When Something Doesn't Work...

I don't mean for this post to come across as whiny, so if I appear to be "QQing" as my fellow dweebs would put it (or crying for those who are not down with our sweet lingo), I apologize.  However, right from the first meeting of our weekly Thesis Colloquium, our advisor asked us to express what we found most difficult about the Thesis project.  My response was a fear of wasting my time on "sources that just don't work."  When I first answered that question, I had recently finished Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games, which made a great argument about the rhetoric of video games and how it can persuade players through immersive gameplay.  However, this great argument fits in nowhere within the scope of my project.  While I got a couple of great quotes out of the book, between work and everyday life, that book took roughly two weeks to get through.  While I don't have Persuasive Games in front of me at the moment, its description made it sound as though it were discussing rhetoric in the larger scope, meaning what the language was within the video game world, and what perceptions those outside of this affinity group (as James Paul Gee calls it) have of gamers. 

I suppose the point of this post is to address what I see as a serious issue of investing precious time in sources that seem like they might be helpful, but then in the end fall extremely short of expectations.  When I find myself reading essays or articles like Catherine Compton-Lilly's "What Can Video Games Teach Us About Teaching Reading?" or another work of Ian Bogost (what was I thinking going back to him?) "The Rhetoric of Video Games," and then only come up with a few quotes that only serve to emphasize/bolster points that I have already made in the draft of essay I have so far, I am not sure that I consider that a success.  Granted, it's much better than coming up empty-handed (thank you very much slew of random NY Times articles), but I still see very little reward in investing considerable effort with some of these.  I understand why college professors have research assistants and other resources available to them; between weeding through sources to see which might be usable, and then having to pour over these in order to see what actually is valuable to the thesis, extensive research can be mind-numbing. 

I must reiterate that I'm sorry if this seems like a rant or drawn out complaint, but I do see this as a huge obstacle that I am having difficult overcoming, especially in a field where the articles are so scarce.  It is almost December, and the bulk of my research should be finished within the next month or so, or at least that is what I had hoped for.  There is still a gi-normous elephant in the room, which comes in the form of my lack of video production, but I'm sure I can gripe about that another day.  If anyone has completed their MA or doctorate, if you have any tips or suggestions for a quick way to rule out sources, I would be much obliged!