Gaming blogs (30%)

Required writing:

1. On your blog: a substantial post at least once a week.
2. On others’ blogs: a thoughtful comment at least once a week.
   

Writing guidelines:

• Don’t forget your text will be accessible to the 1,000,000,000(!) internet users around the world. Don’t embarrass yourself with shoddy work that could haunt you forever!
• Your intended readers are intelligent & reasonably well educated but you cannot assume they are familiar with our specific texts & terminology.
• Go deeply into specific issues as opposed to a shallow summery:
• Present your arguments and insights clearly and accessibly while keeping the analysis deep.
• Do not “cover” all issues; pick an issue, & explore it thoroughly.
• At least one of your weekly postings must be a mini analytical paper.
• Overall you will be writing a comparative analysis: How does your game(s) relate to actual historical economic events & situations?
• Be specific: refer to events, processes, & changes as they are discussed in the readings, lectures, & class activities.
• Use your readings and reference them (other sources optional but welcome).
• Demonstrate your knowledge of economic concepts (from your readings).
• Grades are not based on gaming success, only on the quality & depth of your discussion. A good discussion about why you lost would earn you a good grade.
• Group work is strongly encouraged but blog posting is individual:
• It’s a game! Make a party out of it… ;-).
• Play together (multiplayer or around the same game & take notes).
• Discuss your games, readings, & written assignments together:
• Meet or use the blogs to post comments to each other.
• This is a good way to generate material for the blogs, classroom questions & discussion, and to prepare for quizzes & exams.
• Make sure you discuss:
• Your overall strategy? Did your strategy change at any time? Why?
• The important decisions and strategies you made. What choices (& other factors) produced the biggest successes? The greatest failures?
• The different options you faced, the internal debates (within the group or within your mind) about policy. How did you decide whether to build a settler for expansion, a granary to accelerate the first city’s population growth, or a warrior to defend it?
• Availability of resources
• Major achievements
• Problems encountered
• The cause and dynamic of conflicts
• Relations with rivals
• Etc, etc, etc, …