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My Profile through Art
This is my avatar. It is made up of aspects that are very important to me. The dog image is an ink drawing I designed because art is one of my biggest passions. I especially love doing dog portraits because dogs are my favorite animal. I own two big, fluffy beasts, and I love them unconditionally.
When I design a dog portrait like the one I am using for my avatar, I use a reference photo and a black pen that smoothly lines the paper. I leave white spaces for the highlights and emphasize the features that stand out to me. Contrast is important when it comes to these types of drawings because they are meant to be simple and focus solely on the dog.
Lastly, I used a pink stripe and tinted the edges of the photo pink because it is one of my favorite colors. I think light pink shows a certain aesthetic about a person – one that is both soft and gentle but quietly powerful. I think that describes who I am as a person and how I carry myself with this quiet strength.
Side Quest 1: Avatar
I included these images in my digital avatar primarily to represent my jovial and thrill-seeking nature. I’ve always prided myself on spending a lot of time outside my comfort zone and consciously try to push myself to do activities which frighten me. Just over winter break, a good friend of mine mentioned he had been working on getting his skydiving license. Half joking, I told him we should go together and give our parents anxiety for a few hours. A consequence of sarcasm is being taken seriously, and the next day I found myself in a small, low-horsepower plane as it unconvincingly accelerated into the sky. Though I wished to say I hurdled myself off the plane with ease, peering down 13,000 feet towards the ground paralyzed me with insecurity. The next minute was one of the best of my life and instilled a now-undying appreciation for the ground. In addition, it made me recognize how relatively small I am as well as appreciate the other small people that make my life feel massive. I didn’t want to include too many other people in my avatar as it is a representation of myself. However, I made sure to include my lil’ pupper, Banjo, whom I believe (and hope) will not be mistaken for myself. He’s a little Australian Cattle Dog whose obsession with fetch, or any object that can serve as a proxy for a ball, can drive anyone crazy.
While creating my avatar, the biggest problems I faced were deciding which images to select and being distracted by how horrible people look while skydiving. I will certainly take away a gratitude for green screen and photo-editing. In addition, I think this side quest helped me analyze how I would like to appear to others. Especially in the age of social media, I would like to be a smarter curator of my digital image. In addition, I’d like to recognize that people are different than they appear on social media and to not rush to judgements.
#sq1
Week Ahead: 2
2 | 1/21 | “The Landlord’s Game” 99% Invisible podcast
“What exactly is a game?” from Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal |
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1/23 | “Introduction” from Superbetter: The Power of Living Gamefully by Jane McGonigal
Play Depression Quest |
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1/26 | Side Quest 2: What’s in your bag? |
Before class on Tuesday, you should listen to the episode of 99% Invisible about the game Monopoly and read the chapter by Jane McGonigal that begins our theoretical discussion of what a game is and why they are powerful learning tools. We’ll spend most of class on Tuesday discussing and analyzing these two texts. As you listen to “The Landlord’s Game,” you should also pay attention to how the podcast episode is structured and listen for what they do to make a compelling podcast.
In Thursday’s class, we’ll read the beginning of the book Superbetter, also by McGonigal. We’ll talk about her insights into Post-Traumatic Growth in class. You should also play the online text game Depression Quest. Be prepared to discuss both your experiences playing the game and your sense of the game’s rhetorical situation — especially what are its purpose, audience(s), and genre. How is the game structured in order to achieve its purpose?
Over the weekend complete the second Side Quest, which is another kind of self-portrait, like the avatar. This time you’ll create a self-portrait by showing us what’s in your bag.
AVATAR
Avatar
The badge I use is made based on a prank meme of the mobile game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds). One of my Facebook friends combines the image of a girl from the Japanese meme and the PUBG theme. PUBG is one of my favorite mobile games in which I enjoyed a lot of fun with my friends. The knowledge of tactics, reflexes, and cooperation in the game is fascinating. Before playing PUBG, I thought games, especially video games and mobile games, are addictive. However, after I start, I could see some wisdom and incredible designs in each of them.
Welcome!
Hello, and welcome to my page. Below is my badge, which represents both my physical appearance and my motivations for taking a class on games and computers. In my avatar, we see a girl with brown hair and brown eyes. She has a slight smile on her face and an inquisitive look in her eyes. She is ready to learn, just like me. Layered with the photo of a girl who looks like me is a photo of computers tangled with wires and cords. This represents the computer-based learning I hope to gain from this course. Intertwined within my avatar’s head is a few tangled cords. By mixing my head (where the brain is located and picks up knowledge) with the computer cords, I hope to grasp a genuine understanding of making my own website and creating games that can improve certain situations using these online and written tools.
Behind my avatar’s head are cropped portions of computers and wires. This represents my understanding that, although I will learn so much from this class, it is not possible to learn everything about games and computers in the shorts semester we have together. There is always so much more I can learn, and this class is only the start of my vast accumulation of knowledge in this field. And I cannot wait to get started!
Sources for image:
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/8d9f418a-1baf-48bc-a6f7-fcec46448550
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/dcd97c3b-1e6e-48af-a0c1-671a0b5acab7
Side Quest 1: Avatar
Side Quest 1: Avatar
This is a picture of my cat named Mica. The source of the image in the gallery on my cell phone.
The reason behind choosing this image as my avatar for this website is simply because I am a huge cat person and I love my cats so much that words can’t even properly express the feeling. All three of them were adopted at three different time points, and since then, they became a huge part of my life.
The second I finished reading this assignment, I targeted my potential candidate at my three babies. After evaluation, I picked Mica to be the one. Mica is an eighteen-month old girl and was the first one to become a part of my family (she was only a two-month old kitten by then). Over the course of the past sixteen months, I gradually realized that Mica and I had many similarities in our personality and behaviors: we are both nervous about entering a new environment while can’t hide the curiosity; we are both shy and quiet in front of strangers, but still try to show friendliness and make new friends; Mica is the only girl out of the three, and I grew up hanging out with mostly guys as well. We have been each other’s best buddy, and I see reflections of myself on this sweet girl, which is also why she is my bias amongst the three and I try spending the most time with her whenever I’m home. Mica not only is the sweetest, cutest creature in my life, but also represents a big part of me–my passion, love, interest, personality– as an individual, I see no better choice for my avatar than her.