By Dylan B. Altman “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Now, I say that, but… I have died in the same way probably hundreds of times playing Elden Ring. In the style of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, Elden Ring is a game that… Read More Elden Ring and How I Learned to Let Go And Love the Pleasure of Difficulty
By Nick Cialini Introduction You find yourself in a large, seemingly sterile room. The room is filled with chairs and desks, but you are standing. Standing in front of a horde of villagers. They’re not zombies, but there is something lifeless about their faces, their posture. They all turn to you expectantly. You try to… Read More A Game Master’s Guide to Pedagogy
By Dylan Altman *There will be spoilers to the series Squid Game, so read at your own peril!* A group of people, crippled with debt, fight to win. At first, they unite together to complete each game and achieve each objective. They are a team and can beat the obstacles together. Over time, they fracture… Read More The Paradox of Comradery and Competition in Squid Game & the Classroom: Bartle’s Taxonomy of Players
It’s October, the spookiest month of the year, for all the cultural milieu of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls, but also, for those of us on the semester system, because of…. Midterms. That point in the year where you’re somehow expected to do everything at once, and also do this other thing that won’t take any… Read More What Survival Horror Can Teach us about Writing, Teaching, and Everything
As we know from Ian Bogost’s theorization of procedural rhetoric, games can be used to launch valuable, stakes-driven rhetorical. Play can be a medium to teach students how to make meaningful arguments to specific audiences through multiple modes. In my “Reading and Writing Board Games for Social Justice” course, students analyze and create games to… Read More Teaching Writing through Board Game Analysis and Design
By Emma Kostopolus, University of Kansas@kostopolus What do we expect when we play a video game for the first time? If it’s a type of game we’re not familiar with, we probably expect that we’re going to fail, which is generally represented by our on-screen character dying. We expect to fail a lot when we… Read More The Fail-State is Not Permanent: What Roguelikes Can Teach Us About Revision
By Dylan Altman, California State University, Northridge “Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see… Build, therefore, your own world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson,… Read More The Grass is Always Greener: The Pastoral Life in Stardew Valley
Video Essay By Emma Kostopolus, University of Kansas@kostopolus About the AuthorEmma Kostopolus is a PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Kansas. When not working on her dissertation or CPGS stuff, she writes about games for Unwinnable Monthly, Sidequest.zone and Critical Distance and brews very weird beer. This piece is part of… Read More The Doom Marauder and Knowledge Transfer
By Kristopher Purzycki, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee CCCC has dwelled on the theme of place recently which, for someone who focused their doctoral research on placemaking, has been motivating if not affirming. At such a time when several crises seem to be converging, we find ourselves struggling with questions of place. In the protests of #BlackLivesMatter,… Read More Back to the Grind: Searching for the Open Plaza in Elder Scrolls Online
The purpose of the Council for Play and Game Studies (CPGS) is to help composition teachers and researchers network their research and pedagogical interests in using games to teach rhetoric and writing. CPGS also hosts Cs the Day, an interactive scavenger hunt at CCCC. CPGS currently has two officer positions open for the 2020-21 year,… Read More Officer Positions Open!
Council for Play and Game Studies 