Tag: Reflection

The week our episode was due, I was initially stressed because creating a podcast is not something I had ever done before. Though, I am grateful for Hayden and Bob in how we all came together to produce an interesting and thoughtful episode. 

Our first challenge was deciding on a game. While we did start somewhat in advance of the project, we admittedly were constrained by time. When we got together, we all came to consensus that foremost, we had to choose a game that we had all played. Hayden and Bob definitely had played more games than me, so it took a bit of narrowing down, but we did settle on Temple Run. I proposed it mainly because when I was looking for games, I found out that Temple Run is still one of the leading games on the Apple play store. It really does surprise me how games that are no longer in the mainstream view remain popular for quite a few years (in the case of Temple Run it was almost a decade). I wanted to explore this aspect as well as think about the mechanics of Temple Run because I felt that it spurred the era of 3-D simulator games. I was slightly hesitant about pursuing the game because it very much was so casual that it did not necessarily fit into the definition in this class. Though, retrospectively, I think this factor of Temple Run being somewhat of an odd game made it that much more interesting to explore in our episode, especially with the added aspect of the pandemic. We will not be exploring casual games for every episode, though, so for future weeks, we plan to choose games that we are necessarily familiar with. 

We settled on roles based on our availability that week, and plan to switch for every episode. The responsibility was split up such that I, the producer, would be in charge of outlining the script of general ideas (including the sources) that we would cover as well as editing the episode. Hayden, the assistant producer, would be in charge of the transcript and Bob, the line producer, would create the cover picture and summary of the episode. We all, of course, contributed to the brainstorming of discussion topics and crafting of a main idea for the episode.

Looking back on my responsibilities, for the outline, I think I should have focused less on creating an actual script because our episode could have seemed more conversational. In terms of editing, I definitely do think I could have smoothed out the background noise or adjusted volumes more efficiently. Overall, however, the activity was more enjoyable than I had anticipated. I think being able to have the creative license to create something (video, podcast) has always been incredibly appealing to me, but I didn’t know how to even begin. After using Audacity and the Free Music Archive, I definitely see that I have areas to improve on, but I feel that operating the tools to create is not as much of a barrier as I thought it would be.

There was a lot that went into planning our podcast episode, Survival in Minecraft and in Quarantine. Since we were the first group to create a podcast episode, we did not really have much to go off of. We wanted to focus on what made Minecraft such a successful game, and what aspects of it were so endearing to the player. Looking back at it, we could have added more about what one could learn from Minecraft and less on the enjoyability of the game. We may have gotten a little carried away. I don’t think our group really thought of using the roles as a method of dividing the work. We were all pretty excited about recording a podcast about Minecraft, so we all decided to split up the work and make it together. Our first course of action was to write what aspects of games we can analyze and relate it to Minecraft. We chose to look at concepts like probing telescoping in the game, as well as analyzing how the type of game Minecraft is (sandbox) helped enhance its cause. We decided to do a preliminary recording after we put information down, without a script or flow, just to get out some initial points we had, and to test out the feel of the recording. It was successful, and we ended up using some points from that recording in our final one. In terms of organizing the podcast, we decided to focus on the different modes of Minecraft, and our personal experiences with the game. We were flirting with the idea of having a devil’s advocate who never played the game as a character, but we thought that concept was too forced. Focusing on personal experience made our podcast seem more authentic. Then we could add specific terms and concepts to explain our experiences. 

In terms of constraints, I do not think our group had many. As the first group to go, we had a little extra time to make our podcast, and we ended up covering all the topics we wanted to. Our podcast ran for 19 minutes, which was a few minutes above the recommended time for the podcast. Ideally, if we were recording in the same room, we would have jumped in on each other’s conversations more, and built of what we were saying. It was hard to signal when we wanted to jump in and out of the conversation, which made it hard to add on. 

Our podcast project could be considered the ultimate representation of the class’s learning objectives. We were able to summarize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate our group members’ ideas during the podcast as well as the works of other writers writing about games. We were also able to undertake writing as a process as described by one of the objectives. We researched different concepts and works that could describe Minecraft and drafted our first podcast run. We revised our information and made a more clear outline in order to make our final podcast episode, and I am now reflecting on that process myself. This project allowed me to go through the writing process, collaborate with others, analyze various works, and use technology to connect to others. Although some aspects of typical essay writing can be found in the learning objectives, such as analyzing works, drafting revising, and reflecting, the podcast project was able to combine all of the aspects into one. I feel like I grew more as a writer and a thinker during my time working on this project. I also grew more open to other mediums of writing and sharing ideas. As an individual, I think I could improve my speaking and social skills when it comes to projects like this, as I feel like I have good ideas, but I find it hard to express them verbally. 

Overall, I think episode 1 on Temple Run was a success. My main job as an assistant producer was to work on the script and help with generating outline for the episode. Choosing Temple Run was Anusha’s decision and although initially we thought the game was too simple and lacking substance to give us enough talking points, we decided to stick with it anyway. It stems from 2 reasons. First, we wanted to save more complex and mentally challenging game for later episodes. Second, we reckoned that developing a deep analysis for a game as simple as Temple Run would make the podcast much more interesting since we will be talking about ideas most people have not thought of before. And I think we succeeded.

Logistics wise, we started a little late but I am glad things turned out well. In our first meeting, we had a very productive hour bouncing off ideas about how the never-ending, no-winning nature of Temple Run mirrors that of the pandemic situation. Everything just seems static and boring right now. That was the backbone for this episode. We also questioned Temple Run’s popularity given its simplistic nature. It is quite interesting how the most successful game or product on the market isn’t always the most exciting or fancy or complex. This shows a lot about human behaviour and how we perceive things. Sometimes, all we need is a time-passer game, something less “mentally taxing,” something that can entertain us while we are busy thinking about other things. After we gathered all the points, Anusha rearranged them briefly and we started recording on Thursday. Again, we had a really productive hour as we only had to run it 3 times. The result was approximately 10 minutes so we were happy.

I would like to thank Anusha and Bob for making this first episode a success and I look forward to producing future episodes with them.

This is my first time to produce a podcast. At first, we really had no idea how to do anything, and trouble making any progress. Waiting until the weekend before the deadline, we finally made a decision on the game that we planned to make the episode on. The game KIDS is a minimalist style game or interactive animation that all of us think it is interesting and would have lots to talk about. After deciding the game, we brought ideas of what each of us wanted to cover in the episode, and organized them into a google doc. We spent about 3 hours writing the script together, and that was really productive. When it came to recording, we decided to record all separately. Roy edited the audio, Ryan wrote the paragraph description, and I did the thumbnail image, afterward. 

Through this assignment, I gained a familiarity with podcasting. I’m proud and pleased with how the episode turned out in the end. My group mates, Roy and Ryan, are both really talented and I really enjoyed the time working with them.

        Producing a podcast is a brand-new experience for me in my entire life. At the beginning stage of preparing for this project, I had no idea how should I start this assignment. Even some simple questions raised in my mind, such as what does podcast should actually look like? what should we talk about in it, etc. Fortunately, I was not alone; I have two wonderful teammates who went through all the challenges together. Though the beginning is hard, we made outlines, appointment with professor, and individual discussions to perfect the project.



      The part I enjoyed most was the brainstorming we went through altogether. Among Us is a game that has unique features, containing meanings and brings popularities especially under such a pandemic time. Digging deep with several minds together, we combined “unity” “togetherness” “identity” and even disclose the truth about human nature relating to the literature we discussed in the lecture.    

In doing our podcast, Survival in Minecraft and in Quarantine, the first step in our process that we each took was just to get our ideas about what direction we wanted the podcast to take on a Google Doc. This stage involved a lot of ideas that we didn’t end up using, such as Minecraft Youtubers and Minecraft server games. Next, we organized the doc to create a general structure, also adding some scripted lines; however, we also made sure to leave ample space in the script for unscripted conversation so the podcast would sound natural and have more depth. Writing the script was something we all split evenly. Finally, when it came to recording, we actually recorded twice – once was a rough draft, and the second time was the real thing. This was very effective, as in the first recording we got all of the ‘bad stuff’ out of our system and really hit our groove early the second time. Afterwards, I did the editing for the video using Audacity and iMovie and the Bibliography, while Andrew and Ranjan did the podcast image and podcast paragraph. 

Our ultimate goal in the episode was to tackle what made Minecraft so enjoyable, whether in survival or creative, because at their core, these two game styles involve a lot of menial labor, and also what made Minecraft so popular during the pandemic. Our strategies for doing this were having each group member write a paragraph that leveraged evidence from our readings to make a claim about what made the game fun. For example, I suggested survival was fun because of the probing/trial-and-failure element that helped define your version of success. Our unscripted conversations responded to each person’s paragraph and went deeper into what made the game fun. 

In terms of learning outcomes, I felt the most improved in teamwork, writing as a process, and interacting with text: the first two learning objectives discuss the ability to make use of complex ideas in texts and to use them to make arguments, which I think we all did. Teamwork was one thing that was worked on but, quite frankly, I’m very happy to have worked with Ranjan and Andrew – they were communicative, hard-working, and efficient. Finally, I think my ability to write as a process improved, as in creating a concise argument from our messy brainstorming document, I was working the muscle responsible for research, revision, and reflection (about what was working and what wasn’t). 

I noticed a few things in doing the podcast. Firstly, the process for doing podcasts and essays is quite similar in that the ‘rough draft’ is where you figure out what you want to say – this holds true for both essays and podcasts (where the rough draft is, I think, the first recording). One thing I want to improve is my ability to integrate more texts in a more fluid manner. Finally, I suggest that groups record twice – the second time will be so much better.