Aubrey Anable, Playing with Feelings: Video Games and Affect

In lieu of an abstract, here is the review\u27s first paragraph: Audrey Anable provides a succinct overview of her book early in the introduction: “I make a case for why media theory is not finished with representation and subjectivity” (p. xi). Of course, as you might imagine, making that case is anything but simple. As Anable discovers, much of game studies as a field fetishizes mechanics and computation as the distinguishing feature of gaming (and therefore the most important aspect for analysis). There are also profound and troubling reactions from various members of the gameplaying public when representation is discussed. This, she argues, has left game studies ill equipped to address how feeling and emotion impact and enhance game play, a deficiency she notes is not limited to game studies. In response, Anable presents affect, which she defines as “the aspects of emotions, feelings, and bodily engagement that circulate through people and things but are often registered only at the interface—at the moment of transmission or contact—when affect gets called up into representation” (p. xviii). This definition provides an excellent outline of the main points she explores in her work

Creating Space: Building Digital Games

Studies of games, rhetoric, and pedagogy are increasingly common in our field, and indeed seem to grow each year. Nonetheless, composing and designing digital games, either as a mode of scholarship or as a classroom assignment, has not seen an equal groundswell. This selection first provides a brief overview of the existing scholarship in gaming and pedagogy, much of which currently focuses either on games as texts to analyze or as pedagogical models. While these approaches are certainly valuable, I advocate for an increased focus on game design and creation as valuable act of composition. Such a focus engages students and scholars in a deeply multimodal practice that incorporates critical design and computational thinking. I close with suggestions on tools for new and intrepid designers

Writing In and Around Video Games

This undergraduate course uses video games as a lens through which to explore the infinitely broader topic of digital rhetoric. Students encounter games in several different ways: as texts to analyze, raw material for video compositions, systems to create and explore. Key topics include genre conventions and constraints, audience, procedural rhetoric, interface design, and convergence culture

Playing with Play: Machinima in the Classroom

“So, machinima is really a genre, and not a medium?” The students in my Digital Media and Rhetoric course are grappling with both how to define machinima and how to evaluate whether one is “good” or not. I frustrate them by refusing to provide a definitive answer to this and other similar questions they have asked about the form. This intentional frustration continues as, after watching a few examples they ask me what grade I would give those machinima, if they were turned in for this assignment. Rather than providing a simple answer I redirect, asking them what criteria they would use to evaluate machinima and how the examples we’ve seen in class stand up to this scrutiny. At the beginning of this particular unit, when I announced that we wouldn’t be writing another research paper, they were exuberant. Now, however, the complexity of the task before them is slowly unveiling itself. While a majority of these students are gamers, few of them have experience in video production. None of them have previously looked at fan culture as a source of meaning and knowledge production. We are in unfamiliar territory, and they are getting restless

Cs the Day: The Trading Card Game

In many ways, Cs the Day: The Card Game is an ode both to academia, which is imperfect but can at times be wonderful, and to my personal passion and research interest, which has helped me to find a place within this profession. It is also, as is discussed in more detail below, an extension of an existing game, and as such embodies many of the same goals and principles of that game. Thus, designing Cs the Day: The Card Game required careful attention to how the mechanics and narrative reflect both the profession and the original game. There are certainly substantial critiques to be made about academia, and in particular the tenure process. Indeed, Way Jeng’s “How I Learned to Love Despair: Using Simulation Video Games for Advocacy and Change,” a tycoon-esque simulation game addressing the use of contingent faculty in English departments, does an excellent job of modeling how games can be used to critique academia. That game places players in the role of an English department chair and asks them to balance faculty loads (both service and teaching related), the department budget, and university goals. By doing so, Jeng creates an open space for academics to play with this system, in a way that encourages further critique and engagement with the ethics of dependance on contingent faculty. Thus, the play of “Despair” is transformative in that it allows us to “see values and practice them and challenge them so they become more than mindless habits” (Sicart 5)

KAJIAN KUAT TEKAN BETON DENGAN KALSIUM KARBONAT BUATAN SEBAGAI REPLACEMENT SEBAGIAN PORTLAND CEMENT

Di Indonesia pemakaian beton pada pembangunan insfrastruktur pada saat ini paling tinggi. Pemakaian beton yang tinggi akan berpengaruh pada ketersediaan material penyusunnya yaitu agregat halus, agregat kasar, air, dan semen. Umumnya komponen yang paling mahal dalam produksi beton adalah semen. Semen menjadi bahan pengikat antara agregat halus dan agregat kasar. Sehingga semen mengambil peran penting untuk mencapai kuat tekan beton yang direncanakan. Semen yang digunakan secara terus menerus dalam jangka panjang akan mengurangi ketersediaan bahan penyusun semen. Oleh karena itu pada penelitian ini dikaji pengaruh kalsium karbonat buatan sebagai replacement sebagian semen terhadap kuat tekan beton. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji kalsium karbonat buatan ( KKB ) sebagai replacement sebagian Portland Cement. Prosentase kalsium karbonat pada penelitian ini sebesar 5% dan 10% dari berat semen. Penelitian ini dimulai dengan pengujian modulus kehalusan butir kalsium karbonat buatan dan kadar air kalsium karbonat dan dilanjutkan dengan pengujian terhadap material lainnya. Langkah selanjutnya adalah pembuatan benda uji yang berupa silinder beton berukuran 150 mm x 300mm untuk beton non kkb dan beton kkb. Pengujian kuat tekan beton dilakukan dengan uji tekan. Pengujian dilakukan pada saat beton berumur 3, 7, dan 28 hari. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa kuat tekan beton tanpa kalsium karbonat buatan sebesar 14,4166 MPa. Sedangkan beton dengan kalsium karbonat buatan 5% memiliki kuat tekan sebesar 16,7964 MPa. Beton dengan kalsium karbonat buatan 10% memiliki kuat tekan sebesar 17,1050 MPa. Beton tanpa kalsium karbonat buatan dan beton dengan kalsium karbonat buatan memililiki kekuatan yang tidak berbeda jauh atau lebih tinggi beton dengan kalsium karbonat buatan yaitu beton dengan kalsium karbonat buatan 5% sebesar 16,51% dari beton non kkb. Sedangkan untuk 10% sebesar 18,65% dari beton non kkb. Sehingga Kalsium Karbonat buatan memungkinkan digunakan sebagai raplacement sebagian Portland Cement.

Effect of Reaction Temperature and Catalyst Concentration

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines consisting of the alkyl monoesters from vegetable oils or animal fats. Beef tallow is the non-edible raw material with low cost production and the availability is huge in the cattle production. The objective of the study was to utilize waste animal fat (beef) for biodiesel production using solid oxide catalyst. The solid oxide catalyst derived from the industrial waste eggshells. The waste materials calcined with temperature 900oC and time 2 hours, transformed calcium species in the shells into active CaO catalysts. The oil contained high free fatty acid (FFA) content of 1.86%. The FFA content of the oil was reduced by acid-catalyzed esterification. The product from this stage was subjected to transesterification to produce biodiesel. Transesterification process produces methyl ester and glycerol. The produced methyl ester on the upper layer was separated from the glycerol and then washed. Effect of various process variables such as amount of catalyst and temperature were investigated. The biodiesel properties like methyl ester content, density, viscosity, and flash point was evaluated and was found to compare well with Indonesian Standard (SNI). Under the best condition, the maximum yield of 82.43% beef tallow methyl ester was obtained by using 9:1 molar ratio of methanol to beef tallow oil at 55oC, for a reaction time 1.5 hours in the presence 3 wt% of CaO catalyst. The results of this work showed that the use of beef tallow is very suitable as low cost feedstock for biodiesel production