TODAY1) How enlightened was our racism?2) MAP Proposals– turn ‘em in3) Games: readings by some weird dude4) Discussion: Enlightened Homophobia (can/does it

exist, really?) vs. Situated Homophobia (eg. “Is it right?”)

5) Gaming Activity: to Facebook we go! 6) Report back/For Thursday

Your Examples

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

Example 6

Along those lines For today, one of the pieces you read was about the Blood

Elf racial characters in World of Warcraft and how, during the original beta testing before their in-game launch, they were considered “gay” by some players (and “too feminine” by the game designers, in the end).

I want to know how you feel about that. So…

How do you feel about that?

More importantly…We’ve talked about “enlightened” racism.

Can there be “enlightened” homophobia?

Is it okay, for example, to say “well, that’s how our audience feels, so that’s how we’re going to play it?”

It’s a lot to think about But these are issues we must think about in digital

space, particularly because, as we noted with Nakamura last week, racial and sexual language and imagery are co-opted for other meanings in virtual spaces.

How then do we insure that as careful users of and creators in digital space we aren’t too prudish but are at the same time quite prudent in insuring that we don’t reinforce damaging stereotypes?

Shifting gears…I also had you read a little piece of writing I did on gaming knowledge. It’s sort of an advancement on what Gee did (if you remember reading that last week).

I want to spend the rest of class doing another gaming activity. What I want you to do is quite simple. Pair up. I will then assign you a free Facebook game. You are to go play it for a while, talk about it, and reflect on how you learn to play and what skills you would gain/hone playing it for a prolonged period of time.

Pair up by numbering off1. Marvel Avengers Alliance2. Farmville 23. Dragon City4. Chefville5. Angry Birds Friends6. Pet Rescue Saga7. Pawn Stars: the Game8. 8 ball Pool9. Gardens of Time10. House MD: Critical Cases

Before class ends…Email me your summary of what you learned/what there is to learn in your respective game. Alexanp3 at miamioh dot edu

We will spend some time next class looking at your responses.

For Thursday, there are several readings (see the schedule on the website for links). We will begin our discussion of the so-called “death” of print.