Tag: podcast reflection

The acting Producer, Elaine Han, chose the focus on Super Mario Odyssey for this episode. I was excited to get into the game because I had never played it before. The creation process for the script was the same as always. We took the time to play the game and wrote our own points. The concluding product focused a bunch on the gameplay as well as interesting aspects that we saw in the game, such as intense probing that is involved in the game. The entire process was enjoyable. The great chemistry between the team allowed us to smoothly develop the script. Just like the other episodes our group has made, we successfully hit the learning outcomes. We took the game and synthesized the interesting points of the game and laid them out in the podcast script document after which we refined the points and converted them into talking points. Our group worked well as always, messaging each other frequently. We used technology well; I was involved in making the final product come together by making snippets of voiced recordings of the script and knitting everything together. One thing I would like to improve is connecting a game to other scholarly arguments. The current and past episodes were heavily connected with Mary Flanagan’s Critical Play and Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You. And although it was necessary and appropriate to connect our games to those novels and their ideas, I wish to challenge myself to connect ideas to other scholarly books. After making 3 interesting episodes on 3 vastly different games, I think it is safe to say that our group—Jimmy, Elaine and I—are well equipped in the knowings of how to make a podcast on any game. I thought the most interesting thing about the episode was the game was the play experience, and how vastly different it was to my previous experience playing Mario. I remember playing the 2006 New Super Mario Bros that came out on the DS Lite. The improvement in graphics, the transition from the classic platform game to an amazing free-roam game. It was a delight to touch Odyssey after so many years of not playing the Mario video games franchise.

As the Co-producer of this episode titled “Valorant”, I assisted Andy Kim, the main producer in researching, analyzing, drafting, and recording. However, we agreed to let the main producer take heavy responsibility and initiative in shaping the goal and final effects of the episode. Throughout the process of making this podcast, I worked alongside Andy and learned about his passion about the game Valorant. Unlike Among Us, which is a game unfamiliar to us at first, Valorant is a game that Andy and I do play in our free time. Because of that, we spent time to specifically talk about how we should move out of a “player’s mindset” and work on developing analysis and arguing a valuable thesis. And I was thrilled to find out that we successfully switched from the perspective of being a player to the perspective of being a researcher.

In fact, we spent numerous efforts to avoid showing how great or popular Valorant is in the market, but to offer critical analysis about this game, like what messages it delivers, and what skills or qualities it helps people build, and why these things can benefit us in other aspects of our lives.

We met challenges like time management, setting a heavy and unrealistic goal, and overcomplicating our arguments. Under a tight schedule to finish our podcast, we still decided to find and incorporate three good sources from our research. We obviously set up a goal that was too aspirational and grand to manage.

As the line editor, I would still like to reflect and discuss on the process of making this episode. In our group, we usually evenly split up the work, which mean that no matter the role, we put similar amount of input and ideas into the podcast. The reason why I was assigned line editor was because I am a producer who’s more efficient in editing audio clips. For this episode, we worked on a game that I have played throughout my childhood. The Plague Inc. went viral immediately when it came out a few years ago. At the time, I did not expect an actual global pandemic to ever happen in my life. However, when we brainstorm as a group and played the game together, I realized that all the things that are mentioned in the group had happened and is happening to our world. During the podcast, I tried to contribute my personal experiences and feelings toward this game. I think everybody had a chance to discuss about specific parts of the game that they liked and relate the game to our current circumstances.

In the latest episode of The Longest Rainy Sunday, my group explored the game Democratic Socialism Simulator in which I served as the assistant producer. 

In this episode, we focused on how the game poses the argument that the most ideal form of government is a moderate one. The name implies that this is a game that will embrace socialist-like ideals, yet it instead, mocks them. The actual feedback loop and mechanisms of the game shows that when decisions are consistently made under one viewpoint, problems arise. One problem that we focus on specifically, is the bankruptcy of the country when we make decisions that lean left–decisions that in my opinion, are fundamental human rights. 

I greatly enjoyed being a part of creating this episode because we were able to incorporate topics from current day life other than the daily despair each one of us faces amidst a raging pandemic. We published this episode only one week after the presidential election, a time when many of us were entrenched in the outcomes because the repercussions for people both domestically and abroad could be severe. We had the liberty to thus reflect on this election and what factors may have contributed to Biden’s win. One point we make during this episode is how this game came out in February, amidst primary season. Many people believed that Biden should be the democratic elect because we needed a moderate president who would appeal to undecided and even republican voters. This viewpoint came at a time when Bernie Sanders and Biden were neck and neck in the race. Coincidently, the description of Democratic Socialism Simulator says that the game is “an attempt to prefigure the opportunities and challenges of a Sanders (or Sanders-like) presidency.” This game may have influenced people to abandon their support for Sanders after playing because it illustrates that a socialist government is unattainable and unrealistic. Other topics that we were able to integrate into our podcast was the role of young voters in this election as well as a reflection on Lincoln and FDR. I think this mechanism of incorporating political issues was very helpful because we were able to share our own opinions on this game and what a moderate presidency really means. In this way, our opinions gave the episode more character and helped it seem more natural. 

In respect to the process of producing, I think our group has gotten very comfortable with creating a podcast episode. When we produced our first episode, Temple Run, we were all coming to the task without any experience. Granted, we did choose a game we were somewhat familiar with–yet we were still very new to analyzing a game with a critical analysis lens. Deciding on a game, formulating a thesis, and recording took much more time that first week than it did during this episode. Now, I believe we have the ability to approach any game (including those we have not played) and effectively create an argument. We also very seamlessly have gotten into the flow of creating the other components of this podcast episode like the summary, cover photo, and script. I think that, in the future, if I ever have to create a podcast episode for another class, I would not find it a daunting process.  

Given that this was our final episode, I also want to thank Jiachen and Hayden for being really great group members during this process. I think we worked really well and efficiently, and for Jiachen, I have a great deal of respect for coordinating times with us when he was twelve hours ahead of us. 

Our group initially was planning on doing Madden as our game, but we found that Fantasy Football is a richer, more analyzable game, even though the game itself is a bit simpler. After deciding that we were doing Fantasy Football, we split up the work. I would say that I wrote a lot for the Google Doc we had for the script, since I have the most experience playing Fantasy, but Ranjan and Andrew filled in the numerous holes in the argument that we had, regarding why Fantasy Football was actually good for you, and not just an unhealthy sports betting/prediction competition. Andrew and Ranjan later did a lot of work actually developing the podcast by editing the podcast and doing the logo. After doing the script and recording, the only thing I did was the Bibliography. 

Our episode is different from other episodes mainly in the game itself – Fantasy Football definitely qualifies as a game, but there’s much fewer gamely elements. Although we don’t really discuss this in the episode, Fantasy Football definitely requires less work from the player than the other games we have done before and the games that other groups have done. 

Our goals in creating this episode were to demonstrate the value of playing Fantasy Football. Apart from being fun, it also has genuine benefits for its players. It fosters longtime social connections and most of all provides a great introduction to statistics, decision-making, and critical thinking. 

This particular podcast felt a bit more similar to essay writing than other podcasts since it felt like the burden of evidence rested a bit heavier on our shoulders this time. I felt a bit like Steven Johnson did in Why Everything Bad is Good for you: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, as to me the audience felt initially skeptical of Fantasy Football’s benefit, whereas in games like Minecraft and Super Mario 64, the audience was already to a certain degree on my side.

Based off of this particular podcast episode, a few things I would suggest are extensive research into your topic. In the previous two episodes our group did, most of the evidence we needed was easily available, but for this episode, it was more difficult to find the data we were looking for since it was kind of hidden under a mound of articles disclosing why Fantasy Football was negative for one’s health or articles giving Fantasy advice. Extensive research provided us with a perfect resource; an actual college observational study about Fantasy Football’s relationship to teaching economics.