Book manuscript submitted

After a four-month extension from MIT Press I've now submitted the full manuscript of Literary Gaming to the publishers. The contents are as follows (although they're likely to change following the reader comments):

Chapter 1       Introduction

1.1                   Ludicity and literariness in the digital age
1.2                   Ludic books and literary "games"
1.3                   Methodology and structure

Chapter 2       Playing with rather than by rules

2.1                   Introduction
2.2                   Ludology and its philosophical foundations 
2.3                   Playfulness as aesthetic tool and weapon
2.4                   Games, play and literature
2.5                   Literature born digital
2.6                   Art games versus Game Art

Chapter 3       Between ludicity and literariness

3.1                   Introduction
3.2                   Cognitive frameworks for reading and gameplay
3.3                   Viewing Axolotls - approaching the ludic in digital literature
3.4                   The literary-ludic spectrum
3.5                   Approaching functional ludo-stylistics

Chapter 4       "The pen is your weapon of choice": ludic hypertext literature and the play with the reader

4.1                   Introduction
4.2                   Alea: Deena Larsen's Firefly
4.3                   Ilinx: Richard Holeton's Figurski at Findhorn on Acid
4.4                   Mimicry: Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl
4.5                   Agon: Robert Kendall's Clues
4.6                   Discussion

Chapter 5       "Love poem or break up note?" Ludic hypermedia fiction and Loss of Grasp

5.1                   Introduction
5.2                   Heuristic ergodicity in games and digital interactive art
5.3                   Analyzing Loss of Grasp: fallaciousness, heuristic ergodicity and cybertextuality
5.4                   Discussion
                   

Chapter 6       "Your innocence drifts away": anti-ludicity and ludic mechanics in The Princess Murderer

6.1                   Introduction
6.2                   Antiludicity as subversive design practice
6.3                   "Clicking" damsels in distress: The Princess Murderer and its antiludic agenda
6.4                   Discussion

Chapter 7       Of windsighs and wayfaring: Blue Lacuna, an epic interactive fiction

7.1                   Introduction
7.2                   IF as the classic hybrid between adventure game and literary narrative
7.3                   Blue Lacuna - epic, novel and game
7.4                   A ludostylistic approach to analyzing Blue Lacuna
7.5                   Discussion

Chapter 8       The paradox of poetic gaming: evidence of everything exploding

8.1                   Introduction
8.2                   Digital détournement in Game Art and art games
8.3                   Pop-surrealism and poetry gaming: Jason Nelson's evidence of everything exploding
8.4                   Discussion

Chapter 9       From paidia to ludus: The Path, a literary auteur game

9.1                   Introduction
9.2                   To game or not to game: slowness, dérive and allusive fallacy
9.3                   The Path - transmediation, tragedy, trauma
9.4                   A ludostylistic analysis of The Path
9.5                   Discussion

Chapter 10     Conclusion

 References

Glossary

Literary gaming - first stage published!

The first stage of my research into literary gaming is now out in print: check out the "Computer Gaming" chapter in the new Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. Thanks very much again to Joe, Alison and Brian for all their hard work on this wonderful volume.

 

'Click = kill' article in Storyworlds is out!

The University of Nebraska Press has just published Alice's and my article, '"Click = Kill": Textual You in Ludic Digital Fiction' in its 4th volume of Storyworlds. Here's a brief excerpt from the Intro:

"Since the early days of hypertext criticism, the study of digital fiction has undergone a significant paradigm shift. Recent research has moved from a first wave of mostly theoretical and philosophical debate to a second wave of close stylistic and semiotic analysis. While the theoretical intricacies of second-wave digital fiction theory have been much discussed (e.g. Ciccoricco 2007; Ensslin 2007; Ensslin and Bell 2007; Bell 2010), the discipline and practice of close reading digital fiction require a more systematic engagement with the possibilities and limitations of the form. Similarly, the narratological tools and terminologies inherited from print scholarship need to be adapted to the medial, material, and discursive qualities of digital fiction.
In seeking to exemplify this research agenda, this article offers a close-reading of geniwate and Deena Larsen's satirical, ludic Flash fiction The Princess Murderer (2003), with a specific focus on how the text implements second-person narration and other forms of the textual you (Herman 1994, 2002) in juxtaposition with other narrational stances."

Unfortunately I couldn't attend this year's ELO Conference in person, but Sandy Baldwin and team allowed me to send a video of my presentation (thanks to Lyle Skains for running it on my behalf!). The title is 'Locating the Literary in Electronic Ludicity: Jason Nelson's Evidence of Everything Exploding'. See below. I know, the sound isn't great - apologies for that. Any questions and comments are more than welcome.

Unintentional unreliability in digital fiction - just published

I've just learnt that my article, "‘I want to say I may have seen my son die this morning’: Unintentional unreliable narration in digital fiction" has just appeared in Language and Literature. Good news.

Evidence of Everything Exploding

Today I'm looking at Jason Nelson's literary art game, Evidence of Everything Exploding. It's the sort of game you can't just play through quickly (although it's only got 10 levels). To begin to grasp what it's trying to communicate and how to navigate it efficiently you need to look at each element of its complex interface closely.

I'm working on a ludo-narrative close-reading for the ELO conference in Morgantown, WV, so watch this space. I'm hoping to put a video of my presentation online when it's done.

Welcome!

Welcome to Literary Gaming, my research blog. It'll accompany the journey of my research into games we can read and literature (novels, poems etc.) we can play. I'm currently working on a book for MIT Press called Literary Gaming, which connects the burgeoning fields of digital-born literature and indie/art game research. It explores a body of digital artefacts situated on a spectrum between ludic e-literature and literary art games and engages with hybrid receptive and interactive processes that combine reading and gaming. The analyses are informed by avant-garde modernist and postmodernist theories, such as Situationist détournement and deconstruction, and ludological concepts of chance, choice, rules, fun, forms of play, (illusory) agency and procedural rhetoric. I offer close readings and "playings" of texts that inhabit different places on the literary-ludic spectrum. The analyses follow the broad trajectory of functional ludo-narrativism (Ryan 2006), which aims to examine how elements of game design, gameplay, narrative and (poetic) textuality concur to evoke distinctive receptive and interactive experiences.

In a next step, I'm interested in how these literary games and ludic novels/poems are consumed by reader-players - especially from younger (< 25 years) age groups. Can the clash between hyperattention (typically observed in game players) and deep attention (typical of close reading) be reconciled? Can we do both gaming and close reading effectively at the same time? How can this research inform notions of digital/media literacy and methods of learning and teaching? Might it even help especially young players form a more self-critical attitude towards their gaming habits and help them (and their parents) tackle the addictive effects of commercial videogames?

If you'd like to get in touch, visit my homepage at Bangor University.