my professor wants me to take his place for a lecture on "representation" in Video Games in a few weeks.
That's fantastic. Huge topic though. Is representation consistent - or does he want you to choose perhaps the top 5 video games. What representation concerns the professor? Race? Gender? Does the professor have a "thesis statement" that the two of you can debate?
He's basically leaving it up to me, since I've broached the subject a couple of times. I'd talk about race and gender, for sure. And probably consistency - or lack thereof, considering that 2 of the top 5 games as defined by Metacritic are GTA games, one is a game about rescuing a princess, 1 has a bunch of girls in sexualized armor, 1 is a Sports game, and 4 out of 5 have no Black characters.
I would be hugely excited so instead I am mega thriller pumped for you and I hope that you get to use this as an opportunity to say many important things you would like to say, and feel deeply about, in regards to this topic. Don't be intimidated. You have a perspective on this subject many of your classmates don't, and may not even have considered. Doooood, totally do it. Put it on your resume or write a blog about the experience. Keep it.
That's a big class. If you accept this mission... you could be helping those 150 students see video games in a new way. It might be interesting to start by asking them what messages they think video games deliver (about the representees or absence of them). What is the actual course called?
Sounds like the Computers and their Impact on Society class everyone had to take when I was an undergraduate. Everyone had to give a lecture. It was at 8 in the morning, and this was a commuter school so everyone had to wake up at wtf in the morning to make it. Because of that and the fact that absolutely no one wanted to take the class, you lost a letter grade every time you were absent. I talked about free software. Someone actually said "but that's communism! That's not how we do things in America!" out loud and I couldn't think of a response other than "that might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to me." The professor laughed his ass off and called me 'Comrade bfv' the rest of the semester. Hated that class.
That sounds way worse than my class, haha. Luckily not every student does a lecture in this class, the Prof. just approached me because he saw some of my gaming stuff (I have no idea how he found it, actually). Brb making a Hubskina character named "Comrade." He'll be a pirate.
Have you seen the latest Extra Credits episode? It might be a good leeway into the topic of gender in gaming.