Abstract
This project emerged from what has been laughingly referred to as “Sparklegate,” a moment in which members of the rhetoric and composition community debated over the appropriateness of the quest-based game C’s the Day at the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication. We argue that the local example of C’s the Day and “Sparklegate” is a moment that reflects larger tensions about the role of games in education and attitudes toward the field of game studies itself. With C's the Day returning for its sixth year in 2016, a discussion of the game and these tensions is timely.
Keywords: gamification, games in education, sparkleponies, academic conferences, networking