Thinking About a Dissertation

If I want to go to grad school, I need to figure out something to write a dissertation on.

A dissertation... literally the longest thing I will ever write about something in my entire life.

I want to write about MMOs and the experimental narratives they create.

I want to write about player / avatar interaction
and avatar / world interaction
avatar / avatar interaction
the power of a name in the MMO context; including a discussion of lore specific names and the choice to have or not have one; the choice to have a non-conventional name; a celebrity or fictional character name, stuff like that
I want to write about the performance of an avatar in casting spells or attacking with weapons as an important part to constructing an identity
I want to write about the clothing options an avatar has, and how those choices and the ability to change those choices motivates the narrative an avatar creates
I want to talk about the proliferation of the mind into an avatar
I want to talk about loyalty to a certain aesthetic of an avatar
I want to talk about player / player interaction and how those interactions influence narrative
I want to talk about player / npc interaction and "the silent protagonist"
I want to talk about player communities, and how they influence narrative
I want to talk about language / text choices made by players that influence narrative
I want to talk about (in FFXIV specifically) the auto translate function, and how it influences narrative

What does person to person voice interaction do to a narrative? Is it completely disconnected from the creation of an avatar's story?

I want to talk about the "life" that avatars in virtual worlds lead.

I think, most of all, I want to talk about the power of a virtual world. I want to talk about why the virtual world should matter to people in the real world. And why a virtual open world allows for some of the greatest, creative, genuine narratives to emerge.
I want to talk about the great humanness that stems from people writing their own stories.

I want to talk about the disjunct of continuing a story even when you don't play a MMO for some time. What does it do to the narrative? Does it destroy it? How can it be talked about, explored, or explained?

There's a lot I could do regarding narrative, authorship, and the human experience regarding MMOs.

But man, would anything like this ever fill up 200 pages? At least? I mean man, I could write of colorful anecdotes and explain game mechanics / plot all day long but um...

200 pages? On MMOs? Do I know MMOs better than anything? I might. I honestly haven't done anything so diligently or passionately as I have... playing video games??

What about an avatar's relation to their pet? Or minions? How does that affect narrative?

I also want to talk about if a gaming company renders a virtual world, and a player creates a narrative, is that narrative truly the player's?

Are virtual worlds open gates into the world of creativity? Does the basic setting help the creative process along? Does it help more people develop their own sense of self and personal story?

There's so much to MMOs. So much to explore, dissect, and study.

Maybe it'll be me. Maybe I can do it.

I might want to start off writing an essay on one of those ideas. But it'd have to be a good, long one, because my writing submission has to be I think 15 pages minimum. Woowee!

Imagine: playing MMOs to study them. That could be my life. My experimental research. That someone would support me in doing.

Crazy. Crazy awesome.

I hope I come back soon to add more ideas.

I've been thinking a lot about a dissertation lately: I was thinking about feminism, theater, and music in the Renaissance but like...
what could I say that would be new about it? That it happened? That it was crazy good for the development of female culture? Yeah, no shit.

I think saying that an open world MMO allows for the ultimate human-machine narrative experience is a pretty big, new, interesting claim to make. It would be really interesting to talk about avatars as a child of the mind + machine. Man, that sounds cool.

Man, I could even get Descartes in on this shit. That bro is all about machines... and stuff... I think

I can't hardly remember. Good thing I bought that book. Thanks Literary Guillotine!

GEEZ I AM SUCH A NERD PLZ SEND HELP GONNA DO SOME FRENCH VERBS OR SOME SHIT