Assignment #2: Academic Essay for a Scholarly Audience

WR152 Video Games Study

Assignment #2: Academic Essay for a Scholarly Audience

Self-led research project exploring a question in the field of video games

First draft (storyboard) due: Tuesday 3/3 | turn in for peer review

Second draft due: Spring Break | turn in for teacher comments

Final draft due: Tuesday 3/31

Purpose:

This essay will allow you to practice scholarly habits of mind, such as planning, drafting, and revising your work effectively for an academic audience. You will be introduced to online academic research methods to dig deeper. Through exploration, you will gain confidence in engaging a range of sources, critically evaluating those sources, and using them to further our collective understanding of a research question or problem.

Assignment

Length: 6-7 pages double-spaced

Requirements: Works Cited page with at least 5 sources. At least one source should be scholarly in nature. The paper should be argument-driven, where your argument is the (tentative/best) answer(s) to your research question. You do not need to be “sure” about your answer, and it is recommended you honestly explain any uncertainty you encounter as you try to understand this issue. You should offer a new idea or analysis (of a new example) so that you will be able to answer the question, “What does this essay add to the discussion?”

Disciplinarity: Write with the tone you would use if you were to publish this paper in a scholarly video game studies journal like Game Studies, Games and Culture or in the WR Journal. Because video game studies is an emerging discipline, VG scholars will often borrow the conventions of other academic disciplines – psychology, business and management, literary theory, film studies, marketing and communications, women’s studies, sociology, etc. This paper should not look like journalism; instead, it should be a rigorous, logical discussion driven by a sound thesis argument supported by evidence and reasoning.

Topic: Write about what fascinates you.  If you have a lingering question, a strange attraction or repulsion to something related to video games, try free-writing about that subject.  A good topic is a question, conflict, or mystery.  Chances are, if you are interested, other people will be, too. Or, you might decide to study something that will be useful to you in your future career (marketing, psychology, computer science, etc.).

Organization: Organize your thoughts logically so your readers can easily follow your train of thought. This includes an introductory paragraph that sets up your thesis and a conclusion paragraph that leaves your readers with an answer to the “so what?” question. Include signposts that conversationally lead the reader (“This leads us to wonder whether…” “For example, we might see this idea in the game…” “According to the article…”)

Using Sources:  You are required to use at least 5 sources, which can include our texts from class.  Do not use sources to merely “back up” your opinion. Instead, consider the views of others seriously, question them, and test them against new evidence.

Do not use quotations to write your paper for you. In other words, consider the ideas others propose, but do your own thinking. You are the final judge of what you deem convincing. This isn’t merely a report or a “literature review.” In this paper, you will “think on the page,” follow lines of reasoning, raise questions, weigh possible answers, judge the sources, and come up with an honest conclusion that acknowledges your uncertainty. (Most scholars are uncertain about most things!)

Formatting: Use MLA Style:

First draft basic outline

These: Whether a good design of game characters and game scenes benefit the game

1. What the design of character and scene can provide us (such as information…)

Example: http://www.gamestudies.org/0501/manninen_kujanpaa/Quote: Avatar Appearance has at least two main forms in the game. First, it provides visual team information to other players. For example, Russian soldiers wear distinctively realistic clothes and gear and are, thus, easily recognised.

1. Whether the game players and the game companies care about the visual design of the game characters in the game
2. What’s more valuable is how the appearance of the characters and environments influence the player’s experience and game sales

Example: different design of 800 Pokémon, some player says that the design of newest generation looks bad. The revolution of the earliest Pokémon scene in the game and the nowadays Pokémon game. Shiny Pokemons

League of Legend champions and skin design. League of Legends collaborates with Louis Vuitton design skins:https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/23/20875541/louis-vuitton-league-of-legends-skins-summoners-cup-case