My First True Academic Paper

I’ve posted up some academic work I’ve done, but those are all little things.  None of it is anything worthy of attention by scholars, just rote work to prove understanding of concepts.  But now, I’m starting my first academic paper to submit to the college, and I’ve narrowed my interests down to a couple of topics.  Feel free to comment.

Number One

The social/psychological aspects of Dungeon Masters leading their groups and of the groups themselves. This is inspired by the recent news report of D&D being banned from prisons due to it emulating gang activity.

Number Two

The usage/treatment of current religions in science fiction. Someone once told me that certain religions, when used in future-based science fiction, must be assumed to be false. For example, it goes against the scriptures of Christianity for Christianity to still exist in the year 2500, and therefore must be false. People who worship Christianity in a world where the year 2500 is a possibility must have come up with—made up—a reasoning for why the return of Christ hasn’t happened yet. Another spin on this: Orson Scott Card is a Mormon, but you really couldn’t tell due to the absence of religion from some books, and the usage of Catholicism in his Ender’s series. I would love to find out how he, and other writers, handle it.

Number Three

The effects of productivity on the bottom line.  In my job, we were harped on the fact that if we could “save people 5 minutes, we would save them 5 minutes every time they did that, adding up to tons of saved time.” I’d like to find out, in dollars, how this works. I’d like to study the ways people can be taught, and perhaps methods on how to best train, en masse, broad groups of people to create a positive return on investment.