Waiting is the Hardest Part

Now that I have finished exploring James Paul Gee's ideas, I think it would be smart to move on to Narrative Theory.  I'd like to review the elements that are viewed as integral to creating stories in print and film, and then display how these are easily recognizable in good video game stories.  Also, I'd like to do a character comparison between print and video game, comparing and contrasting the role of the protagonist in the story, and how the reader/player connects with that character.  And while all of this may be well and good, it might have been helpful to order books in this subject weeks ago.  Right now, Amazon is predicting my new sources could arrive as late as early November, officially making this my first real setback in the project, as I am kind of stumped as to what to do on the production blog if there is no, well, production.

What to do to pass the time?  Here are some ideas I had:

1)  I could start working on my more "academic" written portion of the final project.  So far I have 10 pages written after a very helpful peer editing session. I find it really difficult trying to come up with a format and structure for the written portion when all of my research has not been finished yet.  What if I find something completely contradictory to some of my assertions?  I am not as insecure on the blog, because I am writing on the Internet, where truth doesn't exist.  

2)  I could play some more games.  Done.  I reactivated my World of Warcraft account, and have started exploring different areas in the game's world.  Since I have last played, Blizzard released their expansion pack Cataclysm which has completely altered a great deal of content, so it will be nice viewing things with a fresh pair of eyes.   I am still trudging along in Final Fantasy X, mostly because I keep having to create multiple save files that I want to incorporate into video for the sake of the project.  

3)  I could browse the Internet for game news.  I guess it's old news, but after releasing Heavy Rain, game producer David Cage said that there are already two new projects that his company is working on.  Check the interview out, I'm excited by his goal to create "new ways of playing."  

4)  I could think of "outside the box" sources so that I'm not dependent on Amazon's stranglehold on these damn books.  This is something I am working really hard on- specifically that I want to try and interview both game producers and gamers themselves.  I am going to send out feeler emails to Blizzard Entertainment, Quantic Dream, and Square Enix to see if anyone would be willing to sit through an interview with me.  As for the players, and I'm really excited about this, I want to interview WoW players about their experiences with stories in video games, and their experiences in high school English classrooms as well.  These players who immerse themselves so deeply into a story (one that is coauthored by the game designers and the player's own creativity) can provide some great insight as to what the strengths of stories in video games are, and how they may be applied to a classroom setting.  I am in the process of coming up with questions, as well as figuring out the logistics of how to go about interviewing players, how many players to interview, if I should use other source games, etc.  I'm happy with the idea, but it will need refinement before going forward with it.  

Maybe this isn't such a setback after all, it looks like there are plenty of things to do aside from shaping my argument on the interwebs.  I'm going to go log on WoW and spy on people now as they RP, possibly even trying my hand at it to better understand how things work. Goodbye free time!