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Fall 12-8-2016

Play This Paper: Forms of Time in the Open World,Branching Narrative, Roleplaying GameJimmy EvansChapman University, evans207@mail.chapman.edu

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Recommended CitationEvans, Jimmy, "Play This Paper: Forms of Time in the Open World, Branching Narrative, Roleplaying Game" (2016). Student ResearchDay Abstracts and Posters. 223.http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cusrd_abstracts/223

Aarseth, Espen, Chris Crawford, and Stuart Moulthrop. "Genre Trouble: Narrativism And The Art Of Simulation." *First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.* MIT Press, 2004. Bakhtin, M. M., and Michael Holquist. *The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.* Austin: U of Texas, 1981. Print. Bakhtin, M. M., and Caryl Emerson. *Problems Of Dostoevsky's Poetics.* University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Bammer, Angelika, and Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres. *The Future Of Scholarly Writing: Critical Interventions.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Bogost, Ian. “The Rhetoric of Video Games." *The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning.* Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 117–140. Bogost, Ian. *Videogames are a Mess*, 2009, Digital Games Research Association Conference, Sept 3, 2009. Boss Fight Database. “Witcher 3: The White Lady Noonwraith Boss Fight (Hard Mode) (4K 60fps)” *Youtube*, 23 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX6gSR0pCQo&t=21s Cășvean, Tulia Maria. "What Is Game Studies Anyway? Legitimacy Of Game Studies Beyond Ludo-Centrism Vs. Narrato-Centrism Debate." *Romanian Journal Of Journalism & Communication / Revista Romana De Jurnalism Si Comunicare- RRJC 11.1* (2016): 48-59. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. CD Projekt RED. *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.* CD Projekt, 2016. Playstation 4. Harper, Todd. "A Slight Ramble on An Unfortunate Topic." Blog post. Digital Devil Saga. Tumblr, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2016. Holquist, Michael. *Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World.* London: Routledge, 1990. Print. How it’s Made. “How it’s Made Kaleidoscope” *Youtube*, 8 May 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEhmFskODNc Jenkins, Henry. “The Pleasure of Pirates and What It Tells Us About World Building in Branded Entertainment.” *Confessions of an Aca-Fan*, 25 13 June 2007, www.henryjenkins.org Accessed 11 Oct 2016. Sapkowski, Andrzej, and Danusia Stok. *The Last Wish.* New York: Orbit, 2008. Print. PunisherNZL. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt The Bloody Baron Suicide/ Choices Animated Intro” *Youtube*, 5 June 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9NJIpwNMA Voloshinov, V. N. *Marxism and the Philosophy of Language.* The Hague: Mouton, 1972. Print.

1.  I am considering a form of academic presentation that is non-authoritative. I believe it is one that accounts for the internet ethos of knowledge.

2.  What is the internet ethos of knowledge? a.  Before we define the internet ethos of knowledge, we must first clarify

the meaning of internet b.  The thing we call internet is really a synecdochical metaphor for

networks of processesc.  So internet ethos of knowledge is the ethos of knowledge of networked

processes 3.  Why should we care about the networked processes ethos of knowledge?

a.  It is worth pursuing because it better reflects how we coordinate our experience today.

b.  Something that better aligns with our coordinates of experience will be easier to comprehend.

c.  It allows concepts to remain complex, but the presentation of those concepts to be seemingly simple and overall more comprehensible.

d.  A monographic academic article is an authoritative discourse. It demands unconditional alliance rather than accepting interpretation. •  A paper always makes an argument, always asserts itself•  Concessions in a paper are designed to strengthen the papers

ability to be assimilated •  Because it is formally not open to interpretation, it cannot enter into

hybrid utterance. (Heteroglossia)•  A networked processes paper is non-authoritative and therefore

able to enter into hybrid utterance by way of interactivity 4.  But wait, how do we coordinate our experience today?

a.  First, how can we begin to deduce and articulate the ways we coordinate our experience? •  Chronotope is the name for historically determined forms of

narrative spacetime.•  For a historical poetics, it allows us to understand the

coordinates of experience inherent to a moment of reading.•  We must read the particular chronotopes from a text in a

popular contemporary genre•  A philosophy of language defines genre as a mode of

speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate. It is determined by its linguistic function, formal traits, textual organization.

•  A video game is written in networked processes •  Therefore we will analyze the chronotopes of a video game

b.  We will analyze the chronotopes of the Witcher 3, which has the defining processes of a video game rendering intelligible narrativity. •  Branching narrative is a chronotope of culmination The open world is

a chronotope of journey in an elliptical time. The player-character is a chronotope of dialogic desires

•  Combat shows the ability to comprehend and synchronize with all of these in the micro, while the Journal shows the ability to comprehend the reading and writing of all these in the macro

•  Combat and the Journal frame the spacetime of a game as both an absolute and relative crystalline structure of narrative. Thus:

c.  The Witcher has a kaleidoscopic narrative spacetime . •  Playing the game provides the light and motion for the

kaleidoscope. It tumbles the beads, pebbles and bits of glass (the micro processes of the game) and they create the complete shifting crystalline structure that is the narrative in The Witcher.

5.  The Witcher reveals that we coordinate our experience kaleidoscopically in video games. A procedural rhetoric can then be a form of academics that makes the kaleidoscopic more comprehensible by nature of its processes — navigating an argument rendered in processes requires contextualization and synchronization to the kaleidoscope. It points us towards a dialogic (cooperative, non-dogmatic) understanding.

PAPER AS MONOGRAPH

Play ThIS Paper: Forms of Time in the Open World Branching Narrative Role-Playing Game Jimmy Evans, Wilkinson College, Chapman University Advisor: Prof. Morgan Read-Davidson

PAPER AS LUDOGRAPH

(link-goto: "Back", (history:)'s last) Aarseth, Espen, Chris Crawford, and Stuart Moulthrop. "Genre Trouble: Narrativism And The Art Of Simulation." *First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.* MIT Press, 2004. Bakhtin, M. M., and Michael Holquist. *The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.* Austin: U of Texas, 1981. Print. Bakhtin, M. M., and Caryl Emerson. *Problems Of Dostoevsky's Poetics.* University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Bammer, Angelika, and Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres. *The Future Of Scholarly Writing: Critical Interventions.* Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Bogost, Ian. “The Rhetoric of Video Games." *The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning.* Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 117–140. Bogost, Ian. *Videogames are a Mess*, 2009, Digital Games Research Association Conference, Sept 3, 2009. Boss Fight Database. “Witcher 3: The White Lady Noonwraith Boss Fight (Hard Mode) (4K 60fps)” *Youtube*, 23 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX6gSR0pCQo&t=21s Cășvean, Tulia Maria. "What Is Game Studies Anyway? Legitimacy Of Game Studies Beyond Ludo-Centrism Vs. Narrato-Centrism Debate." *Romanian Journal Of Journalism & Communication / Revista Romana De Jurnalism Si Comunicare- RRJC 11.1* (2016): 48-59. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. CD Projekt RED. *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.* CD Projekt, 2016. Playstation 4. Harper, Todd. "A Slight Ramble on An Unfortunate Topic." Blog post. Digital Devil Saga. Tumblr, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Nov. 2016. Holquist, Michael. *Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World.* London: Routledge, 1990. Print. How it’s Made. “How it’s Made Kaleidoscope” *Youtube*, 8 May 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEhmFskODNc Jenkins, Henry. “The Pleasure of Pirates and What It Tells Us About World Building in Branded Entertainment.” *Confessions of an Aca-Fan*, 25 13 June 2007, www.henryjenkins.org Accessed 11 Oct 2016. Sapkowski, Andrzej, and Danusia Stok. *The Last Wish.* New York: Orbit, 2008. Print. PunisherNZL. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt The Bloody Baron Suicide/ Choices Animated Intro” *Youtube*, 5 June 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9NJIpwNMA Voloshinov, V. N. *Marxism and the Philosophy of Language.* The Hague: Mouton, 1972. Print.