Week 7

I didnt attend the field trip that day, I was sick, sorry. I know I missed Toys R Us and the game stores but I used to work at that Toys R Us, in the game section, i can imagine the panic with all the foreigners/tourists...it used to be funny with all the questions they ask.

Week 6

In this cluster so far I've learned about old films, new formats and history of newspapers, television, and other medias. In English class Im still trying to perfect the MLA formatted essays, I cant seem to get the work cited page (bibliography) right. Its complicated, it's a different format for every different source...its so confusing. But in American Film class, we're still learning the vocabulary for several camera angles, and lighting. Thats pretty much the easy part. In mass media class, Im working on my final, just planning everything out. This is going to be a little difficult because im thinking about doing two different ones. I want to do a Compact Disc and a Magazine, we're going to have to see how that goes.

Week 10...

This paper is getting on my nerves, not because of the topic but its because I'm trying to do both this final and Mass Media's final at the same time. they both are related to one another but the only difference is with the media final i have a partner, that's it. I got all the information i need to finish this paper, formatting it is a little confusing but I'm getting through it. I'm including the history of the controller, how it evolved from arcade to home consoles, those are the first few pages and after I go through the history I'll give some influences the controller had on the rest of the gaming world, like the PSP. I'll give some ideas about how they were used for advertising purposes and some future plans to take the controller to new heights.

week 9....Doing the DAMN research!!!

I finally got a topic...the significance of the controller and its impact. The controller has become the most under appreciated yet significant piece of modern day gaming. People may not notice this because they are overwhelmed with the graphics and storylines of the games. But without the controller how will they be able to enjoy the full gaming experience, the controller is what puts you into the role of the character in the game. In a way, it would be the brain of the games' character, it controls them, its their "instinct", and without it they will be dull and stand still the whole time. Also people overlook that fact that controllers sparked the idea of portable gaming such as Nintendo DS and PSP. I don't want to spill the whole report but I'm finding this topic promising but frustrating because of all the different information and angles i can explain it from. But hopefully i'll get a vivid vision of what i want to do and where i want to go with it...soooo...STAY TUNED!!!

Week 8...Choosing a topic

This whole process is difficult because of the broad subject of simply "GAMES". I'm thinking about doing several different things like the history of video games but I have to simplify that topic. Maybe the history of the home Consoles such as Playstation, and XBox and retrace it all the way back to Nintendo Entertainment System and Atari. I'm still not sure because Dr. J. also said not to pick a topic that everybody will do or a topic that might seem too simple or probable to be copied therefore you will be the only one with that specific topic. It might be an interesting paper to focus on the upbringing of the Controller or Joystick, however you make refer to it. I was discussing this with Dr. J. also because he thought it may be a intersting yet different subject to focus on. It could, in fact, be an interesting topic to focus on because of the overlooked significance of the modern controllers for home console video games.

Week 4&5...Gee Article

After reading the “Gee Article” I realize that he made numerous ponts about how good video games can be related to school, and how their learning techniques can be improved. In the article he mentioned several games such as “Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind” and “Rise of Nations” are good games that can be used to improve the learning process and technique used in the schooling system. He included certain factors that make this possible, factors like Identity, Interaction, Production, Risk Taking, Customization, Agency, Well-Order Problems, Challenge and Consolidation, “Just in Time” and “On Demand”, Situated Meanings, Pleasant Frustrating, and System Thinking, etc. He gives great examples of how the are related, he explains how “good video games incorporate good learning principle”. Using the factor of identity, he explains that nobody can truly do any deep learning unless u submerge yourself into the  new identity, including the new world and seeing how things work. And after he asks, “Why should the identity of being and doing science be less appealing?” (as he relates the gaming to the subject of Biology and the character being a science student). He goes on to make many other interesting points using the factors, but he also brings me to a point where I must disagree, not because he’s wrong but due to the fact that I’m mistaking his words. He talks about the production and agency of gaming and he relates them to schooling, using production he says “players help “write” the worlds they live in-in school, they should help “write” the domain and the curriculum they study”. I understand his point but it brings up the question that if we knew all that we wanted to study and the helped “write” it, what is there to learn from something we already know? He also talks about  the agency of gaming where he says that players have a real sense of what they are doing, and i agree, but he loses me with the relation to school. I’m not too sure I understand what he means by “ownership”, but i do know that we, as students, have no ownership in school. I think the only thing we had ownership over was the choice of our classes we’re taking in college, but any other grade such as elementary, junior high and high school, we didn’t have any say in our schooling. But other than those two conflicts, I agree with his arguments. 

Week 3

This week we have to examine the words "play", "game", and "simulation", explain in our own words and how do they relate to one another. When I think of the word "play", i think of just innocent fun, nothing that would affect somebody in a negative way and shouldn't cause any harm. Simply from thinking of the word "play", i think of the word "game", simply because they are to be played. Games are activity played or done for amusement, from my experience in games, when i hear the word game, I automatically think of modern gaming such as Xbox and PlayStation. Thinking of how I played games growing up and today, games aren't real, they're just a simulation, you can imagine that you are a character within the game. All these words are connected because when you think of one, you automatically think of the other two. All of these words would provide a child with long term entertainment, gives them a chance to live a differnt life for a short period of time, as long as they play the game, their life is a simulation of an alternate character. But with adults, playing games may provide a different result. For a adult to play a game, it would be to get away from the life that they live for a temporary period of time, they want to live a different life so they can get away from their own.