In “A Research-Based Approach to Game Writing Pedagogy,” Seth Andrew Hudson seeks to use a phenomenological study of writing practices in the game industry in order to “enhance pedagogy in computer game design (CDG) education” (91). This is due in part to the games industry itself not really having a well-defined role for video game writing or video game writers, so Hudson tries to alleviate this issue through his research, which consists of anonymous interviews about game writers’ “lived experiences in terms of writing scholarship and research” (95). The two major tools Hudson seems to use are rhetorical genre studies (RGS) and cultural history activity theory (CHAT), the prior for “providing rich descriptions of the social contexts surrounding writing,” and the latter for “defining the processes and the conditions for attaining concrete goals in a complex system” (97, 98). Given the amorphous role of game writing and the collaborative nature of game development, these seem like very pertinent methods to use for the discovery and defining of unspecified and undefined aspects in a writing job.
The actual labor being done though seems quite extensive. Similarly to other theories we’ve discussed in class, the phenomenological approach Hudson utilized took him a significant amount of time and research. In the “data collection and analysis” section of this article, Hudson describing how, during coding, he would have to go between the transcripts and the recordings multiple times made me laugh out loud as I read it because of how intensive the work seemed, especially since Hudson’s name is the only one listed as an author; that being said, I do appreciate immensely that he states that doing so helped him understand the people he interviewed, and that it aligned well with his purpose and choice of research methodology (103). I also appreciate the “limitations” section of this article, because he does highlight some drawbacks of his approach. A major one he lists is the sample size he uses for this research, but he justifies it with how using less people helps the data be more “rich” (103). Another one I picked up was that the interviewees were relating their experiences through hindsight, which in any other study could be hard to justify if there is no way to support or verify the interviewees’ claims. I do also think that not revealing, at the very least, how the seven subjects were chosen is an odd choice, as if he did so with general statements (like with years in the industry or even how many games they’ve worked on) it would have made the research feel a bit more reliable.
I wrote this response while listening to “Transistor (Original Soundtrack)” by Darren Korb (2014), as it felt pertinent given the topic of the article. This isn’t necessarily one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time, but it is one I listen to every so often and appreciate because of how well it evokes the atmosphere of the world the game takes place in; plus, Ashley Barrett’s vocals on the song “The Spine” brings me back to the time I first experienced that section of the game, and I think that alone is a good enough reason to run this soundtrack back.
