A presentation composed by Nicholas A. Rose and Nicolaus Miller regarding the topic of video games and literacy. Presented at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, October 2013 for the course English 331: Film and Media in the Secondary Classroom.

1. Nick Rose and Nick Miller aka The Nicks

2. 
Intertextuality
 “a model where literary structure does not simply exist but is
generated in relation to another structure. What allows a dynamic
dimension to structuralism is his conception of the ‘literary word’ as an
intersection of textual surfaces rather than a point (a fixed meaning), as
a dialogue among several writings: that of the writer, the addressee
(or the character) and the contemporary or earlier cultural context”
(Kristeva 35-36, alluding to Bakhtin)
In other words, “text” is any site within our culture where we exercise
relational processes and practices of interpretation (Elias)

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Professor of literacy studies at Arizona State
University
What Video Games Have To Teach Us About
Learning and Literacy (2003) and follow-ups
Combines situated learning principles with…
<GASP>… video games?

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Learning is not an individual act but a social
one as well (7).
Situated cognition – Learning “embedded in
(situated within) a material, social, and
cultural world” (9)
New Literacy Studies
Connectionism – recognizing patterns

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Some learning has little contextualized
meaning (ex. upper level math courses)
Embodied experience (activity vs. passivity)
Active learning (back to intertextuality)
Identity*

6. 
Projective identity- an intersection of the virtual and realworld identities of a player; “seeing the virtual character as
one’s own project in the making, a creature [imbued] with a
certain trajectory through time defined by… aspirations for
what [the player wants] that character to be and become
(within the limitations of [his/her] capacities…and within the
resources the game designer has given me” (50)

7. Question of approaching this kind of materialHOW?
 Using situated meanings and the design grammar
of the game to understand and produce appropriate
meanings and actions (33)
 The player is an “active problem solver” encouraged
to recognize his/her mistakes not as drawbacks but
as “opportunities for reflection and learning” (36)


8. 
Based on Steven Heath’s theory of narrative
space in film (1981)
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Player as director (game = movie): “The
presentation of cinematic space is a process of
selective framings and editing that produce ‘gaps’
or jumps in the continuity of the flow of images”
(referring to Heath’s theory of narrative space)- the
player controlling the camera allows for a similar
kind of control

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Games emphasize the act of doing, what Espen Aarseth calls
“ergodic” action, a type of “nontrivial effort [that] is required
to allow the reader to traverse the text” (Krzywinska 207).
Games adhere to a binary structure, a rhythm of activity and
inactivity that “ties into and consolidates formally a theme
often found in horror in which supernatural forces act on,
and regularly threaten, the sphere of human agency” (207)

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Media literacy remote
Five Critical Questions
Close Readings

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Strategy (SimCity, The Sims –sociology,
economics)
Fighting (Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue – backstories,
characterization)
FPS (First-person shooters) Half-Life; Aliens:
Colonial Marines- adaptation, tie-ins
TPS (Third-person shooters) Gears of War, Dead
Space- full cinematic experiences
Platformers (Banjo-Kazooie, Beyond Good and
Evil)- from side-scrollers to fully realized 3D
bringing symbolism, some archetypes

12. Games and Film:
Games AS Film
Video games have
become nearly (if
not entirely)
synonymous with
film in their
production,
mechanics, and
consumption in
our culture.

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Gears of War 2 (Epic, 2008) Scene: Maria's
Death
The Walking Dead: Lee's Fate
Twisted Metal: Black - Darkside- Prologue
Twisted Metal: Black- Middle
Twisted Metal: Black – Ending
Mass Effect 2: Mordin's Loyalty Mission

14. 
Elias, Amy. “Critical Theory and Cultural Studies.” English Studies: An Introduction
to the Discipline(s). Ed. Bruce McComiskey. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2006. 223-275. Print.
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Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and
Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.
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Hobbs, Renee. Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom.
California: Corwin, 2011. Print.
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Kristeva, Julie. “Word, Dialogue, and Novel.” Trans. Seán Hand and León S.
Roudiez. The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. 34-61.
Print.
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Krzywinska, Tanya. “Hands-On Horror.” ScreenPlay:
Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. New York:
Wallflower Press, 2002. 206-224. Print.

15. 
Tong, Wee Liang and Marcus Cheng Chye Tan. “Vision and Virtuality: The
Construction of Narrative Space in Film and Computer Games.” ScreenPlay:
Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. New
York: Wallflower Press, 2002. 98-109.