Blog 2: Blurring the Line Between Real Places and Game Places

So, for blog two, I want you to quickly read this article:

“At Least One Person Has Paid for College By Selling Team Fortress 2 Items”

And then watch this video, and consider and/or respond to the questions below:

1. Should virtual items be worth money?
2. Can we own virtual items? Should we?
3. What are your thoughts on the Real Life Auction House in Diablo 3?
4. Should profit off in-game items be possible for players? Does it matter?
5. Planning on paying for your college education with virtual swords and/or hats any time soon?
6. Any other thoughts upon reading/watching these?

In-Class Blog: Schell, Character Traits, and Functions

Schell is a bit, shall we say, dry. Or specific, perhaps (most of his sections aren’t quite this dependent on other ideas and concepts from the book, so apologies for that). His audience is game developers, making some of the tangents and terms he brings in less than necessary for our purposes, but he brings in some good content for our purposes (designing an avatar/character). Here are the two main items I think will be helpful for us going forward:

First, a list of potential character functions. Your avatar should serve a function in this world. What is it?

And this list of character traits:

So, in your groups, I want you to talk about where the avatar you’d create for yourself (or the one you’re relating yourself to) might fall, and what role your character might play in a game (from image 1).

After that, I’d like to see you post a response to both images (what function would your character serve? and what traits might they have?) in your course blog.

Blog 1: Immersion in Games

So, for Project 1, you will be creating an avatar of yourself using the tools of your own choosing. This project is meant to get you immersed in a game world and think about the elements which compose games as texts, such as characters and worlds.

Is immersion really that important, though? For this blog entry, I want you to read and respond to the following article (as a post in your own blog):

“The Two Ways You Become Immersed in Video Games”

Some questions to consider in your response:

• Do you think Impersonal or Personal Immersion is more important/meaningful? Why?
• What games have you found yourself immersed in and why?
• What are some major points of agreement/disagreement for you here? Do you think the article is spot on? Way off? Why?

We will be using the blogs in a lot of different ways this semester, and in this case I want you to think about the background concept for this first project: immersion.

In-Class Blog: 3 Ideas for Project 1

This will be something we’ll keep coming back to this semester: in-class writing, which then become in-class blog entries. Usually these will revolve around projects and activities we’re doing in class. In this case, it’s a little of both.

Here’s the deal:

I want you, no matter how horrible you might think they are, to come up with 3 different ideas you have for now about how you might want to create your avatar, and also, what you might write about. In total, that’s 6 things you should be writing about.

Think carefully about these, and work on fleshing these ideas out to finish out the day and christen you new blog!

Blog Information

First thing’s first: a word about the blogs in general.

I used to mandate the use of WordPress, but I’ve since had a change of heart. Feel free to use whatever blogging site works best for you, just make sure you send me the link. About the entries themselves: they need to be over 200 words. If not, they won’t count. Being thorough in your writing will also likely net you more points. I will typically only assign the following grades: 0, 20, 100, or 110. 0 is for not completing your blog entry, 20 is if you complete it before the next blog is due, 100 for completing the blog, or 110 for clearly going above and beyond, and writing beyond the limits and/or bringing in images and YouTube videos. Your blog is one of the most highly-weighted elements of this course, and it’s designed to ensure you’re actively participating in this course both in class and outside of it. Make sure you’re taking this seriously. Again, each blog is worth 1.5% of your final grade. I’ve seen countless A-’s turn into B+’s because of not doing blogs. Make sure you do them, on time.