- Create media pages for my character (probably twitter and tumblr)
- Revise Twine and make sure it's up to date with the story since it was published
- Keep posting to my character blog
- Incorporate new media pages onto the group blog
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Things I Need to Do
Some things I need to finish between now and May 1st are:
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
More About My Character
My character is named Madeline. To get a sense of who she is, you need to start with the Twine that is posted on her blog. It's a sort of flashback-type story that goes through the events that happened back in Las Vegas, which caused her move east to the city. Her Google Map postings also give a little information on this, and it shows how she travelled from her home to the city.
Her blog just details how she is getting settled into her new home. There are a few postings about encountering the other characters in the group, such as meeting Charlotte on the subway platform. Madeline also uses her blog to promote her business. She is working as a psychic in the city, not because she actually has any psychic abilities, but because she had a passing knowledge of it and it was the first thing that popped into her head when filling out immigration forms. Luckily it worked out for her, because the immigrations officer thought that was a really interesting career and cut her a break.
Madeline's story is about to take a turn for the worse. It is mentioned in the Twine that someone from Las Vegas wanted to blackmail her due to her ex-boyfriend being investigated for a series of murders. A threatening note was the reason why she chose to run away to the city. She posts a video commercial for her business on the blog, and it includes a photo of herself. Unfortunately, someone connected to her past in Las Vegas ends up seeing her video on the Internet, and now knows how to find her, and they are coming for her.
While this is going on, she is also assisting the members of the group in finding Blaire. She becomes friends with a few of the characters, and this is how she gets involved. She doesn't play a very large role in finding Blaire, but because of the riskiness of the finding mission, it makes it very dangerous for her as the person from her past tries to hunt her down.
Her blog just details how she is getting settled into her new home. There are a few postings about encountering the other characters in the group, such as meeting Charlotte on the subway platform. Madeline also uses her blog to promote her business. She is working as a psychic in the city, not because she actually has any psychic abilities, but because she had a passing knowledge of it and it was the first thing that popped into her head when filling out immigration forms. Luckily it worked out for her, because the immigrations officer thought that was a really interesting career and cut her a break.
Madeline's story is about to take a turn for the worse. It is mentioned in the Twine that someone from Las Vegas wanted to blackmail her due to her ex-boyfriend being investigated for a series of murders. A threatening note was the reason why she chose to run away to the city. She posts a video commercial for her business on the blog, and it includes a photo of herself. Unfortunately, someone connected to her past in Las Vegas ends up seeing her video on the Internet, and now knows how to find her, and they are coming for her.
While this is going on, she is also assisting the members of the group in finding Blaire. She becomes friends with a few of the characters, and this is how she gets involved. She doesn't play a very large role in finding Blaire, but because of the riskiness of the finding mission, it makes it very dangerous for her as the person from her past tries to hunt her down.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
All About Madeline
My fictional character's name is Madeline. She is a young woman (mid-20sish) who has just recently moved to the city. Her home is out west, near Las Vegas, which is not under the government control that the city is under. She lived very happily out there, until one morning when she discovered that her boyfriend was missing and being investigated in connection to recent murders. Obviously, this was very traumatizing, and even more so because soon after speaking with the police, she arrived home to find a threatening note blackmailing her. The note said that they knew the truth about what happened with the murders, and they were going to tell. This scared her, so she ran away from her home, abandoning her job, friends, and family.
She arrived in the city with only a modest amount in savings. She had only been a cocktail waitress in Vegas, so she had no idea what she was going to do for a job here. Upon arriving to the city, she had to fill out some immigration forms, and listing an occupation was required. Thinking fast, Madeline put down that she was a psychic, based on a passing interest in palm readings and a distant aunt who was into Tarot card readings. Luckily, this worked out really well for her, because the immigrations officer was very interested in this, and cut her a break in placing her in an apartment.
Soon after, she was put in contact with a man who owned a building where a psychic used to have a shop. She had recently passed away, so Madeline was in the right place at the right time to sort of "inherit" the lady's shop. Now, she's trying to settle down in the city and establish her business so that she doesn't run out of money and have to head back home.
She arrived in the city with only a modest amount in savings. She had only been a cocktail waitress in Vegas, so she had no idea what she was going to do for a job here. Upon arriving to the city, she had to fill out some immigration forms, and listing an occupation was required. Thinking fast, Madeline put down that she was a psychic, based on a passing interest in palm readings and a distant aunt who was into Tarot card readings. Luckily, this worked out really well for her, because the immigrations officer was very interested in this, and cut her a break in placing her in an apartment.
Soon after, she was put in contact with a man who owned a building where a psychic used to have a shop. She had recently passed away, so Madeline was in the right place at the right time to sort of "inherit" the lady's shop. Now, she's trying to settle down in the city and establish her business so that she doesn't run out of money and have to head back home.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
McGonigal Chapters 7-8
I believe McGonigal's 3 main claims in her writings are:
1. Wholehearted Participation - McGonigal really stresses the importance of not just participation, but wholehearted participation. She defines this participation as, "to be self-motivated and self-directed, intensely interested, and genuinely enthusiastic," and that if you are not participating wholeheartedly in your own life, you're missing out on ways to be happy. I thought this was a really unique way to look at it. She uses the examples of Chore Wars, Quest for Learning, and SuperBetter to show how engaging in this "wholehearted participation" of the mundane aspects of your own everyday life can make a positive difference. She believes that ARGs can (should) help the players participate more fully in their own live, even if positive-impact isn't the ARGs main goal. Her comparison between ARGs being the "antiescapist" game, compared to traditional games being a way to escape from reality, also supports this claim. No one is playing Chore Wars to escape from the stress of their lives, but they are playing it because it's a fun way to participate wholeheartedly while trying to complete a mundane, everyday task.
2. Meaningful Rewards When We Need Them Most - McGonigal opens Chapter 8 by recalling an experience she had at a conference, where she mentioned that it would be nice to have a "leveling up" system in real life, the way characters can level up in games. She inspired someone to create a site that does just that; emailing people to let them know someone has given them a "+1" in some trait you exhibit, especially if it comes at the hand of doing an unpleasant task. She also uses her own personal experience as being a nervous flyer to make a case for why earning rewards can make a dreaded task more pleasant. She notes that when quantitative benchmarks are available for marking progress, the instant positive feedback encourages players to work harder, or take on the next biggest challenge. Nike+ is a great example of this. It's not an ARG in the way you would typically consider the definition of the game, but yet it has so many common characteristics. It encourages people to participate wholeheartedly in their exercise (a task many people dread), it provides an instant way to see the progress you've made and how far you have to go until you meet the next benchmark, and there is a community of other members who use Nike+ and compete in challenges together all over the world.
1. Wholehearted Participation - McGonigal really stresses the importance of not just participation, but wholehearted participation. She defines this participation as, "to be self-motivated and self-directed, intensely interested, and genuinely enthusiastic," and that if you are not participating wholeheartedly in your own life, you're missing out on ways to be happy. I thought this was a really unique way to look at it. She uses the examples of Chore Wars, Quest for Learning, and SuperBetter to show how engaging in this "wholehearted participation" of the mundane aspects of your own everyday life can make a positive difference. She believes that ARGs can (should) help the players participate more fully in their own live, even if positive-impact isn't the ARGs main goal. Her comparison between ARGs being the "antiescapist" game, compared to traditional games being a way to escape from reality, also supports this claim. No one is playing Chore Wars to escape from the stress of their lives, but they are playing it because it's a fun way to participate wholeheartedly while trying to complete a mundane, everyday task.
2. Meaningful Rewards When We Need Them Most - McGonigal opens Chapter 8 by recalling an experience she had at a conference, where she mentioned that it would be nice to have a "leveling up" system in real life, the way characters can level up in games. She inspired someone to create a site that does just that; emailing people to let them know someone has given them a "+1" in some trait you exhibit, especially if it comes at the hand of doing an unpleasant task. She also uses her own personal experience as being a nervous flyer to make a case for why earning rewards can make a dreaded task more pleasant. She notes that when quantitative benchmarks are available for marking progress, the instant positive feedback encourages players to work harder, or take on the next biggest challenge. Nike+ is a great example of this. It's not an ARG in the way you would typically consider the definition of the game, but yet it has so many common characteristics. It encourages people to participate wholeheartedly in their exercise (a task many people dread), it provides an instant way to see the progress you've made and how far you have to go until you meet the next benchmark, and there is a community of other members who use Nike+ and compete in challenges together all over the world.
Monday, March 3, 2014
CGTS Chapters 17-23
My Top Ten List from CGTS Chapters 17-23
1. Organization - One thing the book emphasized is that organization is key to the success of your story. It gave some really useful suggestions for organizational tools, such as creating a spreadsheet of character data, or a schedule of milestones you need to hit on the way to a deadline. These would be useful tools for our own group to use to keep our story organized.
2. Communication - I've learned firsthand already that communication is important when creating a transmedia narrative. When one member of the group doesn't participate, it makes it hard for the rest of the group and their story to progress. Communicating with my fellow group members is 100% necessary when working on our group projects, and contributing to the success of our story.
3. Realism in Web Design - I thought it was really interesting that the book suggested modeling your fictional websites from real ones. That was an idea I had never thought about before. I will definitely be taking a look at other psychic websites online, to get ideas for how my character's business website should look.
4. News Sections in Web Design - Our group story takes place in a sort of post apocalyptic world, and that setting is key to a number of important plot points. I think having a sort of news section would be a good world-building tool, so that readers can easily gain background information on the state of the world our characters live in. It's important to keep in mind the tips from the book, however, which say not to get bogged down by updating news and lose the plot of your story.
5. Using Twitter for Social Media - The book brings up a lot of points about how other social networks do not really approve of people making profiles for fictional characters. One social network it recommends to use is Twitter. I am already familiar with how this network works, and it would be very easy to create a realistic profile for my character. It's also an easily sharable way to communicate with the other characters through @ replies and retweets.
6. Sending Bulk Emails - One thing the book suggests is the sending of large batches of emails. It warns that there is a fine line between sending too many emails and not sending enough. Again, I think this would be cool to use within our story, but in combination with the Breaking News type section.
7. Physical Artifacts - The book suggests using physical objects to get people involved in your story. I think this is an awesome idea, and I agree that it helps people become connected to the story by having a tangible object. For our group story, one cool artifact we could easily create would be paper documents for someone who lives in the poor ghetto.
8. Quality Control - The book stresses the importance of quality control and double checking your work. I think this is extremely important, and often gets overlooked. Even the most interesting and fascinating plot will not attract readers if there are typos and other inconsistencies. Within our group, we will have to do quality control for each other to make sure our story meets our standards.
9. Automated Outbound Emails - The book talks about how automated outbound emails can be used to provide depth to your story, such as sending a code to someone who emails the correct password. I would really like to incorporate this into our story somehow because I think it's an interesting tool, but I am not sure how it would fit within our plot.
10. Video Production - The book also talked a lot about tips for video production, which I know we will be working on as a project for class. I thought it provided a lot of helpful information, such as making storyboards and taking framing into consideration. These will be things I keep in mind when we start to work on our character videos.
1. Organization - One thing the book emphasized is that organization is key to the success of your story. It gave some really useful suggestions for organizational tools, such as creating a spreadsheet of character data, or a schedule of milestones you need to hit on the way to a deadline. These would be useful tools for our own group to use to keep our story organized.
2. Communication - I've learned firsthand already that communication is important when creating a transmedia narrative. When one member of the group doesn't participate, it makes it hard for the rest of the group and their story to progress. Communicating with my fellow group members is 100% necessary when working on our group projects, and contributing to the success of our story.
3. Realism in Web Design - I thought it was really interesting that the book suggested modeling your fictional websites from real ones. That was an idea I had never thought about before. I will definitely be taking a look at other psychic websites online, to get ideas for how my character's business website should look.
4. News Sections in Web Design - Our group story takes place in a sort of post apocalyptic world, and that setting is key to a number of important plot points. I think having a sort of news section would be a good world-building tool, so that readers can easily gain background information on the state of the world our characters live in. It's important to keep in mind the tips from the book, however, which say not to get bogged down by updating news and lose the plot of your story.
5. Using Twitter for Social Media - The book brings up a lot of points about how other social networks do not really approve of people making profiles for fictional characters. One social network it recommends to use is Twitter. I am already familiar with how this network works, and it would be very easy to create a realistic profile for my character. It's also an easily sharable way to communicate with the other characters through @ replies and retweets.
6. Sending Bulk Emails - One thing the book suggests is the sending of large batches of emails. It warns that there is a fine line between sending too many emails and not sending enough. Again, I think this would be cool to use within our story, but in combination with the Breaking News type section.
7. Physical Artifacts - The book suggests using physical objects to get people involved in your story. I think this is an awesome idea, and I agree that it helps people become connected to the story by having a tangible object. For our group story, one cool artifact we could easily create would be paper documents for someone who lives in the poor ghetto.
8. Quality Control - The book stresses the importance of quality control and double checking your work. I think this is extremely important, and often gets overlooked. Even the most interesting and fascinating plot will not attract readers if there are typos and other inconsistencies. Within our group, we will have to do quality control for each other to make sure our story meets our standards.
9. Automated Outbound Emails - The book talks about how automated outbound emails can be used to provide depth to your story, such as sending a code to someone who emails the correct password. I would really like to incorporate this into our story somehow because I think it's an interesting tool, but I am not sure how it would fit within our plot.
10. Video Production - The book also talked a lot about tips for video production, which I know we will be working on as a project for class. I thought it provided a lot of helpful information, such as making storyboards and taking framing into consideration. These will be things I keep in mind when we start to work on our character videos.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
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