Category: Student Posts

My first podcast overall was a successful experience. Justin and I were both happy with our final product, and we believe we were able to get across our points while connecting them to our chapter in a well delivered, easily understandable way.

Our goal before starting the project was to explain how Madden NFL Ultimate Team 17 directly relates to Ian Bogost’s chapter on Habituation. We wanted to make sure that the connection wasn’t forced, but show that they actually go hand in hand. Another one of our goals was to attempt to dispel the idea that sports games often aren’t substantive.

I think one of the best strategies we used in the creation of our podcast came with how we read our chapter. We both read the chapter separately and underlined parts of it that we thought related to Madden Ultimate Team, and then met back up and compared what we underlined. This was a valuable tool because things that we both underlined proved to be big, central connections between the book and the game, and then there were lines where only one of us underlined, and this forced us to explicitly reason why that line was representative of the game.

However, our project wasn’t problem free. After listening to some of the other podcasts Justin and I realized that we wanted to try to sound like it wasn’t scripted. So, initially we gave the podcast a shot without a full script, but merely some bullet points on main topics that we wanted to be sure to hit on. This sounded great in theory, but quickly realized a few minutes in that it wasn’t as realistic in practice. After this quick attempt we knew we needed an actual script. So, we wrote a script and then did a dry run of it and realized that it sounded way too scripted. Because we wanted to stick to our goal of sounding unscripted we added in colloquial words and some “likes” even though we wouldn’t usually put that in our writing. This string of events demonstrates that writing is a process. We started with some bullet points, moved on to a fleshed out script, and then we revised it to make it seem a bit more natural. Unfortunately, it was still clear that the podcast was scripted, but I think we did a decent job at minimizing the the scripted effect. To me this was our most obvious unrealistic goal.

The podcast project took advantage of many learning outcomes, most notably collaboration. While Justin and I worked well together, we don’t think exactly alike, and it would have been impossible for both of us to get everything we wanted.

I expect the next podcast to be a little easier now that we know the technology (which took more than we thought), and the best strategies to produce the best podcast we are capable of.

My first podcast overall was a successful experience. Justin and I were both happy with our final product, and we believe we were able to get across our points while connecting them to our chapter in a well delivered, easily understandable way.

Our goal before starting the project was to explain how Madden NFL Ultimate Team 17 directly relates to Ian Bogost’s chapter on Habituation. We wanted to make sure that the connection wasn’t forced, but show that they actually go hand in hand. Another one of our goals was to attempt to dispel the idea that sports games often aren’t substantive.

I think one of the best strategies we used in the creation of our podcast came with how we read our chapter. We both read the chapter separately and underlined parts of it that we thought related to Madden Ultimate Team, and then met back up and compared what we underlined. This was a valuable tool because things that we both underlined proved to be big, central connections between the book and the game, and then there were lines where only one of us underlined, and this forced us to explicitly reason why that line was representative of the game.

However, our project wasn’t problem free. After listening to some of the other podcasts Justin and I realized that we wanted to try to sound like it wasn’t scripted. So, initially we gave the podcast a shot without a full script, but merely some bullet points on main topics that we wanted to be sure to hit on. This sounded great in theory, but quickly realized a few minutes in that it wasn’t as realistic in practice. After this quick attempt we knew we needed an actual script. So, we wrote a script and then did a dry run of it and realized that it sounded way too scripted. Because we wanted to stick to our goal of sounding unscripted we added in colloquial words and some “likes” even though we wouldn’t usually put that in our writing. This string of events demonstrates that writing is a process. We started with some bullet points, moved on to a fleshed out script, and then we revised it to make it seem a bit more natural. Unfortunately, it was still clear that the podcast was scripted, but I think we did a decent job at minimizing the the scripted effect. To me this was our most obvious unrealistic goal.

The podcast project took advantage of many learning outcomes, most notably collaboration. While Justin and I worked well together, we don’t think exactly alike, and it would have been impossible for both of us to get everything we wanted.

I expect the next podcast to be a little easier now that we know the technology (which took more than we thought), and the best strategies to produce the best podcast we are capable of.

Looking back on the process of creating our podcast, I thought it went very well. Ben and I were very good at communicating with each other about what our expectations were from each other and we were both very available to meet to work on the project throughout the week which made the whole process a lot less stressful. One thing that we did that I think was the most helpful was starting early. We began working on our podcast the Sunday before it was due which gave us plenty of time to put together a well-polished finished product. As for the quality of the podcast, I think we did a good job of analyzing Assassin’s Creed in an interesting and engaging way that kept the listener interested and focused. I think the podcast flowed well and we had a clear idea in mind for what the overall message of the podcast would be. Having a clear argument before starting recording was essential. We did a lot of planning and talking off the record in order to put together our final product. This made the process of recording a lot easier because we had already talked about what we were going to say beforehand.

One difficulty we had during the project was the editing at the end of the project. Both Ben and I had never used audacity before and some of the audio editing was very time consuming. Another difficulty we had was Ben’s inexperience to the game. In a way it made the podcast more interesting because it was a genuine teaching experience about the wonders of Assassin’s Creed. However, it did make it slightly more difficult to discuss because only one of us knew very much about the game. This problem was really my fault for insisting that we play a game that he hadn’t played before. For our next podcast we will try to play a game that both of us know well.

Tomb Raider was the second game Samsara and I chose to do a podcast over. It was quite interesting since this was the first time I had played the game or even heard of it. I usually do not play action and adventure based games. I actually really enjoyed playing this game and learning about its background.

Samsara and I linked the game to the word “reverence”, which we took in different direction than Ian Bogost’s definition in “How to Do Things with Videogames”. We interpreted the meaning of reverence to be a sign of deep respect while Bogost related the word to church. Though taking a different route in definitions, we focused on the developments of the game that displayed reverence and unique feature of having a female protagonist in the game. Our goal was to highlight the deep respect people have for Tomb Raider and uniqueness of the having a female protagonist. Samsara and I both took away that having a female protagonist was empowering to women, showing they could anything that men could. However, we also presented the idea that the game could also be demeaning to women because of way that the protagonist was depicted. In the end, we concluded there was no one right answer and that it was up in the air as to how one would interpret it. In the given time we had, I believe we were able to talk about everything we wanted to.

The process in creating this podcast went fairly smoothly. Samsara and I didn’t have any schedule conflicts and were able to easily meet up and work on the podcast. This podcast production to me was much better than the first. We had a lot more time to work on it and definitely sounded less scripted than our first podcast. It definitely helped to already have experienced creating one podcast previously to create another. It also was helpful to listen to other groups podcasts that recorded before and after us. It gave insight as to what we should or should not do. One of the biggest changes we made in our second podcast was to talk more freely rather than having a script to read off of. It allowed the podcast to flow and seem more natural.

A few lessons that I took from this was digital citizenship/digital identity and collaboration. Though I did not do a lot of editing, I was able to learn to use Garage Band to some extent. I really did enjoy working with Samsara. She was an excellent partner, and I believe we worked together well. Both these lessons that I took away can be applied in other classes and situations in the real world. Collaboration is something everyone will have to do in their lives whether they like it or not, and I believe its skill that everyone should have. Today with how far technology has advanced, having some sense of digital citizenship/identity will help.

As a learner,I feel like I am improving. I learned a lot from the previous podcast we created. For this podcast, it was done more in advanced and felt more planned out. Suggestions I would have for my peers would to be plan further ahead. Also one thing that I really liked that we did this time was recording stuff before we went in to talk to Professor Morgen. It allowed us to figure out what we had and didn’t have before getting critiqued by Professor Morgen.

This was the last podcast we had to make for this semesters English class. I think the outcome was rewarding because I was able to learn many things from this experience.

I have been playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl with my family for several years, and I honestly cannot imagine most of my childhood without it. It is an exhilarating game that can easily bring people together both in the spirit of competition and teamwork. I found it interesting how my partner, Jasmine, and I had a very similar perspective of Super Smash Bros and its features. It was quite difficult to narrow down our options but we both ultimately agreed that this game is one of the most challenging yet exciting game on the market that we can thoroughly analyze and talk about. As we each talked about and delved into our own personal experiences with the game, we realized that we had so much to talk about when we were writing our script. We decided to give the audience a taste of the excitement the game brings by putting a twist in the beginning of our podcast through the introduction of a third character. We made it seem like a boxing match within a video game, and we also added the element of competition with the small dialogue between Jasmine and me before we further analyzed the game.

As we wrote our script, we realized that the way we say things are just as important as what we say in our podcast. We had a hard time trying to make the podcast sound unscripted, but since we had a physical script in our hand, it made it harder to make our conversations sound more natural and unforced. After we went through the whole podcast, we thought about using bullet points next time to talk about the key points we want to address but not necessarily write out our entire script. Even though we tried to accentuate certain parts of the script to make it more lively and interesting, I felt like we lacked depth in terms of game analysis. It seemed like we were marketing the game rather than studying the different aspects of the game— both good and bad.

The whole process of editing and putting together the dialogue and the music was also quite difficult. Neither of us had worked with Audacity and it was a struggle to figure out how to operate the system. We tried to do everything in one take but as we were reading off the script, we were bound to make mistakes. However, even though we faced several problems making the podcast, I was very satisfied with how it turned out. I thought that the analytical elements were lacking, but in terms of capturing the audience, I thought that we did a pretty good job. We incorporated Digital Citizenship and utilize technology to engage in electronic environments and online spaces. We also received insight on how collaboration can be used to elevate how we deliver our message. We learned that a conversation between two people is oftentimes more intriguing than one person solely talking about the game. Jasmine and I brainstormed and added to one another’s knowledge of the game, which not only broadened the audience’s perception about the game but also our own.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this podcast. Every step of the process and the project as a whole taught me so much about how to take our knowledge of a game and lay it out on a table for an audience to hear. I’ve never even listened to any podcasts until I took this course, but I found a new way to carry out information and explore literature in a unique, meaningful and fun way.