BAWRT2004 Digital Writing Genres

Empathy games. A genre I honestly didn't know existed until now. What is it? Well it's your standard game where you are the controller and have agency, however, rather than playing to win or complete something, you play to evoke emotions and make choices drawing from your own experiences when faced with a difficult circumstance. These types of games attempt to put the player in the characters shoes in order to make these decisions. To put it simply, use empathy while playing when making your decisions and play using your own emotions, feelings and experiences. Now I decided to take some time to play Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey and Isaac Schankler's Depression Quest   "an interactive (non) fiction about living with depression" and it is exactly as described. (Screenshot taken from  http://www.depressionquest.com/dqfinal.html# ) This game took me on a journey. In the beginning I couldn't find myself interested or connected at all as I made my way throug...

I f you close your eyes and just listen to the world around you in this very moment, what would you hear? When I say listen I mean really listen.  ( Photo by  maxime caron  on  Unsplash ) Me? If I were listening superficially, I'd tell you I hear nothing, as I sit in my room by myself writing this post. But if I really listen, I can hear the light hum of my laptop, so light it almost doesn't exist and the clacking of the keys on my keyboard. I hear my sister in the living room who occasionally plays her game or watches a video too loud. I can even hear my neighbours and their light chatter as they do most night. If I listen even more than that, I can very faintly hear the sound of some cars driving on the wet roads, and the light rustle of the trees. All of this from simply listening. And this isn't even a big night, if I were writing this on a Friday or Saturday night out of isolation, I can almost guarantee my neighbours would be playing their music stupidl...

Honestly, when I first heard the word 'Automediality' nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, came to my mind. I had genuinely never heard of it. It also sounded really complicated but I'm glad to report it really isn't. We've all had something or other to do with automediality. If you use any form of social media then you definitely have. Nowadays we put our whole lives online. Got a new job? Better update facebook. New outfit? Definitely an instagram post. Annoyed at someone or something? Twitter would love to know all about it. We post, blog or tweet anything and sometimes everything. Automediality demonstrates the process, rather than a completed product. You could compare it to an autobiography, which is a complete work of someones life, at least the aspects of their life that they want and are willing to share. Whereas, automediality is the process of interacting, living, adapting and presenting in the digital space, which remains ongoing (Rak, 2015).  Soc...