Some of My Final Thoughts

I never thought I would take a class that encourage so much. Not only did we have a chance to do something most of us enjoyed but we were able to incorporate it into our writing. Never once did I think this class had too much work, it was the perfect amount. It opened me up to the new digital rhetoric of writing, something that I am highly interested in, and I approached it with an opened mind. It was just enough and it helped me find a new voice when writing that I did not know I had.

I want to say my favorite part of this class was playing games in class, which was up there, but I have to say the favorite part was the writing styles. I learned how to write for a different audience, a gaming audience that requires different tone and word choices than when writing for an academic audience. I love that we wrote game reviews and I think that maybe next time the oral review be optional. I got more from writing then standing in front of the class and talking. But the oral reviews have their place and is why I feel it should be optional.

When in a class will you ever here, "spend the first thirty minutes blogging and Twittering" or "go get on a computer and find a flash game to play"? This is a dream come true for me. Something that help make the class stand out from other classes.

I learned a great deal from this class and I hope it is taught again. The number one thing I am taking with me is my new found voice when writing. I hope to keep it and who knows, maybe I'll be a gave reviewer some day.

My Final Project

For the final project, I still feel like I am up in the air on what were I want to go but I am going to make my decision final; I will do Tattoos and Video Games.
As far as where I want to go with it, I am not to sure yet. Having a video game tattoo myself brings me closer to the topic. I would like to interview at least ten to twenty different individuals on their video game tattoos and find the meaning behind it. Why did they feel so compelled to permanently get this aspect of the game inked onto their skin? I know my reason behind why I got my Bubble Bobble tattoo but why do others do this? There are sociological and physiological reasons behind this and I would like to investigate further into the topic.

Almost to the End

Upon reading our final game readings, I realized that I need to have some sort of idea for my final project. Throughout the semester different aspects of video games have been brought to the table, many of which I would have never really considered otherwise. Even though I should have more of an idea of where to go, I am still totally clueless on what to do.

I am not sure where to go with my final project. There are so many ideas floating around in my head but to put them into some sort of order seems almost impossible. I am sure by Thursday I'll have a proposal and a direction on where to go. This class have been extremely informative and with this, hopefully today's class will help give me the right idea.

Hi, My Name is

Have you ever saw a person on Cops being arrested for selling their body for money? They are dressed up like a crackhead, clothes dirty, face covered with sores, orange Cheetos stains all over their gray sweatsuit and when the officer breaks them down and they finally admit why they are doing this, have you ever heard, "I needed money to help my addiction. I'm addicted to MMORPGs."

I understand that these types of games are highly addictive and I have seen people, my old guitarist for example, spend months in his basement unemployed, playing for hours on end, never seeing the light of day, and considering buying adult diapers all for the game of WoW. Nine months later he snapped out of his WoW coma and deiced to rejoin the real world. He never did any harm to anyone around him, he still took awesome care of his kids, although he had his week moments with the adult diaper thing but honestly, how could we classify this as addictive?

How many kids each year find one toy and become completely obsessed with it? Remember back when you were four or five, there was that one toy that went everywhere with you. That one toy became your life as you spoke for it, moved it, and interacted with it. But as with any toy or game, you grew out of it and moved on. At one point you were addicted to the toy, so should the phrase 'addict' be applied to a child who plays constantly with a toy? MMORPGs are toys, they entertain and at one point, you'll grow out of playing them.

I do understand that there are the rare cases where people cannot overcome the addicting nature of playing a MMORPG game. In a previous article we have read in this class that dealt with sending these 'addicts' to rehab that cost almost ten times as much as a years subscription to WoW, family members stage an intervention and save these gamers. But should we be associating the words addict, addiction, and rehab with the video game world? Here is another way to stigmatize the whole gaming society so that mothers in Utah can ban together and overact, taking their translucent cases all the way to DC, making a false stand on how MMORPGs cost their sons a chance to get into BYU when they really had no drive in the first place to go to college.

I suppose there is no real way to keep people who play MMORPG games from becoming an 'addict'. Gamers who have that addictive personality will continue to play until they collapse and go into convulsions; seriously, did anyone check to see if this kid had any previous medical conditions? If you know someone who seems to be addicted to these games, talk to them, explain your concern, recommend seeing a doctor and if they refuse, well you can't save everyone. They made their own choices in life and these are their consequences that go with it.