History

During the 2007-2008 academic year, the Video Game Workgroup in the CWRL continued work on Rhetorical Peaks, a game intended for use in introductory rhetoric and writing classrooms. In January 2007, the Video Game group wrote a CWRL Whitepaper documenting progress on the game. The 2006-2007 workgroup completed a prototype of the game as a module for Neverwinter Nights and suggested that the CWRL pursue grant opportunities to build a new, independent version of the game. This past year, the workgroup applied for and received a ~FAST Tex grant, establishing a partnership between the CWRL and the DIIA in which the CWRL provides the content for the game and the DIIA provides the technical support to create it. During the summer of 2008, this partnership began in earnest as the DIIA started development on four versions of the game scheduled for testing in the fall of 2008.

Objectives

Given the current status of this partnership and Rhetorical Peaks generally, the 2008-2009 Video Game Project will begin as a work in progress. The game will need to be tested in classrooms in the fall, and the most effective and practical version of the game will need to be developed as much as possible in the spring. The project’s goals are to:

• provide support to the DIIA as they continue to develop four different versions of the game in the fall semester
• ensure that all four versions of the game are successfully tested in rhetoric classrooms in the fall semester
• choose, in conjunction with the DIIA, the version of the game that will be developed to completion
• provide the DIIA with all content necessary to develop the game to completion
• evaluate whether further grants will be necessary to develop the game and, if so, to submit the necessary applications

Goals not specific to Rhetorical Peaks include developing the video game bibliography and considering other possible pedagogical applications of gaming and digital environments.

Deliverables:

• write-ups of possible assignments and classroom activities related to the game
• a page on the CWRL website that provides information about the game, possible assignments related to the game, credits for the production of the game, etc.
• further content for the game, likely taking the form of new characters, dialog, and/or visual rhetoric components
• if necessary, a new ~FAST Tex grant application for further development of the game
• content for the video game
• annotated bibliography
• a white paper outlining the outcome of the game’s development and testing throughout the year and the possibilities for further development with reference to secondary sources that should inform our understanding of the game into the future