Thesis: Context
(Edit: This is no longer my thesis idea! Although it is still an awesome idea.)
Metroid
Originally a 2D game:
... and so fans were apprehensive when the 3D sequel was announced. But then it turned out that everyone liked it!
A "zero player" RPG:
It maintains all of the mechanics of a role-playing game (e.g., World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy), but has a very different means of interaction. It's an example of a game made in response to another game (or genre of games). Part of the recent Zero Gamer show.
A "performance" of Ulysses on Twitter, in celebration of Bloomsday. They're taking an already pretty ludic text and adopting it to a different genre—importantly, for my purposes, a text-based genre. It works as commentary not just on the source material but the medium itself (though I don't agree with Bogost's sentiments about Twitter at all).
Frotzophone
More information about the project. I'll be giving a demo in class.
Further Reading
I still haven't gone through the bibliography of Twisty Little Passages in detail. Montfort talks at some length about interactive fiction adaptations of novels, which will be a useful reference.