UT libraries create ‘Jargon Blaster’ game to aid students in understanding library jargon

ELI BOLDT Contributor

instructional developer and designer with the Teaching and Learning programs.

The game’s allure is its story, in which a pixelated version of Smokey in an eight-bit video game is tasked to save Knoxville from being digitized. Users save landmarks around the city like the Sunsphere, Tennessee Theatre and Hodges Library.

to refresh their memory before diving into the questions.

There is a space for feedback, and users can suggest other library terms that should be added to the game. Dies stressed that he did his best to make it user friendly. The music can be muted and the pixelated text can be turned to a standard font. He wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could find it accessible.

A villainous alligator is digitizing landmarks in order to take over the world. Only you — playing as Smokey and correctly answering questions about library jargon — can save it. This is the storyline that Jargon Blaster, a tutorial and game that was released on the University of Tennessee libraries’ website early this year, follows. This game was created specifically for UT libraries by Elijah Dies, an

In order to earn the story, which is shown through cut scenes and dialogue, users must correctly answer questions, largely about library terms such as citations, limiters and abstracts. When users get a certain amount of questions correct, the story continues. The ending can differ based on how well users play. Dies has a background in playing video games, and designed this tutorial with inspiration from old video games. In storyboarding the scenes, Dies created Enpeesee, a side character wizard who helps Smokey through his journey. There are direct allusions to Mario Bros. and Pac-Man, with Atari and Zelda being other inspirations for the design and story.

The game has a bit of everything: a castle, an underwater scene and a twist ending.

UT libraries have vast collections of resources and services available, but they can be difficult to navigate and hard to understand. Library terms can be confusing. Playing the game will help users clarify their knowledge. Users can click through definitions each round

“Most of the people that you are going to be talking to in a library are going to, even if they’re not intending to, they’re going to start using some of this jargon so it’s important to know some of these basic elements,” Dies said.

Sara Caoile, a sophomore art major, works at the library as a student library assistant. Outside of her work, she spends about two hours a week at Hodges. Caoile was not aware of Jargon Blaster and played through it for the first time while at work.

“It is really cute. It is also very informational … I think this is a good way for people to know where stuff is but still have a good time,” Caoile said.

“It’s educational, but it’s supposed to be fun. It is created with love,” Dies said. Dies explained that learning goes both ways — library workers and students can meet in the middle to best work through learning. Jargon Blaster can be played on UT’s libraries website.

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In Knox Pride’s media appearances, the group has emphasized the broader agenda of the state legislature.

“Because they can’t really attack marriage equality at this point, they’re going after culture, and they’re going after trans people, and they’re going after kids, because those are the things that they still feel they can affect,” VanNess said.

UT students have also been openly supportive of the drag community, some by attending performances at local venues and some by participating themselves.

Boomer Russell, a fourth year doctoral candidate in biochemistry, has been performing as Fatty Acid for 9 months in the local drag scene. He takes issue with the way the legislation targets shows as “harmful to minors,” which it describes as shows that contain “nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse.” The bill is categorized by the legislature in a group of laws pertaining to obscenity and pornography.

“We wear a lot of clothes,” Russell said. “I wear so many clothes when I do drag, like, if that’s what they’re worried about, they’re not gonna see a thing.”

Jack Johnson, Senate Majority Leader and the bill’s Republican sponsor, took to Twitter after Lee signed it into law to argue that the legislation was meant to keep minors safe.

“The bill just overwhelmingly passed by our Tennessee General Assembly will protect vulnerable children from exploitation and mutilation,”his tweet said. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Memes spread across social media have shown drag performers next to waitresses at Hooters, a restaurant known for dressing its female staff in short shorts and low-cut shirts, and have compared the animus towards the LGBTQ community to films like “Mrs. Doubtfire” which features cross-dressing but has not faced the same pushback.

After the news broke that Lee planned to sign the bill into law if the senate pushed it through, a 1977 yearbook photo allegedly taken of the governor leaked. The photo is said to be the current governor Bill Lee, dressed in what many consider to be “drag attire.”

Lee stated that the conversation surrounding it was “ridiculous.”

Lee neither confirmed nor denied that the photo was of him, but that hasn’t stopped people from calling him hypocritical across social media.

David Gregg, a bartender, member of the LGBTQ community and active audience member of drag shows said the bill targeted a community that was already marginalized.

“Throughout the history of our country, it seems like all minorities and/or marginalized groups have become subject to scrutiny, strict rules and laws and oppression,” Gregg said. “This bill follows those precedents and for someone who attended a drag performance less than a week ago, it is a little intimidating knowing that that last show could have been the last time I can enjoy one freely.”

The idea of freedom is one that activists have focused on in opposing the actions of the state legislature against groups that already enjoy fewer legal protections.

“This bill is taking away the rights of marginalized groups to freely express themselves,” Danny Watson, a server and active member in the drag community, said. “The Tennessee government has passed numerous laws and bills over the recent months that continue to take away freedom from marginalized groups, such as the abortion bill.”

In October, research conducted by the Human Rights Campaign and Bowling Green State University used census data to project that 1 in 7 voters would identify as LGBTQ by 2030, and perhaps 1 in 5 by 2040.

Andrew Henry, a freelance makeup artist who performs in drag in Knoxville as Harri Scari, said the anti-LGBTQ bills in the Tennessee General Assembly were a direct attempt to threaten the lives and livelihoods of these voters.

“The point is to get national attention and to score political points for actually a much smaller base, but it’s a base that does vote quite passionately. It’s emboldened a much more radical minority to put our lives at risk,” Henry said.

Though some LGBTQ people, especially performers and trans individuals, have considered leaving the state for fears of their own safety, Henry said such a migration is not financially feasible for many people.

“Frankly, a lot of people don’t have the means to leave,” Henry said. “A vast majority of queer people in this state are not wealthy … we have to combat these bills from Tennessee, because there’s many people who can’t escape.”

As a lifelong Tennessee resident, Boomer Russell says he has gone back and forth on whether or not he wants to stay in the state, but the anti-trans and anti-drag bills have made him consider a move. As amended, the law is set to go into effect on April 1.

“We shouldn’t feel like we should have to leave,” Russell said. “This is just as much my home as it is some straight person. I am just as entitled to live here, to perform and express my art, to work, to exist, just as much as anyone else, and these bills are making that very hard to do.”