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Tag: Reflection

COVID Disparity Quest Reflection

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When our group first came together for the Twine project, we realized that we wanted to show the challenges that one was forced to make early in the pandemic. We had decided on using meters to illustrate the challenging task of limiting COVID risk, keeping money afloat, and maintaining a strong mental capacity without stressors. We eventually realized that in fact, we did not have the capabilities to create meters. Although we were allowed to still incorporate meters into our proposal, this moment was our first reckoning with the immense work that it takes to create a game. As I reflect on this process, I have a great deal of respect for game creators in how they are able to seamlessly incorporate a storyline into the technical mechanics of the game.

Our group soon realized that the best way to develop this game, given our limitations, was through the storyline. Through conversations, we found that our initial game plot was not engaging. Every single person has had to make difficult choices during this pandemic, so why would someone choose to play the exact same scenario? In focusing on different socioeconomic classes, we wanted players to be able to see how the pandemic disproportionally affected people of lower income. In retrospect, we were doing exactly what Ian Bogost explains is part of the micro-ecology of games: creating empathy. In talking about the game Darfur is Dying, Bogost says “those games would do well to invite us to step into the smaller, more uncomfortable shoes of the downtrodden rather than the larger, more well-heeled shoes of the powerful.” In developing the game, we did not care for our players to learn about the frivolous choices that people in the high socioeconomic class, the “well-heeled shoes of the powerful,” face. Rather, by creating low, medium, and high options that a player can choose from, we were hoping to show the contrast in decisions among these different characters and thus have the players really delve into those small, uncomfortable shoes.

An initial challenge we faced when this group came together was finding a time to meet outside of class. Mudita, Pratyush, and Rishika are 10.5 hours ahead of me, so that was a bit of a barrier. I think we found, though, that despite coming from different places we all felt similarly about the struggles that people of low socioeconomic classes faced and were thus able to use all of our experiences to develop the plot. Nevertheless, I am incredibly grateful to the three for inviting me into their already assembled podcast group and working around the time barrier.

Democratic Socialism Simulator Reflection

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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. 

Fantasy Football Podcast Assistant Producer Reflection

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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.

Twine Reflection

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I would say that my most important contribution was integrating the ‘Groundhog Day’ idea into the project. Prior to this, our group was considering doing a narrative style gameplay, with multiple long storylines. We still maintained elements of this, but by adding an element of daily repetition, a la “Groundhog Day”, it better represented the grueling nature of quarantine, as most people can attest to the fact that for at least a short period during quarantine, life felt like you were doing the same thing every day, over and over again. 

One new technical skill I learned in doing this project includes using Twine to storyboard a situation with numerous options. As an aspiring screenwriter, this is a great online tool for planning narratives, as it allows for multiple different storylines based on a character decision. I would say the way me and my group approached this project was very different to the way we approached our podcast episodes, because in our podcast episodes we tried to first develop our argument based on the game’s medium, but in the Twine game, we had to sort of work backwards by creating a medium that fostered an understanding of what Senior quarantine was like. I’m hoping to use these skills as a creator – in writing stories, creating games, or even animating/doing art, I plan to make use of my work in developing a strong medium to express meaning.

Podcast Reflection: Democratic Socialism Simulator

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In the episode of Democratic Socialism Simulator, I became the producer. This time we had an even more clearer focus on the tasks involved. As the producer, I need to lead the discussion on the game, record and edit the audio file, and attend meetings including the meeting with Professor Morgen. Compare to the previous podcast on Temple Run and Oxenfree, I think we are much more organized. We literally had more interactions with each other. Although we had a stricter time due to the oblivion to sign up, we actually find the perfect game within a shortened time frame. For the last episodes, we had to probe on how to record in zoom, who is doing what job, and we had to record several times before the final version. Yet, for this episode, everything is simply going as smoothly as possible

Importantly, the goals and main talking points had shifted significantly compare to the last two episodes. We improved on the “game-finding skills”. For Temple Run, we had barely anything to talk about on its meaning and mechanics; yet for Oxenfree, the mechanics would be a little bit confusing to talk about without having to play the game itself. For Democratic Socialism Simulator, we are intrigued by the complex viewing point it provided towards the ongoing election. Amongst our group we had a heated discussion on the game’s view. Some of us believed that the moderacy element means doing nothing, others believed that moderacy means staying neutral. We even discussed about the historical successful president to prove our point. To be honest, I would not change any part of the content this podcast provided if we had to do it again.

As we have more attempts on the podcasts, the ability to “demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion and while working together on projects and presentations”, as stated in the Learning Objective page, are being tested again. As aforementioned, we had different viewpoints that leads us to different assertions. However, with collaborations skils, we overcome the dividing views and came to a conclusion with everyone being satisfied . With the projects, Anusha, Hayden, and I had definitely became more comfortable working with one another. Although learning how to cooperate is a gradual process, we had made clear progression to mastering this skill.

Podcast episode 2 reflection

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Being the producer of this episode came with greater responsibility on my end. However, I am happy that everything turned out well and that we were able to have a productive conversation about the game. Oxenfree was certainly a huge jump for us from the first episode due to how polar opposite it was to Temple Run, from the mechanics to graphics to gameplay. It was in a nutshell a much more complex game. When I was writing the script, I made sure we explain the game well before going into critical analysis and exploring different aspects of the game. I think I laid out the arguments in a logical way and everyone had the chance to talk about at least one specific part of the game that they like.

Game comparison reflection

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I find this assignment particularly memorable because it was so different from other essays and assignments I have done in the past.

First, I have never written an analysis on games before. By analyzing Gone Home and Gris, I was able to pick up on little details I would have missed had I not done the assignment. I think it was less about comparing the games and more about how different games benefit us in different ways.

Second, this essay was the first long writing assignment I have for a long time, since high school to be exact. I felt rusty getting back to writing but at the same time I can understand why it was so important to learn to articulate my thoughts well on paper. I felt much more organized writing an essay then say giving a presentation.

Game Comparison Reflection

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essay: https://thisiselainecom.wordpress.com/game-comparison/.

        The thesis in my essay is that though in different games trauma could be expressed in different ways and emotions, love, hope, salvation is always revealed through the topic of trauma. When I first tried to write this essay in such format, I was very wired that I have never written an essay that is straightforward like this. However, writing the thesis statement at the end actually helps me to reflect the central idea the broader picture of my essay after finishing the most part of it. And I organized my essay by three parts: the first two-part comparison, and the final big picture; the first sentence of each paragraph is always a sort of summary and the middle sentence is usually a transition. Throughout the process of my writing, I dig deep in the games that I analyzed. I was amazed and surprised that though both games appear have few connections, but the whole emotional connections related to trauma is quite the same.

Game Comparison Reflection

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Essay: https://wordpress.com/page/andrewmagica.wordpress.com/163

Thesis: The vagueness and repetition used in Gris and Gone Home allow the gamer to be vulnerable and understand their own trauma.

For the majority of my writing education, I have been writing deductive essays. My usual formula for writing essays is to start with a general hook, connect it to my thesis, and then get specific. Even though this was an inductive essay, I still decided to start with a general hook just to let my ideas flow onto the page. I took it out after. I honestly enjoyed writing an inductive essay because the flow of ideas made sense to me. I started off by talking about vagueness in the games and providing evidence and context from the game. I then talked about what the theme allowed the gamer to learn about trauma. I then did the same thing for repetition. At first, I included vulnerability, a word important to my thesis, in my first paragraph because it explained my theme well. I realized however that vulnerability also connected to my other theme, repetition. I then decided to use the word as the key part of my thesis. The inductive nature of the essay allowed me to enhance my themes by bringing them together. Both themes allowed for the same effect on the player, so it made sense to do it that way. The difficulty in writing this essay was that it was difficult to find evidence. It’s not like you had a text that you could easily get information from. We played some of these games a long time ago, and I needed to replay certain parts, which took up time. In playing through the parts of the game again, I focused on how the game affected the player more than figuring out how the game works. This allowed me to see how vulnerability and repetition were used well in the game, and how the games focus on different aspects of Trauma.

Game Comparison Reflection

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My Game Comparison essay mainly focuses on how Gris and Gone Home, despite being so obviously different, provide players with an authentic and real experience of what trauma does to the brain, and thus give a deeper and more meaningful understanding of what trauma is.

When I started writing this essay, I wasn’t sure about what my thesis was going to be. I had a pretty clear idea about which aspects of trauma I wanted to focus on, however, and so I decided to begin writing. The first part of three talks about the lack of direct linguistic representation of trauma in Gris and Gone Home. The second part is about the relationship of characters with their surroundings, and the space around them, and how trauma impacts this. I had spent a whole day just replaying both the games, and continuously taking notes about any thoughts I had, or anything I found interesting. So, for the first two parts I had sufficient content, I just had to organise it. Even after I finished these two parts, I did not have a clear idea for what I wanted my thesis to be. It was close to 4 AM and I really had to finish it. Out of ideas, I opened a fresh page in my notebook and in block letters at the top I wrote– “WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY?” I tried to answer this question as honestly as possible without thinking about how I would articulate the thoughts into my essay, and managed to fill a whole page within just a few minutes. I assimilated these raw thoughts, along with other observations I had made throughout the process of writing the essay and honed it into a thesis statement and also gave a broad overview of what I was trying to say in the final part.

On the whole, it was difficult to break away from the standard 5 paragraph, intro-body-conclusion structure, as that is what I have been programmed to do ever since I can remember. But, it was interesting because I think that this new format allowed me to analyse and think about the games in greater depth than I would otherwise.

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