Play Make Write Think

Author: David

Welcome To Summoner’s Rift: An analysis of the game League of Legends

Ready, Set, Game

In this episode we are going to take a closer look at League of Legends esport and break down different aspects of the game. More specifically, we will be focusing on daily-life skills that are essential for mastering this game. If you have ever being wondering if you should play video games for good, make sure to stay tuned as we reveal the beauty of real life in the League of Legends world. ‘Welcome to Summoner’s Rift.’

Producer: Ruohan
Assistant Producer: Keita
Line Producer: Alan

Reference: League of Legends official website

Music Sources:

Music from Youtube

Fiasco Doodle poll

David's Posts

Please indicate the times you’re available between now and March 3rd to play Fiasco in this Doodle poll. I basically made the poll open from 10 am to midnight every day after tomorrow.

Note that you only need to indicate stretches where you have a three-hour block of time since you’ll need about that long to play the game. I know it’s a bit of a crazy huge block of times for a Doodle poll, but just check the times you’re available for at least three hours at a chunk. For example, if you are free on Friday 2/21 from 2:00pm on, except for a meeting from 6:00-7:00, then you’ll check the boxes saying you’re available on that day from 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12. I’ll look for overlapping three hour chunks of time and assign you into groups of 3-5 players.

Edited to add: Please mark all the times that you’re available, not just one time. I will need to find times to schedule you together, so just marking one time that will work will for you will not be enough.

What would you do if you were an Android?

Ready, Set, Game

An analysis of the game Detroit: Become Human

In this episode we will be analyzing the game Detroit: Become Human starting with a significant moment in the game. We will proceed with how androids are alluded to oppressed communities in the real-life society, how does the setting of the game affect player’s moral decision making, and raising awareness of the near future.  Come dive in the game with us, and see what path would you pick in these situations where you might face in real life! Spoilers Alert!

Producer: Kathy

Assistant Producer: Jessica

Appreciation for George’s help with line producing!

Sources:

Holl, Elisabeth. “Rise of the machines – Moral decisions in Detroit: Become Human“

Pettersen, Tanya Laolapha. “‘More Human Than Humans’ – How Video Games Play an Important Part in Socio-Critical Discussions.“

Waszkiewicz, Agata. “‘Acta Humana’ 9 (2018) (Trans)humanism and the Postmodern Identities: the Player in Detroit: Become Human (2018) Introduction: from humanism to posthumanism“

Music Sources:

Hearts Aflutter, Charmed, Dry air, By Grace by Podington Bear from Free Music Archive.

Ready, Set, Game: The Rhetoric of Games

Ready, Set, Game

Hello and welcome to the podcast series Ready, Set, Game: The Rhetoric of Games, a podcast created by Emory University students in David Morgen’s Play, Make, Write, Think class. Over the course of the series, we will approach games as operating within the larger media ecology and attempt to diagram the competing forces at work within that landscape. In each episode, we will play and analyze a specific game with an eye toward its rhetorical situation and the role it plays within the broader medium.

We’ll focus on the way these games encourage players to think in order to move through them and what sorts of decisions the games force us to make. As we probe the underlying rules of game systems and speculate about what’s going on underneath the hood, we’ll ponder where they are taking us and to what ends. How do these games encourage certain types of problem solving and learning? What sorts of values do they promote? What sorts of new perspectives do we gain in the playing?

So buckle up and come play with us.

Episodes List

Syndication:

Bumper music credit: “Rubber Robot” by Podington Bear on Free Music Archive

The Magic of Chess

David's Posts

The Magic of Chess


What has chess taught you?

"It's just a game of concentration and that concentration will help me in everything I do."

"I think chess has taught me brain skills to help me with other things in my life."

"I learned how to be aggressive."

"It teaches you how to make a plan and making mistakes or blunders. All you have to do is try again."

Podcast Bumper & Betrayal/Mansions

David's Posts

I spent a little time noodling with the text of the podcast bumper today, drawing on the language that you all put together in the Google doc. Here’s what I’ve got as of now — make any changes you’d like in that document, or leave comments here:

Hello and welcome to the podcast series Ready, Set, Game: The Rhetoric of Games, a podcast created by Emory University students in David Morgen’s Play, Make, Write, Think class. Over the course of the series, we will approach games as operating within the larger media ecology and attempt to diagram the competing forces at work within that landscape. In each episode, we will play and analyze a specific game with an eye toward its rhetorical situation and the role it plays within the broader medium. 

We’ll focus on the way these games encourage players to think in order to move through them and what sorts of decisions the games force us to make. As we probe the underlying rules of game systems and speculate about what’s going on underneath the hood, we’ll ponder where they are taking us and to what ends. How do these games encourage certain types of problem solving and learning? What sorts of values do they promote? What sorts of new perspectives do we gain in the playing? 

So buckle up and come along for the ride with us.

We’ll need to record the bumper on Thursday, so make any changes before class tomorrow.

Games

Also, don’t forget that between now and February 23, you’ll need to check out Betrayal at House on the Hill or Mansions of Madness and play one session of the games. The prompt for Side Quest 6 on those games is started but not all the way fleshed out yet, but check that post for some more information about game play and what I’m expecting from you.

I added the game lending library to our Materials, Texts, Games, Services page too.

Side Quest 6: Design analysis of Betrayal at House on the Hill or Mansions of Madness

Side Quests

Due: 2/23

Tag: sq6

Sometime before 2/23, you will need to check out either Mansions of Madness or Betrayal at House on the Hill from the board game lending library. I strongly recommend that you reserve the game for a specific time in advance, so you know when you and your friends show up, you'll be able to play. Information about the two games is below, but they are both supernatural horror board games where you explore a haunted mansion or its environs and attempt to solve an eldritch mystery before you and the other players go insane or are killed.

Each game should take roughly an hour to play, plus some time to set up. I've linked below to information about the games and videos that explain how to play -- it's probably a good idea to watch these in advance to minimize the time setting up, but even so do plan some additional time to figure out what you're doing. Expect either game to require a certain amount of probing in order to figure out how the game world works, the physics of the game.

After playing, write a post on your site in which you reflect on the process and analyze the sorts of decision-making the game encourages. In Everything Bad is Good For You, Steven Johnson argues that video games are very complex nonlinear narratives that make players probe the physics of the game world and make lots of strategic decisions in order to play but that board games don’t require the same sorts of skills from players. Does that hold true in your play of one of these board games? How did you engage in probing and telescoping as you played? How complex was game play

If you play with friends who are also in the class, every student should write their own reflection post. If you play with friends who are not in the class, they obviously are not required to write reflections themselves.

Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness is published by Fantasy Flight Games

Entry at Board Game Geek

How to Play Mansions of Madness


Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill is published by Avalon Games.

Listing at Board Game Geek

How to Play Betrayal at House on the Hill

Side Quest 7: 3d Print a Game Piece

Side Quests

Due: Game piece submitted to Techlab to print by 3/1

Due: Post with photo and reflection by 3/6

Tag: sq7

Archeologist have recently uncovered a tiny piece of worked glass from the period of Viking raids on Northumbrian island from around AD793, a small blue and white crown that would have been a game piece for Viking board game hnefatafl (“king’s table”), "a strategic board game simulating a Viking raid. The king and 12 defenders have to escape 24 attackers arranged in groups of six surrounding the weaker side. The attackers try to capture the king, while the defenders aim to thwart them and guide him safely to one of the corners, known as 'king’s squares.'"

And not only can you see a picture of the piece, like the one up above, but you can explore a 3d interactive model of the piece. It doesn't look like they've made this model available for download, but if they had, you could download the .stl file and bring it over to the Maker Space in Cox Computing to print your own plastic reproduction of the piece.

The Metropolitan Museum currently has on display in the Egyptian room an ancient Egyptian icosahedron, a twenty-sided die like those made popular in the 20th century for Dungeons and Dragons. If the Met made all its objects available for digital download like the Smithsonian Museum does, you could download the ancient Egyptian 20-sided die and print it one to play with in your own D&D campaign.

Assignment

For this assignment, I want you to 3d print a game piece of some kind using the TechLab in Student Digital Life. (Here's a link with more information about 3d printing services at Emory.)

You can simply find the .stl file for an existing game piece, for example:

Feel free to search yourself for other small 3d printable figures that would be fun. Thingiverse has lots of items and there are plenty of other sites out there.

You can also, if you choose modify or create your own item using Tinkercad (one of the early tutorials for learning Tinkercad is to create your own 6-sided die).

Reflection

Once you've got your printed object back from the TechLab, take a picture of your model and post it to your site. Write a paragraph in which you explain why you chose the game piece that you did; how you went about finding, editing, or creating the .stl file you printed; and what challenges you faced in order to print your game piece.

Don't forget to tag your post "sq7."

Podcast Reflection

Quests

Once you have each completed your podcast episode, the Producer and Assistant Producer should each write separate reflection posts, published to your own sites. Link to the podcast episode post on the course site as part of your reflection.

Your refection should be 250 – 500 words and should be in the form of an essay with complete paragraphs, not as a list of bullet point answers.

Reflection Questions

Include a brief description of your process for developing the podcast. How did you and your co-producer divide up the tasks involved and how did you structure your collaboration? In what ways does your episode respond to the other episodes in the series — in other words, compare your episode to the ones before it, explaining how you gained inspiration from, adapted, or resisted something that your peers did in their episodes.

Please describe your primary goals with the episode that you produced and explain the strategies that you used to achieve them. You’re producing these episodes under a number of time and technological constraints, so it’s likely that there will be some goals that you just cannot accomplish within those constraints — address what challenges arose for you and the choices you made to meet them and/or describe what you would have done differently had you more time/resources available for your episode (in other words, what are some aspirational goals that were perhaps unrealistic given the constraints of the assignment but that you would have liked to have tried to accomplish if circumstances were different?).

How do you see your work on the podcast episode helping you to achieve the learning outcomes for this course? Explain how you met those outcomes with your work on this assignment.

Make sure you address the sets of questions above and then also consider some of the questions below and address them in your reflection (you definitely won’t be able to answer all of these, so go through the list and pick some that seem to be most of interest for you and write about them):

  • Were the strategies, skills and procedures you used effective for this assignment?
  • Do you see any patterns in how you approached your work on this episode? How was producing a podcast similar to or different from writing more traditional essays?
  • What have you learned about your strengths and areas in need of improvement?
  • How are you progressing as a learner?
  • What suggestions do you have for your peers as they go about working on their episodes to come?
  • How can you apply the skills you used in crafting this podcast episode to future writing projects? Where can you use these skills again?
  • What are you most proud of about the episode that you created?
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