Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games: Reshaping Theory and Practice of Writing

246 Pages·2013·4.126 MB·English

by  Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, Rebekah Shultz Colby (eds.)

Rhhetoric/Comppposition/Pllay thhroughh
Video Games
Palgrave Macmillan’s Digital Education and Learning
Much has been written during the first decade of the new millennium about the
potential of digital technologies to produce a transformation of education. Digital
technologies are portrayed as tools that will enhance learner collaboration and
motivation and develop new multimodal literacy skills. Accompanying this has
been the move from understanding literacy on the cognitive level to an apprecia-
tion of the sociocultural forces shaping learner development. Responding to these
claims, the Digital Education and Learning Series explores the pedagogical poten-
tial and realities of digital technologies in a wide range of disciplinary contexts
across the educational spectrum both in and outside of class. Focusing on local
and global perspectives, the series responds to the shifting landscape of education,
the way digital technologies are being used in different educational and cultural
contexts, and examines the differences that lie behind the generalizations of the
digital age. Incorporating cutting-edge volumes with theoretical perspectives and
case studies (single authored and edited collections), the series provides an acces-
sible and valuable resource for academic researchers, teacher trainers, administra-
tors, and students interested in interdisciplinary studies of education and new and
emerging technologies.
Series Editors:
Michael ThTh omas is a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and edi-
tor in chief of the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning E nvironmentss
(IJVPLE).
JJames Paul Gee is a Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor at Arizona State Univer-
sity. His most recent book is P olicy Brief: Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategiess
to Promote Children’s Learningg(2008).
JJohn Palfreyy is the head of school at Phillips Academy, Andover, and a senior research
fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. He is coauthor off
Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Nativess(2008).
DigitalEducation
Edited by Michael ThThomas
Digital Media and Learner Identity: Th e New Curatorship
By John Potter
Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games: Reshaping ThTh eory and Practice off
Writing
Edited by Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, and Rebekah Shultz Colby
Rhhetoric/Composition/Pllay
through Video Games
Reshaping Theory and
Practice of Writing
Edited by
Richard Colby , Matthew S. S. Johnson, and
Rebekah Shultz Colby
RHETORIC/COMPOSITION/PLAYTHROUGHVIDEOGAMES
Copyright © Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, and
Rebekah Shultz Colby, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30766-8
All rights reserved.
The following chapters reprinted with permission:
“Gender and Gaming in a First-Year Writing Class.” Copyright © 2012
Rebekah Shultz Colby. A longer version of this chapter fifi rst appeared
in the Spring 2012 issue of Computers and Composition Online.
“Exploitationware.” Copyright © 2011 Ian Bogost. A version of this
chapter fi rst appeared as “Persuasive Games: Exploitationware” in
Gamasutra on May 3, 2011.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-45562-1 ISBN 978-1-137-30767-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137307675
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rhetoric/composition/play through video games : reshaping theory
and practice of writing / edited by Richard Colby, Matthew S.S. Johnson,
and Rebekah Shultz Colby.
p. cm.—(Digital education and learning)
1. English language—Composition and exercises. 2. Education—
Effect of technological innovations on. 3. Video games and children.
I. Colby, Richard, editor of compilation. II. Alberti, John. Game of
Facebook and the end(s) of writing pedagogy.
LB1631.R48 2013
808(cid:2).042071—dc23 2012041050
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
RC: To Kent and Karen Colby for love, support, and
a Commodore 64, as well as teaching me to find play
at work and work at play.
MSSJ: To B. Richard and Carla Johnson for enabling and
encouraging me to play; and to H. G. S. Johnson, for
rekindling the interest that had waned.
RSC: To Charles Shultz for letting me be the navigator
in Sid Meier’s Pirates!
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ixx
Series Foreword xi
Foreword xvv
Cynthia L. Selfe and Gail E. Hawisher
A Acknowledgments xixx
Introduction: Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games 1
Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, and Rebekah Shultz Colby
Part I Play
Chapter1 The Game of Facebook and the End(s) of
Writing Pedagogy 9
John Alberti
Chapter2 The Pencil-Shaped Joystick: A Synoptic History of
Text in Digital Games 25
Nate Garrelts
Chapter 3 Who Are You Here? The Avatar and the Other in
Video Game Avatars 33
Katherine Warren
Chapter4 Developing and Extending Gaming Pedagogy:
Designing a Course as Game 45
Justin Hodgson
Part II Composition
Chapter5 On Second Thought . . . 63
Mark Mullen
viii ● Contents
Chapter6 Ludic Snags 83
Matthew S. S. Johnson and Richard Colby
Chapter7 Metaphor, Writer’s Block, and The Legend of Zelda :
A Link to the Writing Process 99
Benjamin Miller
Chapter8 Drag and Drop: Teaching Our Students Things
We Don’t Already Know 113
Danielle LaVaque-Manty
Chapter 9 Gender and Gaming in a First-Year Writing Class 123
Rebekah Shultz Colby
Part III Rhetoric
Chapter 10 Exploitationware 139
Ian Bogost
Chapter11 Techne as Play: Three Interstices 149
James Schirmer
Chapter 12 What Happens in Goldshire Stays in Goldshire:
Rhetorics of Queer Sexualities, Role-Playing, and
Fandom in World of Warcraft 161
Lee Sherlock
Chapter 13 Grammar Interventions in Gaming Forums:
Intersections of Academic and Nonacademic
Standards 175
Larry Beason
Chapter14 Mr. Moo’s First RPG: Rules, Discussion, and the
Instructional Implications of Collective Intelligence
on the Open Web 193
Trevor Owens
AAfterword 205
Debra Journet
References 207
Notes on Contributors 225
Index 231
Figures andd Tabblles
Figures
13.1 Transforming the rhetorical context in a grammar
intervention 181
13.2 Transforming the rhetorical context in a thread makeover 1 86
Tables
6.1 Conference on College Composition and Communication
individual presentations about video games 85
6.2 Frequency of use ( analysissor p roductionn) of various texts in
fifi rst-year composition course 8 8
6.3 Reported usefulness of analyzing a particular text in a
writing course 8 9
6.4 Correlation between participant’s rated usefulness of
a text in a writing course and his/her leisure activities 90