The Intersection Between the American Gun Culture and Gaming

This Essay Proposal and Annotated Bibliography is a two-part assignment meant to get you to start seriously considering the topic and research sources that you will be using in the Final Research Essay assignment.
The Essay Proposal portion of this assignment should be one or two paragraphs (100-200 words) or it should take up 1-2 minutes of your recorded slide presentation. This proposal is meant to function as a small preview of what you are intending to write about for your Final Research Essay assignment. Here, you will be essentially explaining to me your intended topic and how you are planning to write about it for your Final Research Essay. This first section of the assignment will ideally achieve the following:
- Summarize your intended overall topic and arguments for your final essay assignment
- Summarize any key terms, concepts, or theories you intend to use in your final essay assignment
- Provide the current iteration of research questions or thesis statement you intend to use in your final essay assignment
- Explain what videogames you will be using as examples to illustrate your intended points and/or arguments in your final essay assignment
The section section of this assignment will be the Annotated Bibliography and will consist of a properly formatted (MLA, APA, or Chicago) work cited page/slide with at least three scholarly sources listed. Two of these sources should be selected from the course readings (it can be from any week throughout the semester, not just the ones we will have read prior to the assignment due date) and the third should be an external game studies article found within one of the journals listed below (or a single chapter from a scholarly game studies book of your choosing). You must explain in 2-4 sentences each, how these three research sources relate to what you have written in the Essay Proposal section of this assignment.
The goal of this assignment is to further develop your ability to rigorously engage with recent game studies scholarship and to also gain experience in writing academic proposals—a skill that is helpful not only for research publication, but also for securing scholarships, bursaries, grants, and fellowship opportunities. You will be graded on how well you adhere to the instructions listed above in addition to the overall quality of your writing (clear, easy to understand, no typos present, and falls within the expected word count range).
Game Studies Journals To Use As External Research Sources:
Analog Game Studies http://analoggamestudies(dot)org/ (Links to an external site.)
Critical Distance www(dot)critical-distance(dot)com (Links to an external site.)
Digital Games Research Association Digital Library www(dot)digra(dot)org/digital-library (Links to an external site.)
Eludamos (no longer active) http://www(dot)eludamos(dot)org/ (Links to an external site.)
First Person Scholar www(dot)firstpersonscholar(dot)com (Links to an external site.)
G|A|M|E: The Italian Game Studies Journal www(dot)gamejournal(dot)it (Links to an external site.)
Game Studies 101 http://gamestudies101(dot)com/ (Links to an external site.)
Game Studies www(dot)gamestudies(dot)org
Games & Culture https://journals-sagepub-com(dot)ocadu(dot)idm(dot)oclc(dot)org/home/gac
Journal of Games Criticism www(dot)gamescriticism(dot)org (Links to an external site.)
Loading... Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association http://journals(dot)sfu(dot)ca/loading (Links to an external site.)
Not Your Mama’s Gamer https://www(dot)nymgamer(dot)com/ (Links to an external site.)
Press Start https://press-start(dot)gla(dot)ac(dot)uk/index.php/press-start/index (Links to an external site.)
Replay. The Polish Journal of Games Studies http://www(dot)replay(dot)uni(dot)lodz(dot)pl/ (Links to an external site.)
ROM Chip: A Journal of Game Histories https://romchip(dot)org/index.php/romchip-journal/index (Links to an external site.)
Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association http://todigra(dot)org/index.php/todigra (Links to an external site.)
Well Played http://press(dot)etc(dot)cmu(dot)edu/index.php/publication-tag/well-played/