Possible New Subject Areas for Context (9/2/2014)

Unable to find any articles relating to the original idea I had for my project, I decided to make a list to show my lecturer tomorrow in order to see if he felt any of them would make for good replacements.

Making sure that the following had available articles, I came up with the following possible ideas...

• Symbolism for narrative, characters and worlds in video games e.g. how do games reflect the inner most thoughts of the characters and the world around them? Titles I could use include ‘I have no mouth and I must scream’, ‘Persona 4’, ‘Eternal Sonata’, ‘Catherine’, ‘Heavy Rain’, ‘Spec Ops: The Line’ and possibly modern survival games which focus more on the player e.g. ‘The Walking Dead’ and maybe ‘The Last of Us’. Granted this could be quite nebulas / vague. 

• What is love? A look at video game character relationships (both romantic and just friends), and how they have changed over time. Are they realistic or forced? Do they work within the context of the genre they are from? Is it true love or just about sex? With this subject I can use research on gender, sexuality and relationships in gaming that I have found information on. 

• Fun in video games and recreating the joy you felt as a child. This could include research on the concept of play and I could use examples I remember from the past and recently that recreated the enjoyment that only video games can provide. Such examples may include ‘Mario’, the Lego games etc. 

• Continuing from the above example, I may wish to talk about how players represent themselves in games and whether or not they play as themselves or as another persona. Therefore, this could include reference to many RPG’s and both the game and previous research I have done for the pen and paper game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’. 

• Music used in video games in order to convey emotion and personalities. Although an interesting subject, I feel that my lack of musical knowledge would hinder this as well as a feeling that I wouldn’t have enough to write about.

• History and its accuracy in video games. How it has been represented over the years e.g. how has it been incorporated or adapted and does it work or not? Such examples could include ‘Assassin Creed’, ‘Call of Duty’ and the so called historical game that included giant enemy crabs. However, as above, I would need to do research into history which I enjoy, but would take up a lot of time.