Fifth Assignment

Choose one of the options below and write an essay in response. Your essay should be at least three and a half pages in length and should not exceed six pages. Use double-space lineation, a 12-point serif font, and one-inch margins on all sides. Your writing is expected to be error-free and up to university standards.

Essay should be an argumentative essay: there should be one main thesis that the essay attempts to support/prove. The thesis represents your own original insight into the topic.

The assignment is due on April 1st. Consult the course outline for information about late assignments.

Option 1: Gaming

Write an analysis of one computer game. Note that you are analyzing the game from the perspective of humanistic enquiry (not from a psychological, marketing, computer/graphic design, or sociological perspective). You may follow the guidelines presented in class, and you are certainly free to deviate from these if you feel you can produce a better essay by doing so. A good strategy is to interpret the game: analyze the symbolic meanings behind the various features of the game.

The game you choose must be taken from the following list. Note that your instructor is very familiar with all these games; consequently, your essay should not attempt to summarize the game or explain how it works or is played. Keep your focus on analysis.

Braid Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Donkey Kong Country Returns Don’t Starve Doom Doom 2 DuckTales Remastered Evoland Fireboy & Watergirl in The Forest Temple Grand Theft Auto III The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Limbo Mario Kart Wii New Super Mario Bros. (DS) New Super Mario Bros. Wii Proteus Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64 or DS) Super Mario World Super Mario Galaxy Super Mario Galaxy 2 Super Paper Mario Rayman Origins Terraria Thirty Flights of Loving World of Goo

Option 2: Posthuman: Cyborgs

Examine the portrayal and use of the cyborg in one of the following:

• Blade Runner (1982)
• RoboCop (Padilha, 2014)
• The Terminator (1984)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Battlestar Galactica (2003-09 television series); you are welcome to focus solely on the three-hour opening miniseries or an individual episode

For Blade Runner, you may consider the Nexus-6 models (the “skin-jobs”) as cyborgs; for Battlestar Galactica, you may consider the new-generation Cylons (the “skin-jobs”) as cyborgs. Your essay should carefully examine the way the cyborg bridges the divide between human and machine. At a basic level, what human characteristics are retained and what human characteristics are lost? More importantly, what is the role of the cyborg within the new society imagined by the movie/show? What comment about humanity is the movie/show making through its use of cyborgs?

Option 3: Posthuman: Feed

Examine the depictions of humanity and digital technology in the novel. What is the novel saying about the fate of humanity in a world where digital technology has a greater influence than it currently does? How have the ways humans define who they are changed? You may talk about the ways the novel explores the boundaries between the human and the posthuman.

Option 4: Digital Pedagogy

Analyze the rhetoric of two or three of the following essays:

• Derek Thompson, “College? There's an App for That: How USC Built a 21st Century Classroom,” The Atlantic, 27 May 2011.
• Melanie Plenda, “Are Multiplayer Games the Future of Education?” The Atlantic, 11 Jul 2014.
• Ian Bogost, “The Condensed Classroom,” The Atlantic, 27 Aug 2013.
• Alexandra Ossola,“Teaching in the Age of Minecraft,” The Atlantic, 6 Feb 2015.

What are the assumptions behind what is being said? How are the authors able to persuade us of their points? How is digital technology being treated and portrayed? What type of language is being used to describe digital technology? How is education being treated and portrayed? Which essay is most convincing and why?

Option 5: Hypertext

Read through, study, and analyze the following hypertext: L0ve0ne by Judy Malloy. Write an essay that represents your analysis of the text. You will probably want to focus on the fragmentation of the plot and how it relates to the themes of the story. What can this text accomplish that more traditional stories cannot?