delving into some fan-made literary criticisms (I'm assuming those are the only ones out there) of games. Finally, replaying some of my favorite games ;)including the latest slew of e-novels that have shown up on the Nintendo DS including games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorny and Lux Pain, a new title designed for more mature audiences.

RPGs- The Forgotten Electronic Literature?

Obligatory convoluted (and maybe lacking in sense) Statement of Purpose



This is a screenshot from my most recent favorite game, Persona 4. Persona 4 is a relatively new Role Playing Game from the Playstation 2 that centers around the life of you, the protagonist, as your new town becomes increasingly disturbed by a recent string of murders taking place both in the town and nearby. The story, simply put, is a detective story with supernatural/fantasy elements. The gameplay is RPG, but combines elements of life and dating sims. During the day, the game is a life/dating sim in which you go to school and interact with different characters most of whom you can form relationships (and thus open up sub stories) with. At night, the game turns into a dungeon crawler in which you summon "personae" beasts borrowed from Greek, Hindu, Christian, Historical, and Occult Cannons to fight shadows that haunt a weird "other" version of the town (somehow connected with the murders on the "real" side). As you form social bonds during the day, the personae you summon during the night become stronger, because those people you make friends with during the day have corresponding links- illustrated through the tarot- with the personae you fight shadows with at night. For example, the old widow dressed in black whom you meet at the hospital in your town after school represents the death tarot. During the day, hanging out with the old widow means only that you unlock an entertaining bit of character interactions. However, at night, it means you've unlocked the potential to create even stronger Death personae. Likewise, the president of Student Council is represented in the other world by the Emperor Tarot, and he's someone you definitely want to talk to if you'd like to use the Odin personae later on.

The first 3 hours of the game are almost completely text-based, in which the characters are introduced and the main plot is laid down. As I was reading up on Electronic Literature tonight, it came to my attention that NO ONE CONSIDERS THIS LITERATURE AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY. It's got themes, a plot, characters, allusions to past literature... interactivity. Heck, it's got 3 Freakin' Endings! It's an interactive detective novel plus life sim plus choose your own adventure plus video game all coiled up into one. And it's not the only game of it's kind, either. Somehow, the people who study electronic literature have seriously and tragically overlooked videogames. That being said, this is my new project.


I'd like to focus on what I call the "forgotten" form Electronic Literature- console role playing games. While there's more than a little bit of research pertaining to digitized literature on the net, I was surprised to find that video games go almost completely overlooked. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially since plenty of Role Play Games like Final Fantasy share the "big themes" of epic literature and are much more literary than some of the superficial Elit I've seen which I swear just qualifies as lit because it features words. Plus, they're all interactive. Of course, not all games are made equal, but sometimes the stories are extremely compelling.

I mean, just look at this exchange from Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.



You may not know anything about the game, but judging that the above scene is just two lines in a longer, close to 40+ hour game, wouldn't you say that the game probably has some kind of thought out plot and some kind of epic theme? Seriously, the game takes "save the princess from the bandit" to a whole new level, since the "bandit", Delita, is a agent of the church who just happens to be the main character Ramza's best friend and old school buddy (Did I mention that Ramza is also a noble and a heretic, while Delita is a member of the lower class who's been "adopted" more or less by the aristocracy? So there's class struggle there). Moreover, once Ramza confronts Delita, he decides that, in light of recent plot developments, the princess Ovelia is better off in Delita's protection for the time being, and lets the two go their way. Maybe you think this has potential to be literary, or maybe you don't, but having played the game before I can say for certain that it is much more what I consider to be literature than some of the stuff considered "literature" in the field of cellphone novels and so on. Frankly, if some of are willing to consider comic books literature, then would this be the E-lit equivalent?

Say Hello to my Baby

This is the Wikipedia article I created which has nothing to do with class. Dr. Chandler is probably pulling her hair out at the amount of senseless posts I've made, but I find blogging to fun to resist.

Anyway, here it is! It's the FIRST, the ONLY, and thanks to discussions and so forth there's someone already around probably "guarding" my page to make sure it stays up and untampered with. I feel special, having made my own mark in the wiki world.

The Plan + Wikipedia Roundup

So I've got an idea about my research plan. But first, it's time to round-up what's been going on with my Wikipedia project so far.


This picture kind of describes how my experience with Wiki is going. I realize that I should probably update it much more than I have. But, there's two problems. The first is that the Wiki article isn't as impoverished as it seems, and fleshing it out too much might just turn it into one of those bloated wiki articles that have way to much info in them. There's a reason why they article links to Hayles hypertext essay, after all.

Second, are these buffalo. I've got some many things going on right now it's been pretty hard for me to focus on Wiki. I know that's no excuse, but at least I managed to add a brief section of the wikipage on how electronic literature is Archived. There's still work that could be done, but here's my idea.

I'm about to work on a research plan involving flashmobs. The goal is to look at flashmobs as a form of electronic literature, though it'll be a tough sell. But, hey, if improvised street theater is considered literature, and flashmobs originate in the digital realm, why can't they be qualified as electronic lit? We'll see.

Since the only people reading this will be scholars and people interested in being a part of flashmobs, I think I'll have to present the information in a kind of fun way. It won't be so much text based as it will be a survey of flashmobs that have already happened and been documented somewhere, and analysis of the different levels of theatrics involved. Also, I think it'd be cool if I could try and get it published somewhere like here.

Oh, yeah. Wiki stuff. Anyway, one I'm done this research I plan on adding a new section to the electronic literature page about flashmobs. I think that's against policy, or something. But we'll see how long it stays up.

EDIT.

Anyway, I've made a new wikipage. This time for my favorite band's new album. My very own wiki page. Love.

Tickets On Sale Now

So, going back to Flashmobs. Sorry for the horrible MS Paint fiasco. I saw Watchmen over the weekend and now I'm obsessed with graffiti for a little while. Props to Liz for finding the Produser picture. This has been modified and reposted without permission :)

Anyway, this is what I've come up for my hypertext essay so far. Maybe it has something to do with Nightquil and being 1:00 am, but I think that Flashmobs and Produsers represent two very different types of internet users.

Flashmobbers utilize cyberspace for some kind of meatspace value, like organizing events in the real world or promoting/boycotting certain real world entities, like what I discussed in the earlier post about anonymous vs. The Church of Scientology. However, if flashmobs qualify as impromptu version of street theater, then their maybe be a literary value there.

Produsers utilize cyberspace for the sake of making cyberspace. Produsers generally believe in pursuing a more egalitarian cyberspace, and develop/consume programs that contribute to that. The internet is not just the means to the end, but the end itself. Meanwhile, if flashmobs turn out to be a digital form of media, the flashmob may itself be nothing more than prodused theater.

My essay will cover these two categories more distinctly and, hopefully, the gray area between the two. You can be both a Produser and Flashmobber, but for the sake of my MS Paint shopped pic let's just pretend there's an ideological war going on from now, which can only be reconciled by electronic forms of prodused (flashmob) literature. The clearly defined and principled sentient vs. the unknown, omnipresent, anonymous, uncoverable.

I'm way too tired for any more of this now. Night!

OMIGAWD FLASHMOBS

Disclaimer: I am an idiot. I had this post LONG ago and thanks to the whimsical nature of the internet in Kean's Residence Halls I wasn't able to post it. Now, weeks later, I'm reading my e-mail from Professor Chandler and realizing- I NEVER POSTED MY PIECE ON FLASHMOBS.

Anyway, the thing I find most interesting about Flashmobs is that they were formed as a sort of counter to the hipster movement. I find that to be extremely fitting, since the internet is supposed to be a place where everyone has just as much of a say and a chance as anyone else. Being on the "inside" is cool so, in a sense, conforming is cool. I really like the idea of looking at flashmobs as a celebration of being a part of the group, especially since the group is inclusive. Plus, I'm always happy if what I'm doing makes a scenester cry.

Of course, all flashmobs aren't created equally. Though flashmobs began apolitically, they have become an interesting political tool. Just look at the movement anonymous organized against the Church of Scientology. Anonymous organized flashmob like protests against the Church, but they also tried to launch/are launching a campaign to removed Scientology from the internet. Quite a juxtaposition, there. On one end, you have one of the most exclusive and highly secretive groups in the world. On the other, you have a group that anyone can be a part of simply by identifying with the group name and label. Want to know more about anonymous recent doings? Try hanging out around places like 4chan awhile and you'll get a better idea. Be sure to use your own discretion, though.

Produsage- Too Good For This World (Wide Web)?

So, I was about halfway through the The Key Characteristics of Produsage when I realized that I wasn't understanding much of it and wished the author had thought to include some examples of what he/she was trying to explain. Then, I thought of a few of my own examples, as the Wiki parallel inevitably clicked.

Wikipedia's community is one without "pure producers" or "pure consumers". Instead of producers being those with the means of production, anyone on Wiki can consume- and contribute- to the encyclopedia. Some people contribute a lot. Others may opt only to contribute to articles that interest them. The vast majority don't contribute at all, but reap the benefits of others.

The same type of demographics apply to torrent sharing communities. A very small amount of people design the programs that a much larger number will later use. A bigger minority contribute their own files for the majority to download.

Eventually, as Produsage points out, consumers become producers without having to do much at all. Software becomes better-more user friendly so users can almost effortlessly share and/or contribute. Being "part of the show" ceases to be something only people with know-how can do.

Ideally, we arrive at the point where their are no more producers, but the consumers produce completely through the "consumption process"-either effortlessly or unknowingly. I can see how this works online, but I wonder how Produsage's theory would apply to the real world? In this sense, the article reminds me of Lankshear & Knobel's.

The internet has the potential to become a sort of utopia void of class differences (or, at least, it's moving in that direction). But I have serious doubts we'll reach this utopian version of the net that's a product of Produsage before we reach the greed based vision- an internet colonized and mediated by wireless companies and the service providers.

I might be falling into my usual role as the cynic a little too quickly. Even so, we do need to admit that the internet, while it has led to produsage on the interent, isn't exactly prodused. An internet which is sustained simply by people using the internet and not by service providers, is, I think, the ideal. But I doubt the internet we have now is that internet.

Marx's ideas are too good for this world- and, for now, this internet. But maybe one day we'll a cyberspace that people just by taking part of it.