SJSU Comm Events

For those interested in communication studies and live, go to or expect to go to SJSU, make sure you check out SJSU Comm's Blogspot for information about upcoming events.  Also, don't forget about Communication studies events page.  Both places have great information and great events happening throughout the semester.




For those of you who are in Comm 101C, remember that you have to do a blog post about a comm event.  Don't get stuck at the end of the semester needing to go to an event only to find there are none left to attend!

Passage Analysis: Formal

Passage: The game
Player: 1 person/self
Goals: Timed points collection
Rules: 5 minute time limit
          gather points
          spouse generates a double point collection
          8-bit linear game- while map allows for multi-directional  movement,moving in a "backwards" direction             does not allow for movement back in time.
         resolution is death of self (and spouse if achieved- spouse dies first)
Information availability:  Public game.  Game information is hidden (time limit is known only after play).
Sequence:  "Real time" play.  Time (though sped up) moves as does in real life.
Theme: Life journey.  Map system exploration (map is hidden).

Passage is a simple game in conception.  Player uses a male avatar and travel through the game.  The object of the game is found in the first few seconds, as the player start moving and receives points.  Soon after, the player comes into contact with female avatar and a hidden choice is available.  Either the player "collects" the woman as a spouse and receives double points for less manuverability, or the player passes up the X2 points and retains greater movement.
As the player moves thought the map he is confronted with obstacles and treasure chests.  As said above, as a single avatar movement is less restricted than if you pick up a spouse, which allows for greater treasure collecting.  However, the score is not just calculated by the treasure chests, but for distance traveled as well. Throughout the game, the player (and spouse) grow older, and after about 4 minutes, the spouse dies.  This leaves the original avatar to "finish" the game alone and die.
This game is repeatable and the only thing that can change is how many points are accumulated (with spouse bonus or not), because the outcome is always the same.

What is important about games?

I am a female gamer.  I received my first computer at 11 years old, and I saved my money and bought my first Gameboy at the age of 12.  As I was growing up, I did not know what a gamer was, I just knew I was different from other girls. I played water polo, and once I went to college I took my love of the strategy of sports and started playing Counterstrike, Half-Life and Warcraft II and III.  Once World of Warcraft came out in 2004, I had embraced my identity as a gamer, but I was afraid as so many people are that a game of that magnitude would encompass my life.  I started playing a year later, when the gamer inside of me could no longer be held inside.  Now, I have three characters that I play on a regular basis as I go to school, work and write my thesis.  However, I would say that I have “gamified” my life as on one single character I have spent over 57 days playing.  1,300 hours spent playing on one character means that gaming is a part of my life, not just an unimportant pastime.  If nothing else, playing World of Warcraft has changed the way that I think about what the world and how I function within that world.

The way that I have come to view games is that they have potential. Part of what makes games fun and interesting is that they challenge the mind or body in ways that are not monotonous, and that are not so hard that players become discouraged. The average player spends an average of 13 hours a week, with hardcore gamers spending up to 45 hours a week in virtual worlds (McGonigal, 2011, pp. 3-4). I feel that if we can harness the power that games have into a classroom setting, we can change education for the next generation.

 

Comm 101: third blog- thoughts on class

So I'm posting from my phone right now, hoping any horrible spelling errors are caught by the iPhone. I had a few thoughts as class wrapped up today. As a Comm student, I often find myself wanting to say much more than time allows for in class. This is especially true in a class where I am technically not a student. So, for those of you who are left with a comment sitting on the tip of your tongue as class ends, a blog post might be a great way to formulate and remember that idea.
What is sticking with me is something about communication being constitutive. I grew up as the generation just before most of you, so phrases like "that's retarded" or "that's gay" were and still are common place. I can't make excuses for the thousands of times I have uttered these words, including to some of my friends who are gay, or have a learning disability. But as I struggle against the past 15 + years of this language being common place for me, what helps me to eradicate such language is knowing that by allowing those phrases to cross my lips (or the lips of friends and family) I am continuing to uphold the idea that being gay or differently abled is somehow stupid or makes a person less of a citizen of our global community. I hope that soon, I won't even have to think about this, and my brain will have learned a different way to communicate my displeasure with a situation. However, if you hear me or anyone else for that matter, please gently remind us that our words are not only constructing violence, but they are actually violent.

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.

TONI MORRISON, Nobel Lecture, Dec. 7, 1993

Comm 101: Second Post

     I had a lot of fun with this reading.  Once again I had the privilege of reading words and ideas expressed by Deanna.  I find it always interesting when I am able to hear the voice of a teacher through phrasing in text, as well as in the classroom.  It also makes me think of a phrase from the reading this week. “Perhaps the most important lesson we can take from considering communication as a process is that we learn as we communicate, not before we speak or write” (p. 15).  This is one reason that a blog is necessary.  We are learning as Deanna communicates to us, but we also learn as we communicate back.  Every time we write we practice not only writing style and grammar, but also how we like to communicate.  Some people take a critical paradigm style with the writing, while others focus on quantitative work, and still others are able to express performativity even when written on paper.  The practice of writing helps us to fully formulate an argument by working out the kinks. 

     The only problem with this idea is that many of us edit as we write.  The book reminds us that editing along the way stifles the communicative process that writing should provide.  Do not feel bad when this process becomes frustrating and feels like “extra work.”  By writing a first draft, we allow the ideas to surface before we begin selecting out the good from the not quite as good.  The idea of a crappy first draft is hard to do with out planning ahead.  Time is important within the writing process, and lack of time is the enemy of good writing.  This is definitely an idea that most college students are familiar with.  Many grad students have admitted that the writing process has involved many first and only drafts that have to be edited along the way to account for procrastination.  As a result, writers need to work against this by writing early and often letting the ideas become more important than editing.

     And if you catch me still doing the first and only writing, remind me of when I sang praises of multiple drafts!

Here is a video that I think makes a lot of sense when looking at it through the lens of Chapter 1. Specifically p. 7 and p. 15.

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Woodland Shoppers Paradise: Learning to Decode Scholarly Journal Articles (Par...: [One of my favorite parts of blogging is the opportunity to draft language for specialized projects - and potentially receive feedback from...

Comm 101: First Entry

The study of communication is a complicated idea.  Just the word "communication" can be confusing.  There is Mass communications, public relations, interpersonal, intrapersonal, business, and many more titles that the world uses to try and distinguish between the different types of communication.

  

Communication studies is a blend of all of the above and more.  This field of study allows for the examination of how the world works through how people in this world communicate together.  For me, communication studies allows me to view the world the way that most people have yet to. Most problems or situations in this world have not been exhaustively studied from a communication studies perspective.  This allows for a search for answers to questions that breed more questions.  These questions can lead to study in any subject that a researcher, student, or teacher is passionate about.  This freedom of study through a communication studies lens has allowed and encouraged me to embrace what I love and pushed me to share that love with others.

As Deanna told the class, I am a masters student here at SJSU.  This educational opportunity has allowed me to study one of my favorite pastimes, World of Warcraft.  Now before you laugh, know that I am laughing with you.  I never expected to be able to study something that seems so trivial such as a game.  However, the more I research, the more I see a real sense of meaning and importance within a silly little game.  My thesis centers on gamification of the classroom, and I plan on teaching comm majors at either a community college or 4-year university in just a year.  I know that there are many other opportunities besides teaching, such as consulting, but teaching will always be my love and my ultimate goal for my career.