Author Archives: Professor Sample

About Professor Sample

Mark Sample is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at George Mason University, where he researches and teaches contemporary and experimental literature, electronic literature, graphic novels, and videogames.

Working with Omeka’s Exhibits

Here’s a good introduction to building exhibits on Omeka.

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On University Libraries Starting Videogame Collections

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article on academic libraries starting to build videogame collections: http://chronicle.com/article/Video-Game-Rooms-Become-the/127229/ …Would love to see Mason start something like this…

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Possible Approaches to Portal (from whiteboard)

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Jason Nelson is a Hipster Dog

In response to this discussion on our blog, Jason Nelson made this video:

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More details for the “Countergaming” Reading

We can think of countergames as anti-games, or games that are everything that games aren’t supposed to be. In his essay on “Countergaming,” Alexander Galloway outlines six differences between conventional videogames and countergames: Transparency versus foregrounding Gameplay versus aestheticism Representational … Continue reading

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A Teardown of “Angry Birds”

This comes a few weeks too late to include in our class discussion of casual games, but this teardown of Angry Birds, explaining on a cognitive level what makes the game so playable, is worth looking at. Too bad at … Continue reading

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Survey on Interactive Fiction

Please complete this short, anonymous survey: http://polldaddy.com/s/FF9CF127C05884EA

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Survey on Casual Games

Please take this short anonymous survey on casual games.

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Survey on First Person Shooters

Please take the following survey: http://polldaddy.com/s/4178EB7B7EE4303D

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Articles Reviewed for Inquiry #1 on Game Studies

Here’s a list of all the videogame studies articles HNRS 353 students examined for Inquiry #1: Allen, Robertson. “The Unreal Enemy of the American Army.” Games and Culture, 6.1 (2011): 38-60. Sage Publications. Web. February 8, 2011. <http://gac.sagepub.com/content/6/1/38.full.pdf+html> Arsenault, D. … Continue reading

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More on Dead Island

More info on the Dead Island trailer we watched in class: an interview with the creators of the trailer. It sounds like the eventual game will resemble the trailer in atmosphere only. The family we see aren’t even in the … Continue reading

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Videogames and Art

We’ll be talking about the question of videogames as art later in the semester, but for now I wanted to point your way toward a recent overview of 10 artists who use videogames as their medium. In a similar vein, … Continue reading

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Atari Commercial

An early Atari commercial, emphasizing family fun and togetherness.

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Instructions on Using Stella

Here are a few tips on using Stella, the Atari 2600 emulator you need to install on your computer in order to play a few of the required games this semester, such as Combat. First you need to get Stella … Continue reading

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Welcome to HNRS 353

Welcome to the course website and blog for HNRS 353:001, an Honors College seminar focusing on the cultural impact and analysis of videogames. Here you’ll find all the course documents, including the most up-to-date version of the schedule as well … Continue reading

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