Game For Change

Kill Everything: The Game

This assignment was definitely the one I struggled with the most. I have been very proud of my past creations but this one does not seem as significant. For my video game, I wanted to do something that was somewhat fun to play and not just a bunch of words flying around like some of the other websites. That is why I decided to go with Sploder. I originally was designing a game using Game-o-matic but I realized I didn’t fully understand how to play the game. It was also apparently under some sort of maintenance which allowed me to not be able to save any game I created. After the confusion, I decided to go with Sploder which was fine too. With Sploder, I was able to save the game (after signing up and making an account) and customize it the way I wanted. Something interesting that I noticed is that there were no signs of female options in the characters or tools that were offered. Maybe I just didn’t find them but regardless it was interesting because it made me think of the social issue of feminism. I kind of wanted to focus on feminism as a social issue but I really found no way to incorporate that into the game. Finally, I chose the social issue of desensitization in video games. My video game is literally called “Kill Everything” and all you do is kill a bunch of little monsters without even thinking. I address the fact that killing and violence is so apparent in our society that most video games, even simple ones like mine, center around this theme. I would not use this in my classroom because it seems less effective and more problematic. I don't think the social issues are well portrayed in these games or at least the platforms that I found….

Sources:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/violence-desensitize.htm

http://www.utsa.edu/today/2013/08/videogames.html

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/05/09/violent-video-games-may-numb-players-to-brutality-study-finds

Process Piece: Choreographing

I decided to focus on the choreographic process for this assignment because I thought it could be well expressed through video. Although audio was not part of the final product, I realized it didn’t necessarily need it. Because the video is dancing, I assumed not having any audio would be detrimental. Fortunately, the visuals spoke for themselves and didn’t need sound to convey the message. Being a former dance major but still an active dancer allows my passion for dance to grow even more. This is why I decided to portray a process I was very familiar with but also enjoyed. The choreographic process involves more than what is shown in my video which was the real challenge. I went back and forth deciding what is significant in the choreographic process that needed to be included. There was a lot of editing to be done in the 3 minutes of footage I had. After careful reviewing, I deleted chunks that weren’t necessary and extended the ones that needed more emphasis. For example, the beginning of the choreographic process involves tons of workshopping and selection of movement. I included a lot of footage of counting and marking movements to show moments of thought process that happen while choreographing. In the middle of the process, there’s tons of trial and error instances where changes are constantly being made for aesthetic reasons and so forth. In the end, there is a finished product which is solidified and finally the performance quality is added. This process is not simple but I think through video, it can be expressed interestingly. Thanks to my best friend Ethan, there were great camera shots in the footage that I appreciated. This assignment was probably the most fun to make because it explored my creativity, artistry, and passions altogether.

Round Robin

Beyonce was having such a hard time thinking about what to do for her next world tour.

She knew she should be paying attention to the game, but she was just so preoccupied with her thoughts she couldn't concentrate.

It was her first time away from her child, since she had been born, and she was in a state of panic, thinking about the possibilities of the new babysitter messing everything up!

 Luckily the babysitter, Kimmy, had a lot of experience with kids and took care of everything for her.

There was no more stress to be had, so everyone kicked up their heels in relaxation to enjoy big bowls of jelly and ice cream.

When this assignment was first being explained, I was not sure how I felt about the structure. It seemed very simple but it also very reliant on other participants. Usually, I am reluctant for these types of projects but I was excited to try this new idea. I think the concept of having several people contribute to one story is intriguing. It turns out that having so many a variety of perspectives offered into one product results in something very cool which is a funny story in this case. My story was something I was so anxious to get done. I sent the first part of my story that same Wednesday and got the second part back soon after. I wanted to know what others would say about the topic. The result was so understandable even though each person, beside myself, could only see the sentence and picture before them. Surprisingly, my entire story made sense and was entertaining. Because of different knowledge of Beyonce and Kim Kardashian, personality traits and relationships were included in the story contributions which made it good. I would say using this in the classroom would be incredibly practical. This is fun because students would be applying their knowledge of stories or plots they are familiar with to make a better one. They can also use their own imagination to write relevant stories that relate to what they have read. This assignment is a cool twist to doing things like writing alternate endings to stories or practicing critical thinking skills.

Textual Poaching

  

Original Clip

For this assignment, I decided to focus on my Latino ethnicity and the correlation between Hispanic and American culture. I was thinking about what would be a good representation of my background and I thought of a few representations but the best one I thought was a scene from this movie. Selena is a biographical film about a Mexican-American singer Selena who was killed by her manager at the peak of her career. The reason I focused on this part of the movie in particular was because of what was being discussed. In this scene, Selena’s father and telling her and her brother how hard it is to be Mexican-American. He talked about how to fit into society as a mix-cultured person, you have to be twice as American as the Americans and twice as Mexican as the Mexicans. I completely identified with this and thought this was a great representation of myself. Since I am Venezuelan-American, I created a six gifs from the scene with significant quotes. I also changed when Mexican was used to Venezuelan to make it self accurate. This scene is important because I feel it is valuable to understand what it is like to be a mix-cultured person. To fit in to the cultures you belong, you must prove yourself more than those who just belong to one. I think this would be a great exercise to do in the classroom because students will really have a long and creative journey. Thinking about the process, this did take me a while to figure out how to create the gifs and then edit them. With simple tutorials and experimenting, I finally got the hang of it. Giving the students thorough instructions will help them do this a lot easier.