View source for Video Games Group

Our objective was to explore the connections between <i>The Waste Land</i> by T.S. Eliot and modern video games. We hope to shed some light on how works from past eras, such as Eliot's poem, continue to live on in literary tradition through inclusion and overlap with more modern forms of media.

Video games are difficult to comb for references. As such, we either relied on our personal experiences or online game wikis and articles for our investigation into games connected to <i>The Waste Land.</i> The search proved surprisingly prolific, as we found two games that directly and consciously alluded to <i>The Waste Land</i>, as well several others which shared its most prominent themes. After identifying these games, we compiled information about them into a table which can be found on the [[Video games]] group page. It stores a game's title in the first column, the publisher/creator developer (intended only as an aid for those trying to track down the game for further research) in the second column, and notes on the relevance of the game to this project in the third column. Thumbnails in the third column link to larger images which clarify the tone, atmosphere, and content of the game for scholars unfamiliar with that source.

Even though it was difficult to find direct references to the poem, due to the lack of searchable materials that include in-game text/dialogue, we broadened our table to include works that shared thematic elements, techniques, or were comparable to the poem in a literary context. By opening up our parameters, it became immediately apparent how universal and timeless Eliot's ideas were. Eliot's use of postmodernist techniques, specifically fragmentation and inter-textual allusions are still widely used today, especially in the inherently postmodern medium that is interactive digital media. 

Searching for materials related to ideas presented in the poem was also easier because of the density and variety of Eliot's masterpiece. The sheer amount of concepts, themes and references that Eliot can pack into a single verse gave us a lot of room to interpret and compare other works.

HASHTAG: DIGITAL_HUMANITIES_WORLD_PROBLEMS & how different from other humanities work
One of the digital-specific difficulties we encountered was the matter of formatting our information and presenting it in an accessible way. However, the wiki medium was as much of an aid as it was an obstacle, because it naturally facilitates linkages to other works and sources. Digital humanities is actually ideal for dealing with works which are in some way digital, such as video games. We were able to easily include images from the games; the screenshots we took were at our fingertips when we used the same machine to obtain and upload them to the wiki.

Things for writeup from email:
Describe your topic and the process by which you approached it.
What did you learn about The Waste Land and digital humanities during this project?
Describe any challenges or problems you faced, and how you overcame them (or not)
In what ways is this kind of work similar to and different from the "normal" work you do in humanities classes?

--HEY GUYS WE SHOULD DO THIS. -Kelsey

+ added the WHAT DID WE LEARN section, will continue adding the other sections as well. -Michael