Games and Interactive Fiction

English 391: Studies in a Genre
Spring 2023 at the University of Victoria
lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territories
Taught by Jentery Sayers (he / him)

Take-Home Exam 1

This is your first of two exams in English 391, and it covers material and meetings from Wednesday, January 11th through Tuesday, January 31st.

The exam is open-book, meaning you are allowed to use your notes, assigned readings, the library, and the internet to respond to the questions.

You are not expected to refer to anything other than English 391 lectures (including your notes), the “Video Game Documentation” media collection (in Brightspace), and “Genre in Literary Traditions” and “Rhetorical Genre Studies” by Anis S. Bawarshi and Mary Jo Reiff.

Download the Exam

Please download the exam (DOCX format) to complete it in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or Pages for Mac. You are also welcome to copy the questions and paste them into a word processor to answer them. I do not recommend this approach because it’s riskier than simply downloading the exam. If you nevertheless decide to copy and paste the questions, then please ensure you include the Academic Integrity statement and a list of works cited / references (see below) in your response to the exam.

If you need the exam in a format other than DOCX, then please let me know ASAP, and I’ll make it happen ASAP.

Note that the downloadable copy of the exam does not contain all the information on this page, which you should read before responding to the exam.

Aims

This exam has two aims for the purposes of this course, namely for you to:

Cover foundations in genre studies before you proceed with your own project (a “player story”) on the topic of genre, games, and interactive fiction.
Demonstrate your knowledge of how genre is an action in games.

Format

This open-book exam is ten short-answer questions divided into two sections, which have distinct assessment criteria.

Academic Integrity

By responding to this exam, you confirm that:

You followed UVic academic regulations and observed standards of scholarly integrity (e.g., no plagiarism or cheating).
You completed this exam individually and not with a friend, classmate, or group.
You did not share your answers with anyone else, including your peers in this course, at any time.
You did not give or receive any aid on this exam. (The use of a spell and/or grammar checker on your computer is permitted.)
Each response to every exam question is your own, excluding quoted and paraphrased material that is clearly cited.
You cited any sources, including assigned reading and internet sources, that you used to answer the exam questions.

Section 1

Each of the following questions is worth 5 points for a total of 25 points in this section. Your responses should demonstrate your understanding of pertinent course material, including lectures, assigned reading, and discussions. (See “Assessment” below for details.)

Point form and incomplete sentences are preferred. Please do not use more than 100 words per response. (I will use a word counting tool during assessment.) Do not include audio, images, or video in your answers.

What are two limitations of the “neoclassical” approach to genre?
What are two limitations of the “structuralist” approach to genre?
What are two limitations of the “romantic” approach to genre?
What are two limitations of the “reader response” approach to genre?
If genre is an action, then what are two things it does in games?

Section 2

Each of the following questions is worth 15 points for a total of 75 points in this section. Your responses should demonstrate your understanding and application of pertinent course material, including lectures, assigned reading, and discussions. (See “Assessment” below for details.)

Complete sentences are preferred. Please do not use more than 200 words per response. (I will use a word counting tool during assessment.) Do not include audio, images, or video in your answers.

Please also refrain from interpreting the same game in more than one response. See the “Video Game Documentation” media collection for video files you may interpret. For the sake of brevity in the following questions, I refer to this collection as “the media collection.” You may also want to consult this spreadsheet of games we are studying in English 391.

Define "uptake" in genre studies and explain it using an example from a game documented in the media collection.
Define "genre set" in genre studies and explain it using an example from a game documented in the media collection.
Define "mechanic" in game studies and explain how it shapes genre expectations in a game documented in the media collection.
Identify a story element in genre studies and use an example to explain how it shapes genre expectations in a game documented in the media collection.
Use an example from a game documented in the media collection to explain the co-existence of convention and creativity in genre studies.

Assessment

I will use the following rubric, based on UVic’s official grading system, to assess each of your responses in Section 1 (worth a total of 25 points), where “course material” includes lectures, assigned readings, discussions, and files in the “Video Game Documentation” media collection:

5 points: the response is clear and corresponds with the course material (meets or exceeds expectations)
4 points: the response is clear and mostly corresponds with the course material (mostly meets expectations)
3 points: the response is clear and roughly half of it corresponds with the course material (meets some expectations)
2 points: less than half of the response corresponds with the course material (meets few expectations)
1 point: the response doesn’t correspond with the course material but an effort was made to answer the question
0 points: no answer

1 point will be deducted for every 25 words used over the 100-word limit.

I will use the following rubric to assess each of your responses in Section 2 (worth a total of 75 points), where “course material” includes lectures, assigned readings, discussions, and files in the “Video Game Documentation” media collection:

12-15 points: the response is compelling, and it enriches the course material (exceeds expectations); the use of an example is clear and convincing
9-11 points: the response is compelling and corresponds with the course material (meets expectations); the use of an example is clear
5-8 points: the response mostly corresponds with the course material (meets some expectations); the use of an example warrants clarification
1-4 points: the response does not correspond with the course material and/or there’s no example
0 points: no response

1 point will be deducted for every 25 words used over the 200-word limit.

10 points will be deducted if no works cited / references page is included at the end of the exam (see details below).

The total of these points (0-100) will constitute 22.5% of your final mark in this course.

What to Submit

To respond to Take-Home Exam 1, please submit a DOCX, ODT, PAGES, or PDF file containing your answers. If you quote or paraphrase any sources, then include parenthetical citations and a works cited or references page. You are welcome to use your preferred citation style (MLA, Chicago, or APA, e.g.).

Please do not forget to cite games from which you draw examples. Here’s a sample MLA reference entry for a game we’ve studied in class:

Han-Tani, Melos and Marina Kittaka. Even the Ocean. Analgesic Productions, 2016.

Columns A, B, C, and D in this spreadsheet provide you with all the information you need to reference games in the media collection.

Finally, you are welcome to use this MLA reference entry for Bawarshi and Reiff’s work when quoting or paraphrasing it in your exam:

Bawarshi, Anis S. and Mary Jo Reiff. Genre: An Introduction to History Theory Research and Pedagogy. Parlor Press, 2010.

When to Submit It

Please submit your response to Take-Home Exam 1 via Brightspace by Friday, February 3rd at 11:30am.

I will deduct five points per working day (excluding holidays and weekends) for every submission I receive after Friday, February 3rd at 11:30am. I will close the Brightspace submission portal for this exam at 11:30am on Friday, February 10th.