CWC on Thesis writing...my thoughts on it...

I always like showing off the thesis for my M.A. in history. I like the fact that it's bound with a cool, black hardcover and gold lettering. And it's not thin either! I call it "My Book." It really impresses the ladies (well, the ones who haven't had to write their own thesis) and its fun at parties!

I wrote my history thesis on how computer games, that are primarily designed for entertainment, present history. I could go on and on about what I concluded, but that's not what our CWC was about: it's how I wrote it. So...what happened?

I had the idea for quite some time while working on the degree's coursework. I wanted to examine computer games and how history is told through them. I knew my first step would be to do research. But what to research? This is where I didn't do as much planning as I should have in terms of the general concept: what would I be arguing? I hadn't answered this question because I thought all I would do is play a couple history games and do case studies on them. I played games like Colonization, Oregon Trail, and Railroad Tycoon. Therefore, I researched the subjects the games addressed: colonizing the new world, America's westward expansion, and the railroad business.

This strategy was lacking because I knew it wouldn't be a proper thesis: it would be a computer game report (ala book reports) and not worthy of being printed in any scholarly forum (maybe in a computer game magazine though). My next strategy was to examine computer game design, and I found this to be much more rewarding. I also started taking copious notes, but their abundance hid the meat of the subject: what was I trying to argue? By studying game design, I came up with three of the four main topics in my thesis: computer game categories (there are many, many different kinds of games), what makes a computer game good, and the influence of algorithms (mostly AI and random number generation) on a computer games ability to tell (retell) history. I also started to cast a wider net on sources: I trolled computer game magazines for insight into the computer gaming world and what issues they deal with. I also started looking at technical books on game theory, then I moved on to books on programming/designing artificial intelligence and random number generation. All the while taking copious notes. I also formed basic outlines and started to "just write." I would start writing on a topic in my outline and not really care where it was going: it was like brainstorming. Keep the good and delete the bad.

But I had two big problems as a result of this: how did this apply to the telling of history, and what to do with all the notes I took! The first problem I addressed by reading books on historiography: the history of history. Where did computer games fit in the telling of history (this is also where I got my title from: Virtual Historiography)? The second problem was just tedious: I took my notebooks of notes, and wrote each citation on a note card. My only regret of the last strategy was that I should have used color coded note cards! But by putting them on note cards and dividing them into topics and sub-topics, I was able to visually organize my arguments. After this last step, I was able to take my meandering ramblings from my "just write" something phase and re-rewrite them to comply with what I found (and I had to change my own pre-conceptions of history and computer games as a result! I really surprised myself!). So, by following my outline, organizing my note cards, but most importantly, rewriting what I already wrote, I was able to form a cohesive argument about computer games and history!

If I were to do it all over again, I would meditate more on what I wanted the thesis to be, form a crude outline, think more about where and what my sources/research was taking me, take notes directly on note cards from my sources, I would "just write" again, and be more systematic in how I revised my writings. I don't know if I'm a good model for thesis writing, but it was definitely the most generative exercise I've ever encountered!!!