Response 19

The excerpt taken from Everything Good is Bad for You starts off by delving into a discussion about video games and reading. The author, Steven Johnson, states that the reason why video games are not central in our culture is because books have been around so long. Johnson turns it around and asks what would have happened if video games have been around for hundreds of years and reading has become the new fad. Johnson offers a interesting answer in that games engages players to react with all five senses in a vivid three-dimensional world and books on the other hand are linear with just a wall of text on each page. It is not that books are not important. They are and Johnson gives a good argument, however, video games develop mental skills that are just as good as reading books. Johnson then gets into the metal aspect that video games offer and its affects on the mind and why we do play these games. He states that 90% of game play is not fun. Johnson tells us a story about a guy who worked for six months in Ultima just to buy a house he sold to buy a bigger house. Johnson asks us why would we pay a company monthly just to work in a game? Johnson answers by says it is not work if you enjoy it but why would anyone enjoy it? It is because how our brain and reward system is set up. Johnson then gets into a discussion about neuroscientists and how our brain functions and how video games are like the opposite of crack.

I actually own this book and have read parts of it and found it to be a good read. It stimulates the mind in a way that lets you see a different viewpoint on video games and its affect on culture. I found reading about how the brain interprets rewards and other things interesting. I do think that reading is more important than playing video games; however I would like to see video games evolve into something more important. I also think that if video games do evolve to this point, would reading be even necessary to succeed in life. That brings up the question what is success and that I believe are the rewards you get in life. Video games that can properly implement these rewards can make you successful not in life however, with video games becoming more realistic and usable for teaching, at one point in the future, video games will be key to success over reading.

Response 18

One laptop for every child is basically an article about giving laptops to children less fortunate to make them learn new things. The laptops are green and cost about 100 dollars. The laptops can perform basic functions but is very slow at processing commands.
I heard about these laptops and think that it is a good idea to give these laptops to children to help them. I would not buy one myself because it looks bulky and the green plastic does not look too appealing.

Response 17

Theatre of the Oppressed is an article that describes the characteristics of a theater dividing it up into three stages. The article begins with stage three as it explains the theater as a language. This section is broken up into three degrees. The first is simultaneous dramaturgy. This is when spectators intervene by telling the actors what to do. The actors then improvise and develop it until an appropriate solution arises. The next degree is called image theater. This is when spectators use the bodies of the actors and sculpt them the way the idea is being expressed at that very moment. The sculptor must determine the body position down to “the most minute details of their facial expressions”. The last stage this article presents is called forum theater. This is when spectators intervene and change the scene completely with how they would like the scene to be played out. This occurs after the play has been played at least once. The second time the play is played is when spectators can do this. “The spectators who choose to intervene must continue the physical actions of the replaced actors”. The article then gets into the fourth stage and describes theater as a discourse. The article splits this up into seven different sections each one describing different forms of theater. For example, the first one the article presents to us is newspaper theater. This was when news articles are transformed into theatrical performances. Another example would be analytical theater. This is when actors immediately improvise the play right after it is told. Also characters are broken up into symbols. The article concludes with stating that spectator is a bad word. I found this article interesting to see how the audience of plays can change the way the play is played out. I did not know that there were at least seven different forms a play can take. I would be most interested in the third degree which was forum theater. I would have liked to participate in one of those if I had a chance.

Response 16

The article about Howard Dean and video games in Washington by Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca, discusses the fact that Howard Dean failed in his bid to become 2004 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, however, still being successful in changing that way political campaigns are carried out. The article also goes into detail about how Howard Dean was the first candidate to “use a video game as endorsed political speech”. The article first starts off with a brief introduction followed by a section called virtual campaigning. “The intention of the game was to teach current and potential constituents about the power of grassroots outreach”. The game had a few obstacles that had to be overcome. One of these obstacles that the article gets into is development time. The game was released around Christmas 2003 and began production just three weeks before hand. Since there was so little time, the development team decided to break the game up into two parts and would be made parallel to each other. One part was the grassroots simulation and the other was half was working on the outreach activities. The next section of the article discusses what type of people would be playing the game and how they can incorporate diversity in their game. The developers wanted to also reach people of all ages, not just people who viewed Howard Dean as someone who appealed to younger audiences. Demographics were important in the process of performing the grassroots outreach. Developers needed to find ways to represent player’s age and name on the screen. They came up a simple solution that displayed all their primary information next to their marker instead of creating custom avatars for each player. The next section of the article is titled endorsed game-based political speech. This section argues that all games are in some sense political. Developers of these games are trying to convey some message across to the player. The next section of this article explains no matter what, the association of video games and politics attracts media attention. The article wraps up with a section on achieving early and often.

I found this article to be a good read on how a political game was thought of and produced. I found it interesting and cleaver that Howard Dean thought up of this new way to reach supporters of his campaign by making this game. However, if he was in fact trying to reach an older audience I do not believe making a game was the right move because the media often characterizes games as for young children and teenagers. Games however, are being more accepted and this attempt to design a game like this was certainly a good effort in trying to do this. I fear that the people who vied him as a candidate who appealed to younger audiences could use this game as more evidence of their argument. I think that video games have some good potential for political campaigns around the world as technology for it improves.

Unreal Post

Two or three years ago, I loved making levels and designing them. I wanted to do that as my career. However, I am into programming now and am no longer making levels. Below is a sample video of some of the first Unreal Levels I created. Following that are pics of additional levels I have made. Enjoy!

Video:

Additional Pics:

My first level: Bunker

Forrest:

Castle:

Remake of Counterstrike (Office):

Remake of Goldeneye (Temple):

Ship:

Warehouse:

Remake of My House! (without roof):