Colon Senior Seminar 2012

[colonseniorseminar2012]

What message does Battlefield convey?

Battlefield 3 is a very well made game in only one thing, its multi-player, it is renowned for being fun and addictive, but it suffers short comings in single player because of its success as a popular multi-player video game. As soon as the player starts going through the single-player campaign, they feel as though they are in the next Hollywood blockbuster action movie. It makes for a very action packed journey, but one that suffers in the same way that a blockbuster movie would. Its full of dramatic moments and action packed sequences that don't have any real meaning behind them. Games like Battlefield focus so heavily on the multi-player and its addictive quality that the single-player is really just an extra add on movie flick to the developers. And with that comes the expected foul language, waves of pointless enemies, and cruddy game play gimmicks, and the message a player receives from playing this game is just the same as one would get from watching a movie about a future world war. Everything is dramatic and heroism is more important than team work. I am quite sure that is not how it works at all. There are ways to make a good military shooter, but this way is just not it.  

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Jeremy's Post

Are political video games meaningless because they don’t accurately reflect reality or is there some value? Although the games I have played so far do not necessarily accurately reflect reality, I still feel there is some value in the games because they can spark an interest in politics. Prior to these game, I absolutely hated politics, especially because there is never a right answer. I still do; however, I think there are some people who could possibly take an interest in politics. These games, although varying in their degree of accuracy, all serve the same purpose: to educate people in a “fun” way. When playing these games, there is definitely a learning aspect, whether you learn who a key political figure is, or just a viewpoint or policy represented by a party. When you learn something new that intrigues you, you will do more research and learn more about this topic. This probably will not happen with the majority of the class, but as long as at least one person develops an interest in politics, the game serves its purpose, and therefore has some value.

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Shawn Thorsson is a costume and prop fabricator.  He's talking with Make Magazine's Justin Babler today at 4 about sculpting videogame characters.  This is all happening on Google hangouts.  You can probably eventually find an archive of the chat here: http://makezine.com/32/hensey/

(posted by the barker)

[colonseniorseminar2012]

tutorial...

ok so as the mod, mr colon, I think you have to have both "reply" options enabled

and as the mod have the group blog follow all of our accounts. that way we can reply. 

(you can only "reply" from the dashboard, not from the blog post. idk why tumblrs weird)

                 V

also i suggest people download the "missing e" extension, its on chrome/other stuff. it makes tumblr using a lot easier. adds a "-> dash" button so you can find it on your dash and reply                             VVV

[colonseniorseminar2012]

test?

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Wednesday Night's Blogger: Jeremy

the question: are political video games meaningless because they don't accurately reflect reality or is there some value beyond accurately simulating politics?

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Tonight's Commentators (on Josh's Post)

Jose

WIll

Arvid

Archer

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Josh's Post

Budget Hero is a game where the player is essentially the president or whoever is in charge and the player chooses what programs to increase spending for or decrease spending for. At the beginning of the game the player chooses badges. These badges essentially represent the players' policies. For instance the player could have a Romney badge, an Obama badge, a big government badge or several other things as well. Once the game begins the players job is to decrease the debt but at the same time make sure to stay loyal to the badges you picked at the beginning. To accomplish this the player can either increase or decrease funding for programs regarding the army, schools, science, social security, and several others by playing certain cards. This game, I feel, very accurately depicts the difficulties of being a politician because no matter what the player does people are going to be unhappy. In order to balance the budget, I found myself taxing people way more then I wanted and decreasing funding for things I felt were necessary. It accurately simulates how many sacrifices must be made. For instance if one would like to increase spending for underprivileged students they must make cuts on health care or the national defense or other programs the player may feel are vital to our country. The game also accurately does not allow the player to play whatever card he wants. The cards one plays must remain consistent throughout the game and cannot conflict with one another. Also one must play cards that support their badges in order to gain their badges. However, the most inaccurate part of the game is that the player has all control over which policies are put in place. In real life the president cannot simply raise taxes and lower taxes to whatever part of our economy he desires because of our system of checks and balances. However, ultimately I believe this game displays an accurate simulation of truly how hard it is to create a structurally sound economy and suggests that politics are not an easy subject. 

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Question of the Day: JOSH

Josh's question:

Is the game "Budget Hero" an accurate simulation?  Why or why not?

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Woody's Post

ICivics, is an addicting game and a somewhat good representation of the 2012 election. The mechanics of the game are solid. You need to fundraise and can give speeches and run adds to improve your rating in cities. There are a few things that the game overlooks though. When playing through the game I ran as a republican and managed to win california and new york in the electoral college, this is ridiculous. The game doesn't realistically adjust to this election or the recent results of the elections. It does represent the parties views well, but in some states cases it is simply impossible for one party to win. The game also doesn't take into account a third party candidate, in many elections and especially this one, the third party candidate holds much power in how they take away votes from a certain candidate. The process in which you pick your vp also has no real outcome. This is inaccurate because the vp pick can be a huge part of a campaigns election. Overall this game is a fun and accurate way to educate you on US elections in general, but is not helpfull at all in helping you learn about the current election going on now.

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Due Monday, October 30

join this Tumblr page

Whit/Will: play Budget Hero

Archer/Arvid/Ashley: play Budget Hero

Rachel/Jack: play Truth Invaders/iCivics

Joseph/Woody: Political Machine on Monday

Josh/Jeremy/Jess: play Truth Invaders/iCivics

Nate/Robert: playPolitical Machineon Monday

blogger of the week: Woody

blogging question: was your game an effective way to learn about the elections? (you don't need to write anything: you can also post a video or links or images)

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TED talk featuring Jane McGonigal, who explains how gaming can increase your life expectancy (by 7.5 minutes).

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One thing you can do is record a video and post it up to the site.  I recorded this with minimal effort.  I struggled a bit to upload it to YouTube, but that was my problem with technology. For those who are better at it, it's pretty easy.

[colonseniorseminar2012]

Trying Something Different

One of the things I've struggled with the most in this class is keeping track of what we learn.  Given that this is a different type of class to begin with, I'm not really comfortable with traditional assessments like tests and essays.  I don't think they convey the spirit of the class at all.  

Which is what led me to this Tumblr.  After a great conversation with Ms. Barker on this topic, I've decided to try out blogging as a way to track what we are doing in this class. So here's the plan:

each day, we will select one member of the class to serve as class blogger

at the end of each class, we will develop a question that we'd like the blogger to answer

the blogger will then go home and answer the question

how the blogger answers the question, however, can take a variety of forms.  It could, for instance, be traditional writing (a few paragraphs).  But the person could also post a video from the internet.  Or they could use their phone to record a brief video reaction to the question.  Or they could interview someone on their phone and post that

once their post is up, each member of the class will reply to the entry

I truly believe that we are doing something really interesting in class.  The problem is that video games have such baggage associated with it, that we sometimes feel like we aren't learning; as if learning needs to be accompanied by pain, suffering, boredom, or something akin to these.  By keeping track of what we are doing in class, I'm hoping to start keeping a record so we can look back and see in aggregate what we are doing.

At least that's the plan.  Let's see how it works.