Analysis and Reflection Final Project

Alternate Reality Games

http://vanishingpointgame.com/

http://www.ilovebees.com/

story on it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16549073/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

The original inspiration for this project is Jane McGonigal’s I Lobe Bees. Although our project very different from an ARG like I love bees the concept of a quest going through multiple challenges to find a goal.  I am going to site the Vanishing Point ARG put on by Microsoft as a promotion for Vista a few years ago.  It is similar to our project in the since that it gives the participants an opening video to immerse the users in a narrative.  The theme of the “game” are puzzles and quizzes which lead to the next step.  The differences in the Microsoft project are that it is a much larger scale involving actual locations which had clues at them. Microsoft was using their ARG to promote a product ours on the other hand is to discuss this issue of growing up.

Interactive Fiction

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/zplet/shade.html

Another type of media which is similar to what we did is Interactive Fiction.  The idea of interactive fiction is to immerse the user in a narrative which they get to interact with through puzzles and challenges.  They are similar to our project because they immerse their user in a narrative which is carried through.  They also contain puzzles or challenges in order to find the next state, similar to ours.  What is different is it a more defined narrative confided within one text.  The link is to the IF Shade by Andrew Plotkin which we discussed in class.

The remix Video

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/07/remix-culture-not-ju.html

I know that there are a lot of remix videos out there, but the points are similar.  I used several different texts from movies about growing up to make my point about the issue.  Clipping together several different clips, and taking them out of context I was about to portray a narrative which went along with our overall narrative of the ghost of students past leading current students on a quest.

Author’s Statement Final Project

The idea is fairly simple; have participants go on an online treasure hunt to find the “key to adult hood” in preparation for graduation. The theme of the project is the transition from the world of education to the world adulthood. The challenges of finding the final video represent the changes of finding the way through college to adulthood. In the first video the “ghost of students past” challenge current students to go on a quest. Are intention is to immerse participants through several different media in the quest. We use blogs, digital story videos on YouTube and Facebook, and twitter post to lead the participant though the immersion process.

The final video turned out a little different from what I originally intended. My original idea was to focus primarily on the message of finding the ‘treasure’ or ‘key’ at the end of the text. The only clips that remain of this idea are the finding the treasure scenes from Fools Gold. Lauren and I discussed the idea of using quotes from famous movies about growing up that would go with our theme. I rented Breakfast Club and Farris Bowler’s day off to find quotes. The video started to shape in to a random collection of quotes about adulthood and life in general, both funny and serious. Lauren suggested the section from Dead Poets’ Society about the ghost of students past. This clip was used to help continue the narrative of ghost of students which we stated in the opening video Lauren created.
Jane McGonigal has done a lot of work in the field of Alternative Realities, Quest, and Game Theory which has been a part of our conception for this project. Her project I love Bees was what gave us the original idea for the quest theme of puzzles leading to something to find. In this video http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/mcgonigal (about 1/4 time spot) she discusses games as “interacting with an interactive system.” Which is one of the core ideas of our project, engaging participates with an interactive system of puzzles. She talks about legends of ancient times in which people use game to combat hunger because they are interactive. In her article: http://danhon.com/2008/03/11/sxsw-2008-jane-mcgonigal-keynote/ she talks about how the mind searches for new information to be happy. In the same video (about the same time spot) she says that “games can be a constructive response to a social problem,” I am not saying that our project is anything that grand, but it does revolve around a major issue for all college students, leaving college and joining the real world. Are goal is to engage students in an interactive experience which addresses this issue of their life in a humorous and challenging manner.

Link to the starting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7QCe45g0x0

Graduation

The end of my college term is near, in my opinion not close enough. I am ready to join the real world and put myself to the test of it. These years of colleges have definitely been an interesting experience, but what about the real world? What lies ahead? I am now more ready than ever to move in to the real world.

Carpe Diem!

Blog story: Next to last

go back

Just as he was making the final preparation to fly off in his air ship to leave the country the door to the barn. Catherin slowly walked in, in a somber mood. “Would you have done it?” she asked “got him out of the way to get to me?”
“I wanted to, but in the end I don’t know if I could” He responded in a low tone.
“There is nothing left for me here.” She said. “The money is gone, my name disgraced, and staying in England will slowly kill me. I need to leave, anywhere… see the world as long as it’s not here.”
The Captain, slightly lightheaded from inhaling some of the hydrogen from the air ship, stud stupidly for a second. “There is nothing left for me in the homeland any more; I have packed all that is of any value in to my ship, the rest that I am leaving behind means nothing to me anymore.” He said at last.
“Where will you go?” She asked.
“Away from here, anywhere. Maybe France or Germany.” He stopped for a moment. “ India, yes India. There is nowhere more freeing for oneself then India. That is where I am going.” He seem slightly happy with himself for being that decisive in such short notice.
“Then I am coming with you.” She stated as of this was the most natural thing in the world.

The last post

Mashup

My original idea was fairly different from the final result. The political issue was the same but the way in which I presented and edited the video was different. From the start I knew that I wanted to portray the state of Israel as the villains but I first wanted to project a mostly victim mentality on the part of the Israelis and juxtaposition against atrocities which they have committed. I possibly wanted to compare the Nazis, but I know that has been done before and I was nervous about doing something so sensitive. As I was looking for possible images to use I stumbled upon images of Palestinian dressed as Navi from the movie Avatar protesting against the Israelis. This lead me to want to expand on this idea and do a comparison between the suffering of the Navi and the Palestinians and the Israli Defense Force and the RDA forces from the movie. My brilliant plan was to get the DVD the morning it came out (the day before it was due.) I then started working with the video from the movie and I wasn’t able to find much on the original ‘Victim’ then I had wanted to go for. The closest I could find was the speech by Colonel Miles Quaritch about attacking the Navi in protection. After using that video I started seeing more of a parallel between the Colonel and the stance of the Israeli officials. Which then lead to me setting up comparisons between him and the RDA forces with the Israelis. Using the two opening text of my video I initiated the comparisons and then used the Colonel as the stand-in for the State of Israeli. In this way I was able to use several existing media including Avatar, new media, and the Middle East conflict to show the stories in a new light.

On vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/11169271

more of the Blog story

backward

…”it’s your old friend the Captain”

“oh… I wasn’t expecting him” Catherine said.

“Good day Ms. Catherine” said the Captain. “don’t you look ravishing today, any special occasion?”

“No. It is just such a beautiful day, I thought I might take a walk later.”

“If I am not intruding may I join you?”

“um. Why yes, that sounds…” She stuttered “lovely”

She wasn’t sure why she went with him, but for some reason she felt didn’t feel telling him about her other plans was the right thing to do. She wasn’t usually the one to neglect a previous engagement, but seeing as it was not a formal one she didn’t think it was a terrible sin.

forward

Mind games

On page 42 of Raph Koster’s article about games she discusses how once our brain stops learning new patterns and has new information to observe. For me I know this to be true. When I am playing a role playing game that have a straight or somewhat straight set of events I almost always play only once. Games that have a long term hold on me is ones where there is no “end” objective. Games like Sim City where the purpose is growth and creativity but with no specific goal to be reached have much more of a draw to me. With games like that I can play over and over again trying different methods of growth. In the game I can experience “new data” for my mind to process. However with a game like Zalda once I have reached the end I feel no incentive to go back and play again.

Koster discusses how the brain needs new information to learn and observe in order to remain happy. I find this is true in life as well as in games. When traveling I am much more interested in the world around me because there is a constant stream of new data for my mind to process. However when I am in the same place for a longtime there is little in my surroundings that supplies new information and entertainment must be found in other places, such as games or doing new stuff with friends.

The war and the Zeppelin

past

The Captain was a good man, but a good warrior before that. Years of war had trained him how to defend and fight for what belong to King and country. “How was this different?” he thought “what I fight for on the battle field is no different than this, it’s still a battle.” As he looked longingly towards her all he saw was a beautiful prize in the hands of the enemy as he had looked across numerous lands in the grasp of his foe. “But what I’m I thinking? I am no murder of gentlemen, of my ken.” The Captain felt ashamed of he’s disgraceful thoughts. But even as he checked himself he boiled inside, knowing that he could not hold himself back forever.
He knew that he had lost this day. He headed back, in shame and defeat. What could he do? Nothing for the moment. He needed an escape, he needed a vacation. He decided to go make plans. He went to the large barn in the field on the following morning where he knew it would be waiting for him. Inside, his airship, the German built Zeppelin.

future

Digital Story

Although this is close to what I originally intended I had several limitations due to my technical abilities. Also, to my sadness, it was difficult to use in conversion software without a watermark on the screen. For one thing somewhere in the free file conversion of the screen cast the quality was drastically cut down, which means that most of the screen cast only gave the viewer a vague idea of what was going on. Also, my audio editing abilities didn’t turn out to be good enough to pull off all the mixing effects I want to incorporate. The crude “animation” of the comics is intentional to immerse the audience in to my world and to add comedic effect. I thought that using this technique would make the viewer feel more connected to the author. By choosing a topic that most my audience would relate to I felt that I could more easily engage my audience. I wanted to immerse the viewer in to my world, both as in the author of the story and as the student writing the paper. By using several different forms of media including: audio, cartoons, images, and screen cast I could bring the audience in by using familiar objects to most users.

This is my second try…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGgffEuBLc

Games

It is interesting how happiness can be found in both the real world and in the virtual world. Jane McGonigal discussed how the basic principles of all happiness (satisfying work to do, the experience of being good at something, time spent with people we like, the chance to be a part of something bigger) applies to the game. She said “one of the things that really interests me as I read all this stuff [about finding happiness] is the amazing parallel between what they’re discovering and the core tenets of game design.” For me playing games is sometimes a way of escaping the challenges and pressure of the real world to find fulfillment in the virtual world. For me I find that in the game world I can do challenging work on a large virtual since and accomplish success without the pressures of failure that applies in the world. I prefer games like Sim City, Civilization, games where you can achieve success on a grand scale that is satisfying.