Since its inception in 1999, the NBA 2K gaming franchise has grown to be one of the highest selling sports games in the world. With millions of copies being bought every year with the annual release, NBA 2K has evolved from the simple competitive play of battling it out on the hardwood against your friends, to being able to play online against someone on the other side of the world in real life time. One of the most distinct feature which has risen to prominence in the 2K gaming franchise, would be the addition of the career mode, which gives the player of the video game the ability to create their own avatar and follow the path to become an NBA legend. With this distinct feature, comes a unique situation that can be examined when looking at a type of play that allows a player to make an avatar that looks like how the player conceives them selves, acts and/or plays like how they may play the real-life version of basketball, and enter into a computer generated game which follows along a fictionalized storyline inside the constructs of the NBA lifestyle and basketball gaming aspects such as practicing and playing in a NBA game against the digitalized versions of real-life NBA stars. What I look to examine, would be this type of play I’ve described and how the player of this type of play interacts with their avatar, making them better in certain basketball attributes and/or customizing them to how they would see them selves if they were in the role of an NBA star and how these two types of style of play differentiate from one another in a rhetorical standpoint.
3 thoughts on “Thesis and Rough Draft”
Comments are closed.
Hey Max,
I’m really interested in this project. I don’t play sports games at all but I’ve noticed that NBA and Madden have finally begun to put a new career mode in the game that strictly follows the player. In NBA’s case, you can even map your face onto the basketball player creating a character that is the most similar to the player as possible. I’m excited to see how this can translate into the player from a rhetorical standpoint what your interpretation pans out. If this is your opening paragraph, maybe mention some of the research that you’ve found like specific articles. Good luck!
Mimesis is a strong topic throughout literature and art, so it makes sense that it can and should be discussed within gaming culture as well. When one can purposefully alter their chosen avatar, is that a good or a bad thing? Especially when it comes to actions not every human can have; anyone can play as a good athlete, but not every player is one in the real world. This dichotomy could be potentially harmful, but also potentially cathartic. Good topic!
I think your focus on the specification of different types of skills and attributes is interesting. It would be really cool to maybe see if you can study the average distribution of these different attributes based on how other people make their career modes and avatars. Maybe even see how this would translate in different games like Madden, as well. What you’re describing to me seems like you’re trying to argue how play is an extension of the self in a different medium, so that could be something you would definitely want to emphasize.