Blog Post 12

For my final paper I would like argue the idea that while not all video games are considered texts or stories, there are some video games out there that still can be used as a story telling device and could completely change the user opinion of the game. There are hundreds of sources arguing against the use of video games, but I have found some that refute this claim. The main focus of my paper will be examining one game and discussing how it is able to use different narrative devices in order to tell a exciting story while still remaining an enjoyable electronic game.

The game that I will be examining is Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a perfect example of how game creators were able to use narrative and interactive devices to create an excellent video game. While this game has a great story as well as great gameplay, there have been some interesting “bumps in the road” that may throw the user off. This may have been due to the rush to release this game (as many video games are done these days). Besides that, this game is a solid one.

So here are some of my sources that I plan on using.

1. Kendira, A. "Virstory: A Collaborative Virtual Storytelling." Entertainment Computing: International Conference of Entertainment Computing 2006, Cambridge, UK, September 2006, Proceedings. Berlin ; New York: Springer, 2006. 1 Dec. 2010. Web.

This article focuses on a study that was done, where the researchers looked at the human interaction between digital storytelling and 3D gesture recognition technology. I want to use this because most gaming systems that are sold today come with some sort of 3D gesture recognition technology, which could phase out the use of a controller.

2. Jimenez-Diaz, G. "Pass the Ball: Game-Based Learning of Software Design." Entertainment Computing: International Conference of Entertainment Computing 2007, Cambridge, UK, September 2007, Proceedings. Berlin ; New York: Springer, 2007. 3 Dec. 2010. Web.

This article studies the way people, especially young children learn from video games. The authors devised a study where an entire class room was taught in game-based environment which was supposed to give that "virtual experience".

3. Clarke, Andy and Grethe Mitchell. “Film and the Development of Interactive Narrative.” Virtual Storytelling: Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling: International Conference ICVS 2001, Avignon, France, September 27, 2001: Proceedings. Berlin ; New York: Springer, 2001. 1 Dec. 2010. Web.

This article talks about there are different ways filmmakers use the camera to make the story more exciting. They then go on to talk about these techniques are used in the creation of video games. The authors agree that video games are a good source of storytelling, so this article will really help my report.

4. Lee, Y. “A Context-Based Storytelling with a Responsive Multimedia System.” Virtual Storytelling: Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling: International Conference ICVS 2005, Strasbourg, France, November/December, 2005: Proceedings. Berlin ; New York: Springer, 2005. 3 Dec. 2010. Web.

I found this article interesting because the author states that gaming systems that are in production today fall under the term RMS or Responsive Multimedia System. He goes on to state that people are able to understand information better through a virtual environment, however each experience was different depending on the user experience, knowledge, age, gender, etc.

Interesting Topic

This semester there were many things, throughout our readings, that caught my attention. The one article that really caught my attention was one of our last readings. "Can there be a Form between Games and a Story" by Perlin. I have always had an avid interest in video games, from their development to the final product, they have been a huge part of my life. While some of my friends say I am addicted to video games, I look at it from another point of view.

When playing video games, there has always been one thing I look for, does the story flow? Does playing this game make sense, do the characters help you throughout the game with understanding the story? These are just some of the things I often look for in a game. I hope to find a job in this area someday, and would like to make games that people will enjoy playing, that will be talked about forever.

Perlins article really opened my eyes to how we "become" the character in our video games, almost going into a virtual world to act like that character. This was quite interesting, because I want to develop a game someday that will be able to have the same effect as some games do now, where the player becomes engulfed in the character.

Video game development will never grow old. It is in our nature to always seek out some sort of entertainment or relaxation in our life, and for some it is video games. I hope to be one of those who will help create the next Halo or Call of Duty.

Research Paper

As an avid video game player, I was very interested in the last two readings ("Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation" by Aarseth and "Can there be a Form Between a Game and a Story?" by Perlin). I was most interested because I have played video games, especially computer games, which have taken up so much time of my time. The readings talk about how the debate still exists as to whether video games can be used as narratives in stories and texts. After graduating I would like to try to become an animator for a movie studio, a job that will require much imagination and storytelling ability. I am a firm believer that video games improve creativity and inventiveness

I would therefore like to argue that video games are a good source of text and story. I want to look at how video games have the ability to help us improve in all areas. I will look at different studies that have been done. While there are many studies that will argue against this, I will do my best to show how this is being done.

Blog Assignment 5

With the ability to find virtually anything on the internet these days, one question arises many times; is this information credible? Wiki sites have the ability to allow regular everyday people to post information about anything. For example, for according to The Times, a newspaper in London, the birthday for the Queen had been incorrect for just under 4 years!

I found "The Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book" very interesting. I never realized that piracy was a cause for concern in a non-digital world. Information and stories that were passed from people to people early on was never reliable because the information would change from person to person. Also, I never really thought about how manufactures played such an important role in this context. Could they really sell us "fake" books? I was kinda shocked to find that some do this, by changing what the author has written, which ultimately changes the readers perception of the book.

Fixity in a digital age is not always a good thing either. I still find myself having to check out the date of creation or who the author is, when researching online. There are thousands of websites that are not credible at all, yet they are still used by students and others for information.

Blog Assignment 4

I had quite an interesting time trying to figure out what exactly the authors were trying to convey in the article.

The authors argue that many ideas and such knowledge are not only contained within pictographs, but also within their structure, location, orientation, and construction material. I was a bit confused when reading this; I understand how ideas and knowledge can be contained within pictographs, I had a hard time understanding how it could be within the structure, location, orientation, and construction material.

As an avid computer game player, I started to understand how ideas and knowledge are used in pictographs. One game I often play, Starcraft , has been around for a long long time. There are certain aspects of the game that do not offer any explanation, rather it is up to the user to figure out what they mean. For example, many of the controls on the screen don't offer explanations as to how they are to be used or what for, they just make it trial and error. Amazingly, even though there is no instruction on how or what to do, gamers such as myself, don't have a problem deciphering what the picture means.

We live in a society that is driven by multimedia. All the time we are using pictures to tell a story or to explain something. I agree with the authors when they say when ideas and knowledge can be contained in pictures.

Blog Assignment 3

After reading both articles, I was quite amazed by the "10 Reading Revolution Before E-Books" and how it compared to the Ong article. When first reading Ong's article, I was a bit confused when he says "writing has transformed human consciousness". The way one expresses is considered an invention, according to Ong. When applying Ong's work to the reading revolution, I was most interested in parts 7&8 of the article, mainly because it was the transformation of writing and how it was being applied to electronics.

The following sentence really caught my attention: "The development and expansion of computing, too, introduced a few powerful wrinkles, like the conversion of alphanumeric text to binary languages, text written to be "read" by computers rather than humans, and greatly increasing the amount of reading and writing we perform on screens." This is becoming increasingly true when talking about how writing is used in the technology world.

The human consciousness will forever be changed by writing. Everyday we are changing the way people are able to "write", whether it be on a computer or iphone, writing or "communicating" will always evolve.

Blog Assignment 2

Ong discusses in these two readings, the differences in speaking and writing. There are over a thousand languages, but only 106 of them are used as writing or used in literature. Cultures that have both written and spoken "languages", seem to be more advanced than those with just an oral language.

While reading Ong's first chapter of "Orality and Literacy", I came across a small section where Ong talked about "computer language". This immediately caught my attention. With some prior programming experience, I found it interesting that Ong believes that this language is "totally unlike human languages, in that they do not grow out of unconscious but directly out of consciousness." I believe that "computer language" is a remediated form of writing, where we are using precise terms to accomplish a task. Grammar is not usually associated with computer language, while it is very important when writing or speaking.

Blog Assignment 1

I had some trouble deciding what concept or object to choose, after all it seems like everything in our world today has been remediated in some form or another. While driving up to campus the other morning, I was annoyed with the GPS finder we had installed in our car. When I was growing up, my family and I would take many long road trips all over the country. These trips were extremely enjoyable, almost like an adventure, where we were forced to use those fold out maps to find our destination. With advances in technology over the past few years, we now don’t need to use those paper maps to find our final destination. After personal GPS technology emerged people stopped using paper maps. This to me is a sort of remediation. There is no need to ever look for directions on a paper map, when we can just download our travel plans on to the device and presto!-our trip has already been laid out.

I believe that the change in map usage would fall under the first part Bolter & Grusin’s explanation, where they discuss how “each new medium is justified because it fills a lack or repairs faults in its predecessor” I choose this because GPS systems are an improvement on the original paper map, and have many new abilities that a paper map doesn’t. They use the example of the World Wide Web because it has the ability to “repair” simple problems we have today.

DTC 375 Introduction

Hey everyone!

My name is Kiran Poovaiah. Im currently a senior here at WSU and I hope to graduate with a DTC degree in May. Im a local boy(lived in Pullman my entire life) so I am quite excited to get out of this town when I finish.

-Kiran ;)

Movie Update

So far we have pounded out a script and have begun the first stages of filming. We are trying to work kind of a comedy aspect into this movie. We are planning on filming tomorrow (Wednesday) and a little on Thursday. We are also planning on editing it weekend.

CRAP

Why do you think the CRAP Principles are important in design?

After reading about the CRAP principles, it opened a whole new meaning about how graphic artists go about laying out their ideas. I never really put any thought into the fact that how we layout our designs or ideas can make or break a sale or lose a potential customer. Contrast, according to Willams, is often the most important visual attraction on the page. What you use to grab the attention of your reader or customer, creates the first impression. You should use repetition through out your work, stick with the same idea that you had, and it will go a long way. Always use alignment with your work. This creates a clean sophisticated, fresh look. Finally, proximity, which describes how items related should be grouped close together. By doing this you can reduce clutter in your projects, help the reader focus on the materiel you want them to see. All these principle help graphic artists and designers to make better decisions about their work.

Comics

McCloud has a very interesting view when it come to viewing comics rhetorically. Comics have the potential to have a different meaning when it comes to different readers. There are three main ways to view images in comics, according the McCloud, they can be symbols, icons or pictures. Symbols are used as a way to visually represent an idea or belief through a single image. Where as, icons are used because you can associate an image with a word or language, which also give meaning to the image.

McCloud also seperates images from word, because both have their own story to tell. Word and images both have the ability to convey a deep meaning, but when you can combine the two, you get a powerful combination which can create a much deeper meaning.

McCloud also points out that images have been around for a very long time. From the time of cave art, we have used images to express what we feel inside. They have the ability to convey a different meaning for each individual who looks at the image. While word have only one meaning, one interpretation.

Symbols:Microsoft

The Microsoft symbol is one of the most recognizable symbols in the entire world. There have been countless times where I have just seen the Microsoft logo and automatically knew it was a Microsoft product.



Symbol: The Microsoft logo can represent many things. The most widely known is the Windows representation. To me this represents the fact that this program is allowing you, the user, the opportunity to look through a "window" into the world, that is the personal computer.

Picture: When Microsoft first started business, there original logo looked like a window, where they used the colors red, green, blue, and yellow. To me this just seem like a "calm" logo, not too flashy, but still widely known. It also displays a bit of smoothness to it, I guess showing how sleek and smooth the program runs (but we all know thats not true, ;).

Sign: Microsoft Windows is the first thing I think of when I see this logo. It looks like a window in which the users are shown the world of computing through it. Also then name, Windows, automatically leads a person to believe that they are using a Mircosoft product.

Rhetorical Device

Look at your object of study in terms of rhetorical organization and rhetorical ‘devices.’ Specifically, discuss one rhetorical device mentioned by Horn (Synecdoche, Metonymy, or Metaphor) that you see in your object of study.

All in all, Microsoft's Xbox has been a key part in the advancement of video gaming. It currently is the most sold game console according to USA Today. But why do people like it so much? When you turn on Xbox, the first page you see is your profile. This, along with your video, music and game options are presented very clearly and easy for anyone to understand. The interface is very neat and clean, and it allows the user to move around the console with ease. Since 2008 Xbox has developed a new interface for their users, which integrated Windows Media Player and is compatible with the Microsoft Zune. But one of the most important rhetorical features about the Xbox is Xbox Live. Here the user is able to connect to the internet, buy music, games or movies and download them directly to their Xbox.

One rhetorical device that really stood out was Xbox Live Marketplace. I would like to compare it to what Horn calls Metonymy. This means that "the name of one thing is used for that of another with which it is associated." The reason for this being, the Xbox Live Marketplace, isnt an actually marketplace, but rather a place to search for you favorite game, music or even movie.

Rhetoric

It was about half way through the Foss Foss and Trapp reading, when I realized I really did not know what the exact meaning of the word rhetoric meant. In the dictionary, it was simply put: "using language effectively to please or persuade" This article had a very interesting argument, which really made me think about how we all go about living our lives. Rhetoric has always been used a form of communication, and according the Foss Foss and Trapp "rhetoric is the human use of symbols to communicate". This statement is quite true in my opinion. We always are using symbols to define who we are, or what sports teams we support. In fact most of the things we interact with on a daily basis is a symbol.
We all love visuals and multimedia. Who doesn't love using that new gadget or computer, fresh out of the box. But what led us to buy it? Was it because of the design of the box, or the flashy ads for the product? This is why visuals are rhetoric. We use them as a very effective tool of communication, where we basically allow visuals to convey any sort of message. Marketing can be used as an example of using rhetoric for visual use.

Interface

Think about a certain digital device or software interface that you use on a regular basis and discuss how you look through it (its transparency) and how you look at it (its reflective quality).

In today's world, the speed at which new technology is being produced is astounding. Everyday we hear about some device that can store more memory, or how thin the newest laptop is. Yet most people do not actually take the time to understand the "transparency" of these items. Transparency can be put in the most simplest terms as: being able to use the interface or device, easily, with out actually knowing what is going on in the back ground. As a former computer science major, I have only seen a little of what it takes to write a computer program, and it requires a certain skill set that not many possess. Such interface's and devices also have a element of reflection to them as well. This happens when there is a problem with the interface or device, which causes the user the dwelve further in their problem, looking around for solutions even though they do not actually know what is going on at a "code" level.

I frequently use a new online radio website called Grooveshark. Here I am able to basically find any of my favorite music, make playlists and save them on my profile. The interface is quite easy to understand and it provides the user with friendly hints, and even remembers what you have played recently. When thinking about the transparency of the this website, I usually just type in the song I want, not thinking about where it comes from or the intense amount of code that goes along with it. This is what makes such interfaces popular, they are easy to use and do not require much thinking. But if something were to go wrong, like a deleted playlist or the song you want isnt loading, most would look deeper into the issue, even though most of the time there is nothing we usually can do. It requires almost a different sort of user all together, the administrator or lab tech to solve the problem.

Multimedia Authoring

In regards to these two articles, how do you think the university views multimedia authoring?

I think that the university has quite an open view about multimedia authoring. They allow us to do so much of our homework and other assignments on a computer, some classes even have homework that must be submitted online! The "paperless" class room is actually becoming a reality. Multimedia authoring is becoming easier to do every day for the everyday person. According to the first reading, " The beauty-and peril- of the World Wide Web is that everyone can publish their own information quickly and easily". This is very true about the current day and age we all live in, and luckily we are all able to go to a university where we are allowed to basically be our own authors.