Individual Blog Post: Response to Essay Exhibits

For our final in-class assignment, we presented our essay exhibits to our classmates. The purpose of these presentations was to share an outline and general overview of the topics we were researching for our papers. Over the course of the week, I saw many interesting topics that showed my classmates grasp of Digital Humanities. The topics ranged from video games, to social media. Many of the topics looked at their topics impact on society, a different way to interpret their topics meaning, or an in-depth look as to what they perceive their topic to actually mean. Many of the students used past readings and concepts from class to show all this. 

One such exhibit that was present was the impact of gaming and its incorporation with social media. The student looked into the gaming industry and saw how big of a market it was. He looked at some of the key individuals in the gaming community to show the impact and incorporation of social media. He further told me he would look at the streaming website "Twitch," to pull key individuals from. He would look at how many viewers the streamer would have to show the strong impact that social media forms within games. 

Another interesting topic about games I saw was one in regard to video games as entertainment media, but more specifically as art. The author went into detail with this subject by looking at games with rich narratives that immersed the player into its vast world. He looked at games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  which is known to have one of the most creative environments in games today. He also told me that these games give real world incorporation of stressful life events. In one of his slides he said, "narrative elements force the player to examine social elements such as alcoholism, domestic, abuse, infidelity, and PTSD." This sparked my curiosity, as I have never though of games to have such a deep, and much meaning which we tend to overlook. 

In all, the presentations I witnessed in class were interesting to say the least. Their presentations showed their understanding of the study of Digital Humanities and how they could apply it to a topic of their choice. I am excited to read some of these essays, and see how they analyze their topics to show the impact or incorporation of the digital era we live in. 

-Robert Hager