Final Project Thoughts, eh? Well, I thought this was pretty cool, we went through a billion different iterations of ideas and then finally ended up choosing to do a presentation as opposed to choosing to do a video, like we thought we were going to do. It was a pretty big pain to just figure out exactly what we wanted to do, initially we wanted to do a video chronicling teaching people how to play video games, then we found some hilarious youtube videos that we wanted to make into a video project. Unfortunately, as we continued to work on that whole thing, what we did was fail at that. So, the presentation evolved from when you explained to us that a group did a ‘board meeting’ type thing, and that it went over well. We kept trying to come up with various ways to present the material, we thought maybe we could voice over some videos and play those, but then we felt that it might be a little corny, add that to the fact that I’m pretty sure everyone else is already doing a video of some sort, we figured it might be cool to actually have a physical presence with some videos being played.
We initially joked around with Roberto when he was playing World of Warcraft, and started video taping him while he was playing, just making fun of him and what not, but that video ended up being totally worthwhile to the project, and even though I was making fun of him, it explained some social learning aspects that Gee had had, without us even really having read that far into Gee’s principals. Speaking of, Roberto was kind of embarrassed and wasn’t too thrilled that he and Wammith are going to be in the presentation, but don’t worry, I don’t make too much fun of him, I’m nice about it, and all that.
We also went through the thoughts of doing a Powerpoint Presentation, but it felt like it was going to be a little too lame, and very high school esque, so instead, we decided to just have one of us manning videos while the other person is talking and just generally being awesome. We decided to have two videos, as otherwise it was going to be a 20 minute project, and we just didn’t think that was going to be too thrilling for the class, especially when you stated that it was only supposed to be 6-7 minutes. Sorry, we are probably still going to be a bit over. We’ll see though, we’ll see.
I really enjoyed the class, it’s been fun, I learned a bit (I’m already fairly computer literate, as well as internet literate so most of this was really already second nature. Not to mention I am also in another class that incredibly overlaps this one, LIS/ENG 482) and I met a lot of people. Or did I? Thanks Jon, for the great fun, I’m actually contemplating going to grad school for LIS now.

James Paul Gee, in his book 'What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy' states that video games are a definite form of learning. He claims that not only are they useful in teaching 'old dogs new tricks (See Baby Boomers,)' but that they also have a social learning aspect to them. In the introduction to his book, he talks about how one father went home and tried to learn how to play a video game, on his own. His son walks in, sees the incredible frustration that his father is having with the game and says "What are you trying to do?" "Trying to learn how to play this damn video game." "Alone? That's stupid." Gee takes what we already know about video games and puts a new light on it, showing that they are a learning medium in their own right, whether it be via social values or through various other means. We want to show how video games have evolved (show a video of pong, and controller) from the simple, to the complex (show a video of WoW or a 360 game and all the buttons associated with either.) At the center of our project, we plan to use content from Youtube related to the design, play experience, and social context of video games in American culture. Using special technology meant to piece Youtube videos together, we will gather clips such as: videogame previews, gameplay demonstrations, game menu and setup demonstrations, and perhaps miscellaneous comments from gamers and non-gamers. We also will potentially take videos of people playing games and have the social interactions that we notice, and discuss them. We might include still images interspersed throughout our presentation in order to provide “anchors” for our discussion, but this is a hypothesis right now. The visual content that we collect will be arranged in a way that opens up themes of Gee’s, including “semiotic domains” and the methods of learning within semiotic domains. The sequence of images will be designed to combine some of the expository elements of a report with some of the narrative elements of a technological history. Our own voices might overlay certain sections in order to help guide our audience through some of the more advanced themes or ideas iterated by Gee.


-explain a few games that are "isolated"--that is, they definitely require learning skills, but they are not socially reinforced because they are unpopular or have a learning curve that is too steep to be rewarding (I have a particular game that might work, and I'm biased because I LOVE it, so it could be interesting...)

-explain how certain kinds of learning can carry over between games (for instance, someone skilled in FPS games has an easier time of learning Halo, Gears of War, Resistance, etc.)

-explain how knowledge is tested within the "semiotic domain" of gaming (for instance, how are we "tested" for our knowledge? Tournaments? Friendly competition between friends? Our ability to teach someone else how to play?)

Kongregate Do it. It's amazing. This is the first game I played on there. I found it last year when I was trying to do a project for my English 300 class with Spencer, on Graphic Novels. I managed to spend 6 hours playing one game instead of doing that project, and then posted about it on my blog for that class. But yeah. Many many interactive games there that make me waste way too much time. I've got an account and when I 'work' at the computer labs, instead of doing homework, I get hooked into the games on that site. I played "Hero's Arms" for 3 hours yesterday and didn't do any work other than that. Whoops. And then again on Saturday. Four straight hours.

What is your opinion on web designers currently being so highly salaried? Do you think that they are just glorified writers, or do you think their jobs actually demand the salary that they receive?

What is your opinion on 'viral' marketing? IE When a group goes out and brings the film into the real world so that way people are more exposed to it? There was a stunt a few years ago where the Aqua Teen Hunger Force video was marketed by lit-up things in cities across the nation. One such city thought they were bombs and brought in the bomb squad. Opinions?

When you go and see a play, how does that differ from a film that tries to engage all of your senses? IE an IMAX and a lot of loud speakers? Or how does it differ from a video game? Which do you see yourself discussing more after completing the adventure?

While writing in this area was somewhat different than on our other projects, it was still fairly straightforward. I tried to open up the video that we had in iMovie, but I just couldn’t get it to work properly, so I jumped back over to the PC and used Windows Movie Maker. That was much more straightforward and incredibly simple to do. But before I even went to that, I watched what we had, a few clips of street peddlers and the homeless of New Orleans, and came up with a script to go over what they were saying, to make the video more of a ‘trailer for a film’ esque feel. That writing was a little different than I was used to, as I was writing to something that was already created. It wasn’t something that I created based on nothing, I had to actually make sure that it worked with what we had, and what we had was filmed without any idea in mind. I think that’s probably the hardest thing about this, working with a video that was already made, and trying to make a guiding light through it, as opposed to coming up with the idea first and the filming from there. I hope that makes sense. I mean, with this approach, we didn’t actually direct, we had to work with what we had instead of figuring out what story we wanted to tell. Clearly we are kind of parodying these people, making it all a big joke, but some street peddlers actually make their living off of tourists. I don’t know too much about what they do and how they make their money or how much money they make, but I do know that some people are terrified of ‘street people’ and so I think that the way that I narrated ridiculous things, like “He holds a much darker secret” can be valid concerns that people have.
There wasn’t much revision of the writing, as like I said, we wrote it after the video was created. And on that note, there wasn’t any pre-writing either. However, it took me a little while to get into the groove and make as much humor as I could out of what was going on. I had to re-work the audio a little bit, at times, to make sure that my words weren’t cutting off anything that may or may not have been important (or hilarious) that the people were saying. There were times that, I’m sure you can tell, where I tried to somewhat vernacularize what I was saying to make it similar to what was about to come up with our ‘actors’.

Overall I think the process of making the video and doing the audio was very interesting, I never really have made a video from already created film and putting words to it was more difficult than I had assumed it was going to be. We tried to come up with locations where we could add music, but there just wasn’t anywhere worthy of putting music.

Answers

1.) The Author compares actually being at a concert and to watching it on something like MTV. In your opinion, what are some similarities and differeneces?

Differences are you get to keep your eardrums and you can set the audio to however you like it. However, you don't get the full 'experience' of being trampled to death, you can't actually see people on stage and you don't get to waste your money on the insanely overpriced shirts. Obviously I am more interested in watching it from the safety of my own home, where I have control over what happens, when its paused, etc. The price of beer (to an extent), food, etc.


2.) What does the author mean when he says, all mediation is remidiation?

I have no idea. Everyone reuses everything, I guess? Which isn't really surprising, it seems like everything is regurgitated anyway. But I don't really know what the author is trying to mean about this.

3.) The author talks about how photography can "come alive". What are some ways that this can happen?

Magic Eye. Definitely Magic Eye. But in all seriousness, I have no idea. I guess by making it shout at you via some stuff? Like I said, I'm not sure. I don't really know much about photography nor how to make a picture come alive, I've never seen such sorcery.

Hypermedia... What is your opinion on this phenomena, do you believe that it can be better as immersive as a real experience, or do you think that its just something that is far too hyped?

What is your opinion on differing mediums to get across different ideas? IE is it easier to get truthful information from an article or a video documentary? Which one do you believe more?

Mediation and remediation! What are your opinions on this?