About
Jeff Watson is an artist, designer, and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
-
Tag Archives: games
Biology of Story Interview: “Living is a Story Thing”
Thanks to Amnon Buchbinder and the Biology of Story team for conducting and smartly editing this interview with me. Check out Amnon’s description of the project and start exploring other thinkers on the topic of story here.
Posted in Blog, Interviews
Tagged amnon buchbinder, biology of story, games, hockey, narrative, play, sports, story
1 Comment
What Hockey Wants: Drama, Narrative, and Sports
My paper, “What Hockey Wants: Drama, Narrative, and Sports,” was published this month (just in time for the Stanley Cup playoffs) in Well Played Journal from ETC Press. The paper draws on game studies, literary theory, psychology, and other disciplines … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged drama, encoded narrative, games, hockey, ludonarrativity, narrative, sports, well played, writing
Comments Off on What Hockey Wants: Drama, Narrative, and Sports
Syllabus: Documentary and Activist Games (CTIN-499)
Filmmaker John Grierson famously described documentary cinema as “the creative treatment of actuality.” Documentary films can illuminate unseen processes, broaden our awareness of the past and present, and challenge us to make a better future. How might games achieve similar … Continue reading
Posted in Blog
Tagged activism, courses, ctin-499, documentary, game design, games, imgd, serious games, usc
2 Comments
Artistic expression is not mere externalization of energies
“Artistic expression is not mere externalization of energies, but the existential reconstruction of a situation.” – Phillip D. Deen, Interactivity, Inhabitation, and Pragmatist Aesthetics
Posted in Quotes
Tagged games, john dewey, phillip been, situation
Comments Off on Artistic expression is not mere externalization of energies
Beyond the time and place of interaction
“Many crucial facts lie beyond the time and place of interaction or lie concealed within it.” – Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Posted in Quotes
Tagged erving goffman, games, interaction, magic circle, psychology
Comments Off on Beyond the time and place of interaction
Homily for a Game Jam
The following remarks were delivered at the USC MEGA Game Jam on September 12, 2014. I’m going to keep my remarks short tonight so that you can get on to doing what you came here to do. This is a … Continue reading
Syllabus: Survey of Interactive Media (CTCS-505)
The tangled relationship between theory and practice presents us with something of a chicken-and-egg problem. On the one hand, we could say that all action emerges out of theory: we observe the world, generate various hypotheses about how things might … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Courses
Tagged ctcs-505, game studies, games, graduate, imgd, interactive, praxis, sca, theory, theory-practice, usc
1 Comment
Syllabus: Introduction to Interactive Entertainment (CTIN-190)
The rapid rise in the power and accessibility of digital technology has made possible myriad new forms of entertainment, artistic expression, and socio-political engagement. Among these new forms, videogames and other kinds of interactive entertainment offer artists and designers unprecedented … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Courses
Tagged ctin-190, entertainment, game studies, games, imgd, interactive, sca, undergraduate, usc
Comments Off on Syllabus: Introduction to Interactive Entertainment (CTIN-190)
Kalmykia’s Alien Chessmaster’s Chess City
Games don’t need to be linked to an existing IP or storyworld to generate enthusiasm, excitement, and narrative. Indeed, they don’t need to start off with any kind of storyworld at all for players to engage with them, obsess about … Continue reading
DiGRA Talk: Drama, Narrative, and Sports
What Hockey Wants: Drama, Narrative, and Sports (DiGRA 2014 Talk) from Jeff Watson This talk presents an examination of hockey as it exists in early 21st century North America, paying particular attention to how narrative both emerges from, and is … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Presentations
Tagged content generation, digra, drama, emergence, games, hockey, narrative, process intensity, sports
2 Comments