In case regular scholarship was too mainstream for you …

Gaming + Cultural Studies = META-STRAND.
Any questions?

click to meta-reflect

Read below about the project in general or jump directly to one of the following topics.

abstract

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texts and tech – a digital dive

Remember when PCs were just for typing assignments? Yeah, neither do I. Swapping the intricate world of culturtes of West Asia and North Africa for the enigmas of Death Stranding might seem a tad off-route. But bear with me, because just like a scholar worth their weight in rare manuscripts, I’ve embarked on an even rarer journey: from the meticulous world of modern Arabic poetry straight into the digital whirlpool of Death Stranding. I wade through this digital domain, you’ll find I’ve packed my luggage with sume oceanic and aquatic metaphors. Not your usual vacation packing, I know.

high-res realms and ruminations

If you thought getting through the Silmarillion was intense, try navigating the existential labyrinth that is Death Stranding. Forget calling it just another ‘walking simulator’ in a hauntingly beautiful landscape; let’s talk blackened shores, treacherous terrains between thundering waterfalls, intricate webs of connections, let’s talk life, death, and that pesky area in between – a pleasure to photograph, as you’ll see, and a pleasure to meta-reflect. Before you assume, no, I don’t mean to CTRL + ALT + DEL my way out of this. Delving into Death Stranding is like opening multiple browser tabs of existentialism, each one more mind-boggling than the last. I’m not just a gamer, you see. I’m a video game sommelier, taking delicate sips and analyzing every nuanced flavor. And who better to guide our tasting than the luminous lighthouses of Haraway, Morton, Turkle and yes, even The Witcher games?

dive deeper, play harder, analyze hardest

Don’t be mistaken; META-STRAND isn’t about light touches, it’s a full-on archaeological dig into the game’s psyche. It’s kind of like dissecting a frog, but with more pixels and fewer ethics concerns. We’ll explore. We’ll deconstruct. Heck, we might even put things back together wrong just to see what happens. After all, when life hands you a groundbreaking game, you don’t just play it – you dissect it, project your personal theories onto it, and write incredibly meta articles about it. So, grab your digital snorkel, and let’s swim through the deep end of game analysis together.

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Perfect. We’re about to get into the full-resolution, ultra-high-settings version of gaming analysis. Start by clicking ‘read’ in the header to continue.

my mission

is to o explore the rich cultural depths of the video game Death Stranding through an evolving, fragmented, and collaborative critical analysis

my vision

is to reimagine knowledge discourse by embracing fluidity, interdisciplinary perspectives, and participatory digital research methods

my values

fragmentation over rigidity

evolution over permanence

meta-analysis and self-reflection

Gaming + Cultural Studies = META-STRAND. Any questions?