Having been one of the people Tim conceived of the idea of this blog with, it’s high time I started making my own contributions. I am the aforementioned graduate student in Popular Culture; my main focus is on comics, but I also have a keen interest in video games, tabletop roleplaying games, and cartoons (including anime). My undergraduate degrees are in History and English, which influences my perspective on culture and gaming quite a bit. My own interest in doing a blog like this started when I started seeing ways in which my readings and studies in popular culture could be applied to games I was playing. While my department is quite open to the idea of applying the theories we learn to video games, cultural studies as a whole seems to still be grappling with how to approach the medium; thus my desire to share some ideas and connections I’ve been making but have heretofore lacked the venue to air.
Following Tim’s model for posting, I too will have a general schedule to my posts. I don’t know that I’ll post every week, but when I do post, it will follow this pattern:
Tuesday — Analyzing Video Games
These are the posts where I will be applying concepts and theories I come across in my reading and coursework to games. Often, this will involve referring to a specific article or theorist in whose ideas I see the potential for understanding games better. I’ll try to keep the jargon to a minimum and avoid getting too bogged down in theory.
Thursday — Pop Culture Observations
This is going to be where my more general posts happen. I might post about a movie I saw recently, or a TV show I’m enjoying, or a game that I’m playing but not engaging in sustained analysis of. This is also where more general observations about cultural trends will appear.
Hopefully the combined effect of both of us having regular schedules will allow Tim and I to shame each other into keeping to fairly regular posting. If not, well, you’ll probably get a few good posts out of us at least.
