Here contains some helpful information covering a variety of subjects. Call this my contributions that aren't conference or journal paper related.
Classes in grad school, or just research in general usually involve reading a TON of readings, conference articles, journal articles, and other papers. And there will come the time where you will ask yourself “What paper said that Virtual Reality’s ideal for architectural applications? Did I read it for myContinue Reading
In Okami, my character, Ameratsu, the dog goddess, came across an elder gentleman that needed a dog to dig at a specific place. Then, I immediately got swept in a mini-game involving protecting the gentleman from harm, and digging wherever the gentleman wanted me to. Okami is filled with mini-gamesContinue Reading
This post will look at the educational potential of Okami, and some lessons to be learned from a game mostly based on entertainment. Given the game’s roots appeared to be from Japanese folklore, and what we could learn from it, I started thinking about one of Salen’s question in herContinue Reading
Games that use different interaction styles require different ways to learn. A gamer needs to know what would happen if the joystick was moved completely to one side – would a cursor move to a direction at a constant rate, or move really fast? So one of the challenges withContinue Reading
This post is titled after the title of a Penny Arcade Expo 2011 panel, and I loved their title enough to use it here. Here’s one question that I haven’t answered, but I probably have been dancing around the question on and off, from Salen’s 2007 work: What forms ofContinue Reading
Depending on the kind of game it is, plot’s very important. Plot gives a set of guidelines in how to approach the story. The plot guides gamers on when to be emotionally engaged in the game, such as when an allied character dies, when to learn, such as first learningContinue Reading
So I was just asked about how I got WordPress running on this site, which is under the the computer science department domain. For those that aren’t Virginia Tech graduate students, graduate students get space on the servers here, and a portion of it is set for webspace. So, inContinue Reading
As noted in Squire’s work “From content to context: Videogames as designed experience”, one way to look at a game’s meaning is through the game’s actions. Pretty much this time involved using my newfound powers and tidying up the area. My new power was to make flowers bloom, so forContinue Reading
I am still in the early portion of the game, Okami. I think I beat the first two bosses, and I only cast doubt, because I’m unsure of how bad these opponents are and whether they would be considered bosses in the gamer community. I’d rather not look it upContinue Reading
This reflection is geared towards the introductory part of the game, where the user learns how to use the controls, interacts with the environment for the first time, and learns from the non-playable characters(NPC’s) who act as guides and teachers for the game. The teaching of how to use aContinue Reading