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I believe in order to have a good idea, you must be able to tear it down and build it back up again. the process of iterating and improving is vital to having an end product that is the best version of itself.

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I believe in order to have a good idea, you must be able to tear it down and build it back up again. the process of iterating and improving is vital to having an end product that is the best version of itself.

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The five things I have realized about school and learning are:

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The five things I have realized about school and learning are:

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Self policing and agency are vital to your success as a student. Developing good habits and keeping a good mindset can be the difference between thriving and struggling.

Maintaining a good work-life balance is also important. Giving yourself time to walk away from what you're working on can be helpful, as then you can come back to it with a fresh, rested mind

Music has strong connections to memory in your brain. Having music playing while studying can be extremely helpful, and it allows me to focus much more easily. This was a something I realized pretty much the minute i was in public school. It was also a constant source of friction between me and instructors who disallowed music in class. That's another pro of college, and it leads into the next thought.

Self advocacy is something I've believed in for years. If something in your education is not serving you well, you should fight tooth and nail to get the education that you deserve. Don't simply put up with something because "that's the way it is" and if you have to, don't do it quietly.

And finally, when it comes to writing it's important the the language you use serves the goal of what you are writing. Often simpler, shorter wording is much better than overly complicated and flowery language

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Things getting hazardous in the first turn of the Death Race, as the blue truck in the lead drops an explosive payload

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I've always had a fascination with games of all types, even as a little kid I was inventing my own board games and trading card games. Lately, I've been really into tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and Gaslands, the latter of which is pictured above. Gaslands is set in an alternate post-apocalyptic reality where mankind has colonized Mars and the people on Earth live in subjugation, engaging in vehicular combat for the amusement of the Martian population. Gaslands is a particular favorite of mine because of how affordable and accessible it is compared to other wargames.

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Some shoes I found on clearance that I gave a makeover

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I really enjoy getting an idea in my head and then forming it into a physical thing. Whether that's a model for a tabletop game, a piece of graphic art, or an article of clothing that I've customized, nothing is more rewarding than a good project.

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My Receiptify for January. As you can see I'm having a Beastie Boys phase at the moment. You should check out what yours is!

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Music is really important to me. If I don't have music readily accessible it's often difficult for me to focus and be productive. In addition to just listening to music, I really like websites that allow you to analyze your listening habits. I included my Receiptify above, but you can also check out some of the sites below!

Receiptify (What songs do you listen to?)

Obscurify (How Obscure is your music?)

Boil The Frog (It's more fun if you just see this one for yourself)

If you do use the sites, comment what you got!

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What I learned about commas is that you don't just put them wherever there's a pause in a sentence. Rather, they are used to visually separate elements of a sentence and are also used to punctuate lists and addresses.

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Today I learned about the most common mistakes that happen while writing with apostrophes. For example, one of the mistakes I often make is adding an apostrophe to "its" to show possession.
"The dragon opened it's wings" would be incorrect, as "It's" is a contraction of "It is" so really what I'm saying when I type that is: "The dragon opened it is wings," which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The correct way to write it is: "The dragon opened its wings." Even though that goes against my initial instincts, that is the correct way to write the sentence.

I also learned from the long video about apostrophes that a little under half of native English speakers don't know how to use apostrophes, which made me feel better about getting mixed up sometimes because I know I'm not alone!

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I learned today that how you format dialogue depends on the structure of the sentence. The way the Khan academy described it was that commas and periods work like runways, either helping a sentence take off or land gently. I also learned that punctuating dialogue is one of the few instances where you can end a sentence with a comma!

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I've always been a fast walker. Whether it's due to my impatience, a habit I picked up to get places sooner, or just a stereotype of gay people that rings true, I can usually be found marching along at a brisk pace, my head bobbing up and down lightly as my legs carry me along. It's something I don't think about much, but it has a few amusing side effects. For example in middle school, a few of my friends thought I could teleport.

This was a rumor that happened almost entirely by accident. My friends simply had difficulty keeping track of me in-between classes with me zipping around, and with their overactive imaginations, teleportation was the obvious explanation. Obviously. Mostly I just let it happen because of how amusing it was to me, but every once in a while I would pull a little stunt to keep it interesting.

It was passing period right after lunch and I was standing in the hallway with one of my friends, chatting about what the cafeteria had that day and how boring gym class was going to be that day. I remember stretching my arms upward, feeling the slightly worn fabric of my shirt rub against my skin as the weight of my overly stuffed and heavy backpack shifted. And suddenly, I had an idea. I quickly shrugged my heavy backpack off my shoulders and before it had hit the ground I had already sprinted through the shuffling crowd in the hall darting between the idling students like a wasp avoiding drops of rain, not stopping until I reached the other side of the hall. I whipped my head around to where I was standing, and I caught the amusing view of my friend's jaw hanging open, looking around for me in confusion. The crowd acted as a smokescreen, obscuring my movement. As they shuffled around like ants I could keep an eye on my friend without them catching sight of me, which I used to my advantage to circle back around to where my friend was standing. I tapped them on the shoulder and they jumped in surprise when they saw who it was. "Jeez man, where did you go?" I shrugged. "I dunno"

I wonder how much of our lives are dedicated to maintaining or trying to dismantle the various rumors and stories about us. How often do we alter our behavior to account for how we are perceived by others, either for our own amusement like in my story or for our own benefit or survival.

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If there's one media franchise that has the tightest grip around me, it's Star Wars. For as long as I can remember I've been a fan of the films, shows, and games. I've spent countless hours reading books and wiki pages about the expanded universe and watching documentaries about the production of the films. One of my most prized possessions is my copy of the original trilogy in a VHS box set. But I didn't come to love this universe through watching the movies. I got my love for it through a few degrees of separation, by playing the Lego video games.

Even though I'm a filthy zoomer, I'm still old enough to remember Blockbuster, and that's where this all started. The location we went to at the time was trying to get rid of old inventory, and they were selling off game discs and movies. I was digging through the bins when I eventually found a game disc for Lego Star Wars. At the time I really didn't know what Star Wars was, but I knew I liked Legos, so it ended up coming home with me! And through the blocky aesthetic of Lego bricks, the mumbling dialogue of the characters, and the tongue-in-cheek humor of the Lego games from that era, was the first time I dipped my toes into the world of Star Wars. I think it speaks volumes about the power of these stories, that even though I essentially experienced a parody of what are often considered the worst movies in the series, it was enough to hook me for life.

This particular game also sparked another interest of mine, graphic design! The copy we got from Blockbuster was missing its cover, which really bummed out younger me because all of the other games had cool art and designs on them. But my mom had an excellent suggestion

"Why don't you draw your own?"

Being young as I was I probably said something to the effect of "WHERE ARE MY CRAYONS" before getting to work crafting my own cover art. I still have this copy of Lego Star Wars to this day, and every time I look at it, it reminds me of how big of an impact the game had on me. I wonder if I ever would have gotten as into Star Wars as I am now without it, or even graphic design, which I am now studying at FRCC.

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I have a lot of YuGiOh and Magic The Gathering cards. My primitive crow brain can't get enough of these things, the combination of rarity, shiny things, written blurbs, and pretty artwork are a powerful cocktail that stimulates my hoarding instincts. I discovered YuGiOh through my dad, who had an interest in the game long before i was born, and was excited to share it with me when I got old enough to understand the game. It wasn't until my freshman year of high school that I found Magic The Gathering.  There was a group of seniors I hung out with that taught me the ropes.

We would sit at the circular tables in the lunch room like King Arthur's knights and wolf down the cardboard pizza and stale fruit before getting out our decks of cards and trying to cram a game into the small amount of time the lunch break afforded us. the games sounded a bit like a rhythmic drum beat in the early rounds, as the various players draw their cards and assemble their strategies. "I drew my cards and I'm gonna play two lands, pass." followed by a knuckle tap on the table, and the next player's turn, "I'm gonna play three lands, pass." another tap, and the next player. It was like a collaborative performance as the focus shifted to each person and their actions in the game, except the audience is studying your every move to figure out the best possible way to stop the performance from going as planned. It was a special way to escape from the humdrum of high school. For that 30-45 minute period, we weren't students. We were tacticians, warriors, and powerful spellcasters.

After that group of seniors left, the Magic The Gathering scene pretty much left with them. There were a few other people that kept playing, but that special energy was never quite there again. And now with COVID, it's been years since I've had a game of YuGioh or Magic The Gathering that felt that fun. I wonder if I'll ever experience that again, or if it's was simply something I had to be in the right place and time for. I also wonder if I should even try to chase that feeling, or if that will ultimately leave me feeling disappointing.

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hee hoo he head too small for he dang shirt

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Today I learned a good way to remember what to capitalize when writing. the acronym MINTS, which stands for Months, I, Names, Titles, and Starts of sentences. It's also helpful because you need to capitalize acronyms.

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Grammarly is a platform that I've been using long before this class, and it's very helpful. The browser extension is able to correct my writing in emails and other text boxes. Unfortunately the extension doesn't seem to work for padlet.

The video on the topic was very amusing, as it points out a lack of grammar checking in word processers at the time in 2017, when in the current year a lot of that missing functionality has been added in.

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The way I activated my schema for this talk was looking into the person giving the talk and what their background is, their qualifications are, and their experience.

https://www.ted.com/talks/kristie_overstreet_what_doctors_should_know_about_gender_identity

I think the difference between activated schema and not activating schema is like the difference between building a solid foundation for a house to sit on, and building a house with no foundation. While it is possible that a text can stand on it's own, building a mental framework for it ensures it can stay more solidly in our memory.

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Kristie Overstreet: What doctors should know about gender identity

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Kristie Overstreet is on a mission to ensure that the transgender community gets their health care needs met. In this informative, myth-busting talk, she provides a primer for understanding gender identity and invites us to shift how we view transgender health care -- so that everyone gets the respect and dignity they deserve when they go to a doctor.

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In Kristie Overstreet's talk, she shares stories of transgender individuals and the problems they face in the medical system. For example, she tells us about two transgender women and the fears they had about having their identities respected, and the difficulty they had accessing gender-affirming care. Additionally, she illustrates the drought of proper education on LGBTQ+ specific health complications, despite the high risks that the community faces. Adding on to that, she explains the distinction between Gender identity, Biological Sex, and Sexual Orientation.

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I used google docs to highlight and annotate the transcript :D

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I told two people about the talk, and one of those conversations happened in a group chat which allowed the information to spread further. I reviewed my notes and annotations before I started explaining it for the first time. After the first time I shared it, I was asked a few questions that gave me an idea of what information I should try and provide upfront when I told another person about it. Telling another person about the talk helped cement it in my mind, because you need to be able to understand an idea before you help someone else understand.

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In the TED Talk, "What Doctors Should Know About Gender Identity" (2017), Kristie Overstreet discusses the obstacles and difficulties that transgender patients have to face in the medical system. For example, Overstreet presents the frustrations of two transgender women and their struggle to be properly respected as their chosen identities and the ordeal of getting gender-affirming care. These stories introduce us to a transgender addict who is wary of entering rehab because she may not be treated as a woman and another woman who sought gender-affirming care later in life only to be dismissed and quickly shuffled away to be tested for HIV. In addition to this, Overstreet illustrates the drought of extensive education on the matter of LGBTQ+ health issues in medical schools in spite of the high risks LGBTQ+ individuals face. She highlights in particular that there is only about five hours worth of academic material dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community in average medical school education. Overstreet builds on this by supplying a rundown on the distinctions between Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Biological sex.

Overstreet, Kristie, director. What Doctors Should Know about Gender Identity. Kristie Overstreet: What Doctors Should Know about Gender Identity | TED Talk, Sept. 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/kristie_overstreet_what_doctors_should_know_about_gender_identity?language=en. Accessed 22 Feb. 2022.

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A run-on sentence is something that can occur when two independent clauses have been combined into one sentence. Theses can be fixed by turning the sentence into two sentences, or by adding a comma and the word "and".

A comma splice is what happens when a run-on sentence is broken up incorrectly. If two independent clauses are not properly broken up by a comma it can cause a similar "runaway train" effect as a run-on sentence.

For example here is a run-on sentence:

"I really didn't like that a few episodes of the Book of Boba Fett focused on Din Djarin they took focus away from Boba Fett and even though they were good it was distracting"

This is too much going one for one sentence. let's try adding a comma.

"I really didn't like that a few episodes of the Book of Boba Fett focused on Din Djarin, they took focus away from Boba Fett and even though they were good it was distracting"

This is better, but it's still too much for one full sentence. this is an example of a comma splice. To help this flow better there are a couple of ways I could rewrite it.

"I really didn't like that a few episodes of the Book of Boba Fett focused on Din Djarin. These episodes took focus away from Boba Fett and even though they were good it was distracting"

"I really didn't like that a few episodes of the Book of Boba Fett focused on Din Djarin; they took focus away from Boba Fett and even though they were good it was distracting"

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I thought the story that spoke the most to me was the Lego Star Wars one. I think even though it had less potential to check the boxes for the assignments as far as descriptive writing goes, it was still a lot of fun to write and it touched on something that was very important to me growing up. The series of Lego games were a gateway into several franchises I still love to this day, and they have fantastic game design in my opinion that has aged very well. I think in my Big Idea assignment I would love to delve into the development of the LEGO games and how they have changed over time. In addition to that, I would love an excuse to talk in-depth about the game design, and my attachment to Lego as a whole.

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The first Lego game ever was Fun To Build released in 1995 on the Sega Pico, a console designed as a learning tool for younger children. The cartridges for the Pico console had a storybook on them, and different parts of the game were accessed via turning the pages of the book. Although the Sega Pico performed well in Japan, its launch in North America was not as successful, and its original run in the states ended in 1998.
The game consisted of several puzzles and minigames that spanned the Lego world, including the Space and Castle themes.

The next major Lego gaming venture was Lego Island, released in 1997. It was a PC game and featured a small open world to explore while running errands as various citizens of Lego Island. In the main storyline, a malicious character named The Brickster escapes his prison cell by melting a lock with a pizza delivered by Pepper Roni, one of the playable characters. His motive for his escape is to exact his revenge on the people of Lego Island by quite literally tearing it apart brick by brick. Pepper Roni must then align with the police force and recapture The Brickster to prevent the destruction of the island.

Several other games came out in the following years but the one that established the blueprint that most future lego releases were based on came out in 2005, and that was Lego Star Wars. Features like the hub world, the character roster, and the iconic puzzle platforming and combat gameplay. Most other entries in the Lego game library are built off of this base formula for their worlds and gameplay.

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Saving these for my own reference and also for those who are curious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORwMyNdlpkc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lego_video_games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Pico

https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/LEGO_Fun_to_Build

https://segaretro.org/Lego_Fun_to_Build#Physical_scans

https://www.emulatorgames.net/roms/sega-pico/lego-fun-to-build/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zfiv_1fclo

https://www.gamegrin.com/articles/a-history-of-lego-games/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Star_Wars:_The_Video_Game

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/LEGO_Star_Wars:_The_Video_Game#Development

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zfiv_1fclo

I'm going to start by saying that is immensely difficult to nail down any one source for this particular game. It's a very niche game, that was only released in Japan, on a console that had a very small market in Japan and absolutely tanked in North America. Because of that any and all information on this title is scattered between fan forums with sparse external links. That being said, I was eventually able to find a video that shows both the operation of the Sega Pico console and gameplay. This is very useful as it shows how the first lego game worked.

Like all other Sega Pico titles, you switch to different areas of the game by turning the pages on the picture book that is built into the Sega Pico cartridge. You then use the pen on the Sega Pico to click on different parts of the book, activating different building puzzles and minigames. The game has 5 areas, which correspond to several Lego set themes. They are Town, Castle, Aquazone, Space, and a Free Building area. The minigames usually involve finishing a partially constructed vehicle, and then completing a task with it, such as racing, gathering crystals, exploring a castle, etc.

I think it's very helpful that this source exists because, without it, in order to get a sense of how the game worked I would have to risk downloading an emulator and ROMs from some less than trustworthy sites or pay a good couple thousand dollars to get a copy of the game and a Sega Pico console imported from Japan, and just hope the old hardware holds up long enough for what I need. Neither is entirely practical, and I have gotten the impression from the gameplay footage that the experience would not have been worth it. We have certainly come a long way.

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The Very First LEGO Video Game! LEGO Fun To Build for Sega Pico, 1995

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_x7MiUcT8s

https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/bltd399c039fb565168/bits_n_bricks_s01e04_lego_island_feature_and_transcript.pdf

This source was a much easier find, as unlike the forgotten Lego Fun To Build, Lego Island has a large cult following and thusly has much more documentation surrounding the game. I was able to find this podcast as well as its transcript that included interviews with the developers of the game, as well as a leader of a fan project surrounding the game. The transcript has some extra features, including links to other documentaries for me to delve into. It was a very refreshing experience when compared to the last hunt.

The things I found from this source were very interesting. For example, the developers of Lego Island, Mindscape. were not sought out by the Lego Group, instead, they repeatedly pitched the concept of the game to the company, creating a whole line of concepts to demonstrate the potential of the concepts. This was a surprise to me, as Lego is a company that is very conscious of its image. An external company convincing Lego to go along with a fairly risky endeavor is impressive, to say the least.

In addition to this, I found a more unsavory factoid. After the smash success of the Lego Island game, Mindscape fired almost the entire staff and folded the company in order to get out of paying due royalties to their employees. Knowing this puts a bit of dirt on the image of this game, and scummy practices like this are unfortunately common in the video game industry.

The podcasters also interview the leader of a fan project to fully recreate the game. It's a fascinating example of the impact the game had, that a small team of hobbyists is attempting what took a full team of developers 2 years to accomplish.

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The video by Emily Too talks adds to a lot of the concepts introduced by the reading. She explains how you need to give proper context before a quote, and after quoting someone, you must analyze or otherwise explain the quote and not just let it stand on its own, which is called Hit and Run quoting in the reading. Doing this integrates the quote into your writing rather than having it awkwardly jut out from your words. So remember the three parts of the sandwich: Introduce, which is the top bun, Quote, the meaty center, and Analyze, the bottom bun.

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In order to find more information that will be useful to the search, I have to widen the net I cast while looking for sources. This source I found is not closely directed to my initial query but has opened up new questions for me to find answers to, and will inform how I continue looking for information.

In the study Motivation By Gamification: Adapting Motivational Tools of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) For Peer-To-Peer Assessment In Connectivist Massive Open Online Courses (cMOOCs), the author István Danka explains some pitfalls of self-guided online learning, and how maintaining motivation and engagement is a major issue. He highlights that enrollment in online learning programs is often very high, but a high dropout rate goes hand-in-hand with that number. Danka also describes a problem of registered users exhibiting a “lurking” behavior where they simply observe the goings-on of the class without engaging in a meaningful way with the material,  an issue in learning environments where a majority of the learning is intended to be collaborative. Danka states that a major goal moving forward with virtual learning needs to incentivize completion, not merely enrollment. Danka then explains some of the elements of MMORPGs that allow players to get invested in the games and explains how they could be used to enhance a virtual learning experience. The three main elements Danka brings up are:

Character Generation

Experience Points/Leveling Up

Interactive Progress Via User-Defined Goals

Danka explains that Character Generation is engaging in games because it allows a player to flesh out the identity they want to perform in the game, and not only defines what the character looks like but what skills and abilities the character possesses. Danka then elaborates that in the context of online learning a similar system could be used to express skills, preferences, and levels of comfort regarding different areas of study, and also to record and reflect a student’s development over time. These profiles could also be used as a tool to encourage diversity, as in-game characteristics are usually divorced from real-world characteristics. Danka then moves on to the Leveling Up topic, explaining that in games, Experience Points are not only a way of monitoring progress but a resource that can be spent to gain opportunities, as characters can level up to be more powerful. Quest systems with multiple small objectives that reward the player with Experience points help divide up what could otherwise be an overwhelming amount of work to complete and give players a sense that no matter what they do, they are always moving forward. This feeling of forward progress and accomplishment is useful to retain engagement. Danka then elaborates on the third item, explaining how in games players are often incentivized to form groups with other players whose skills complement each other in order to tackle challenges that would be difficult or even impossible to complete alone. This natural incentive for collaboration would be very useful for online learning as it would increase communication, and democratize the learning experience

It was fascinating to see the way this author broke down the mechanics of MMORPGs and how they could help solve some issues in online learning. I was able to relate partly to a lot of the issues presented as I have been learned at least partly remotely since the second semester of my junior year in high school. Staying motivated and engaged can be very difficult, and I had to sort of take a crash course in staying sane while working from home. Even though i found a way to succeed and even excel in a virtual learning environment, having resources like the ones described in the paper would have been a game changer (pun intended). I would to try and push this information further, and learn more about how game mechanics can aid immersion in both tasks and storytelling.

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I found an article that talked more in depth about a topic brought up in my first source.

In the article The Effects Of Human Factors On The Use Of Avatars In Game-Based Learning Customization V.S. Non-Customization by Zhi-Hong Chen, Han-De Lu, and Ching-Hu Lu, the authors explain how learners interact with gamified education systems, and how engagement is effected by including a customizable avatar into the learning software, and how previous experience with video games changes the effectiveness of gamified learning. In the research they had two groups of learners, one given character customization and one without. The students were allowed four categories of customization: Gender (male or female), Appearance (skin tone, hair, eye color, etc.), Profession (Think class in D&D), and an Animal Companion.

The group with customizable avatars overall showed an increased level of performance, even among those with a lack of previous video game experience. As the authors explain, the students see the avatar as an extension of themselves causing the avatar to anchor them to the virtual learning experience. This allows the learner to get into what they call a “Flow Zone”, allowing them to get fully immersed in their tasks and begin enjoying them. By using the avatar as a tool for self expression they can communicate preferences in a direct and quantifiable way. As the authors explain, differences in avatar appearance tend to relate to differences in behavior in students, with examples being that taller avatars are more commanding and more attractive avatars tend to be kinder.

It was interesting to see this topic covered in more detail here, I was left with some questions about this detail from the first source, and seeing this getting tested firsthand answered most of them. I would still like to learn what makes character creation systems work, and what makes them engaging. I will have to do more digging!

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I have made a video back up of my Padlet posts.

I successfully completed the Gatekeeper.

I left comments on my Research Team's Padlet posts.

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I made this meme because I feel like it captures my current experience on my research journey. I feel a lot more like a crazy person with a corkboard than an academic, and to be honest that's very freeing.

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Joshua Bell is a talented violinist, who often performs in theatres to huge crowds. The TED talk tells the story of how one night he was playing to a crowd of thousands, and the next day was playing in a subway attracting little attention, almost being invisible. the TED talk goes on to explain why the same talented musician, playing the same music, could get such a different reaction. We can find some explanation in Plato's work titled Rhetoric. Plato explains that there are three forces that work to convince: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Logos governs logical convincing, Pathos is emotional convincing, and Ethos is convincing via credibility. By removing the theatre, the credibility that would have been impacted by the theatre is no longer there, removing the Ethos. and without the distinct emotional connection of a crowd and performer, the Pathos connection is also removed.

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I have found a lot of splitting pathways on my research journey. While my original point of interest was a bit of a dead-end, it allowed me to discover a new line of questioning that is ultimately more interesting and affects a wider audience.

Ted Talk Notes:

Confirmation bias is an issue

Lies can spread much farther than the truth

Where did the claim come from? Who wrote it? Where is it published?

Use the CRAP test

C: Currency, when was it made?

R: Reliability, can you trust them?

A: Authority, are they qualified to speak about it?

P: Purpose, what was the goal?

Lateral reading:

The NASA webpage about Pluto was recently updated, coming from a reliable source with the authority to talk about Pluto (because it's NASA) and has the purpose to educate.

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It was interesting adding these techniques to my reading. I already was printing off my research documents and highlighting them because I hate reading off of PDF documents on my computer, so adding these steps wasn't a huge leap. Overall they were ok! I don't think I'm going to do all of the steps for my future reading because it adds a lot of clutter and extra work, but things like numbering paragraphs and breaking up text were very useful.

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Fieldwork: MMORPG player survey (part 1)

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Fieldwork: MMORPG player survey (part 1)

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for this step I created a survey for MMORPG players, and I intend to get as many submissions as possible in the following weeks for data collection. I will be posting it in gaming-related online communities, and maybe even attempt some IRL canvassing and put up posters.

I used the guidelines of good question writing to try and make the questions as neutral as possible, and not steer the survey takers in any particular direction. I want honest opinions on elements of these games work.

If you happen to look at my padlet and play MMORPGs, I would appreciate it if you take the survey. I will update my padlet when I have gotten a sufficient amount of data from the survey.

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This entry is fun to me because due to the nature of my research topic a lot of my sources have had to be cross-pollinated.

Despite how massive of an industry and cultural force video games have become, there is a definite drought of research on the topic. So in order to make any progress in my research journey I have had to rely on a lot of tangential studies. Most papers approach MMORPG games as a resource for improving gamification. This is an interesting perspective but ultimately, frustrating.

One of my hypotheses is that most video game development companies have workforces that play the types of games they make, and because of that they don't feel that researching what makes games work is worth all that time, because of course they know what makes games fun, they're gamers!  I sincerely hope I am wrong here.

I will have to expand my net to capture more sources that fit what I am looking to learn. I look forward to it, warts and all.

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I started my research journey with a hyperfocus on Lego games specifically. This was fun at first but I quickly found that in order to meet the requirements of the assignment, I needed to shift focus due to the lack of academic material on Lego games specifically. Now my research is focused mainly on MMORPG games due to the amount of information available about them.

My opinion on MMORPG games always was that they "just weren't for me" but through my research, I found that there are plenty of elements about them that I enjoy (character creation, exploration, combat), and I just need to find the right one. I learned through my research that there are a few categorizations of player types. according to Richard Bartle's paper Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs, there are four major types of players. The Achievers, The Explorers, The Socializers, and The Killers. Other works on the subject sometimes include additional categories such as The Jester or The Artist. This information was a big step for me in understanding these virtual environments.

Almost unrelated to my research, my friend has also gotten me hooked on the game Pirate 101, which gave me a lot of insight into how I enjoy these games. First off, I absolutely fit into the archetype of a Killer here, mainly interested in the turn-based strategy combat system and ways to make my character a more efficient fighter. This is a fun discovery for me since I tended not to notice how much I enjoyed fighting in games before I looked at my tendencies in this lense. I always assumed that was just the normal way folks played.

The questions I need to find answers to are: What are some ways I can enjoy more MMORPG games? How can I find MMORPG games that work for me? And for the actual end product how will I present my findings?

I suppose my big idea as it stands is that I want more people to play MMORPGs because they are an intimidating genre that can be incredibly fun and a great environment for self-expression.

(You can't center align for citations on Padlet but I wanted to cite the paper anyways)

Works Cited

Bartle, Richard A. “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDS.” Richard A. Bartle: Players Who Suit MUDs, https://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm.

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> Citations are alphabetically organized

> page numbers and name on top right

> MLA is double spaced and has 1 inch margins

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You can see an example of the types of UI used in the project above (Chen, et al Fig 3 pg 368)

As described, "Killers are people of few words" (Bartle, iv)

"The game was designed to target three to seven year olds" (RuggedEagle, 1:29)

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Only the first author's name is inverted, and if there are more than three authors you include "et al" instead of listing all the names

Include contributors such as translators after the title of the work

Always include WHAT VERSION of the work you used (edition, remaster, directors cut, etc.)

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I was a little confused on this assignment but I think I hit all the points. I wrote it somewhat like segments of a script since i am planning on making a video to present my ideas, so some comedic timing and stuff like that is gonna be a bit off since you're just reading it obviously.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HXycCEehkLWYw3wuerSAuo189jq_9CQbws7Y-xNDqU/edit?usp=sharing

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Brandie's Copy of MLA Notes In-text Citations

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tWRo8PFKiKEjzPSA7CfVyjk2-XuLH18zISPjeGiB9rA/edit?usp=sharing

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https://youtu.be/EwvcEt4XrAc

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Guided Reading for the Throughline Chapter

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Guided Reading for the Throughline Chapter

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Freewrite:
The part of my topic I'm most passionate about is trying to make MMO games and immersive games, in general, seem more approachable to more people. I hope to make the audience interested in something they may have overlooked and assumed wasn't for them. I have done a lot of research on the topic and have hands-on experience with some MMORPG games and RPG games in general so this is very much familiar territory to me.

Research Journey:
My research journey began with Lego games, and after hitting a dead-end took a winding path towards MMORPG games which is where I'm at currently. Almost at the same time as this research journey (and without me realizing it right away), I got hooked on an MMORPG game through my friend, which gave me some experience with the genre firsthand. My current idea is that MMORPG games are for everyone, and new players should not be intimidated by them.

Questions for YOU:
How much do you know about MMORPG games?
What would you love to see me cover?
What do you definitely not want to hear about with my topic? What would make you care about my topic?

Throughline draft:
Whether you think so or not, there's an MMO for you.