I must beat it!
For my final project, I will be creating a youtube or twitch style walkthrough/let's play of our course, as if it were a video game. I have been capturing screen-recordings of myself doing assignments, posts, readings, and class notes periodically since the creation of CTRL_ALT_SYL and I plan to compile and edit them down, and then narrate over it, possibly with video of myself included.
How can we reach 100% completion? My walkthrough will provide tips and tricks for navigating through the various levels (weeks) of the quarter, the bosses (midterms and finals), the side quests (readings, assignments), the real time strategy (class notes and experiments), and even the mini games (me goofing off on my computer when I should be doing work for class).
I think that the crux of this project challenges the university system by making it into a genre which it does not define itself as: this is a glass, not a game, and yet, through my construction, the evidence would suggest that it is, in fact, a game. I love the institution of education, but it could use some critiquing. Why do we submit ourselves to the level of rigor that we do? Why must our quarters be so strictly rounded into ten weeks? Can it be taken seriously if it can also be taken as a game? What does acing a class mean in the real world? What about getting a degree? Can we ever say we have 100%’d college, when we must necessarily pass up so many opportunities due to time constraints?
Lastly, my project will consider the ways in which socialization has become digitized. From class setups that are intrinsically gamey (chat rooms, google docs, instagram experiments), to the youtube forum of mass critique and commentary, whose voice has credence? How has credential evolved with digital platforms? Do I have authority over this class just because I made a walkthrough of it? And what types of social connections are possible in the internet and outernet, the URL and the IRL?
Probably none of these questions will be answered, but they will hopefully be asked in a delightfully infuriating way.
