Category: Student Posts

The first time I played Settlers of Catan was for the summer assignment of AP The first time I played Settlers of Catan was for the summer assignment of AP Microeconomics before the senior year. For the assignment, we had to tie this game to the fundamental principles of economics. Even though this game was given for work, my friends and I actually played this game for fun and really liked the quality of the game. Out of many games I have played, I chose this game as my episode because I believe that this game contained many factors we have discussed.

I was the main producer of the Settlers of Catan, working with Alan. the assistant producer, and Ruohan, the line producer. This was my second time podcasting, and this time we discussed in more detail the real-life applications rather than the strategies, such as telescoping and probes of the game itself. (I appreciate professor Morgen for his advice during the meeting.) We planned on podcasting that way so that any audiences may understand our conversation with the minimal understanding of the game rule. We discussed recent topics, including the coronavirus and education in college, which can be related to many of our classmates and professor. There were, again, several challenges we faced while we are making the podcast episode. One of the challenges was summarizing the analysis of the game strategy with some explanations of rules. However, with several times of recording, we were able to overcome this difficulty by organizing our thoughts by using google docs, and we took away unnecessary details or paraphrased the sentences to make them clearer and shorter. We were also required to think of real-life examples that link with the idea of this game. Eventually, we were able to pull out easily comprehensible examples. One of the applications was about the college, and this topic was discussed during one of the earlier English classes. I was satisfied with how we connected our previous discussion to my podcast. I believe that there were more other challenges, but some expected problems, such as the quality of voices, came out okay. Overall, I hope we were able to discuss the game from a different angle and that showed the creativity of this episode.

I, along with Will and Sadie, recently completed a podcast analyzing Chess (https://eng101s20.davidmorgen.org/ready-set-game/chess-the-game-of-strategy/). The conception of this podcast was rather unorthodox given the circumstances. Usually, podcasts are recorded with everyone sitting around one microphone, but that setup would have required an extreme violation of social distancing. Instead, each person recorded their own lines alone, and then someone compiled all the recordings into one project. Since each person was limited to their own recording software, the voices don’t blend as well as they did in our first podcast. I tried accounting for this while editing the volumes and EQ in the project, but there wasn’t much I could do to change the natural sound of each recording.

One of our main goals for this podcast was to make it less monotonous than the last. We tried to make it sound more conversational and easier to listen to. We included a few clips from songs and movies in effort to make the podcast more entertaining. They’re supposed to give the listener’s mind a little break from the deep analysis of chess moves, in case they’re losing focus. Keeping the listener’s focus is obviously very important, and we faced a big dilemma in trying to do so. We weren’t sure about how much we could assume the listener’s previous understanding of chess. Chess is a very intricate game with many different pieces and moves, and we didn’t know if it was fair to assume that the listener already knew the basics. In the end, we decided to give a brief explanation of the rules in the beginning just to be safe.

One thing I felt good about was our balance of explanation and conversation. I felt that our first podcast was a little hard to listen to since it was too informational. I, and my group members alike, am more accustomed to informational writing, so naturally that was the path our first podcast took. In this one we made a conscious effort to make it more conversational, with light jokes and arguments, and less explanatory. With the style of these podcasts, I feel like I’m improving at finding the middle ground between casual writing, such as texting, and the professional writing I’m used to. With this style, I feel more connected to my writing, as if my writing is more “me” now, if that makes any sense.

As the assistant producer for making podcast for settlers of Catan, I worked with Keita to analyze the game. I played this game a long time ago and did not get much experience in playing prior to preparation of this episode. When I played the game recently, I started to learn how the game works and what I will need to make real progress to make good use of my resources. Understanding the game and relate the similarities between the game and real life brings me a brand new perspective in viewing the game. In making the podcast, it was hard to discuss on zoom and not in person. Also, both me and Keita are nervous for recording and that makes our discussions much harder to go on naturally. It took us many tries before making a good podcast recording. Relating the game to life choices is important as well. We had a emphasis on making long term choices of college application, course choices and life decisions, which is what we expect to learn from playing this game.

While playing Paranoia, I realized that the game is way more than what I initially thought. I first played the game when I was in college. I never knew anything about the game, until at a party (where some were under the influence) that they introduced me to the game. When I first heard how the game was played, I was nervous to play and even backed out at first. It was my first time meeting the people, and I did not want anyone to have a negative first impression of me because truthfully, the game seemed messy. As I sat back and watched them play, a range of questions surfaced. Some I thought to myself, “Oh I would feel comfortable answering this” and others I felt “NO WAY… I can’t believe people actually feel at ease playing this game”. I remember one of the questions was “Who do you think would be there for you if you were to face police brutality?” And at the moment my view of Paranoia shifted. I realized that the game was not only about being messy or telling your most embarrassing or scary secrets, but could also be used as a time to appreciate someone or show someone admiration for how they treat you. You did not have to be messy or shady… it was a choice. Whenever you asked a question, the ball was in YOUR court and no one else. And the funniest part is whenever I played the game… I found myself asking messy questions. And I did not understand why because my fear of the messiness was the very thing that caused me not to play originally. This made me want to examine Paranoia further: how the game is played, whether people have the same agendas or not, what people use Paranoia for, if Paranoia changed in any way when on a different medium, and why people like to even play the game to begin with.

For this episode, I played Paranoia with 6 friends: Austin, Sofia, Matthew, Camila, Oscar, and Brandon. During this game, I quickly realized that everybody had their own agendas which refuted my hypothesis that everyone was going to come into the game with a “messy” or shady mindset. While some people like Oscar, Brandon, and myself did come in with a “messy” agenda, others like Austin, who played to bring out laughter” and Sofia, who wanted to be friendly and make other players feel better, had different goals coming into the game. That’s when I realized that Paranoia had ambiguous rules because it allows flexibility and malleability for the players. The players get to choose how they want to use the platform. I also realized that this lack of rules is what adds to the tension of the game. By not knowing what type of questions the players was going to ask, it added to the suspense of the players, making the game more exciting. And the fact that we played the game virtually did not take away from this at all. The game was still very shocking, nerve-racking, and triggers some sort of anxiety, and (no pun intended) paranoia. I think this is the very reason why people like myself decide to play Paranoia. I think millennials thrive off of the unknown, the unexpected. In Paranoia, you never know what you might get asked or what your name might be the answer to. You might find out that you have a secret admirer, an enemy, a lover. And that fear of the unknown is the magnet that brings young adults to continue to play. At least, for me it did.