Feedback from Philip Schanely

Michael,

I spent some time looking through your site provided above. You have a lot of work in place, especially in giving the gyst of the references you might incorporate. I appreciated and learned from some of the videos I watched!

I have to say the idea of a game about motherhood such as a mother trying to transport her children across a dangerous landscape is a REALLY interesting game idea! If I was into game design I think I'd be doing my thesis on a game like that!

On that note, I think I'm having a hard time determining what your visual component will be. Is it this website showing the research? Or did I completely miss what it is you plan to develop?

It occurred to me that something you could consider is proposing a professional organization for character designers that advocates for diversity in character design as an element of professionalism in the field. I sense that your spin goes beyond just claiming that diversity would be good, but that you are advocating for character designers to step it up and raise the standard; to push back if asked to deliver stereotypes too often; to strive for legitimate, solid characters that represent more diverse people. Does a professional organization exist for character designers? If so, do any of them address diversity in character design? Is there any authoritative group you could work with to develop an educational or advocacy event?

One thing professor Meyers told me in my meeting online with him last weekend is to be very careful to avoid opinion statements in the thesis. Instead we should always lean on published or prominent persons and what they have written or said about things. If we make our own statements, they should always come from data or research. So while I completely agree with you about a statement such as, "I believe characters and their designs directly affect book, game and theatre ticket sales." Be careful to either reword this based on evidence (perhaps your own research for the thesis, such as a survey or aggregation of games sales data?) or instead to cite another authoritative source that claims this. I see you do have references throughout, so that's good! This sentence just caught my attention since I had had the conversation with Professor Meyers regarding opinion.

Just some ideas; I hope they're helpful.

Wishing you the best!

Phil

#Thesis