Alisha's blog

Here's my final project. After all that work, it doesn't seem that long! Let me know what you think.

I'm not a big gamer, never was. This class was fun because it was sort of a exploration of that unknown territory formerly known as "what my boyfriend does when we aren't hanging out." I liked most of the games we played this semester; I think that when we look at a game from a narratological standpoint, it just adds whole other layer to the game, which makes me appreciate/respect it more.

When we started playing ARGs, however, I was unsure of how I would like them. At first, when you read stuff like Cathy's book, it doesn't seem as real, mainly because you purchase the book at a store and so forth. But the thing with ARGs that you can find on the web, I don't know, they just seem a little too real for me. I like playing games as something to pass the time, something to do when I have an hour to kill or something. But some really well made ARGs are so realistic that it kind of creeps me out. Some where borderline scary to the point that I had to turn off my computer and go for a run.  read more »

When I was in 6th grade, this book (I can no longer remember the name or the names of the characters) that was made up of postcards. The gist of the story as that two artists, who are starting to fall in love with each other, but this on different continents start writing to each other on these elaborately decorated postcards. the post cards were glued to the pages, some were in envelopes that you could actually take out of the book, and all the text was hand written. If it went through the mail and they had mentions that it was raining when it was dropped in the mailbox, the letter/postcard would be all crinkled and some parts of the text would be ineligible. I loved that book!  read more »

Honestly, after watching the movie "Shutter," I have to analyze my pictures to make sure there isn't a ghost floating around in the background. If I picked up a camera, looked through the pictures on it, and found a faint, indistinct zombie-like creature in the background, I wouldn't be able to sleep for days. All of the "zombies" are so subtle, I had to do a double take to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. I definitely think this would be a good start to a video game or IF.

I enjoyed how the pictures told the story. It was a short story, but I like how you can kind of come up with your own conclusions of what happened to the person who was taking the pictures. For example, when it was described that the camera looked like it was practically brand new, I imagined that someone had recently bought it and took it out on a hike, maybe one that hadn't taken before. I continued to imagine a story as the pictures progressed, and when the "zombies" started appearing, it definitely added a new twist to the story. Where did they come from? Where they violent. Suddenly I found myself quickly scrolling down the page to see what happened.  read more »

well, now that I have actually played Photopia and not something else, I can say that I thought it was pretty entertaining (more so than adventure or zork). it was more like reading a good book; it didnt really feel like a game either. I did like that fact that you could ask for some clues, especially in the forest. I think that the "game" was very well written, and since I got to play another game by accident, I can definitely see a trend in Cadre's work: sarcastic, humorous, and engaging. I'd have to say this has been my favorite assignment yet!

So I've been playing Photopia for about 30 minutes now, and I can't seem to get anywhere without getting myself killed. I like this text interaction game better than adventure and zork mainly because it's funnier. the quotes are hysterical, but I'm starting to get frustrated because i can't seem to get to any other color than green part of the game. In adventure, it seems like it was easier to figure out what to do; you pick up a key, grab the lamp for dark places, and unlock doors when need be. Photopia isn't as straightforward in the mission, and whenever I try to get into a guarded place, I get killed. luckily there is an undo button!

the final part where is got stuck was when I was in the tower with the princess, attempting to take off her straight jacket. I can't seem to undo it, but if anyone can give some clues to what to do next, I'd appreciate it!

I haven't AIM in a very long time, but I remember when I did I used to frequently use the AIM-bot as a search tool, weather report, or movie time list. But more often then not, when I was bored, I used to attempt to converse with it i hopes that it would entertain me, and it worked. Since Eliza was one of the first of its kind, I would have figured these types of games would die out b/c they are only fun for about the first minute. But programmers have really come a long way from Eliza to create a game that can do so much more than answer extremely basic, basic, general questions.  read more »

Prior to the seeing Helvetica the movie, I never really thought a font preavtically everywhere. My favorite clothing store, American Apparel even uses it! There's something so nice about the cleanliness of it, the smoothness of it, that makes it so appealing. As the movie progressed, we started to the progression of opinions, and I definitely got a different take on it. I never really thought that people would associate things like war and capitalism with a font, but I guess when you open your eyes to what can be associated with helvetica, the possibilities are endless. Now that I see helvetica EVERYWHERE, I can't help but think of all the opinions made in the movie, and even though current advertisers are trying to break away from it, at the end of the day I still like it and I think it is very effective.

"Finally, the cinema cannot describe in the strict sense of the word, that is arrest of action. It can only "let be seen"...Filmmakers may use a narrator's "voice-over"; but they find this effect inartistic, and generally limit it to introductions."

-Chatman

I'm not sure if I agree with Chatman when we makes this generalization because some of my favorite movies use voice-overs as the main tool to communicate events and emotions. Fight Club and Apocalypse Now are two of my personally favorites and I don't think that the use of voice-overs rendered them inartistic, but rather offered a different approach to effectively relay the story from the narrators point of view.

I just finished playing Game, game, game and again game, and I have to say that it was not only confusing, but a long game with no clear ending. The first thing I noticed while playing the game was that the game was not keeping track of the points. It had a space on the top labeled "points," but I never actually accrued points. I died quite a bit in that game, and the "come on and meet your maker" line kind of through me off because you didn't "meet your maker" but rather just got moved to where you started in the level. You could die as often as you like and still end up right back where you started.

Traditional games offer points when you land on something special, may it be a mushroom, or treasure chest, however, this game offered a series of phrases that seemed disconnected and confusing, and some even had scribbled out words that made the phrase a bit more confusing to understand. Each level had a general theme with a clip of music to listen to. Some of the music really bothered me, especially level with the red line on it. Overall, as a game, it really was pointless in my terms of gaming, but it did send a message of futility and meaninglessness of life.  read more »

I took this class because I needed an english credit. I picked LIT3003 because it didn't have a lot of writing and the materials studied look interesting. After a week of the class I've got to say that we are all lucky. I'm a botany major, and this class is so refreshing in my schedule jam packed of science courses. Yesterday when we watched the dot and line cartoon I was so confused during the first five minutes. I noticed that Whalen intentionally turned the sound off and that we weren't meant to hear the narration. I went on youtube and watched the cartoon with the full narration. First off, the music gave such a different effect. It heightened during climaxes, so I felt more of an emotional connection. Also, the narrator used a lot adjectives to describe the characters, so I felt I had more of a comprehensive understanding of what was going on. I did like the fact that more was left to the imagination when there wasn't any narration, but I think that narration played an important role in my full understanding of what the cartoon was meant to portray. With that, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I'll see you in class on Monday.