Thursday, January 22, 2009

Why am I noob?

What is a noob? Is a newb, the same as a noob or nOOb? No. Now, newb and noob sometimes carry the same meaning; some one who is new to something. They're just learning. nOOb, is an insult--you're incompetent in your ability to participate in this community--it is not because you are new, but you act like one even though you know better.

I've been pursuing higher education for 8 full years. I've obtained two degrees, and am working towards my third. Now, it would seem as if I'm opening calling myself a nOOb because I have been in academia for a while. However, if I was a nOOb, then the university I'm attending wouldn't have accepted me, now would they? So, that brings be back to noob. How does one have 8 years of experience yet still be noobish?

Academia--the ivy tower that people seek to climb and you can see several mutilated bodies that fell from the top as you approach. It's dangerous, but I'm knocking at the gate with my gaming consoles in hand, along with tons of books and praying the cannonical dragon doesn't come out and eat me. You see, I'm a noob because I'm daring (as some others have) to bring gaming into the field of English. That's right, English--the subject that gives many nightmares only rivaled by Math. So, how does gaming fit into a world of Composition and Rhetoric and the ages of Literature filled with white succesful men that barely have noticed that hey, women can write too. Get my point yet? This is why I describe myself as a noob. It fits, I have many ideas mulling around in my head on how gaming fits into English. It's just a matter of avoiding xp loss and fighting the NMs when they come. Eventually I'll get to the endgame events.

4 comments:

  1. Women can write, there's no doubt. What type of writing? Are women doomed to only speak in their own language? Can they speak, and their words resonate inside the hearts and minds of all, or just their fellow feminine peers? Gaming from its earliest beginnings had a male sense of being. Began in the caves, when the hunt was over and yet there was energy remaining, and the mate was forced to focus on the offspring. Then through the ages gaming evolved into its widespread and diverse forms used today. What is a woman's role in the games? Do they make a worthy adversary? Or do they create a diversion, allowing the stronger willed males to victor over those easily distracted? Can you reconcile all these into a cohesive, elegant pattern known as writing?

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  2. I would say that female characters in games are often diversions that get in the way. Kind of like superhero men who keep getting "trapped" because the women they're interested in keep getting put in peril. I believe the thinking is, the man has to have somebody to save. Well, women can save themselves--if they're programmed too anyway. If they are the main character, they are often "changed" and "alien" but still contain some type of allure. If they are not dressed in armor you know wouldn't protect against a cold, they're in the role of the protective "mother" or that of the innocent who must go through trials to learn their strength--and somehow still keep their innocence in the end. With MMOs the NPCs are what the programers and writers made them. But, the female players, and certain males who play female avatars change the view of their character. They are writing their own story, and they way they carry themselves in the online community is marked on their character--not the actual person. Some male players run their female characters around scantily clad; others don't. Some female players with female characters do the same. What makes the character is how they are played. They're playing is they're writing.

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  3. Interesting connections/disconnect/tensions between the two terms ("newb" and "noob") and academia/the world. And I love this: "I'm knocking at the gate with my gaming consoles in hand, . . . " Bringing gaming into English studies. Some excellent stuff happening in that vein (see especially Gee's What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Literacy and Learning, of course, as well as Selfe's collection _Gaming Lives_). So much more needs to happen. Can happen.

    Robin and Sal have some excellent plans for connections between English and Computer Science through CLiC. We need to talk *much* more about all this.

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  4. Great discussion of the different connotations of the various versions of "newb"!

    From what I'm seeing at professonal conferences in terms of presentations and hiring (including computer science Ph.Ds being hired in *literature* departments), you're not going to be alone in this quest!

    Of course a lot of the exciting stuff is coming out of the sf area (not the more traditional canons).

    As a long time sff reader, I'm always leery of the "women were never there" arguments because it's much more likely women were there, contributing, but they hav been wiped out of the "official history" (and I have friends in their fifties and sixties who were in the D&D board games way back when--women may not have played in equal numbers, but they were there, were contributing).

    When it comes to online gaming (I know very little about console games) like WoW, well, there's lots of debate (and conflicts) around gender issues, just as the women who are reading comics, women reading sff, etc. went through over the years. It's important not to conflate numerical minority with "don't exist at all."

    Plus, I'd also like to note there are RPGs that are text only (run in LJ and its other sites based on the open-source software that LJ founder Brad created like IJ and GJ) that are dominated by women. More than that, the games are not run to make profits (i.e. no cost to join, besides the cost of the technology and internet and all that). Again, it's a function of people not knowing what women do and assuming they do not exist. These gaming communities come out of fandom, exist online, are primarily text-based (not graphic) thought many of the participants make strategic use of icons, avatars, transformative work on publicity picturs, etc.

    (small note: in class, since we are classmates, I'd like to ask you to use my first name, not my professional title!). (Actually I prefer to be on a first name basis with my grad students as well, but I know it makes many people uncomfortable so I don't insist on it).

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