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Ludic Literacies: Mapping the Links Between the Literacies at Play in the DALN
by Jamie Bono & Ben McCorkle
Abstract | “Ludic Literacies” explores the interrelations of gaming literacy and more traditional literacy practices by showcasing narratives within the DALN that deal with both digital gaming (computer, console, or Web-based games) as well as traditional, analog forms of play (tabletop role-playing games, board games, sport). Our purpose in this exhibit is not to examine the issue of gaming literacy in isolation, but rather to tease out productive connections between how self-identified gamers’ “ludic literacy” informs or connects to central questions of literacy scholarship: issues of literacy sponsorship, access, community formation, identity construction, and so on. We take as a starting point well-established scholarship in game and literacy studies such as the work of James Paul Gee (2007) and Ian Bogost (2007), who theorize the roles of procedural, kinesthetic, spatial, sociocultural, and multimodal literacies that players routinely call upon during the course of game play.
This exhibit begins to make visible the multiple literacies required to traverse the complex terrain subtending games and raises critical questions about the relationship between ludic literacy practices and "traditional" semiotic domains such as print. The design choices we made while composing this exhibit are not merely an homage to the common aesthetic tropes of gaming, but also an effort to demonstrate the multiple genres through which ludic experiences are composed. In order to highlight the close interrelation between print and ludic literacies that already exists, we’ve chosen to design the accessible transcript of our exhibit in the style of a common paratextual genre among gamers—the walkthrough, which in this case also includes a bibliography for the exhibit.
About the Curators | Ben McCorkle is an associate professor of English at Ohio State University at Marion, where he teaches courses on composition, the history and theory of rhetoric, and digital media production. His interests include web culture, the history of computing, and video games. He is the author of Rhetorical Delivery as Technological Discourse: A Cross-Historical Study (published by Southern Illinois University Press), as well as essays in various journals and edited collections, including Computers and Composition Online, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Composition Studies.
J. James Bono is an assistant professor of English and the Writing in the Disciplines coordinator at Daemen College. He has published essays on digital media, such as video games, and writing pedagogy in journals including Computers and Composition Online and the edited collection, The New Work of Composing. His current work examines technical communication’s role in the coordination of large, complex infrastructural systems, particularly in emergency management and public health settings.
Technical Requirements | This exhibit was built using the Prezi presentation-authoring environment. As such, it is compatible with many modern hardware configurations and all standard operating systems. For online viewing, the Prezi site recommends “using the most standards compliant browsers available (Firefox 3.6+, Chrome 4+, Safari 4+, Opera 10+).”
If you are experiencing this text as an offline download, you can download and install the Prezi desktop application by visiting the following URL: http://prezi.com/desktop/. In order to play Prezis using the desktop application, your system should be capable of running the most recent version of Adobe AIR: http://www.adobe.com/products/air/systemreqs/.
The supplemental “Walkthrough” text, which provides an accessible, machine-readable version of the “Ludic Literacies” chapter, is an Adobe PDF file. The Adobe Reader is available as a free download from Adobe (link and system requirements are available at http://get.adobe.com/reader/).
Cite this Exhibit
MLA: Bono, Jamie, and Ben McCorkle. “Ludic Literacies: Mapping the Links Between the Literacies at Play in the DALN.” Stories That Speak to Us: Exhibits from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Ed. H. Lewis Ulman, Scott Lloyd DeWitt, & Cynthia L. Selfe. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press, 2013. Web.
APA: Bono, J., & McCorkle, B. (2013). Ludic Literacies: Mapping the Links Between the Literacies at Play in the DALN. In H. L. Ulman, S. L. DeWitt, & C. L. Selfe (Eds.), Stories that Speak to Us: Exhibits from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press.