Andy and others, you can access Gee’s text at
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/Gee,%203%20identities%20in%20videogaming,%20200
3.pdf
Eugene
_____
From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 7:26 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: RE: Mead, Honneth and role-taking play
Could you send that pdf again Eugene. I got an error when I tried to open
it.
Andy
Dear Andy and everybody–
I have started describing Gee’s 3 identities in videogaming (“person”,
“player”, and “character”) but then I decided to scan Gee’s small section
describing his notions. Sorry for this laziness (and poor quality of my home
scanner) but I think Gee in his own voice explains better than I.
Please share your ideas and observations while reading this fragment of
Gee’s book. In my view, his observations are helpful but a bit too
individualistic… but let’s talk after you read his piece.
Eugene
_____
From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 7:53 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: RE: Mead, Honneth and role-taking play
Thank you Eugene!
You know it's so easy to learn from an old Marxist (Elkonin) that some
concept (role-play) is an historical product, and then in the very next
minute forget to reflect on the work that history has done since, in
producing one's own times!!
Just one question about Gee's idea: What is meant by the "emerging
three-fold identities in a player during video games"? I am totally
intrigued and cannot guess!
Andy
At 12:22 PM 24/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
Dear Andy and everybody
Andy, let me add my 0.2 cents to your discussion. It is a bit arrogant for
me to contribute since role-taking play is not my area, so sorry if my naïve
comments offend somebody who specializes in this area&
I think that in time of Vygotsky, Elkonin (senior), Mead, and Honneth,
role-taking plays were predominately childrens activities in Western
cultures and thus were seen as developmental(see Elkonins notion of leading
activitiesassociated with ontogenesis). The closest adult activity to
role-taking plays that was legitimate and recognizable by the (high?)
society was literature writing (theater performance, unless fully
improvisational, was too scripted) which has never involved mass
participation of general adult public. Currently, with explosion of computer
and video games, the situation is rapidly changing. Role-taking plays become
legitimate (widespread) adult activities in Western societies (I do not know
history enough to claim that in past role-taking games had been also
legitimate adult activities recognized by the society but I suspect that
role-taking plays were always with adults in some forms of fantasies that
were not recognized by the society).
I think that the recent book by Jim Gee
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and
literacy (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
is the first sign that this change is recognized by the academia. I found
that Jims analysis of emerging three-fold identities in a player during
video games is somewhat similar to Bakhtins analysis of relationship between
author and his/her character (in Bakhtins earlier writing see his book Art
and answerability). I think that non-developmental perspectives can provide
us with more insights about the nature of role-taking plays.
What do you think?
Eugene
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