Tag: player narrative reflection

For me the player narrative was pretty difficult to begin with, since I never have thought or reflected on the ways I play a game ever before. In contrast I was constant taught to do so for movies and books. Through this experience, I learned and realized that games could be as influential and educational as (if not more than) movies and books. As I write more, the easier it had become for me to reflect on myself. I hope that through this narrative I illustrated the message that games do not have to be competitive in order for it to be fun. Writing this piece has brought me back to the memories of putting myself into imaginary worlds of those games I have played, which was beautiful.

The Player Narrative: https://royf94.wordpress.com/player-narrative/

Link to the Player Narrative

The overall message that I wanted to address through my narrative is that, there is a gap in different generation’s opinion toward playing video games. As I mentioned in my paper, “In my parents’ stances, they believed games are designed for problematic teenagers.” Followed by that, I discussed my own video games experiences with the two games that have influenced me, Minecraft, and the Chinese MOBA game. Minecraft has been a constantly evolving outlet for me to be creative, and the Chinese MOBA game not only taught me lessons of teamwork, but also became a connection tool for me and my friends in China. As I grew up, games started to influence more to my life. “Games have always been a place to find joy and serenity.” From playing game, I learned to be patience, be creative, and to be a team player.

Writing the Player Narrative was much easier than writing the Literacy Narrative. It was definitely because I’ve just played a incomparably more than I have written or read. As much as I would have liked to write about my ample video gaming experience, I recognized and learned that my most memorable experiences regarding games were when I did something with the company of my friends. I have spent so much time playing games alone while talking to friends in the online sphere, but I realize it just isn’t memorable when you’re all alone in your basement. The explicit message my player narrative reflects hopefully conveys that games, not just video games, are enjoyable especially when you play with your peers. I think the real social aspect, that is not present with virtual gaming, is something special that online friendships can’t provide. My steps for this narrative were drastically different to my literacy narrative. In the literacy narrative, I had to compile a list of writing/reading experiences because I struggled to choose a memorable that was particularly memorable to me. However, for this reflection, I had so many experiences I had thought up in my mind simply from the fact I am more a player than a reader-writer.

You can find my player narrative here

The only difference in my approach to this essay compared to the literary narrative I had to write is my excitement. I play games so I was very interested in writing this. My player narrative is basically a comparison of the past and the present and how certain things have changed. From writing my player narrative I’ve learned to analyze myself while I play certain games and keep a tab of it.

The idea of being thrown into a new environment without any idea of what you need to can always be troublesome. Through my journey into videogames, I started by playing games without help from the game itself until I get trapped by a ten year old girl. Within trying to pass through my rival’s obstacle in Pokémon Sapphire, I started to learn about balance, problem-solving, determination, applying information, and strategy. In my player narrative, I discuss how I went about beating May on route 110.

Check it out: https://dangerdolan801811591.wordpress.com/stepping-into-the-path-of-gaming/

This is the reflection post of my player narrative essay. I spent a couple of hours on this one. And I corrected some mistakes that I made in my literacy narrative essay. I paid attention to develop a clear thesis and find some different points to support it. So instead of just laying it all out there, I first had a clearer overview of I was about to write for this essay. I think that helped me a lot during the writing process. And I hope the points can support the main thesis as I planned. Some possible room for improvements may include repetition of words and expressions, lack of clarification on some terms, etc.

In my player narrative, I sought to explain how games served as a starting point for my creative aspirations. There is a nod to how I believe games allowed me to forge my own sources of engagement with other people, and how that focus helped me become self-reliant.

I think I had the same results in terms of the success of the free-writing exercise, but I do think the activity itself was easier to complete because I had more concrete memories of playing games. I think the structure of my player narrative was entirely different from my literacy narrative. Instead of feeling a wariness and back & forth about my identity like I did when I wrote my literacy narrative, I felt motivated by my previous experiences with games. Each paragraph tried to build off this increased sense of creativity and fulfillment.

I learned it was alright to delete writing that draws away from the point of the essay. There was a paragraph, that I felt was really well written, about my limited but favorite experiences playing games with my family. Ultimately, it didn’t add anything to my thesis and created more confusion in my essay. Deleting the section was a difficult decision, but once I did, I felt that my essay flowed much more effectively.

The controlling idea of my narrative is that games are similar to our lifes, and learning how to play games are a way to improve our perspective. Through this narrative, I further understood my point of view toward games, and I shared my way of living in a medium that I can better organize my thoughts. Different from my literary narrative, I incorporated more description of my experience. Those are the pictures when I free-wrote about games or hockey. My structure starts with an introduction to “my game”, and then I described one experience out and reasoned another point with logic, followed with a conclusion. There isn’t many new ideas. All of the ideas came from the free-writing exercise, I simply rearranged into my essay.

I approached this assignment similar to the first one, but the difference was that this time I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write from the beginning. I have a very personal history with games, so it was not very hard to write about my experiences as a gamer. In my narrative I contrast the time in my life before and after I played my first videogame. Remembering my life before I was able to play games was tough, as a lot of it was pretty bleak. I worked a lot and had little to no fun. My only real escape was reading, and as I explained, it was not really enough. I distinctly remembered my first game because it really was an important time in my life. I honestly have mostly good memories from my time with cancer, mostly because that was the time games came into my life, and I grew a greater attraction with books. Being in a hospital bed for weeks really helps you focus on building on yourself, and that’s what I did. My first game, Super Scribblenauts, was the perfect first game for me. It allowed me to use my experiences with reading to help other characters by typing in words and making them come to life. In doing this I was able to grow as a person. In writing this narrative, I learned more about how games can help people grow by calling on my past experiences. 

My main idea in the writer narrative involves my two most important experiences in my life being a player of games.

I found this exercise quite difficult at first. I didn’t know what to write about. I decided to start off broad, saying that games are everywhere in our lives. We can call any unconventional task a game if we want them to be. I then moved on write about the so-called games that are important to me, those that helped shape my identity as a player.

Through writing the player narrative, I learned that there are so many benefits to playing games. I also reflected on my experiences on a deeper level. I have always been playing games but rarely I took the time to think hard about it.