Describing+Events,+To+Make+an+Analytic+Point

__**//Heavy Rain// Event at RPI**__  The empirical data contained in this paper was gathered through my participant-observation of a group of university students and professors – a group of 11 people, myself included – who attempted to play portions of a game called  // Heavy Rain – //   a game that aspires to great cinematic realism, a trademark of Quantic Dream, its producer. Originally dubbed “Video Game Legitimation Day,” the event was organized by one of the students partly as a way to legitimate his hobby to the department but also as a way to introduce the group to alternate types of video games, the focus of the event quickly moved from the game itself to gaining mastery of the gamepad. Because of this shift, not everyone 'played' the game in the traditional sense of interacting with the game software. However, everyone became involved in the 'playing' by virtue of the difficulty to quickly master the gamepad.  The event in question was both a demonstration and a chance for participation. My friend and I installed a Playstation 3 console in the classroom adjacent to the Science and Technology Studies graduate student lounge, and projected the game onto the screen. After ensuring that out setup was technically reliable, we simply waiting for people to arrive. At the appointed time, people – both students and faculty – began filing in. They took their seats and after a short introduction by my friend and I the gamepad was given to a willing participant. At this point, I still thought that Video Game Legitimation Day would be a simple occasion to demonstrate a different kind of game to an audience unfamiliar with  // Heavy Rain //   's genre. However, Video Game Legitimation Day took on a life of its own and became an ethnographic moment within which I found myself immersed.