Saturday, October 27, 2012
Tent stories
I really enjoyed my time with our group making the podcast. We collaborated well with the topic and equally joined in with ideas. I found the collaboration between each other helped with the inspiration process. Ideas helped to generate other ideas and we were able to pull together what we felt to be a funny and informative podcast. I feel our group helped each other, by using our own strengths to enhance the project. Special accolades go out to Tiffany who took on the editing process, and provided the group with our specialist on travel. She gets top billing in my opinion. Stephanie with her writing prowess was a great narrator. Bronson was fun and interjected great comments to add humor into our group, and Cindy was able to tie it together with her travel writing. For me I have many more tent stories in my vacation history that I could tell. It was good for me to only use an outline on what I should interject but still retain a spontaneous flow.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
My Dilemma
Our next assignment will give me room to stretch as a person and a student. I have been giving this assignment a lot of thought as it will prove challenging as I really have no idea what I am doing. I will need to do research into this foreign language that I do not speak. The assignment is to come up with a video game idea, manual and script. I have come up with two ideas one that is completely politically incorrect, but may be cathartic in releasing pent up anger. The other presents a kinder gentler side of me where I want to help disabled children.
The first idea (which I hope I do not end up in jail over) is to take revenge on the school and the people involved in my sons death and their torture of us since his death. As I do not play these violent video games I am not sure how they work at this time, nor do I know how to use a controller. The premise is the grieving parent avatar either the father or the mother enters the school and has to choose their targets. At this point it is a shooting game, that would be fair play in my case. The other characters would be the school district official that laughed at us and denied a memorial page for our son. He actually changed district policy to prevent it from happening. Of course the drama teacher who solicited his students for a gun to use in the production. The parent who chose to give the gun to my son instead of being responsible for it himself. The resource officer who approved the gun and refused to inspect it, or have any safety protocols in place. The principal and vice-principal who disregarded the safety of students, or the rights of the parents. The football coach and his groupies who gave kids assault rifles the following year for their picture in the program. More bonus points will be given for the district officals who knew the boys had the gun and were caught playing in the hall with it, but it was not taken away from them. The attorneys and risk management official will win you the game. At which time the school will emplode and my sons ghost will be released.
Any accidental shooting of students and teachers beyond those mentioned will cause a reduction of points.
Awe, I feel better just writing it down.
Now for the second idea; it would be a game for children who are blind. The avatar would be a dolphin or a killer whale, as they are the most characterized of the whales. The premise would be to have functions where you show progress toward the intended object with sound. They would have to have their avatar find objects or maybe spell out words. This would be an educational game as well as something for fun that these children who have limited abilities could participate. I may give the option for the avatars being mermaids as well. This game is reminiscent of the sonar that is used by these creatures to communicate in the oceans.
The first idea (which I hope I do not end up in jail over) is to take revenge on the school and the people involved in my sons death and their torture of us since his death. As I do not play these violent video games I am not sure how they work at this time, nor do I know how to use a controller. The premise is the grieving parent avatar either the father or the mother enters the school and has to choose their targets. At this point it is a shooting game, that would be fair play in my case. The other characters would be the school district official that laughed at us and denied a memorial page for our son. He actually changed district policy to prevent it from happening. Of course the drama teacher who solicited his students for a gun to use in the production. The parent who chose to give the gun to my son instead of being responsible for it himself. The resource officer who approved the gun and refused to inspect it, or have any safety protocols in place. The principal and vice-principal who disregarded the safety of students, or the rights of the parents. The football coach and his groupies who gave kids assault rifles the following year for their picture in the program. More bonus points will be given for the district officals who knew the boys had the gun and were caught playing in the hall with it, but it was not taken away from them. The attorneys and risk management official will win you the game. At which time the school will emplode and my sons ghost will be released.
Any accidental shooting of students and teachers beyond those mentioned will cause a reduction of points.
Awe, I feel better just writing it down.
Now for the second idea; it would be a game for children who are blind. The avatar would be a dolphin or a killer whale, as they are the most characterized of the whales. The premise would be to have functions where you show progress toward the intended object with sound. They would have to have their avatar find objects or maybe spell out words. This would be an educational game as well as something for fun that these children who have limited abilities could participate. I may give the option for the avatars being mermaids as well. This game is reminiscent of the sonar that is used by these creatures to communicate in the oceans.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Catharsis
Catharsis - 1. an act or purging or purification 2. elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression. (Webster Dictionary)
What is your emotional catharsis when playing games or experiencing a story?
Games are played for fun, right? I remember playing a game of Monopoly with my son years ago. It was an intense game, we each had properties and with the luck of the dice he was winning. I do not recall the exact circumstances, but I cheated. Yes it is a sad day when you cheat against a 4th grader in a game of Monopoly. I do not recall who eventually won that game, it does not matter. What mattered is that I cheated. I remember later admitting my sin to him, and his chastisement. That game taught me a lesson, I still feel guilty over it. I remind myself of that game whenever the competition and emotions of the moment get to high.
It is only a game, so easy to forget in the heat of the moment. The adrenaline gets pumping and oh, the thought of victory is so close. It is a race of who will win, an when the winner is decided a rush of satisfaction fills in where the adrenaline has been used. At times I have been a bad winner when the race has been brutal. I am superior!, a normal feeling.
But when I lose. I now try to remember my "Monopoly" experience. It is a true statement, "it does not matter if you win or lose, it is how you play the game." My true catharsis is that I am truthful to my self in being honest. I may have won but there would not have been any victory in that game. The victory is honesty. For then there is no guilt and that is truly the best purification.
When experiencing a story, I know that I will feel it emotionally if it is an interesting story to me. If it is not interesting I will probably tune out or skip through it and it will bounce off of me like skipping stones on a lake. I may touch down a couple times and remember a high light now and then. But if it touches me, it will touch me deeply. I will feel the emotion, I will take it in and many times when it triggers a connection, I will cry. Whether it be a good or bad story, crying is neither good or bad. It is a purging of emotion. It is an expression of spirit.
What is your emotional catharsis when playing games or experiencing a story?
Games are played for fun, right? I remember playing a game of Monopoly with my son years ago. It was an intense game, we each had properties and with the luck of the dice he was winning. I do not recall the exact circumstances, but I cheated. Yes it is a sad day when you cheat against a 4th grader in a game of Monopoly. I do not recall who eventually won that game, it does not matter. What mattered is that I cheated. I remember later admitting my sin to him, and his chastisement. That game taught me a lesson, I still feel guilty over it. I remind myself of that game whenever the competition and emotions of the moment get to high.
It is only a game, so easy to forget in the heat of the moment. The adrenaline gets pumping and oh, the thought of victory is so close. It is a race of who will win, an when the winner is decided a rush of satisfaction fills in where the adrenaline has been used. At times I have been a bad winner when the race has been brutal. I am superior!, a normal feeling.
But when I lose. I now try to remember my "Monopoly" experience. It is a true statement, "it does not matter if you win or lose, it is how you play the game." My true catharsis is that I am truthful to my self in being honest. I may have won but there would not have been any victory in that game. The victory is honesty. For then there is no guilt and that is truly the best purification.
When experiencing a story, I know that I will feel it emotionally if it is an interesting story to me. If it is not interesting I will probably tune out or skip through it and it will bounce off of me like skipping stones on a lake. I may touch down a couple times and remember a high light now and then. But if it touches me, it will touch me deeply. I will feel the emotion, I will take it in and many times when it triggers a connection, I will cry. Whether it be a good or bad story, crying is neither good or bad. It is a purging of emotion. It is an expression of spirit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)