Attendance Activity (10 minutes).

Pick a song that you currently can’t or recently couldn’t get out of your head. What is it about that song that’s so catchy?

Pokemon Go! (30 minutes).

Go outside, play Pokemon Go!, then after 30 minutes reconvene here.

Make sure you also take pictures of your game! I want to share them on the DTC site, if you don’t want your pictures featured on the site please tell me.

Students Teach the Professor (10 minutes):

What makes Pokemon Go! a good game? Teach me.

• Does the game follow Bushnell’s Law: “Easy to Learn, Hard to Master?”
• Is there a familiarity to the game? a hook?
• What can we say about the social aspects of the game?
• Consider Lisa Eadicco’s argument about nostalgia: “[N]ostalgia commands a powerful influence throughout pop culture, as evidenced by the sequels and reboots that seem unavoidable at movie theaters this summer. That’s because it is often associated with positive feelings and can help people feel more connected to others.” Does this get at the “hard to master” aspect of Pokemon Go?

Workshop: Let’s Play! Videos (30 minutes)

• Watch the first 10 minutes of Leigh Alexander‘s Lo Fi Let’s Play! Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? While you watch, pick out three things she does that makes her commentary interesting.
• Check out a piece of Let’s Play Software: the X-Split Recorder (free download).
• Try to record a session of Hyper Light Drifter.
• If we don’t get through this, we’ll continue on next Tuesday.

Preview for Tuesday: Are videogames art?

Ian Bogost, How to Do Things with Videogames:
“Art changes. Its very purpose, we might say , is to change, and to change us along with it.”