An unusual thread: An English major looks for connections.

[Kintara]

My class schedule for this upcoming semester is as follows:
Technical Writing
Non-Fiction Writing
Writing for Electronic Media
Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Language: Collaboration and Its Discontents (a class about "collaborative writing")

As I look at these classes, I can't help but find connections to roleplaying.  Perhaps I'll even design a game as one of my projects.

I'm creating this thread sort of as a diary to show if anything I discuss in these classes leads to anything interesting as far as game design.  At the very least, if I do design a game, these classes will help in the presentation of it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Skepticism?  Disdain?

[iain]

My class schedule for this upcoming semester is as follows:
Technical Writing
Non-Fiction Writing
Writing for Electronic Media

Could you clarify waht you mean by writing for electronic Media.
I can certainly see were connections might lie and wold be happy to help out with any enquiries into game design, though I am quite new to it myself. I would be especially interested if you looked at Roleplaying in Mainstream culture and maybe how to make the hobby more acceptable to society. It is after all a very social and enjoyable hobby but has some bad press attached to it.

I am at your service.
Cheers
Iain

[Kintara]

Here's the course description for Writing for Electronic Media:
"This is a project-oriented course where Theory meets Praxis. Students will study and create original electronic media projects. You will complete both individual and team-based collaborative projects. Areas to be covered include creative and fact-based writing, multimedia composition and theory; hypertext; digital video, online journalism; multimedia scholarship; narrative theory; interactive narrative; information technology & creative practices; gaming; global media; and immersive environments. We will concentrate on the principles of writing for electronic media more so than learning new technology skills, though we will address a variety of technological options. The course requires creative and analytical engagement, and you will write what you care about."

[Kintara]

Anyway, as for how mainstream culture intersects with roleplaying, that's certainly an area that I might explore.  If I decide to discuss it in class, then I'll pretty much have to deal with that. :)

As I read that course description, it reminds me of the possibility for technology to seriously affect the means by which we game.  I'm pretty sure that using a computer to  supplement certain systems would allow for very intriguing possibilities.  And that's leaving things like immersive environments and such aside for the moment,