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X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://2021.connectedlearningsummit.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for 2021 Connected Learning Summit
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20210721T160000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20210721T170000
DTSTAMP:20260827T172045
CREATED:20210603T104722Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210603T104722Z
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SUMMARY:Family Feud[alism]: Exploring the Intricacies of History Through Crusader Kings II
DESCRIPTION:This Well Played presentation will focus on Crusader Kings II\, a grand strategy game released in 2012 by Paradox Interactive.  In this game the player assumes the role of a medieval ruler operating under the feudal system.  When this ruler dies (naturally or otherwise)\, the player continues as the ruler’s heir\, effectively controlling the fate of an entire dynasty over the span of centuries.\nWhen the player starts a new game\, he or she must first choose a starting date (from 769 to 1337 CE).  For each of these dates\, the player may choose to play as one of hundreds of historical figures\, and the designers of the game have made great efforts to remain faithful to history wherever possible.  Individual rulers’ family trees are painstakingly reconstructed\, and players interested in the historical background of any figure can readily do so through Wikipedia links built into the game’s interface.  This ability to step into the shoes of an authentic medieval ruler has long appealed to many gamers\, and Crusader Kings II takes this appeal a step further by actively encouraging players to explore the history that underlies its setting. \nIt is important to note\, however\, that the game’s fidelity to historical dynasties and relationships ceases as soon as the player takes control.  This phenomenon introduces an additional attraction for players: as interesting as it can be to learn about history\, it is equally interesting (and empowering) to rewrite it.  After a few hundred years in-game\, the world map will be quite ahistorical\, due in no small part to the player’s agency in conquering\, marrying\, and assassinating his or her way through the medieval world.
URL:https://2021.connectedlearningsummit.org/event/family-feudalism-exploring-the-intricacies-of-history-through-crusader-kings-ii/
CATEGORIES:Well Played
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20210721T160000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20210721T170000
DTSTAMP:20260827T172045
CREATED:20210603T102642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210603T102642Z
UID:2869-1626883200-1626886800@2021.connectedlearningsummit.org
SUMMARY:Empathy and Regeneration: The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
DESCRIPTION:The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (2018)\, uses the grotesque and absurd to encourage empathy and understanding for the main character\, J.J. Macfield. This SWERY-developed game has the titular character dismember herself in order to progress through the story\, even to the point that J.J. can become just a head rolling around. Unlike many video games\, you purposefully harm your player character to progress through the game. The brutality in the game mechanics are integral to J.J.’s story and journey through an absurd environment that includes a deer-headed character with a distorted voice speaking about a medical emergency. The story incorporates bullying\, self-harm\, as well as multiple suicides which lead to the reveal that The Missing is about a trans woman who has been in a dream-like state while being revived by paramedics after a real-world suicide attempt. Ultimately\, this is a story of self-acceptance and of seeking the support of those closest to you. The physical pain and body horror that J.J.’s experiences throughout the game represent the struggles that she has with body dysmorphia and her pain dealing with intolerance from her mother. The grotesque gameplay mechanic of body horror\, self-harm\, and dismemberment to progress frames J.J.’s journey in a way that is a representation of the trans experience\, as well as creating a story and gameplay that allow cis people to understand and empathize with that lived experience.
URL:https://2021.connectedlearningsummit.org/event/empathy-and-regeneration-the-missing-j-j-macfield-and-the-island-of-memories/
CATEGORIES:Well Played
ORGANIZER;CN="Anne Ladyem McDivitt":MAILTO:almcdivitt@ua.edu
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20210721T160000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20210721T170000
DTSTAMP:20260827T172045
CREATED:20210603T102041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210603T102041Z
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SUMMARY:Critical Play and Alchemical Aesthetics in Jason Nelson’s Poem-Games
DESCRIPTION:In this well-played presentation\, I will comment on a playthrough of Jason Nelson’s 2013 “Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise” (NYHDDSP)\, one of a series of works situated at the juncture of poetry\, digital art\, and video game. NYHDDSP possesses a frenetic aesthetic experience in which the player encounters explosions\, eruptions\, wandering paramecia\, decomposing text\, flickering neurons\, and hyperbolic narrators. Self-described as “anti-design statements\,” Nelson’s games embrace messiness over polish and playfully serious pointlessness over the exploitative late-capitalistic logics of major label gaming. The game pursues this critique through what I call its alchemical aesthetics. To parse the enigmatic draw of Nelson’s strange games\, I put them in dialogue with late medieval and early modern alchemical treatises. Premodern alchemical treatises promise textual\, material\, and affective traversals and transformations. Similarly\, the various elements of Nelson’s poem-games combine to generate strange aesthetic admixtures that ask players to interrogate their assumptions about what video games can do and what they might be for. This well-played presentation\, moreover\, suggests the fecundity of juxtaposing contemporary digital materials with premodern alchemical aesthetics to think about gaming\, play\, and contemporary cultural critique.
URL:https://2021.connectedlearningsummit.org/event/critical-play-and-alchemical-aesthetics-in-jason-nelsons-poem-games/
CATEGORIES:Well Played
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