Dylan me softly's blog

Why have these (what I shall label) hoax pictures still been passed around the internet? Don't we live in an age now where many people can instantly discuss these pictures and point out the phoniness in them? I can understand if someone had a picture in the 70's where the flash malfunctioned and claimed it was a ghost because if it made its way to TV, maybe a lot of people have never seen anything like it before. Also, before with film based cameras, it was harder to take pictures with the desired effect because due to numerous retakes, it could get expensive. Now any schmuck with a digital camera and the will to experiment can dupe anyone on the internet for some sort of fame or humor. The whole thing to me is bogus...do something productive with your time. Life's short, don't waste it trying to be a tool with a camera, because most people know it's fake, and the ones that don't- you're morons too. If people want to look at them for humor or just speculation about the lengths people go to for fame, cool but I think the whole thing is ridiculous.

Chapter 5 of Avatars of Story was a pretty good chapter because it basically shines a lot on the different plot types people could have, and after that fact it doesn't seem too difficult to make a story, does it? I suppose it may not be hard for many people to create stories in our class, as it is likely full of English majors, but regardless, it is something that you may want to show an aspiring writer friend with not much experience. It's also interesting to think about how easy it is to classify things, how the author classified games so simply and categorically speaking. It reminds me of pandora.com where they classify music so plainly (i.e. this song features major key tonality, minor use of harmony, and is guitar-driven) that could be a description for your favorite song which means the whole world to you but to other people it's just a set of characteristics. If that was your favorite song, you would surely add more to it though like, "this song has such meaning in the lyrics" or "this game has such intuitive feel that it really takes the player into the game."

Doom, or DOOM as it may be typed (hmmm this and LOST, these titles really have big egos or something) sure was a trip back. I remember playing this game as a little kid and the narrative really isn't very hard to figure out in this game. It's the most basic run and gun type of action, and for that it can be some mind numbing fun- a chance not to think about the higher orders of life. The auto-aim really makes things a lot easier and unlike other FPS games that came later (like half-life) there is no ability to strafe, which makes things a bit more difficult. Speaking of Half-Life, wasn't Counter-Strike superb? Now there's a quality game. Anyhoo, I found that DOOM was a straightforward run and gun, with tons of fun.

short and sweet today I suppose.

over and out.

Photopia really spells things out for you which I find hilarious. If you have a very loose grasp on the english language, you may be able to play it because it really defines words such as depression. Anyhow, I really enjoy the way the game switches back and forth between stories. I loved the explanation from the little girl when she says "I wanted to see if the world looked the same UNDER the water as it did OVER it" and then BOOM! Back to the ship underwater...nice touch. I also find it hilarious that the character is capable of having a long conversation with alley about things in space while she can't swim...that was hilarious.

I enjoy photopia's take on the story and how it focuses much more on narrative rather than puzzles. The story reminds me a bit of "Waking Life" one of my favorite movies (and it also deals with a favorite topic of mine...lucid dreaming). What reminds me about the movie is not the story but rather the jumping in and out of certain chunks of narrative without much explanation.

I would certainly give photopia an A+ and have enjoyed this the most out of all of our interactive narrative that we have dealt with thus far.

Greetings all!

I like how our class has delved into video games and how we have examined how narrative works within the parameters of video games (of course their limits keep expanding daily as our collective imagination continues to stretch like a rubbery patty).

So here I sit on a laptop during this glorious wednesday afternoon, spinning a newly collected vinyl through my soundsystem. (I have quite a record collection...LPs have certainly drained some moolah out of my wallet). Anyway, this is a great album and I would recommend it to all of you...it's called "In Reverie" by Saves The Day. It's a blissful concoction of dreamlike harmonies lush with life and they are complimented nicely by layered instruments. It truly is good and quite a nice surprise from a band known for punk music to come out with such a mature release so distant of any recollection of their past.  read more »

Interacting with such interfaces as Eliza is certainly enjoyable. I wanted to use this blog entry to perhaps elaborate my thoughts a bit about ELIZA, and what it means to be a character. I believe up front that "she" (or "it" in this case) qualifies as a character because there are certain preferences that she employs. For example, she has certain speech patterns. This translates as she responds in predictable ways once you get to know her. A funny thing about these types of computer automated bots is when they break, or reveal themselves as we discussed in class. This is like revealing the man behind the curtain in the wizard of oz.

(incidentally, LOST had a similarly titled episode which dealt with a "character" named Jacob which was quite spectacular!)  read more »

The documentary which we have briefly delved into began to stimulate some thoughts that have been rolling around in my brain. First- how do limitations of storytelling affect what is told? Secondly- how does this first question translate in the realms of video games specifically?  read more »

Helvetica was not nearly as boring as I thought walking into it. In fact, I was sarcastically saying to myself "Splendid...is Times New Roman playing after? Who's up for a screening of Arial?" But it wasn't as bad as I thought. In fact, I enjoyed the parts the most when the creator of the film interviewed the designers themselves. Overall, I found the film to be about 15 minutes too long. Not to knock the content of the film, I just feel that there were some things that just made it seem a bit redundant. I don't know, I may seem like a snob saying that but that's what I thought of it. This much is certain, I will always be able to point out that font when I see it.  read more »

So here we are, Blog entry number one.

I may very well be the first person in our class to make the digital leap and post my writings/ramblings on this site, so I hope this is a worthwhile entry into the realm that will be our home for many assignments, present and future.

I understand that we may craft our first writings around the game/story of "Passage", so I shall do that. Upon starting up the game, I believed that there was something wrong with my computer, as everyone by now is familiar with the blurry video that is associated with the "future" of your character's lifespan. After having firmly decided that the game was a pile of crap and a malfunctioning pile of crap at that, I closed the program out promptly having decided that my time was better spent putting on my Beatles' "White Album" LP on my turntable.

Allow me to say it first: I was wrong.  read more »