Name: Cee Jaklevic
Class Year: 2027
Majors: Creative Writing, Classical Studies
Internship Organization: Bryn Mawr College Department of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies | Social Sciences/Humanities Summer Research Program
Internship Title: Student Researcher
Location: Virtual
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
Ludology (Game Studies) is not a field strictly relegated to the world of programming, rigging models, or debugging code. It is in actuality an academic field that is, in my estimation, emblematic of the liberal arts education experience. Studying games requires peering, however briefly, into fields that are not one’s own.
This summer, I and another student researcher were granted the opportunity to scratch the surface of ludology under the guidance of Bryn Mawr’s own Professor of Classics, Dr. Benjamin Eldon Stevens. While this research was done under the umbrella of the Classics department, and I myself am a Classical Studies major, classical receptions in games ended up being a jumping off point for my work.
We conducted our research virtually, meeting weekly to discuss our findings, and where the research might take us next. I ended up following a non-linear path, bouncing from game to game and discipline to discipline. In the beginning of the summer, when I was still getting my sea legs, so to speak, with regards to ludology, my sights fell on Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that I had played upon its release in 2017 and now wanted to re-visit. Horizon is a game with fairly clear ecological themes, and articles concerning it were rife with discussion about the game’s approach to ecofeminism, it’s very warped representation of Indigenous people, and, of course, the classical receptions in the game. Horizon is a fascinating game, and I would love to someday return to further study of it, but at the time I felt as if to do it justice, I would need to replay at least the main storyline (which, given my slow play style, would likely take upwards of thirty hours), and it did not necessarily seem like an achievable goal.
Instead, I pivoted both games and modes of study. My fellow researcher had recommended the game Outer Wilds at the beginning of the summer (thank you!!!), and once I completed the game, I felt called to write about it for the culmination of my research. Outer Wilds hinges upon a 22-minute time loop, and because of this, I paired it with Hades II, a game that while not on as strict of a time crunch as Outer Wilds, is a Roguelite that necessitates cycles to end for narrative progress to be made. Through this (perhaps tenuous) connection, I spent the rest of the summer finding similarities and meaningful differences between the game, and tying these aspects back to some point in ludology. The micro-field that I ended up relying on the most was that of archeogaming, which is exactly what it sounds like. The part of archeogaming that was most applicable to my work was that of the game world as an archeological space. Andrew Reinhard’s book Archeogaming was an invaluable source during this process, and I would recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in the field!
I will sign off with this: there is a field of study for any hobby you could think of. Look into it, and see what you can find!
Why did you apply for this internship?
I love the Classics department, and I love games, so this felt like kismet!