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Djibriel
2009-11-20, 10:05 AM
A friend of mine is struggling with the beginning of his major thesis. Subject matter he wanted to tackle was the combination of game theory and literary studies. He's a Literature Studies student whose main interest and career choice in life is games.

Today, I suggested to him that maybe he wanted to take a look at traditional pen & paper RPGs such as D&D, SWRPG, etc. I can think of no other form of entertainment that combines storytelling and "game" any better. Now, I want to help him if possible, so I turn to you. Have books / essays / etc. been written on the subject of P&P games? Is it a field of academic study?

Anything you could link to, mention or otherwise bring to my attention would be greatly appreciated, both by my and my friend.

dsmiles
2009-11-20, 10:17 AM
I know a few years ago at the local college (North Virginia Community College) they offered a course in FRPG Writing. Don't know if that would help any.

Optimystik
2009-11-20, 11:08 AM
Please note: "Game theory" is a specific tool for analyzing the steps involved with rational decision-making. It does not merely mean "any thesis that incorporates games."

Not saying you were implying that, I'm just putting it out there in case your friend wasn't utilizing the term properly.

Some ideas for a "game-related" thesis:

1) Primarily for video games: Contrast the role of games as a method of escapism with the ever-increasing demands by their audience for greater realism; audiovisual immersion, motion-based controls, force feedback and player choice.

2) Compare the cathartic role of games in providing entertainment/alleviating stress through simulated violence with their possibly influential effect on the young. Stress the need for parents to get involved with their child's gaming habits, and especially analyze how much the content/themes of games change when they include online multiplayer.

3) Contrast the attitude towards gaming in his home country with that of others; comment on any geographical or chronological trends and determine if a correlation exists between attitude to gaming and other aspects of their culture, such as attitudes towards conflict/war, attitudes towards sexuality, attitudes towards wealth/social status, and attitudes towards technological advancement.

Those were just off the top of my head, but they're the kind of gaming topics that could provide enough "meat" for a fair analysis, I think.

Radar
2009-11-20, 11:21 AM
A scientific journal about RPG and a collection of references for articles about RPG:
http://journalofroleplaying.org/
http://www.rpgstudies.net/

Apart from that, i would propose not only studying RPG themselves, but literature settled in specific RPG worlds as well (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance etc.). It could be interesting to compare those.

P&P games can definately be studied as a form of improvised storytelling. The problem is with getting enough working material. One would probably need a transcripion of a whole adventure (or rather much more then one) and most people don't document their games that well (apart from scribbled notes with most important information). Focusing on Play by Post games might be easier, since they are allready in text form. Just remember to kindly ask all involved people for a permission first.

Ashiel
2009-11-20, 11:33 AM
P&P games can definately be studied as a form of improvised storytelling. The problem is with getting enough working material. One would probably need a transcripion of a whole adventure (or rather much more then one) and most people don't document their games that well (apart from scribbled notes with most important information). Focusing on Play by Post games might be easier, since they are allready in text form. Just remember to kindly ask all involved people for a permission first.

OpenRPG allows groups to save logs, and some even have put several of them up on personal blogs. Here's one I was running for a while on OpenRPG. A player of mine kept putting the logs up, along with artwork of the characters.

Forgotten Dreams (http://forgotdreams.blogspot.com/2008/02/chapter-1-highway-banditry.html).

If this helps, I'm glad to be able to help. :smallsmile:

Kalirren
2009-11-20, 11:49 AM
I'd just like to second (and third, since it's in my signature!) the suggestion about the International Journal of Roleplaying. To my knowledge it's the only RP journal in print. Everything else is on forums or within a corporate tradition.

I didn't know about the other link, www.rpgstudies.net, but it looks to be a great source. Its main drawback from my Anglocentric perspective is that half the articles seem to be in German...

RP -is- a field of academic study, but a rather new one, I think, just because it really is a new phenomenon, arguably a new art form.

I don't know what your friend is interested in or what his background is within literature studies. That's a huge field, with all sorts of angles that reflect upon RP. Is he interested in texts and hermeneutics? canons of imagery and style within RP? the historical development of RP-theoretical ideas? the diversity of RP cultures? the mimetic relationships between written literature, film literature, and computer game literature? I would think that all of these can be examined within literary studies frameworks.

One random question: Does he know German or Finnish?

MickJay
2009-11-20, 01:24 PM
http://gram.cs.mcgill.ca/paperspubs.php this site might be useful.

In combining roleplaying games and game theory, I think the most important aspect would be optimisation (or lack of thereof) and its impact on game. Basically, an analysis of character creation and development seen from the perspective of its "efficiency" in overcoming the obstacles, and of the impact it has on gameplay and its role in fulfillment of the game's goals according to various groups' priorities ("winning" the game, general enjoyment etc). It might be difficult to assess the non-quantifiable factors, like "having fun", though.

ocdscale
2009-11-20, 02:29 PM
A friend of mine is struggling with the beginning of his major thesis. Subject matter he wanted to tackle was the combination of game theory and literary studies. He's a Literature Studies student whose main interest and career choice in life is games.

Today, I suggested to him that maybe he wanted to take a look at traditional pen & paper RPGs such as D&D, SWRPG, etc. I can think of no other form of entertainment that combines storytelling and "game" any better. Now, I want to help him if possible, so I turn to you. Have books / essays / etc. been written on the subject of P&P games? Is it a field of academic study?

Anything you could link to, mention or otherwise bring to my attention would be greatly appreciated, both by my and my friend.

A preliminary thought: You should limit the study to pen and paper games as roleplaying games, as opposed to tactical combat simulators or what have you. Also, seconded on "game theory" not meaning "theory about games."

Some questions:
Is this an undergraduate thesis or a graduate one?
What exactly is Literature Studies? I think a lot of posters are suggesting ideas that may not be relevant at all. Is literature studies about the defining characteristics of literature (i.e. studying the basic elements of literature)? Is it about studying how literature has developed (lets say, from Bhagavad Ghita to Ovid to Beowulf to Harry Potter)? Is it about how society interacts with Literature?

A very general idea would be to contrast the pen & paper DM with traditional notions of story telling/narrating. What does it mean to 'railroad' your players, and why is it viewed so negatively by nearly every type of player? Was Ovid 'railroading' his audience? Do readers/listeners have different expectations from players?
Are there any other literary constructs where multiple people come together to create a story? What is the consequence of having multiple people collaborate (this probably veers into psychology/sociology) in the creation of a story?

Starbuck_II
2009-11-20, 02:59 PM
A friend of mine is struggling with the beginning of his major thesis. Subject matter he wanted to tackle was the combination of game theory and literary studies. He's a Literature Studies student whose main interest and career choice in life is games.

Today, I suggested to him that maybe he wanted to take a look at traditional pen & paper RPGs such as D&D, SWRPG, etc. I can think of no other form of entertainment that combines storytelling and "game" any better. Now, I want to help him if possible, so I turn to you. Have books / essays / etc. been written on the subject of P&P games? Is it a field of academic study?

Anything you could link to, mention or otherwise bring to my attention would be greatly appreciated, both by my and my friend.

I wrote an essay for my Critical Thinking class on Codzilla before.
So I'll bet there are other essays on P&P games.