New Idea Expanded

I was thinking about fantasy games (while playing one!) that the whole universe of Fantasy has changed with the arrival of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games, before the average RPG player was a complete nerd who would sit in his room and avoid all social interactions. That was me. Nowadays with the introduction of social networking in MMO's there are social elements to gaming. You could also argue that gamers are now more social than their non gaming peers, due to the ability in games to talk to people from all over the world. Only the other week my friend was playing a game with a German man who he claims is a very good friend of his. Even going so far as to discuss problems with him over the internet.

New Idea

I have a new idea which has inflamed me. I'd like to look at the effects that Fantasy gaming has on has on people and their social interactions. I think this might prove difficult as i would probably have to do interviews with hardcore gamers and perhaps some focus groups. This could be very interesting though. I will ask around the lecturers about the subject because i think there is one that has specialised in gaming, I know that in Psychology there is a lecturer who has looked into the mental effects of Video Gaming. I've had a look online on Project Muse and JSTOR and found nothing that directly links to Fantasy Gaming but there is plenty on the subject of Video Gaming ad it's effects on society. The Self-Regulation of Virtual Reality: Issues of Voluntary Compliance and Enforcement in the Video Game Industry by Garry C. Gray has a very interesting line of inquiry looking into the possibility of Gaming creating a social problem, namely that games have increasing violence and greater realism and this is causing their values to tip over into society.


It is still in the Beta phase but this is looking very promising.

Week One - Original Ideas

Idea 1 -

Okay, so at the moment I have only thought preliminarily about what area I might like to go into. Over the summer I have been thinking mainly about Body Functions in Film (Going to the toilet etc.), but I have thought it might be quite interesting also to talk about eating in films or alternately drinking. It would be quite interesting to see, I did always find it ridiculous in action films, because they don't ever seem to be able to need any water even though they've lost about a bucketful sweating. I have looked at Project Muse and so far found little to base my idea on as most of the studies that involve the looking at this area seem to focus more on the sexuality of he toilet and it's connotations. For example- In the Bathroom with Mary McCarthy: Theatricality, Deviance, and the Postwar Commitment to Realism - Michael Trask
This journal explores the works of Mary McCarthy in particular and only ever explores her sexuality shown through her film. This is not interesting to me even in the slightest in all honesty. I've also looked at the Library catalogue for any books that might mention Bodily Functions at all and it doesn't even find any. The problem is that I know I've seen one and read part of it here before. In hindsight that's probably the book that started this interest in the topic.

Regarding the other side of this idea, I've heard about a film called "The Hole", a 2001 film by Nick Hamm. According to one of my classmates this film is different to many other survival films and looks more realistically at survival and more importantly focuses on where they are going to go to the toilet and where to acquire food and drink. I'm buying the film now so that I can have a look at whether this is true. Hopefully it is as he says, so that i know that at least someone else has decided not to ignore what appears to me a glaring hole in most films.

Idea 2-

I have also had a brief thought about the possibility of doing a study into the validity of subliminal messages in film and maybe suggest some practical uses. (In strictly controlled levels) I thought this would be interesting to look at because I'd quite like to know how easily it is to manipulate another. Sounds strange I know but still. This seems much more viable so far I've come up with quite a few potential journals on Project Muse and JSTOR with the most suitable being - "Subliminal" Advertising - William M. O'Barr and

“The Thinking Man’s Filter”: J. L. Austin’s Ordinary Language Philosophy as Cultural Criticism

Michael J. Golec
The first looks specifically at the use of subliminal messages in Advertising, but there is little to translate to film, although it could be worked around I think. The second "The Thinking Man's Filter" has a short paragraph that looks at subliminal messages but it's not really deep enough to base my research on. I shall continue looking for more on the subject.