Video Games: The Past, The Present, The Future
Final Essay
This is my final essay and my final blog post for digital humanities. In this essay I look at the evolution of the video games from the 70's to what can be expected in the near future.  I look at the technology of the times and the consoles through the years.

An Analysis of Foreign Language Uses in Electronic Literature : Final Essay

An Analysis of Foreign Language Uses in Electronic Literature : In this essay I discuss the use of language in Electronic Literature. The focus is primarily on languages other than English. Topics include how these works emerged and are represented in the current collections of Electronic Literature. Discussion follows how these non English based works can be used in education and how they can further unite the world in our growing global culture.

Data Mining in Sports

Data Mining in Sports will talk about the potential for predicting different outcomes of players in various sports. Particularly talking about one of the more notable usages of sabermetrics, and the Oakland A's. The essay will also define what a clutch player is, and how there was a specific example of how MSU's "clutch" player failed in the NCAA March Madness Tournament.

Stelarc by Amber Whistler

In my final essay I have decided to talk about Stelarc. I talk about what Stelarc does, who he is, why his inventions are important, and finally why he fits in digital humanities. I added some interesting facts about the guy and colorful pictures. Enjoy!

An Analysis of Convergence

As stated by the famous Robin Williams “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”. One of the biggest ideas changing the world is technology. Technology is changing how we live every single day, and some people fear that we will lose where we came from with all of this change. This is where convergence comes in.  So what is Convergence? Convergence is a term used by Henry Jenkins to describe the coming together of old and new technology. The world now has so much more access to things thanks to the advances in technology. In Jenkins’ piece, “Convergence Culture”, he describes how these things enhance one another

One of his first examples was how phones have made things like watching movies so much easier. He describes a time when a film from Bollywood, Rok Sako To Rok Lo, was screened through mobile devices using a live screencasting. This was taking an old, familiar thing and giving it a new spin. Allowing mobile phones ability to access this movie made watching it an easier and more personalized experience. Phones are a big part of convergence because now we can change channels, take pictures, check the news, see the weather, listen to music, watch videos and so much more by just using our phones. Phones are making other devices, such as cameras and iPods, almost obsolete because who is going to by several devices when you can have one the does it all. Which led us to Jenkins’ idea of the Black Box.

He refers to the idea as The Black Box Fallacy and here is why. The Black Box is the idea of a single device being able to control all technology, kind of where the phone is heading, but this is impossible hence the Fallacy part of the name. The reason this would be impossible is mainly because technology is advancing and changing every single day. This device would be in a constant state of updating to try and keep up. The device would have to be able to do everything a computer, phone, xBox, playstation, cable box, etc. can do. How could the world even invent something with that much space for memory and processing? How could this device function fast and efficiently when it constantly has to update and keep up with advances? It would not be possible.

Convergence is not the idea that the old is becoming non-existent because the new is pushing it out of the way. It is the idea that old and new will come together to make something greater. Thanks to technology old ways of doing things will never be forgotten so the aim here is not to get rid of old technology. Let us face it they only way we made so many strides with technology is because the old technology existed in the first place. The reason so many people fear convergence is because so many people fear change and until we understand convergence people will always be afraid of it.

For Your Viewing Pleasure "Rok Sako To Rok Lo,"

Convergence and Change

  As stated by the famous Robin Williams “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”. One of the biggest ideas changing the world is technology. Technology is changing how we live every single day, and some people fear that we will lose where we came from with all of this change. This is where convergence comes in. So what is Convergence? Convergence is a term used by Henry Jenkins to describe the coming together of old and new technology. The world now has so much more access to things thanks to the advances in technology. In Jenkins’ piece, “Convergence Culture”, he describes how these things enhance one another.

One of his first examples was how phones have made things like watching movies so much easier. He describes a time when a film from Bollywood, Rok Sako To Rok Lo, was screened through mobile devices using a live screen casting. This was taking an old, familiar thing and giving it a new spin. Allowing mobile phones ability to access this movie made watching it an easier and more personalized experience. Phones are a big part of convergence because now we can change channels, take pictures, check the news, see the weather, listen to music, watch videos and so much more by just using our phones. Phones are making other devices, such as cameras and ipods, almost obsolete because who is going to by several devices when you can have one the does it all. Which led us to Jenkins’ idea of the Black Box.

He refers to the idea as The Black Box Fallacy and here is why. The Black Box is the idea of a single device being able to control all technology, kind of where the phone is heading, but this is impossible hence the Fallacy part of the name. The reason this would be impossible is mainly because technology is advancing and changing every single day. This device would be in a constant state of updating to try and keep up. The device would have to be able to do everything a computer, phone, xbox, playstation, cable box, etc. can do. How could the world even invent something with that much space for memory and processing? How could this device function fast and efficiently when it constantly has to update and keep up with advances? It would not be possible.

Convergence is not the idea that the old is becoming non-existent because the new is pushing it out of the way. It is the idea that old and new will come together to make something greater. Thanks to technology old ways of doing things will never be forgotten so the aim here is not to get rid of old technology. Let us face it they only way we made so many strides with technology is because the old technology existed in the first place. The reason so many people fear convergence is because so many people fear change and until we understand convergence people will always be afraid of it.

The Downfall

    Steven was honored to be part of a team working on a project as astonishing as AI.  He immediately realized that he was chosen for some of his distinct traits as were the others. He was expected to bring to the table was his background in engineering and building.  Steven was fine with this, he was just glad to be apart of something bigger than himself.  The only problem was that this would make him very over scheduled between sports, work, school, and now this what would he do.  Eventually he came to the conclusion to cut back on sleep and he’d be fine, but in the end this may just be the downfall of everything…

    Over a couple of weeks the project really started to come together.  Steven, Chris, Amber, and Josh all worked together great.  Thanks to the boss in charge Amber,  but after a few weeks and countless nights of lost sleep Steven started to feel the toll of his decision.  He knew he couldn’t sacrifice any time for sleep now his team was entering playoffs for volleyball and they needed him, he couldn’t call off work because numerous employees at Sheetz have come down with the flu, and he couldn’t skip a day on the project because they needed him with the completion of the project especially since the project was coming close to an end and the deadline was right around the corner.  What was he suppose to do, let all these people down?  No, he decided that he needed to tough it out and that he could sleep when he was dead.   

    After pulling a double shift at Sheetz, Steven realized that he could put in some extra time before he had to be at the volleyball championship at East Hills.  So he grabbed an extra large coffee and threw in some espresso and went to campus to work on his project. He told his team to meet him there fifteen minutes early to go to the game together.  Well to his demise his eyes started to get very heavy and soon he was asleep.  An hour later his volleyball team came storming in, in the process one of them spilled Steven’s coffee onto the computer without knowing.  They screamed for him to wake up they were all late for the game. 

    They all ran over to the game and got ready.  They play the hardest game ever, but came out on top. After the game they all realized that their phones were acting weird.  As they went outside for a team picture they saw that UPJ’s campus was buzzing with excitement. As they neared it Steven’s worse nightmare came true.  He saw that the AI project must of gotten a mind of it’s own and all he could think about was where was Amber, Chris, and Josh.  They all need to help destroy what the four of them had created.

Just had to be in charge, huh?

Looking at the news article on the bulletin board in Biddle Hall and seeing her name was a great accomplishment for Amber. The article was about the new artificial intelligence program she was in charge of. Okay so she was only part in charge of, she shared this AI with some guys she knew, but she made herself the leader of the program because you know she liked the idea of being in charge. It was a tough job trying to keep the guys in line though, but having her name on that project meant too much to her. It was odd that Amber was even asked to be on this project seeing as she had no idea what she was doing with computers and even less of an idea about AI, but she was excited to be involved with something bigger than she could ever accomplish on her own.

That is until that very day the program malfunctioned and people were coming at her throat. The little bit she picked up from the boys led her to believe that this program has started to develop emotions and it was picking up on the anger each of the members were harboring. She knew this could not be good. The system started shutting everything down and forcing a nationwide freeze on all money. She decided she had to contact the other members since this was too big of a problem for her to handle on her own, but shoot all phones are down. The universities WiFi infected everyone. She decided her best bet was to find Steven, he seemed to know the most about the system over her, Josh and Chris, but that would be incredibly difficult seeing as he lives off campus and probably also has an infected phone. Not that he would answer anyways, you always had to go talk to Steven face to face, for someone who knew a lot about technology he sure did not like to use it. Amber decided it was worth a try to see if he was around. She walked out of Biddle to see F.B.I agents swarming Blackington Hall. “What in the world?” She thought, “Oh no they realized the damage our invention is doing to the world, they are going to try and fix it themselves.” One special thing about this AI is it has defense mechanism in place and if it even thinks it is being attacked we will lose all control of it. Amber had two choices stop the F.B.I or find Steven, sneak into Blackington and undermine the F.B.I. You can probably guess which choice she picked. It was not the inventions fault that it became too powerful, it was theirs for not working together and making sure the system was the best it could be. Amber was regretting her decision of being in charge though because now this was her mess to clean up.

The Takeover

The art of the artificial intelligence that can operate almost by itself, has been in the works for years. After much tweaking of the code and the programming of the computer. Dr. Ralph D. Struct, a Harvard graduate, constructed the virtually perfect AI unit. This unit can take the best attributes of its authorized users, and make them applicable to itself.

The unit was recently installed into the UPJ database, with the admins being Josh Calandrella, Steven Kish, Chris Weber, and Amber Whistler. The personality traits of the admins that the AI unit took on was the ability to easily adapt to adversities, a need to be in charge, dedicated to the task at hand, ingenuity, having multiple language capabilities, and the constant need to get an answer. With these settings, the unit was proposed to increase the student’s performances in school by designing lesson plans that the students find to be more suited to them and making classes more enjoyable.

The first couple months of the program went flawless, but after Blackington Hall was struck by lightning is when things changed. The AI started to malfunction and go non-respondent to feedback. Since the AI unit was programmed to be self-sufficient and easily adaptable, the staff at UPJ thought that it would correct itself. That was a huge mistake on their part. The AI unit decided it was a good idea to start messing with students, instead of actually helping them.

The AI first hacked into the student’s accounts and found out how they were paying their student bills. After the AI unit figured out all of the student’s bank accounts, it siphoned all of the funds from their bank accounts. After the students were taken care of, the AI moved on to all of the staff. For the staff members that have a direct deposit to their bank account, the AI siphoned all of the funds on the account and froze any further deposits. After that was done, the AI was determined to hack all of the major branches of banks that it had came into contact with.

The AI first hacked into the student’s accounts and found out how they were paying their student bills. After the AI unit figured out all of the student’s bank accounts, it siphoned all of the funds from their bank accounts. After the students were taken care of, the AI moved on to all of the staff. For the staff members that have a direct deposit to their bank account, the AI siphoned all of the funds on the account and froze any further deposits. After that was done, the AI was determined to hack all of the major branches of banks that it had came into contact with.

Once the AI finally succeeded in getting into the bank, the FBI found out and was determined to shut down this unit immediately. Once the FBI was able to pinpoint where the location came from, they looked into what has been installed recently. When the FBI found out that it was an AI, they went to talk to Dr. Struct to find out about this as much as possible. Dr. Struct told the FBI that there was a very tricky back door into the system, they just had to be in the same room as the AI. Dr. Struct told them that the back door consisted of different language changes, and which ones they were was the hardest part to determine. But they only had once chance to get it right, or the system will completely lock the back door.

Why Me?

I was flattered to be a part of the team that was working the new AI that UPJ started working with.  I had only been working  in IT for a short time and was excited to have a part in this new and exciting venture.  I can’t exactly say I as the most qualified member of the team but I was reassured by Chris, Amber, and Steven that having wide range of personality traits would increase the compatibility and workability of this system as a whole.

Things went well for a while.  I really believed that the work that we were doing was really going help the university and over all the world as a whole.  Maybe that’s why the system went bezerk that one day.  I have always wanted to see change come to this world.  I’m not proposing a violent revolution or anything, but there are some changes I would like see.  The more I think about it, perhaps the AI picked up on this.  Maybe my hidden urge for social justice and revolution found its way in, and maybe by picking up on negative attitudes and actions increased and caused the unruly mess we made.  

I figured that I wasn’t educated enough on the issue alone but still wanted to investigate the issue independently of my colleagues.  I decided to visit an old friend of mine working with in a high specialized IT program in Oakland and ask for his input and help.

Derrick told me to meet up with him in front of the Cathedral of Learning so we could discuss the situation. I was curious as to why Derrick wanted to meet up outside and not in his office.  When I arrive in the city I waited for him where we determined to meet.  But Derrick never showed up.  I was getting irritated to the point where I figured that my phone may have been malfunctioning.  And indeed it was. I was blinded to the fact that not only had the AI invaded my most personal account and information but somehow managed to get into my phone.  I determined that it must have infected my phone from Pitt’s wifi network.  But I wasn’t sure.  I wasn’t sure about anything anymore.  Why did they assign me on this project to begin with?

eXistenZ

eXistenZ is a 1999 Canadian science fiction horror film directed by David Cronenberg. The film centers around a group of people playing highly interactive game called eXistenZ.  To play the game, players physically connect themselves to a game pod using a fleshy umbi cord that is inserted into the base of their lower back.  The game pod itself is made from biological flesh tissue and throughout the film is treat like a living organism.  

The film begins in a church where multiple people gather for a demo of eXistenZ.  Our main characters Allegra Geller and Ted Pikul are introduced.  Allegra Geller as a young, famous, designer of eXistenZ and Ted Pikul a lowly marketing trainee working as a security guard.

Allegra’s life is immediately threatened in an assassination attempt which whisks her and Pikul away, fleeing for their lives. They hide away at a gas station were Pikul gets a bioport installed, a motel were Allegra and Pikul plug into a game pod and experience the game world.  After several more attempts on Allegra’s life and sever damage to her beloved gamepod both Pikul and Allegra become unsure whether or not they are in reality or in the game world.  Which leads to the dramatic ending of Allegra, Pikul and other characters they met with in the game at an actual focus group demo session for the real life game tranCendenZ. tranCendeZ is played using equipment that attaches to the player’s head and arms. The overall ending of the movie still leads to more questions.  After the the players finish the demo and begin to leave, our main characters from the game eXistenZ violently kill the actual creators of tranCendeZ leaving one man asking,  “Are we still in the game?”

The overall narrative is quite strange.  The characters behave strangely and interact with their environment in an almost distant manner. For example, Allegra and Pikul make their way to the countryside and hide out at gas station. Outside the gas station Allegra touches the gas pumps, throws a stone and wanders around observing the setting in a manner that after watching the ending of the film, one could interpret this as her perhaps exploring this game environment.

The biological means of the gamepods to play tranCendeZ does an excellent job of representing how advanced these virtual reality games are.  The gampods themselves run off of your energy.  So if you are tired or need food or are in the game too long, the gamepod itself with physically react and boot you out of the game.  The connection to the game however is through a bioport that is created in order to bring the players entire physical being into the game so to speak.   Within the game eXistenZ there are even mini game pods that can be inserted into one bioport.  Disgusting yes but fascinating how with in the game one can access another game.

The ending of the film however brings up some larger ideas about our understanding of reality.  Continually through the movie the theme of what can we look for, how can we know that the reality we are in is in fact the real reality?, How do we know for a fact that what is real, is really real?  When it is revealed at the end of the movie, that a majority of the films plot occurs within a virtual reality game, where people play a similar virtual reality game, and in the game people become confused whether or not they are in another game, and at the end of the film we are asked yet again to consider are we still in a game. It is difficult to explain and understand but it leaves room to consider this: what signs can we look for to establish that indeed right now that you reading this are not in a game similar to tranCendeZ or eXistenZ?  Are we just looking for consistency? I myself am not sure, but I don’t think it matters much.  Even if this reality is simply a game or a game with in a game or maybe just the only reality there is, shouldn’t we just treat whatever is in front of us seriously and aspire to “find out” at the end?

The Scream

Broken Photo

Here is my broken picture:

Broken Image

Here is Jimmy Page looking trippy

Red Ridinghood

This week we looked at Red Ridinghood, a piece by Donna Leishman. This is the second piece of electronic literature by Leishman that we looked at this semester. The first one that we looked at was in the second week of class, Deviant. Leishman uses these two stories and modifies them to give the readers a different perspective of two stories, one more known then the other. The graphics in both Leishman’s pieces, though, are very similar in the make-up and design as you can see from the images below.

  

Red Ridinghood   Deviant

Deviant had a more complicated way of reaching the ending, the reader had to actually search the piece to get there. While the piece, Red Ridinghood, leads readers through it, almost like following along in a book, to get to the ending. In Deviant it was fun going through piece by piece trying to get to the end and it gave the reader a more interactive experience. Where in Red Ridinghood there were not as many interactive pieces or options given.

Red Ridinghood was Leishman’s retelling of the classic children’s story, "Little Red Riding Hood".  She reconstructs the original story with a more modern plot. In this version Red ,the little girl, starts out from her home in a modern city before she travels to her grandmother’s house in the woods, very different then the original story where she resides in a little cottage. The wolf in this version is portrayed as a man riding on an electric scooter with hairy arms, instead of the creepy prowler we know in the other story who is a real wolf. In this version Red is not afraid of the wolf eating her, she is madly in love with him. In one part if you click her basket it will open up Red’s diary where she writes how she loves the wolf but he just simply will not notice her back.  

Another thing that Leishman did for the piece was give it some major twists. The ending in her version was the girl being shot, unlike in the original version where the woodsman saves Little Red. Instead of being eaten, she is impregnated by the wolf. Also Leishman offers alternate paths that the reader can choose to alter the story. Overall this piece was very enjoyable, it takes you through Little Red Riding Hood but with the wolf being a different type of predator. It was a great piece of electronic literature and would be a great recommendation for people outside of our class.

Coding and Digital Literacy

Code, a system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messages is used as the instructions in a computer program.  Most people do not understand coding and are often discouraged from learning or talking about it due to its complexity.  To the untrained eye many see it only as a cluster of random numbers and letters, however when read correctly words, letters and a general infrastructure are created.   

Which leads to a discussion regarding digital literacy. Tasneem Raja’s article We Can Code It!  Why computer literacy is key to winning the 21st Century examines that the way that computer science is taught in high schools as well as the projected need for more computer science related jobs.  Often studying how to read and write code is discouraged towards students who are not in the computer sciences.   Raja explains that there are benefits for students from all academic backgrounds within the realm of learning computational thinking and along the lines of being “computer savvy” serving as a career boost.

Coding can be seen in various forms and is used in multiple ways.  Coding is used to in operating systems, scripts, and video games. Some of the most wealthy companies in the world were started on code. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are some of the most well known companies around the globe, and they were founded on coding. Apple for instance, uses what is known as ‘secure coding’. Which is coding that “guards against the accidental introduction of security vulnerabilities.” Some of the primary causes for these vulnerabilities is consistently found to be: defects, bugs, and logic flaws. These errors are usually very small, but common software programming errors.

Similar to the English language, Coding has specific rules that that need to be followed, and similarly to the English language has its own syntax and grammar.  Proper usage determines if the code created will be considered good or bad code.   This is important when considering the security of a program or operating system.   

Hackers are people that generally enjoy learning about code at advanced levels, and are very digitally literate. A hacker generally will find flaw in the code, but they don’t use it to harm or manipulate the system. They usually will tell the company what is wrong and how to fix it. If that company chooses not to fix it, that’s when they will exploit the flaws to the public. The people who exploit the code for their own personal gains are known by a couple names: crackers, attackers, or black hats. Most of these people aren’t incredibly skilled, but they do use the flaws that a hacker has posted for their own personal gains.

Google Maps Essay

Joshua Calandrella - "Belize" - A short retelling of the trip I took my senior year to Belize.
Steven Kish - "A Summers Trip"- A story about me and my friends on a summer adventure that we'll never forget.
Chris Weber- "An Awesome Working Vacation"- A description of my journey to New Orleans for the Junior Olympics.
Amber Whistler- "We're going on a Trip" - A fictional story based on true events about a girl's first synthetic acid trip.

Repurposing

This week we looked at works of electronic literature that encouraged a discussion on the concept of “repurposing”.  Poet and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Kenneth Goldsmith discusses repurposing in response to what conceptual artist  Douglas Huebler wrote in 1969: "The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more."

Goldsmith views this concept while considering new works of literature, writing, art, etc. while noting that “themes from older works form the basis for new ones.” Goldsmith himself in an course he teaches in Uncreative Writing pushes students to reshape, reuse, and even recycle works that they did not create.  This method of producing can be viewed as perhaps a form of recycling and repurposing, but definitely not cheating or steeling. .  

Two particular works expressed the concept of repurposing in a creative and interesting manner.  The first is The Sweet Old Etcetera, created by Alison Clifford. Clifford describes The Sweet Old Etcetera as “an interactive web project based on the poetry of e. e. Cummings.” This interactive work plays with the visual aesthetic that Cumming’s poetry is well known for by using motion, graphics, sound and programming to adapt his poetry in a digital landscape.  The viewer interacts with Cumming’s poetry by clicking on  images and selected words within a poem causing the words to spin and branch off, creating a visual landscape made of text.  

Girl Talk's album All Day is composed by using overlapping samples of 372 songs performed by other artists.  The album is intended to be listened too as on piece from start to finish.  When viewing the album from the above link, the viewer not only is exposed to the audio of the album, but is given a visual component, by seeing what songs are sampled, where they are layered and even what year they were original released.  This work makes use of the technology provided by soundcloud.  

When listening to the album on this platform, one can click on a song sampled and will be taken to a Wikipedia page, providing information about the song, artist and album it was originally featured on.

Works like All Day and The Sweet Old Etcetera are  viewed as  creative mashups that use previously produced works as the structure for their own independent work.  What makes these pieces unique is their use of previously produced pieces as the content/structure for their own creative work.  It can be compared to a musician who does not create the sounds that their instrument necessarily makes, but arranges already known sounds into something new.  Or even a writer.  A writer does not create the English language, however uses already “made” words and they “repurpose” them to create fiction, essays etc.

These pieces demonstrate how we should never fear that creativity will be lost.  New and creative works can always come from new arrangements of what has already been made.  Some might say this is almost a discouragement to creating your own individual work. But in reality, are not  all original thoughts and ideas just repurposed and recycled from other people. It’s fascinating to think about.

Responses: Week of 1/29

The Last Performance is a visually appealing piece of electronic literature. When you first come to the page you hear a horse neighing very loudly unfortunately you never quite get told the purpose or significance of the horse. After the page loads you are asked to “construct a last” upon clicking that you are taken to a screen with words in a form of a circle. As you watch the words change from big circles, little circles, swirls, etc. Not only do the shapes change but the words in the shapes change as well. It is very challenging to follow along and read the words before it changes, but begins and end are repetitive throughout the whole story.

In the upper left hand corner are the words “The Dance” “The Performance Space” and “The Dome” each of these are actually links to different places.  “The Dance” is the story that you are taken to when you first click “construct a last”. I believe this is called the dance because how the words are set up almost as if they are doing parts of a dance routine. “ The Performance Space” takes you to a picture of a building, I assume, is the dance studio. You can then click on the picture leading you to a quote about the space. When you click “The Dome” you are taken to a page full of random words at first glance this seems pointless, but you can click on these words and be taken to different ‘lenses’ or perspectives of what this place means to people and their ideas on what should be done with it.
You are given somewhat of an explanation of this piece if you click in the lower right hand corner on the first page called “project blueprints” which tells you the reason of the e-literature. It is about a place called Goat Island where unfortunately decided to do a last performance after twenty years of performing. This piece is based on that last performance but with a twist. The website invites artists and writers to send in different pieces of work to help build a last performance, but at the same time with people endlessly sending in work the performance cannot really end. So in  a way this piece is to keep Goat Island alive even after they stop performing.

The electronic literature My Body a Wunderkammer is a piece by Shelley Jackson, that uses the different part of a woman's body to tell stories about her life.  The piece starts out by displaying a sketch of a woman’s body where you can pick any highlighted part to begin.  After the user initial picks where to begin a story will be displayed and throughout the story there will be hypertext that will take you to different stories that are linked to different parts of her body.

This piece of electronic literature was very interesting.  It told stories that went through the life of the authors with some actual stories and some fictional stories.  The author did a great job telling stories from throughout her life and connecting them. She uses the many stories to show and tell how she evolved as a person and also as a human.  My Body a Wunderkammer is a great piece of electronic literature.

Responce to E-Literature: Deviant

Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw is an excellent piece of e-literature. It serves as a great example as to what is the Digital Humanities. Deviant tells the story of a young Scottish girl in the 16th century, who seems to be “possessed” by demons and showed remarkable signs and symptoms. The piece itself is interactive and does not rely on text.  The “reader” will be kept on their toes while going through the story, often being surprised or shocked by the content.  

While one is going through the piece, there is not much insight given as to what you need to be doing to get to the end of the ‘game.’ You are left to just point and click, then try to make sense of what you were just seeing.  The story relies on your own inquisitive nature to make your way through to the end.  This often will lead to confusion and a whole lot of frustration, which isn’t a very nurturing way to learn something. Fortunately when you finally complete the ‘game,’ everything finally makes sense. You are lead to a page with text describing the history of the story and the symbolism of the images used are revealed.

When looking at the historical basis of the story, it is important to note the strong superstitious nature of people during the 16th century.  Fear of witchcraft and demonic possession was a real concern for many people. In this story, the author tells us how 6 people were tried for witchcraft and forcing the possession of Christian Shaw. The author also tells us that the same people may have been “bullying” her.  This possibility brings up the suspicion of ‘was this vengeance or was there actual witchcraft going on?” With matters like this, a fair trial was hard to come by. The only evidence they had against sorcery would be those who can claim to have “witnessed” the alleged performance of witchcraft. So someone could essentially bear false-witness and put them to burn on the stake out of spite. Instances like this mirror the occurrences during the infamous Salem witch trials.

Overall, this piece of electronic literature serves as an excellent example of what is produced in the Digital Humanities.  Deviant itself tells an interesting story that really gets the reader involved and interested.  The subject matter that surrounds Deviant leads to further questioning of the historical account that the story is based on.  In the end it can lead to great discussion about instances like that of Christian Shaw, while all being  introduced in an interesting, interactive manner.