{"id":1168,"date":"2026-01-09T11:39:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:49:15","slug":"critical-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/2026\/01\/09\/critical-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my research of paywalls in academia, I decided that the best way to approach this topic within a narrative was to show the decline of open access through the literal decline of a library. I wanted this library to have been the most amazing, beautiful library in the world to highlight it’s sharp decline, and I wanted to explore that library’s demise, inspired by history like the destruction of the Library of Alexandria that I looked into in my first presentation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FOUR TOPICS<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I then, having decided on the key idea of my project, decided to outline the roles that needed to be filled by characters. I decided that I wanted my mains roles to be a key Government figure, a leader of a Rebellion against that Government, and a Librarian who slowly comes to realise the tragedy of the Library while talking to patrons, the Player Character. I also wanted someone to fill the role of ‘capitalist’, a representation of the greed of paywalls, Silas Price. I later also decided that I liked the idea of an anti-intellectualist figure, something that fundamentally refuses to concern itself with open access and instead argues for a rejection of intellectuals, knowledge and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the past and current political climate has inspired this project. Specifically looking at Anti-Intellectualism, this movement has been getting more and more popular in recent years, especially being prevelant in the US with figures like Donald Tump and vaccine skepticist RFK Junior as well as far-right British populist figures like Tommy Robinson. Michael Gove famously stated during the EU referendum in 2016, ‘I think the people in this country have had enough of experts’, showing, ‘the gap that appears to have emerged between expert views and public opinion.’ (Institute for Government, 2016). The populist movement especially has inspired my character, Rory Ignotius. As Mudde and Kaltwasser (2017) define, populism is ‘a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic camps, \u201cthe pure people\u201d versus \u201cthe corrupt elite,\u201d and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volont\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9rale (general will) of the people’ (p. 6). Ignotius was a working class man, one that is popular and idolised for his charisma, and someone that the people feel embodies their views, while the Government is corrupt and obsessed with power and magic, Ignotius rejects that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had already decided that I wanted to base this project in the past, but I hadn’t decided on an era, originally looking at the 1940s before I realised that I much prefered the context of the 19th century which is when the fight for public, tax funded libraries began:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VISITING THE BRITISH LIBRARY<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Based on this research, I also felt that Edward Edwards is a great rebellious figure in the history of public libraries, and he has impacted the concept I had for Liberty Lind, my leader of the Rebellion. Her personality and motives are also inspired by my research on figures like Aaron Swartz, Alexandra Elbakyan and organisations like Reporters Without Boarders and the Open Access Movement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PAYWALLS AND ADVERTISMENTS PRESENTATION<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once I decided on the roles I wanted to fill, I wanted to design my characters. I did some research on the fashion of the 19th century and made some moodboards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CHARACTER CONCEPTS<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COMPETITORS<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
CONTENT<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my research of paywalls in academia, I decided that the best way to approach this topic within a narrative was to show the decline of open access through the literal decline of a library. I wanted this library to have been the most amazing, beautiful library in the world to highlight it’s sharp decline, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,19,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-proposal","category-semester-1-year-3","category-year-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1743,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/ob6g23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}