Category: Student Posts

Super Smash Brothers Podcast Reflection

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.

Super Smash Brothers Podcast Reflection

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.

Podcast reflection-Candy Crush

Podcast reflection-Candy CrushWhen first being introduced to the idea of creating a podcast about a game, Candy Crush was the first game that popped into my mind. Since 2012, I have been playing candy crush. From the release of the first game to now, I have had the original candy crush saga, the soda saga or jelly saga downloaded on my phone. Being able to analyze and research about the game that I honestly hold dear to my heart was very interesting.

I worked with Samsara in creating a podcast that exposes the relation of Candy Crush with habituation and branding, terms found in How To Do Things With Video Games by Ian Bogost. The process in creating the podcast was interesting and memorable. Samsara and I both individually did our own research and formed our own thoughts before coming together to record. Both of us came up with different ideas and interesting arguments to put forth. We each did editing, though I had a hard time figuring out garage band. I hope to get better at editing for the next podcast.

As to in response to listening other episodes before creating our Candy Crush podcast, I believe it did influence our podcast. Though some of our information and talking sounded scripted, we made attempts to go off script and just say things that came to mind when talking about a certain topic. It was really helpful to listen to a set of podcasts before creating our own. Listening to the other groups helped us figure out our own structure for our podcast.

The main goal in creating this episode was to argue the habitation and branding could be found in Candy Crush and how something can actually be learned playing the game. Actual life skills such as good decision making, the value of each decision made or simply just trusting your gut. Though these skills may seem simple, the result from learning from these lessons can actually be applied to real life and make a difference. Also the connections made between literature and Candy Crush highlights the fact that a simple game like Candy Crush could be considered “literature” or a “work of art”.

There were two learning outcomes that I took away from working on this podcast episode, collaboration and critical thinking and reading resulting in writing. Samsara and I were relatively busy, so sometimes getting together was a bit difficult. However, despite conflicting schedules, we often found time to have short meetings to discuss and plan for our podcast before actually recording. I believe our collaboration went well. We really worked as a team. When I struggled with editing some parts due to a lack of knowledge in editing, Samsara was really a team player on being able to help edit. As for critical thinking and reading resulting in writing, the part on branding about Candy Crush was a bit more difficult to analyze than habitation since there was a lot more information to be found about habitation than branding. It forced us to think and formulate our own arguments and eventually write and record about it.

As a learner, I feel like I am progressing. This was the first time I have created a podcast as opposed to writing an essay, and I believe the results was very rewarding. There are still quite a few things I know I need to work on such as editing skills and going off script to talk about the game itself more freely. I would suggest my peers for future episodes to not create a script and just record what comes to mind. It flows better that way and often unscripted thoughts are more valuable than scripted ones. I am proud of the episode Samsara and I created. I really enjoyed being able to talk about my personal experience which helped amplify the argument of habituation found in Candy Crush.

Creating this podcast was a really good experience, and I look forward to creating another for others to listen to!

Kentucky Road Zero Freewrite

At first sight, Kentucky Road Zero seems to be a realistic video game about a man making a simple delivery. But from the very beginning of the game, you begin to experience happenings that indicate otherwise. Kentucky Road Zero is not your average game about going on quests to a place you cannot locate. It’s about reality, the allusion of reality, choice, and the illusion of choice. The game makes us make decisions we would never have to make in real life, or situations one would never encounter in real life. Although disguised like any average 2-dimensional video game, the game transcends into an infinite number of dimensions, and they all depend on what the player perceives them to be. If the player perceives it as magic – then magic it is. But, if perceived as reality, then the game might well be an alternate form of reality where the incidences occurring in the game are true to that reality, and the player recognizes it.

Kentucky Road Zero Freewrite

At first sight, Kentucky Road Zero seems to be a realistic video game about a man making a simple delivery. But from the very beginning of the game, you begin to experience happenings that indicate otherwise. Kentucky Road Zero is not your average game about going on quests to a place you cannot locate. It’s about reality, the allusion of reality, choice, and the illusion of choice. The game makes us make decisions we would never have to make in real life, or situations one would never encounter in real life. Although disguised like any average 2-dimensional video game, the game transcends into an infinite number of dimensions, and they all depend on what the player perceives them to be. If the player perceives it as magic – then magic it is. But, if perceived as reality, then the game might well be an alternate form of reality where the incidences occurring in the game are true to that reality, and the player recognizes it.

Kentucky Route Zero First Impressions

Act 1:

Alone in the dark, the gamer is immersed directly into an unknown environment. Even if at first sight, the game looks quite common, it isn’t. While finding ourselves in a gas station doesn’t arouse questions, the interactions with other character does as well as the scenery as the plot unveils.

At first impression, the game has a theatrical outline where it has a singular perspective where the interruptions of black screens with the white letters displaying: “Act I, Scene 1”. The fact that it is from a 3rd person perspective only emphasizes this feeling where the gamer has the impression he is a person in the audience of a theater giving a sense impersonality. This emotion is emphasized with the vague appearance of characters where the gamer has no clear detail of others.

The esthetic of the game goes along with the tone where the loneliness and depression is supported by the dark, gloomy and black and white environment. Even if we find more interactions of dialogue than the other games we have played, we still feel lonely as most of the conversations are absurd. Nothing makes sense.

The fact that the dialogue was mainly left to the gamer where we had different choices, anything that we chose didn’t affect the outcome just like in the game “Freshman Year”.

My first overall impression of the game is that it is much less realistic than any other game with not only its environment but also its situation.

 

Act 2:

As the game goes on, it becomes even more absurb. The opening scene is where there is a woman reviewing applications and the gamer continues to explore the bureau where on the third floor there are apparently bears. To continue the game, we need to obtain an ingestion card. The process of obtaining it would seem impossible as it is a vicious circle we need to overcome as to have it we need to have it initally. This may serve as  a critique of the present extensive bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the fact that the roads all have the same name is mentioned. In order for the computer to easliy file everything, all the name of the streets were named the same way which means that no one knows where anyone is which only emphasizes the absurdity of the game.

Finally, one of the major fantastical elements of this game is he hawk that takes us away into a forest. As we have traveled before in a wheel, we could see that there were figures of a feather, a nest and a birdhouse which may serve as foreshadowing elements in the plot.

 

Kentucky Route Zero Magical Realism Free Write

The game Kentucky Route Zero is one which seems to be just an ordinary game, that is until you spend about five minutes playing it. In the first few minutes there are already elements of magical realism. When you go down to the basement, you come across some people playing a game who ignore Conway, the main character, completely. It took me a little longer to figure out how to get past them, so I went back upstairs to see if perhaps the old man had any suggestions. When I talked to the old man, he swore that there was no way there was anyone down in the basement. With this, questions began to arise. Later on in Act II, the magical realism became more evident. When trying to look for Lula who was the person that supposedly could help the main characters, Conway and Shannon were having a really tough time finding her. Also, as they were going up and down the elevator you could see that one of the floors was filled with bears; an issue that no one seem to acknowledge, let alone address. After this, Conway and Shannon end up in some type of museum where they go around and hear the conversations of people living there. However, these weren’t normal conversations. They seemed to be talking about Conway and Shannon while they were right there. This is where the magical realism begins to seem even more present in the game. To top it all off, they all ride a bird to the forest where the character that you control is now Ezra instead of Conway.

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?

Kentucky Route Zero FreeWrite

 

 

Kentucky Route Zero is what seems first to be a typical game of exploration. However, as the plot unfolds and the player investigates more, the fantastical elements along with the dialogue and events contribute to the fact that it doesn’t make physical sense. The player can already have a sense of the surrealism as the dog that accompanies us is wearing a hat, but we tell ourselves that it isn’t this alarming.

The first major fantastical element one can see is when Conan arrives at the farm  and talks to Weaver about fixing the television. Once the player repairs it, Weaver tells us to look at the television but the camera zooms beyond it. As a result, we see the barn with some horses. However, as the camera focuses more, the barn slowly disappears and a road opens up

 

Furthermore, in Act 2, the major fantastical elements would be the eagle that swoops us up and lands in a forest.

Kentucky Route Zero Freewrite

I consider Kentucky Route Zero to be a magical realist game in that it takes place in a real-world setting and typical environment (the state of Kentucky) yet it portrays a series of unrealistic and surreal events in the game that make you think otherwise. For example, people actually living in the area are familiar with Dogwood Drive and the Echo River because the creators of the game simply did not make up the names. However, not all of the setting and location elements are derived from real world places. For example, the Museum of Dwellings and the Radvansky Center are not actual places in Kentucky. Elkhorn Mine is also not an actual mine but the plot that occurs in this location makes it seem like a believable location in Kentucky. This is the place where Conway and Shannon are forced to travel throughout the mine after they took the sound test to check the entrance of the tunnels and Conway injures himself. Realistic things happen in both the fictional and nonfictional settings.

 

Kentucky Route Zero Magical Realism

Kentucky Route Zero portrays various elements of magical realism, including Authorial reticence, which is “the withholding of information about a fictitious world.”  Kentucky Route Zero takes place in a mysterious Route Zero where Conway, the games main character has to make a delivery. The game has various supernatural elements which seem to escape Conway. At the beginning of the game, you enter a basement with a group of people playing a game. They disappear, however, when you turn off the lights, grab a glowing die and turn the lights back on. Also in Act 1, Conway was talking to Weaver when it seemed as if the entire view went through the TV and the walls of the TV, while this surprised me, it seemed to go right over Conway’s head. There is also a mysterious room of Giant Bears in the office building. Conway and Shanon are also casually taken destination to destination by a Giant flying bird in act 2. The faceless Conway and other characters fail to acknowledge any of these extraordinary events.

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 24