Despite the fact that I have been publicly uploading my crafts to a website that I host, I have not been cross posting my content to any of my social media accounts. I have an Instagram account that is under the same name as my website (jaysblankstudio), as well as a Pinterest account that is under the same name; however, I have not posted anything on either of those locations. I also have a YouTube account where I have posted videos for video projects. Most of those videos are unlisted but can be seen through my website!
As far as plans for either of those go, I feel as though using Instagram as a portfolio of the things I have created would be a good thing for future needs regarding a job in the artistic field (or anything related to digital designing). I don’t think I would want to post everything that I have created onto my Instagram—I would most likely just post the things I am most fond of and am most proud of. For any potential videos I make, I will still put them on my YouTube…whether or not I make them public or unlisted is up for debate.
It’s wonderful to be welcoming so may new faces on this incredible adventure! This is a place where anyone can begin, no matter what sort of Hero’s Journey you are navigating through in your own life! It is also a place to help reflect on your previous adventures, as well as think about how these steps can help you navigate any current or future ones you may go through. There are many outcomes to our adventures, and not all things will happen in the same step; but this can give an idea of what could happen, and, in turn, help you prepare for an even that relates to these steps.
On the side of the ship that everyone has entered on, there are multiple images and artworks creates by previous adventurers that have gone through their own hero journey—or are currently going through it—and have created a badge to reflect them and their goals. My own badge shows off many flowers of different types surrounded by myself. The inspiration comes from the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, an artist that I have talked about previously in a previous post, which also shows off the draft of my mission badge. My badge shows off flowers that represent different types of self-care, as well as things I aspire to be in order to better myself and my mental health.
Every good teams has a nice balance of people—those whose strength can back-up what other weaknesses are. Whether this is in the real world, working with coworkers that you spend time around daily, or creating a team of people in a game setting where an infinite amount of things can happen, it’s necessary that we are able to know who we are working with, and learn how to be as cooperative as possible. Knowing people’s jobs and specialties can really help in creating a positive team, especially when they all balance each other.
Just like in Dungeons and Dragons, there are certain fields that require certain jobs to help the workflow of the team, and to make sure that things are running as efficiently as possible. An example of this would be a team dedicated to making graphic designs for a company, but the team is broken down into different categories and job titles:
The one who can go through and make changes before sending it back (Editor)
The one who provides imagery for the design (Photographer)
The one who adds the flair and creates moving imagery to help sell the point, after the design is finished and needs to be presented to an interested party (Special Effects Artists and Animators).
Based on the Myers-Briggs personality types that are usually used for D&D characters, as well as linking up those same personalities to each job listed here, we can create a team within the world of D&D that has the same match-up as the creative multimedia team we see in real life:
Art Director = Warlock or Rogue (INTP, the Logician)
Editor = Paladin (ENFP, the Campaigner)
Graphic Designer = Wizard or Sorcerer (INTJ, the Architect)
Photography = Barbarian (ESTP, the Entrepreneur) or Fighter (ENTP, the Debater)
Special Effects Artists and Animators = Ranger or Bard (ISFP, the Adventurer)
The classes themselves all differ based on what weapons they use, as well as what their roles are for the party (arcane users for varying types of abilities, a paladin for healing, a warrior class for damage and tanking (a person who uses their self to take on a lot of damage from the opposing team, as well as deal massive damage), and therefore can pick each other up when one lacks a certain skill for a certain action. This is very similar, if not almost exactly, to how everyone working on a real life job uses their own specialty and skills to help each other on a certain task, and collaborate to complete it.
College is a big step for a lot of people—there are many things that can seem overwhelming if someone is just starting to think about extending their education, or wanting to develop some other skills that would benefit them for a multitude of reasons. Depending on the college as well, sometimes the “competition” of trying to get in when there are so many people wanting to attend can be off-putting to those who have insecurity about getting that acceptance letter. College can be intimidating at first glance, but the adventure that waits inside is exciting, and can be worth the hardships that come with preparing for college, as well as when in the thick of it.
An alumnus of the college—or maybe even someone who is in the middle of earning their degree—would be the best person to speak to about their experiences being in college. From the student’s perspective, they’d be able to tell you about their experiences signing up and taking courses, about their experiences with time management (or a lake thereof), and their experiences with utilizing the college resources found around campus or online, amongst many. Of course, everyone’s experience is going to be different, and not everyone will have that picture perfect image of what it means to be a student at college; however, those “imperfections” can help encourage students to still participate and have fun while doing it.
Everyone’s reasoning for joining college is going to be different; the journey to get to the destination, however, can bring people together, especially when you find that you have surrounded yourself with familiar classmates who are in the same classes as you and are working towards the same goal as you. Sometimes the experiences you have with other people, as well as the ones you have yourself, can have as much of an equal impact as finally obtaining the degree that you were working towards. That is an adventure that some people would not replace, no matter how stressful things got on the way there.
When coming up with what I wanted as my mission badge, I had a few ideas of what I wanted my mission to be. Most of them involve the act of self-care in some fashion, but they do focus on different aspects of what it means to practice self-care; and because of that, I thought that my mission would be the idea of encompassing a multitude of different things. Since I cannot decide on just one thing, why not try and embrace a few things at a steady pace?
I thought that the best way to express this was to create a mission badge that would use the language of flowers to represent the side-quests—aka, the different things that I want to represent as what I want for my future. One of my drawings that I had done was of someone whose head was surrounded by a blooming lotus. Then I had the idea to use the flowers in a flower crown, which was something that I liked better.
Now, my idea is to create a badge that takes inspiration from the artist Alphonse Mucha, a Czech artist who created art during the art nouveau movement. Of course, I don’t think I would be creating the badge with as much detail as Alphonse Mucha put in his own art pieces, but I am going to try and utilize the usage of flowers and framing to create the overall essence of the badge.
“The game that can give you 10 extra years of life” by Jane McGonigal
Watching this video in class, it came as no shock to me that there were studies that playing games (of any media) can have a positive impact on your life—it was the first time, however, seeing the details of how exactly that worked, down to the intricate calculations and different ways that it positively impacted us.
Jane McGonigal, a game designer, talks about how, from personal experience, creating and playing a video game has been a positive influence on her life, and how it has helped her with her recovery from a concussion that took a year to fully recover from. She talks about Post-Traumatic Growth, which was a concept I have never heard of before. This is something that I wish is talked about more since we always see more research, and news, and development about the negative aftermath of a traumatic and stressful event.
She creates a game-based exercise for the audience to participate in and uses real-world research to tie into the achievements earned as the audience played the game. She states that, because of the smaller tasks that everyone was able to do, and the positive reactions that their bodies have developed because of it, they have essentially earned 7 more minutes to their life; she also states that meeting the goals of these tasks regularly can earn people 10 more years into their life.
Journey
I have personally played the game “Journey” back around the time that it was first released, which was March 13, 2012. I was only a child, but I still remember the things that I felt and experienced when I was playing it for myself.
I remember being amazed by the different landscapes and terrains that I would wander around in, and particularly being fond of the way we could glide on the sandy hills and gain speed and momentum. I remember how emotional the story was despite there being no words spoken a single time—it was mainly experienced by the architecture, and the glyphs and art on the walls, and the moments of action that drove the character to move and experience the adrenaline of escaping a perilous enemy. I remember feeling this sinking pit in my stomach when I saw how worn-down and trodden our character was when walking through the snowy and dangerously cold mountain. I remember feeling happy—and, admittedly, a little bit confused—when we were suddenly energetic and alive again and soaring through the sky with our newfound source of life and energy.
I learned recently within the last year or two that you could actually play this game online with other people! The story doesn’t change at all, but I’m sure it could make the experience of the game more impactful and fun if you were to go through the story together.
A Whole New World (Game)
I’m someone who enjoys playing video games—if it wasn’t obvious by the number of times that I have talked about playing a specific game in my blog posts (aka, Skyrim…). There have been a variety of games that I’ve played; similarly to how I listen to music, if a game is good, and I enjoy the concept and the controls, and can grasp how to do something in a game (whether it’s easy, or the challenge is fun), then I will enjoy that game no matter what genre it might be under.
With that being said, I have become fond of farming games over the years. Farming games are known to have the player play as a new farmer who manages their land and grows their home with every passing season; they live in a town full of other townsfolk that you are allowed to build relationship with, which can lead to special events, which includes learning about a personal part of them that they don’t really share with anyone else. Another common theme found in these farming games is the fact that there is some fantasy element to it that helps keep the game just a bit more engaging for the player, as well as add more depth to the game. A good example of a farming game would be Stardew Valley, which came out almost a decade ago, and is a popular farming game amongst the gaming community.
When I was deciding on what game I wanted to try—that was free to play—I decided that I wanted to try and play Palia. Palia is a farming game that came out last year on Steam, a gaming service that allows the uploading and purchasing of different games, and earlier this year on the Nintendo Switch console. Palia is a bit different from other farming games that I have played; not only is it a free game that is available to download by anyone, but it also doubles as an MMORPG (massive multiplayer role-playing game), which means that the game uses a server for other players to play in, which makes it available for players to play with each other. I’ve had the joy of having one single online interaction with someone who was able to deliver some supplies to me when I was testing out the request feature. It was a really sweet interaction when I sent out a message thanking whoever it was that sent me supplies, and having them with “it was probably me! you’re welcome!”.
This game is definitely supposed to be one of those cozy games that you play to wind down after a long day, or to play when you just want to relax and need a calm part of your day. The game was meant to be played with the intention of building a nice and positive community, but there is no actual push to play with others if that is not the game style you are going for—I assume that you are allowed to play completely by yourself to discover the story. There are in-app purchases to buy in-game currency for special objects and outfits, however they are not necessary to the game, and are more for aesthetics and customization than anything else.
Overall, I’m excited to try and play this game more! I think this will be a nice game to come back to every once in a while since it seems like it’s not a game that relies on constantly logging into to keep up with the story and such. Hopefully, for those who have the means to try it out, you are able to give this game a shot as well!
Storytelling has been a thing that has existed for years and years, and has become a tradition for many cultures. Many stories come from the act of sitting around a fire and telling a story to a group of people, who would then go to tell that same story to another group of people, or singular person; the cycle would continue, and that same story would eventually become famous and well-known—with some alterations, since the story would either be lost in translation, or someone would mis-remember a detail for something else and change some aspect of a character or concept. A well-known example of this type of storytelling comes from the epic poems The Odyssey and the Iliad, which are stories that were supposedly told verbally by the blind poet Homer.
Modernly, most of our stories are found online through the perspective of both credited sources, written in the format of physical and online books, as well as individuals who express these stories to the world. Since we have access to seeing stories online, we are exposed to a multitude of events and stories that are spread across the entirety of social media. Just as though it were told verbally around a campfire, sometimes there could be accidental misinterpretations of the story that can confuse people and make them wonder which version of the story is the truest.
Despite the different ways that storytelling has changed since the evolution and creation of technology, the effects of storytelling are still the same as they have always been. We still have emotional reactions to stories that we read or see on the internet (laughing when we see something funny or shocking, or crying when we read devastating news or connect with someone on a personal level); we still learn life lessons after reading a story about someone experiencing something firsthand, rather than learning them through fictionalized stories.
Even if we feel disconnected sometimes by how often we are on our phones looking though social media, there is still this feeling of connection when we read something that affects us to the point of gaining a reaction from it, or when we learn something new from a stranger that lives in an entirely different country. Social media is definitely exhausting in the way that we learn about so many things at once, but there is some reward when we see something uplifting, or learn something that has benefited us and helped us grow as people.
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