Imagining Your Game

Today was cool because we actually got the ideas for our game going. I'm not too happy about it having to be a social issue game but I guess it's not my choice. I learned that I already know how to make a one frame movie clip. All of the tutorials were useless to me. This made me happy and confident. Our game is going to be about social issues in West Virginia, mainly focusing on money and lettering. I kind of think that our game will be hard to make but hopefully once we get going it will be OK. It is a relief to know what our game is going to be about. I've kind of been stressing about it this whole time.
I'm excited because from now on I think that we will be using flash and learning more. I like challenging things and I think this will definitely be a challenge. I'm not particularly excited about my game because I don't get to make it on just whatever I want. If it were up to me I would make some kind of sports game or something like that. The games we played by other students weren't all social issue games. But whatever. Overall this is still better than any other English class.

Gilgamesh and Illiad

I have found that the Anglo-Saxons have good comparisons to some of today's video games and contrast with many others. Some of today's video games are about characters who may be an "under-dog", but those are mostly in older games. Today's games contain violent characters who all they are to do is destroy. Not to say that there aren't some games with a small man on a mission, but most have and advantage.
Actually today some of my friends and I were discussing old games suck as Super Mario and Donkey Kong, where you played the little man or monkey and had to defeat all of the nemeses. These were fun games and challenging. My boyfriend likes to play video games and he has one particular one that I hate. It is called "Left for Dead." He plays this monster that runs around and kills all of these humans. I hate even watching it.
The Anglo-Saxons were men who had a point to make or a reason for fighting. Just like Super Mario wanted to save the princess. The men like Illiad and Gilgamesh wanted to prove something to themselves or their people. Many of the video games todya are just for entertainment to destroy or kill things for no reason. Thats kind of why I dont play video games too much .They are all violent.
Gilgamesh went on the mission to help his future generation because he thought that they were getting soft and needed to see that sometimes you have to fight in order to be safe or happy. I cannot think of a game that has come out latel with that same concept. Hector wanted to defeat achilies and gave it everything he had, and even thoguh he did not prevail. He stood and fought with dignity.
I think that if a video game was made today based on an Anglo-Saxon character, that people would like it. But the video game industry is just caught up in so much killing and violence that children these days don't know what a good, fun video game is.

Mini Game Project

I just completed my mini game project. At the beginning every time that I would accomplish something like making my carrot move across the page, it was exciting. But as we got through it, I realized how hard this stuff is really going to be. After awhile I will probably catch on because I'm a quick learner, but it will be a challenge. Here is the process:
First we put pi cures into our clipboard. Then we named the pictures so that we could use them in code. Code is the hard part. We next got the code to make a carrot move across the page. Then we added a bunny. It ended up that, after a lot of code, we could make our bunny move by using the arrows on the keyboard. We next made it to where if the carrot would hit the bunny that it would bounce back. Last we made a scoreboard so that anytime that the carrot would hit the bunny a point would show up on the board.
It was a long process for a pointless little game. This makes me realize that when I am making my real game that it is going to be tough, but I think I can do it.

Choosing a Topic

This is not the topic that I want to do my game on, but since we had to choose a social issue West Virginia is the first thing that came to mind. One of the biggest issues is lack of jobs. Because of the lack of jobs in West Virginia I predict that I will not live here after college. Because I am getting the Promise scholarship I'm going to school here, but after I will probably not have my career or live here. Another issue you hear a lot about is mountain top removal. Many people feel strongly about it either for it or against it. It really doesn't bother me. Yeah it is ugly while they're doing it, but all the companies are obligates to replant trees and everything like that. I don't see the big deal. But that was the topic I chose for my project page.

Beowulf Part II

Beowulf left his people courage. He gave them this because he showed them that people can defeat enemies if they believe they can. Now his people will always say... well, if Beowulf did it then so can we. He left them his influence, strength, and power. You can tell that his people definitely respected him. After he dies they told of his great stories, and when they buried him they did so with the dragon's treasure. He also left his legacy. One that could be followed because he was only a human. This let the people know that there is no need to fear as long as you have courage.

Playing to learn reflection

The first game that I played was called "What would you do?" It was fun because it let you pick the characters that you wanted to use and make your own decisions to decide the out come of the game. It was done to help people use real life decisions to learn a lesson. http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/aids/explore_1360.html
The second game that I played was called "Scubadiver." It was fun and challenging. You had to guide yhe scuba man through the ocean dodging obstacles to make it to the end of the course without running out of breath. It was a cute cartoony game.
http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/resources/en/play/Casual/scubadiver

Modern Day Hero

Currently I have been watching more and more of the news about our war on terror. Before I hadn't really paid attention to what was going on over there. But there are still people every day giving their lives to keep our country free. I'm not sure that I would have the courage to do what these man and women do. I'm very thankful for our military. As many heroes as I have in my life, other than my mother, they are definitely near the top of my list for heroes.

Online safety post

The main thing that I think about when I think about online safety is to not talk to people that you do not know. That is how creepy people get information to find people. I only talk to people that I definitely know. Another thing is to not put too much personal information about yourself online because no matter how much you think that your information is protected, there are always those people who can get around almost anything on the Internet and see anything that you have. I also think that it is important for parents to kid of know what their kids are doing, especially when they first start using the Internet. It helps them make the habits to protect themselves. I think that the Internet is a wonderful technology but just like anything else, in this world you have to be careful.

Audience Post

When the first teller of Beowulf was telling the story, I would believe that he saw the purpose of the story to be that if you believe that you can do something then you probably can. Beowulf wouldn't accept defeat and he was not defeated. The teller probably wanted to give the man courage by making them portray themselves as some kind of Beowulf to overcome any challenge they were faced with. With my video game I definitely want to entertain my audience. I will probably ask the opinion of my peers throughout making my game to use their feedback to make my game more appealing. I don't want to make one of the games that a person starts to play and says "That's stupid" and then just shut it off. I also want to make my audience feel like they can relate to my game.

Beowulf!!!

I am currently reading beowulf

but so far I've figured out the Grenedel had been attacking Horot for sometime now and Beowulf has decided to come help them out. The king accept his offer. Him wanting to help out I think makes him heroic. I think he would make a good video game character because he fights and is smart and has been heroic and victorious before. He has a story about him. A good video game character should posess qualities like stregth and courage and intelligence.