Many of you know that I've been studying for and writing a doctoral thesis for many, many years (I think it's about 8). I'm in the final stages of writing up my case studies. I started wanting to look at #DigitalLiterature or #ElectronicLiterature ...

I spent at least the first couple of years looking at the development of #ElectronicLiterature - stories told with branching narratives - computer versions of #ChooseYourOwnAdventure stories. And games like #ColossalCaveAdventure ...

I suspected, back then, that I'd have to look more at #VideoGames but I was sort of avoiding it because it's such a massive discipline - #GameStudies and #PopularCulture. After a great discussion, in person, with @ruthtweetpage I took the plunge into games ...

And that's where it got even more complicated as I began to look at this new hybrid form, commonly known as #WalkingSimulators. Some fascinating writing - both academic and journalistic - has been written about them, but it's still not a huge field, yet ...

I've spent years (!!) looking at how videogames work - the theory, not the coding. I'm interested in how the stories work, and most importantly, how we are immersed into stories - however they are delivered to us ...

Once I'd worked out how #WalkingSimulators fit into the videogame world (surprise - they don't), then I began looking at how people talk about them after they've experienced them. Do they say the same things as other gamers, or do they say things that readers say? ...

Because it really doesn't matter whether academics and journalists say #WalkingSimulators are games or not. What matters is the evidence from people who've experienced them. Reader talk or gamer talk? ....

The big reveal is no big reveal at all - they talk like readers, not gamers.
And I've suddenly realised that I'm doing exactly what I set out to do 8 or 9 years ago. Which may come as no surprise, but now I've got the proof...I just have to finish writing it up. #PhD