The second iteration of the games journalism workshop I am teaching at the Institute of Media Studies at Philipps University Marburg is completed. As before, I would like to present some selected projects that the participants have worked on in the past term.

Video essays on accessibility

The accessibility of digital games is repeatedly at the centre of discourse—not least because of such polarising questions such as whether particularly challenging games should be categorically provided with a so-called ‚easy mode‘ or to what extent inclusion can be actively facilitated for people with disabilities. In a total of three video essays, the group of six, consisting of Kilian Anschicks, Tim Friedrich, Tobias Krug, Thomas Rennich, Muriel Sanchez, and Julia Winter, addresses a complex topic from different angles.

The Sims: A Venture into Determinism

Fascinated by the combination of abstract philosophical concepts and their applicability to seemingly inconspicuous objects, Kaya Mogge initiated a blog project. After a short introduction to the concept of determinism and to basic principles of formal logic, Kaya Mogge let her Sim live (and die) once without any intervention, only to guide her creation every step along a second chance. The result is a self-contained blog in the form of an intriguing picture story, to be found at https://thatsimsproject.blogspot.com.

Welcome to Pokémon

Bringing the experience of two amateurs and two experts regarding the minute details of Pokémon together, Julia Carp, Lea Heiser, Alina Schwendemann, and Pia Warden set out to document their experiences playing four different Pokémon games on Instagram (@welcometopokemon). The ’stories‘ entail fragmented impressions of a beginner’s struggle just as much as an elaborate review of the contemporary rendition Pokémon Sword/Shield.
To conclude their experiment, the group recorded a genuinly entertaining podcast published on Spotify and anchor.fm.

eSports video report

As of yet, the debate on whether eSports is to be acknowledged as an Olympian discipline remains inconclusive. Tracing the fundamentals of eSports, the group comprised of Malte Barkowski, Lennart Briel, Lisa Bußmann, and Lilli Mai set out to visit a local eSports team, document their training session and interview the players. The resulting video report addresses important questions such as how semi-professional eSports are integrated into daily life and how friends and families of the players react to their passion.

Credits:

Your Name by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
Video material from www.youtube.com/lolesports

Video Review: Darkwood

Reviewing a game can be an elaborate endeavour within itself. To do so in the form of a fledged out video entails recording gameplay, selecting representative yet spoiler free material, writing a script, and recording a voice over. Valentin Füller and Maximilian Heine did just that and—upon their second attempt—found a balance between the sombre tone of Darkwood and an enticing simplicity of conveying the fascination for a game.

These are but brief impression of the results selected groups were able to produce at the end of the workshop. I wish to thank all participants for their engagement, curiosity, and creativity. Some extensive sessions had to be endured yet seeing the progress each and every group made throughout the term is surely worth it.