Overview: Academia and Analog Role-playing Games
Welcome to our unit on Academia and Analog Role-playing Games! This section considers a specific role-playing community: that of scholars studying these games and practices. As you may be aware, analog role-playing games are often marginalized in game studies. We will read material explaining why, which will hopefully also make clear why we believe it is important to maintain academic spaces like these courses. We will also discuss the development of role-playing game studies in various contexts, as well as the relationship between RPG studies and leisure discourse and play communities. Overall, we will emphasize the necessary dependence academia has upon play communities, as studying RPG is quite difficult in most contexts without consulting practitioner experiences in some way.
In addition, we will be exploring conflict transformation, including the core elements influencing interpersonal disputes, conflicts in intercultural communities such as role-playing groups, and academic debate. In particular, we will discuss positions, interests, feelings, and needs, which are core to all conflict. While academic debate often focuses on the position, i.e. “the argument” or “claim,” we will consider the ways in which the other elements of conflict underpin positions. Furthermore, some of the materials this week discuss conflicts within academic environments among others. By exploring the core aspects of conflict, we can consider how our own part in helping address conflicts in transformational communities.
Click here to access the ROCKET Studium page.
Required Materials:
Readings:
- Torner, Evan. 2018. “Just (the Institution of Computer) Game Studies.” Analog Game Studies 5, no. 2 (June 3).
Required readings (ROCKET Studium):
- Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2024. “Emotions.” Conflict Transformation Academy, Austin Community College. Panopto.
- Hoffman Institute. 2015. “Feelings List.” Hoffman Institute.