So much negativity. So much dissension. So much misunderstanding. So much resistance.
I chose to focus my response on the chapter Sherri assigned to me and Sammi sense that’s what we talked about and that’s how we figured out our project: Life at Purdue. With that said…
…with everything else we as writing teachers are doing, why are we also trying to take on games in our courses? Given that the first-year writing course has already been charged with introducing students to college life, preparing them to become active citizens in a healthy democracy, teaching them to be effective academic writers (within one or two terms) in all disciplines—among other objectives—makes Bogost’s question a rather good one.”
But is it really? How does teaching games hinder the process of teaching life, or teaching writing, or teaching democracy. It’s all about the choices we make; it’s about showing our students the power they have to make a choice, and I’m not sure how implementing games hinders that process. If anything, it only seems to strengthen the connection between the choices we make from the moment we wake up to the rhetorical choices we make in our own writings. Gaming, to me, is starting to be viewed as a series of choices: I choose (if the game allows me to) what my avatar looks like. I choose the directions I take. I choose who I align myself with. I choose my weapons (I like games with weapons). I choose. And then I support that choice. Writing, to me, mimics that process.