Author: Cindy

Reflection – Fiasco

Suburban Zebra by flickr user MariAn[the Fog]

It is incredible that with merely dices, tables and index cards, players are able to orchestrate a story and tie all bits of seemingly irrelevant information together in a coherent chain. Before playing Fiasco, I was nervous about the fact that I have to improvise in the game, worrying that I might make up a boring story. Yet through the game, I discovered the wealth of my creative mind by piecing together scenes established by other players and identifying the logic inside it. Together we formed a comprehensive, consistent and attractive fiction with an unexpected ending.

My character, Julliet Grande, shared a criminal relationship with Crazy Carl, the character of the player sitting on my right, who made drug deals. While Crazy Carl was in urgent need to earn money from his deals, Julliet, an already respected drug lord, in fact wanted to earn appreciation from her boss (the character of the player on the left) of a medical institution where she worked as a client as her main job. The story took a twisted turn and became snaky when my object was “information”, and my boss with another player Jamie Jones, a divorced man who tried to obtain weeds, shared a mutual secret of mutilating and murdering. By joining the two facts together, I actively spoke up in the game and gave birth to the climax when I claimed I knew their secret, using it as a bargaining chip to publish my under-appreciated medical research paper, while leaking the secret to Jamie’s resentful ex-wife. This insidious act connected me with Jamie’s ex-wife, who was Carl’s sibling and thus also became involved in drug deals. Together we three formed an alliance against my boss and Jamie. The end act occurred in a shopping mall where Carl lured Jamie out on the pretense of selling drugs and intended to kill him in revenge for his divorced sibling. Yet my boss who went to meet Jamie was mistakenly shot and died immediately; at the same time the police, whom I called to investigate the secret murder, arrived and arrested both men.

It is noted that through this game-play experience, we subconsciously applied multiple principles for writing fictions. Fiasco is more like composing a story than simply having fun. The game itself resembles a brainstorming process, where we bring together pieces of information and create a whole picture, filling gaps by improvisation and imagination. For example, a need for conflict was never implied in the relationship between me and my boss, yet in order to mediate my two identities as a drug dealer as well as a normal client, I created this conflict to ensure that everything made sense. There is also an irony of situation when most people didn’t get what they longed for due to the natural development of the game. Such irony brought about an unforeseen yet understandable ending which is commonly considered as a trait of fiction.

Still, playing Fiasco is not completely identical to my traditional approach to writing a story. The game proposes a new way of writing which really helps me with rhetorical composition. The difference between this gameplay and the other work I’ve done is that “I didn’t do those with prior planning or purpose”.  While I usually have an idea of what is going on when writing an essay, the skills and strategies employed in Fiasco, such as creating the conflict and devising the vicious scheme, just came along spontaneously. There was no intention, no careful planning. The fact that we composed an appealing and structured plot despite the lack of outlining in advance shed a new light on my future writing method. As opposed to careful planning before writing, as I usually do, I learned that I could just set up a background and develop some clues, through which my thoughts are provoked and my story grows by itself.

Also, through Fiasco, collaboration of group members is invoked as we joined together to brainstorm and inspired each other during the process. A single step of one player can affect that of another. Therefore such domino effect requires us to align our thought processes in order to complete the plot.

It is wonderful to see the process of scattered information converging into a fluid and rich river. Overall, I believe that I really did improve my writing through this thought-provoking gaming experience.

Reflection – Wolf in White Van

Wolves by flickr user AdamHallArt

Thought is an unruly gust of wind frantically pushing us towards the limit of our minds. It refuses to obey the helm despite numerous efforts to keep it in control. While inspiration and invention often participate in such mental flourish, its capricious nature at times worries us with anxiety and irresistible impulses, leading us towards unforeseen tilt — accidents — or even devastating outcomes such as suicide.

My analysis on John Darnielle’s Novel, Wolf in White Van, centers around the transformation of Sean from unable to resist bad thoughts, resulting in the traumatic event of he shooting himself, to controlling his imagination and resting it in his game, Trace Italian, through which he slowly recovers and gains access to the outside world.

The assignment helped me improve my critical thinking and reading resulting in writing skill. I learned to use ideas from the work as a way to analyze the book from my own perspective. I integrated the author’s point of view into my essay and bridged the gap between his interpretation and my argument. Another learning outcome is rhetorical composition. This assignment is very different from Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern and therefore I had to compose it in a different way. I assumed that the audience didn’t know much about the novel so I tried my best to guide them towards getting a sense of what it is about while at the same time understanding my main argument.

Reflection – Wolf in White Van

Wolves by flickr user AdamHallArt

Thought is an unruly gust of wind frantically pushing us towards the limit of our minds. It refuses to obey the helm despite numerous efforts to keep it in control. While inspiration and invention often participate in such mental flourish, its capricious nature at times worries us with anxiety and irresistible impulses, leading us towards unforeseen tilt — accidents — or even devastating outcomes such as suicide.

My analysis on John Darnielle’s Novel, Wolf in White Van, centers around the transformation of Sean from unable to resist bad thoughts, resulting in the traumatic event of he shooting himself, to controlling his imagination and resting it in his game, Trace Italian, through which he slowly recovers and gains access to the outside world.

The assignment helped me improve my critical thinking and reading resulting in writing skill. I learned to use ideas from the work as a way to analyze the book from my own perspective. I integrated the author’s point of view into my essay and bridged the gap between his interpretation and my argument. Another learning outcome is rhetorical composition. This assignment is very different from Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern and therefore I had to compose it in a different way. I assumed that the audience didn’t know much about the novel so I tried my best to guide them towards getting a sense of what it is about while at the same time understanding my main argument.

Kentucky Route Zero Free Write – Fantastical Elements

Whether the story of Kentucky Route Zero is happening in a real world or a dream remains a question. The game has made a lot of effort to form the surreal ambience about which players wonder: Is this really happening? One that leaves me deep impression is the conversation between the woman and Conway. All the woman says might be plausible, but is surely very odd as well. As I chose words to respond, I feel like Conway is trying to communicate with a drunk woman, or someone sleepwalking, or maybe a mysterious prophet. The same feeling came a little bit every time I communicated with the other characters. There is some sort of barrier the game has set to prevent us from thoroughly understanding others. And the scene also conveys this type of barrier when fixing a TV leads us to a warm-toned hazy world you can only see in your dream. With the overall cool color tone, and mere silhouettes of characters, the mystery of Kentucky Route Zero is exaggerated and that all leads to one question: Where exactly is Kentucky Route Zero?

Reflection – Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern

My final revision on Unpacking Manuel’s is centered around the significant cultural meaning behind a set of plain objects displayed on the wall. The three objects are an advertisement of a paint factory, a sign of a lumber company, and an antiquated thermometer, which really didn’t show strong connection with one another during my research work. So in my first draft, I analyzed the history of the paint factory but completely ignored the other two. I explained how an individual unit(the paint factory) closely relates with its culture(the flourishing business area where the factory is located), and how the two together produce a complete image for the readers. It was ok, but clearly not relevant enough as an entry. After consulting professor Morgen, I was inspired by his words that despite frequent visit of celebrities who made the spot well-known, Manuel’s Tavern is still a blue-collar tavern where workers drink beer and have fun. Thus the plain-looking objects serve as a perfect evidence to the owner’s emphasis on the power of the ordinary. This appears to be a great argument for my entry. I completely shifted my thesis statement to the latter. Though the paint factory is still the highlight of my essay, I can now articulate the once ambiguous relation among the three, and the association between the objects and the tavern.

Through the assignment, I improved my writing as a process. By repeatedly revising my essay and receiving advice from professor and writing center tutors, I learned the subtle difference between similar words, which is extremely helpful for someone like me who struggle to pick the right word. I also got to know the weakness of my writing. My thesis statement was not clear enough for readers to understand what I want to convey. I failed many times in delivering a strong thesis statement and corrected that very sentence for hundreds of times before I came up with this fairly satisfactory one. Though still a long way to go, I know I have become a better writer. Another learning outcome is digital citizenship. It’s my first time to cite online articles so I am still a bit confused about the MLA style of citations but eventually I managed to cite the sources formally. Collaboration is also involved when we reviewed each other’s work and received useful feedbacks. In class, we had a chance to develop rubrics together and I really appreciate this democratic form of learning.

Overall I had a great time working on this assignment. It’s for sure that I have moved a small step forward towards becoming a good writer. I look forward to exploring further and achieving more outcomes in my future writing.

Reflection – Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern

My final revision on Unpacking Manuel’s is centered around the significant cultural meaning behind a set of plain objects displayed on the wall. The three objects are an advertisement of a paint factory, a sign of a lumber company, and an antiquated thermometer, which really didn’t show strong connection with one another during my research work. So in my first draft, I analyzed the history of the paint factory but completely ignored the other two. I explained how an individual unit(the paint factory) closely relates with its culture(the flourishing business area where the factory is located), and how the two together produce a complete image for the readers. It was ok, but clearly not relevant enough as an entry. After consulting professor Morgen, I was inspired by his words that despite frequent visit of celebrities who made the spot well-known, Manuel’s Tavern is still a blue-collar tavern where workers drink beer and have fun. Thus the plain-looking objects serve as a perfect evidence to the owner’s emphasis on the power of the ordinary. This appears to be a great argument for my entry. I completely shifted my thesis statement to the latter. Though the paint factory is still the highlight of my essay, I can now articulate the once ambiguous relation among the three, and the association between the objects and the tavern.

Through the assignment, I improved my writing as a process. By repeatedly revising my essay and receiving advice from professor and writing center tutors, I learned the subtle difference between similar words, which is extremely helpful for someone like me who struggle to pick the right word. I also got to know the weakness of my writing. My thesis statement was not clear enough for readers to understand what I want to convey. I failed many times in delivering a strong thesis statement and corrected that very sentence for hundreds of times before I came up with this fairly satisfactory one. Though still a long way to go, I know I have become a better writer. Another learning outcome is digital citizenship. It’s my first time to cite online articles so I am still a bit confused about the MLA style of citations but eventually I managed to cite the sources formally. Collaboration is also involved when we reviewed each other’s work and received useful feedbacks. In class, we had a chance to develop rubrics together and I really appreciate this democratic form of learning.

Overall I had a great time working on this assignment. It’s for sure that I have moved a small step forward towards becoming a good writer. I look forward to exploring further and achieving more outcomes in my future writing.

Podcast Reflection – Cytus and Music

Cytus is the game I used to play during my high school year. It was an old game, but I still remember the fantasy and pleasure it brought me. When I introduced this game to Niky, she showed much interest to it so we quickly agreed and started to work on this rhythm game.
The game itself is really intriguing, but it is also a really hard game that requires us to immediately tap on multiple notes in a really complicated way. It demands a considerable amount of time to excel and play through the game with few mistakes. Therefore we assigned our roles as experienced player(Me) and novice player(Niky). By introducing the game to the “novice player”, and teaching her how to play the game well, we dug deeper into its plot and implications through experiencing and having fun. This is also the purpose of our podcast: To make an interesting podcast episode that attracts audience to actively learn the essence of the game. We tried to make a tempting opening by editing a prologue and adding dynamic music into our episode. There is also a part where Niky improvised and shared her first response to the quick tapping and the confusing patterns. By doing so we hope the audience could gain a better understanding of how the game works and relates to its main plot. Another goal is to show the audience how music and game together provide a complete effect for players. It is true that the well-composed songs are a highlight in Cytus, but simply talking about the music will stray from the subject. In order to avoid that, we analyzed the combination of the two in Cytus by mentioning Ian Bogost’s opinions in his book HOW TO DO THINGS WITH VIDEO GAMES. The points mentioned in the book also serve as a good summary for our whole podcast.
During the recording and editing work, I came across various challenges. One is that 10 minutes are not enough for us to fully present our thoughts. I have already cut a lot from our original version but we are still a bit over time. I noticed that I had to speak faster next time. Also, though voice acting is one of my interests and I have dubbed a variety of different characters, I found out that podcasting is totally different from voice acting. The tone and speed of dubbing don’t apply to the latter. This is an entire new field for me to explore and I look forward to gaining more experience.
Overall, I learned a lot through making this episode. Podcast, besides written analysis, provides us with a better picture through diverse mediums of how things work. When we turn on the radio, we can hear discussion, music and sound effect, helping us better imagine the scene than we do when reading a purely written analysis. Analyzing a game through the form of podcasting is a great way to teach and achieve the learning outcome of this course.

Behind the Image: Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern

In my anthropology class, we are asked to compare different cultures in human societies, actively reflect on our own culture, and more importantly, see how individuals or units embrace their culture.

For the assignment Unpacking Manuel’s Tavern, my analysis will be about the advertisement of Kurfees Paints. At first glance, the image seems plain: vintage painting, red and white logo, simple drawing. Nothing looks really special. Yet as I unpacked this ordinary image on the Tavern Wall, I was surprised to find out that it actually connects with my anthropology class. I found a culture behind it.

Liveblog Firewatch–Day1

It took me longer to fulfill the task on Day1. I found myself constantly lost in the jungle. When I headed towards the west or the east or the north, there were always obstacles and I couldn’t find my way through the trees and the rocks and the thistles and thorns. I have to say this game is extremely challenging for people who have a horrible sense of direction like me. Mostly what I did all day(?) was wandering around frustrated trying to jump up a rock or find a road. When searching for the campers I found that the game’s sound effect was pretty good. I could hear the birds chirping as if they were just above my head outside the window. And the sounds got closer and closer as I approached the object, which I think is more useful than the map and the compass. I felt excited to discover that there was actually a creepy and dark cave. The echo part was interesting. When I finally got back to my place, I discovered that the room was totally vandalized. This actually frightened me, but I am more curious about the person who did that. Maybe it was neither the man nor the girls. Who knows? Waiting to know more on Day2.

Liveblog Firewatch–The Beginning Part

Firewatch reminds me of certain Japanese role play games I have played because it gives me branches to select what I want to say, or which dog I want to have. Though I’m pretty sure the result is the same, the man ends up entering a tower and starting a unique job, it’s really nice to be provided with scenarios that illustrate a story and the history of the man. What really makes me frustrated is that I cannot pause or get out of the game as long as I am in the game. I was wondering if this only happened to my computer. Anyway, it’s a really nice game but I ‘m not sure whether I can keep on updating the blogs or not since it seems that the uncertainty is not the upcoming tasks of the game but my computer.

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