For the final project, I have chosen to analyze tabletop wargames, specifically the game Warmachine by Privateer Press. Specifically, I will be focusing on how gameplay and game balance affects how narrative functions within the system, and how narrative affects the same. General tropes of tabletop wargames may also be explored.

When choosing The Circus, I had already noted both the short length, and the fact that it was labeled as number 1 in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. This was fairly unusual, since most of the other Choose Your Own Adventure books were longer, and the Abominable Snowman is usually labeled as first. The reasons for both of these became apparent as soon as I began reading the text. The Circus is apparently the first in a separate line of Choose Your Own Adventure books from the main line—one aimed at an even younger audience than the main line, which is already marketed towards young children. As such, the material within is even more family-friendly, the text is even larger, and there is far less content.

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It's been the recent trend for narratives to move from one medium to another, or to even exist on multiple mediums simultaneously. We have comic books getting turned into movies (Batman: The Dark Knight), webcomics being put into print form (Megatokyo), video games getting novel adaptations (Halo), and so on. And of course, books have been being turned into movies for as long as the mediums have coexisted (Gone with the Wind, Silence of the Lambs, etc.).

Also, recently, some narratives have existed in several different forms at once. For example, the .HACK series, which exists simultaneously in print, animated, and video game format.

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Something that seems to be in the decline these days is the Theme Song, a short (usually 1-2 minute) clip of music set to a montage that introduces a TV show.
There was a time that just about every TV show had one, and it was used as a way to draw the viewer into the show.

For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSgbxPtyv1U&feature=player_embedded
A classic. Zorro, by Disney.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY
Another classic. Gilligan's Island.

A good theme song is designed to both act as an opening credit sequence, giving due credit to some of the folks who worked on the show. Also, as demonstrated in the sequence above, the theme song teaches you what the show is about, so new viewers (and old viewers) can know what's going on, even without that much prior knowledge (or simply be reminded). Hopefully, the theme song will also be catchy, and help market the show. Indeed, in the case of Gilligan's Island, the entirety of the backstory of the show is mentioned in the theme song.

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Fleischinger's grand experiments in color and music correlated seem to have for the most part been relegated to the wayside in animation in modern days. Based on this idea, it is easy to conclude that his experiment has failed, and perhaps it has in some sense, but at the same time, there are many modern conventions that it is easy to see how they have been derived from his work.

Visualizations are a common component of modern media players, such as Zoom, Windows Media Player, the built-in media player on the PSP system, etc. These computer algorithms convert music (or other sounds) into a visual representation. Notably, sound recording equipment often corresponds sound to a line diagram--trying to represent sound waves in a visual format for technical use.
It isn't a new idea to represent music visually--anyone who knows how to read music in any form understands that. Every type of musical marking is an attempt to translate sound into a visual format. For example, note that the marking for crescendo/decrescendo expands or contracts as the sound is supposed to get bigger or smaller.

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Narrative, storytelling, surrounds us wherever we go. It seems that in order to understand something, the human mind has to convert it into a story of some sort. Something happens, then something else happens.
Take even the very most basic of things and you'll find a story.
The most basic of songs have a tale behind them--a story they tell. The most simple of video games have a story--even if it's just "Aliens have invaded the Earth. Take your tank and shoot down the aliens." We even make stories out of stories--hence we get "The Making of" videos.
We often recount to one another the events of our daily lives, as stories--some of us even embellish or twist these events to our own whims for effect.
Is this just a basic function of the human mind? To turn cause-and-effect into story?
Perhaps it is just something essential to how the human mind thinks.

Whether or not music tells a story has been quite the topic of debate in class and on the blog. However, assuming that music with words can indeed be considered narrative (which I think at this point, it is safe to assume), a natural question comes to light.

What of music videos? Can they be considered part of the same narrative text? Are they paratext? Are they essential parts of the narrative text without which the story of the song isn't complete? Sure, some videos simply add to the song, extending the song's narrative, and illustrating what was previously only words, but then there are songs that take on an entirely different meaning when viewed with the video. Occasionally, one might even encounter a music video that has absolutely nothing to do (or very little to do) with the song.

In the first vein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-aUiddpUo
The Kid's Aren't Alright, by Offspring. The song is about Urban Decay, and it's pretty clear from the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuK2A1ZqoWs
Handlebars, by Flobots. The video follows the words image by image.

In the second vein, there are a couple:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF2lJ5VtQbs

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I suppose I could be called what many of you would think of as a DnD Nerd. That is, a player of tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons (although coincidentally, I'm not actually a fan of DnD itself).
A tabletop roleplaying game tends to involve several people gathering around a series of rulebooks defining a world, and pretending to be certain characters, while one person facilitates this world, often using dice to "simulate" success or failure at various activities their characters might attempt. The general purpose of this sort of activity is (theoretically) to tell a story of sorts.

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