Bioshock: The Video Game Equivalent of House of Leaves

Me. Playing through the introduction to Bioshock.

I abhor scary things, so I have no idea what made me decide to play Bioshock when FFVII wouldn't play nice with my OS. I mean, scary books are okay because I can change the environment that I read them in and they then become less scary...video games are just so overwhelming when it comes to your senses. In books it is just your imagination, in video games it is visual, auditory, and interactive. Nevertheless, here we are. Essentially three seconds after the game menu came up, I had to turn on more pleasant music and grab a blanket to hide under; I'm pretty much the biggest wimp when it comes to scary/suspenseful things and this game is definitely scary. I've got a lot of the story line down. Guy named Jack starts on plane, plane crashes into large body of water in a fiery explosion, I have to get the guy to land and find my way into this creepy submarine, and then creepy submarine plays a cut scene......then the really creepy stuff begins. From inside my safe little submarine, I watch a man get bludgeoned to death by this terribly creepy man and am shortly thereafter forced to leave my safe little submarine to face this violent little man. Oh yeah, in the sub, I picked up this radio on which I am talking to a guy named Atlas [appropriately named] and he is directing me around, giving me goals.

A "Little Sister" stabbing a guy with a syringe.

Things just got better and better after this. By better and better, I mean scarier and more violent. There are these "little sisters" that you can save. They're creepy little girls who, when you first meet them, appear to enjoy stabbing already dead people in the eye-socket with a syringe. I can also hack different electronics to my benefit by playing, what I would refer to as, mini-games that involve rearranging pipes so the the beginning connects to the end properly. The one redeeming factor to this game are the diary/journal things I can pick up and listen to...they're pretty neat. I can hear what happened to random individuals before the whole city, as my family would say, went to hell in a hand-basket.

Hacking Pipe Game

All in all, I'm enjoying the story line immensely. I really just dislike the creepy voices and the fact that I have to kill these poor people over and over with such crude methods as setting them on fire and then inimically bludgeoning them with my pipe wrench. It's horridly violent.

Coloring/Art Styles

V for Vendetta [Color]

I'm about half way through V for Vendetta and I've just now pinned down what bothers me: the colors! Now don't get me wrong, I still love the plot of the book....but I'm not as engaged in this novel as I was when I first read through books like Blankets or The Walking Dead. I think it is because I am distracted by the colors/art. In V for Vendetta, each page set seems to have a coordinating water color scheme/tone, and as much as I love detailed pictures I kind of feel like it pulls my attention away from the skeleton of the novel.

It's not just the color that bothers me; the art of the novel is a little too sketchy for my tastes. Many of V for Vendetta's panels blend together as I read/view them and I feel as if I don't experience the novel to the same extent that I have with other graphic novels. Also, the speech bubbles kind of blend into each panel and don't stand out. As such, I occasionally find myself skipping over them...

American Born Chinese [Color]

I don't just have a boilerplate dislike of graphic novels in color; American Born Chinese is a graphic novel that I've enjoyed each time that I've read through it. In this novel, the colors are solid and the lines are uniform and definite. Also, the speech bubbles are clearly defined in thicker black lines. I believe that the simplicity of the colors makes my reading experience more clear and I am able to absorb the panel in its entirety.

Persepolis [Black & White]

Graphic novels such as Persepolis appeal to me because of how simple, yet effective, the art appears. The characters do not require immense detailing or shading to convey the necessary emotions and tone. Would it be interesting to experience the book in color? Yes, definitely! But, I feel the novel is much more 'readable' in its current format.

The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye [Black & White

I'm also not saying that simpler is better as a rule. An artist, like Tony Moore, can draw a detailed panel/comic [in gray-scale or cyanotype or whatever] and still have it be incredibly 'readable'.  I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that I think art in graphic novels/comics needs to be effective and direct. In V for Vendetta I think I experience something like a sensory overload with each page I read/view. Unfortunately, I have just moved the towering pile of graphic novels off of my desk to discover that it is well past four in the morning. As such, I should probably stop blogging and get some sleep :)

Theories & Approaches

I'd have to say that this is one of the most interesting classes I've taken thus far in my career as a student. Not only am I able to read books that interest me, but I am also able to explore video games from a perspective other than 'mindless gaming'.....for credit :) What a lovely concept. Even more! I can blog as an assignment ^_^ and shamelessly use excessively nerdy pictures in my posts.

 If you're new to this particular blog, feel free to disregard any and all posts prior to this one as they were for a class from last semester. 

Here we are...in the library...again. Party Central!

Heather and my's work for tonight 

So, this is the third consecutive Tuesday night that Heather and I have spent in the library. At this point, it pretty much feels as if we literally live on campus. Pictured above is our usual work station. What's new in this picture is our finally finished, edited, and bindered packet. We just now finished assembling it all. This never would have come to fruition had we not had an amazing group.  Before this project, I pretty much disliked group work in general. There's always that one member (you know the one) who doesn't show up and hardly contributes to the work. For the first time pretty much ever, I was in a group where everyone did their fair share. There were even times when people vocalized that they didn't feel as if they were doing enough. 

This has definitely been one of the most positive group experiences I've had. I think the hardest part for me was the physical assembling of the packet. We all do things slightly differently and when it came to assimilating all of our ideas and lessons and whatnot, it was fairly challenging. But, since we're all so freaking awesome at working together, we pulled it off really well. I'm definitely anxious for teaching tomorrow. I'm confident in what we've prepared but I always get nervous before actually getting up in front of a class and teaching. That and if you haven't already noticed, I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my school work :D I'm not really sure if a blog post was required for this week but as the rest of my group posted, I figured I would as well! I shall leave you all with a picture that obscurely references Portal 2's Co-op mode. Teamwork for the win!

Excitement!

Official Hunger Games Trailer!   <<<------ Click Here!

^ This is the newest trailer for the Hunger Games. I figured ya'll would appreciate seeing it :D

Even a glimpse of Rue:

Group Teach Planning!

Our group is incredibly awesome! Thus far, we've held three group meetings which every person has attended. I believe this is especially commendable as poor Arlen has a very length commute and the rest of us simply have packed schedules. Our first meeting was held on a Friday morning in the English Education meeting room. We were sure to bring breakfasty items such as juice boxes, doughnuts, and candy. We used this meeting to decide on the general topics of our unit [Identity & Perspective] and to brainstorm which texts we might use and what lessons we could teach with them. The room we held this meeting in was very useful as we utilized the available books and materials to spark our creativity. 

Our second meeting was held immediately following class last Wednesday; it lasted until about 11pm. Here, we narrowed down exactly what texts we wished to teach, the lessons we wanted to use, and who would be teaching what. We used the computer to explore various medias we could potentially include. We also typed up a draft of absolutely everything and included some questions we needed to ask Dr. Mortimore-Smith. This meeting was where we really ironed out what texts we would be using and outlined the lessons we intended to teach. We were all quite exhausted by the end of it. Beyond that, four out of five of us had History and Structure the next morning in the same exact room; it was like we never left.

Our third meeting was held in Starbucks with Dr. Mortimore-Smith. In this meeting, we went over our ideas and plans with one another and with Dr. Mortimore-Smith. She helped us to clarify certain things like our over-arching essential questions. She also answered the questions we had from our last group meeting. This meeting was quite helpful as it essentially clarified everything we were uncertain about. After Dr. Mortimore-Smith left, we stayed and divvied up who would be responsible for each section of the assignment and lessons. This worked surprisingly well as we had five people. Everyone took responsibility for a proportional amount of work. Lastly, we set dates and times for when things needed to be done.

Heather's and my laptops.

Our texts and lesson ideas have changed, morphed, and have essentially been in flux up until today. Over the last few days and especially tonight, a mountain of emails have been exchanged within our group. Tonight, I met with Heather in the library for about four hours. Together, we created the syllabus for our group's unit and took a fair few trips up to Starbucks for tea. After that, we focused in our the lesson we will be teaching together. We created a graphic organizer for one of the texts, the homework directions/model, and typed up our formal lesson plan. I stayed for a while after Heather left to complete this blog post and NaNoWriMo for a bit :D