Video Game Inspiration and the Positive Impact of Playing Them

Posted on by Jay

“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!

The Paths You Choose in a Choose Your Own Adventure

Posted on by Jay
dog tag with "choose your own adventure" inscribed on it

You find yourself at a crossroads; a fork in the road, with a sign that points to two paths in opposite directions. One sign reads of a town name—painted recently, radiating a sort of pride to its name. The sign is big, and it provides you with a sense of knowing where you want to go. The other sign is smaller, and more run-down—left without maintenance, and shadowing the town sign; however, the sign provides an image rather than a word. It’s mysterious, but it compels you to want to explore the path and find out what awaits on the other side. 

There is always the option to go a different direction—find a path that no one has before and discover something that has been left unknown for who knows how long. Figure out whether to go further left or further right, or try the un-ventured path that remains in the middle of the two. Or you could always turn back and plan for something else—there’s nothing wrong with regrouping with yourself and finding a different route to venture towards. 

What do you do? Where do you think the story will go? How will you decide where and when the story ends? 

In a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) story, there is always a choice that leads towards a path with even more choices, and that choice is counted towards a path that eventually leads to a special event. Whether that event is the end, or that path causes another option to open, depends on the choices that have been made beforehand. This genre of storytelling has been incorporated into the world of video games, as well as Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPG) as another fun way to tell a story that is more engaging and more interactive than activities before it. 

Each CYOA story has a quest that the protagonist (you, or the character that represents you) must go on, as represented by one of the seven quest-types that all adventurers go on according to Dan Roam: 

  • The quest towards home after the long battle, or after getting lost in oneself.
  • Striving to win the prize, whether that be wealth for your gain, or a prize to an object that could save the world. 
  • Hunting for revenge to avenge a fallen loved one, or to strike down those who have done you wrong. 
  • Harking on a battle to fight the evil dragon taking over the world, or enemy that goes against the better of the world and its people. 
  • Going on a journey of self-discovery to find yourself once more, or to be reborn. 
  • Risking the climb to reach the top and make to where no one has before. 
  • Searching for true love, whether that’s the love that comes from someone else, or you find the will to love yourself. 

Each of these quests are what make a story relatable and captivating, placing you into a situation where you can get lost in, as well as relate the experiences to yourself. They create an agency to discover more about the in-world story, as well as find where you fit in and see what kind of changes you can make in it. This gives people the chance to discover a story that they can connect with, as well as explore different paths and decide for themselves what may be the more interesting option, or connect with a choice from experiences from their personal life.

These are stories that I have grown fond of over the years, and I tend to play games where I can create a character, or create someone to play, and play a game where I can determine the story—as best as I can, anyhow. I’m forced to play a main role in the games that I play, which makes up for my absence as a leader in the real world; but, I can say that storytelling games and media where I am forced to take the role as leader for myself inspires me to try and be more confident in my actions, as well as inspire myself to help others more in anyway possible.

“Choose your own adventure” by scanlime is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .

Virtual Communities and Digital Storytelling

Posted on by Jay

Watching “Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times” was a very informative and rather cozy documentary, and something that I found myself being immersed in as I remembered how I interacted with virtual worlds through the pandemic as well. I also thought it was an excellent piece on virtual worlds in general, and what being involved with virtual worlds can do for people who may not have had a lot of social interaction, or who may have lost social interactions from their daily lives when the pandemic hit. Being able to both interact with people while still at home, and especially during a time where people couldn’t interact physically with each other, played an important part in still being able to retain that sense of communication with other people even if the pandemic wouldn’t allow it.

One of the most memorable parts of this documentary was the part about how people were able to express themselves through different means through virtual worlds. For example, since Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) came out soon after the pandemic hit, people have been expressing themselves through their islands—as in, they were decorating and terraforming their islands however they pleased, as though it was a sort of art form for them. It can be therapeutic in the way that it allows for someone to express themselves for themselves without the pressure of being perceived by other people; or people would do the complete opposite—expressing their artistic talents for other people—which was another big thing about ACNH.

In that same vein of self-expression, Second Life was another amazing virtual world where people could turn customize their avatars into whatever they wanted them to—even inanimate objects, if they desired! People can also have their own islands in Second Life that they could decorate as well; whether they made another home for themselves, or had a shop to sell their own things, they could do whatever they desired without restrictions on their creativity.

Our work in Second Life is based on the idea of expressing yourself through the work that you do. Even though we are meant to create things for the Hero’s Journey, you are adding onto this ongoing story by telling your own, and therefore expressing yourself through that story. We are given the freedom—within a certain parameter—to create whatever we want and to express ourselves however we want.

I believe that, as a way to get others immersed into the Hero’s Journey Project, as well as maybe gain some new recruits into our digital storytelling world, is to help promote it in places where people will find it the quickest. At our own college, it would be nice to have physical fliers promoting our Superhero’s Journey project. Online, creating posts about it to people who might be able to spread it around would be a good way to promote our project to others as well.

(Update: June 6, 2024 at 10:12pm)

Since we have presented out J.E.D.I. Hub to our stakeholders as well as other guests, I feel as though we did a wonderful job at telling the guests our thought process behind each object and area, and the story that goes with it. For me, I definitely did have some nerves before it was my time to present my area, but I thought I did good! The nerves definitely went away as I was presenting (which I definitely think carried on from performing when I was younger, so it definitely helps for moments like these), which was a good thing. I do not think that I would want to change anything about my presentation, aside from the things that I would definitely nitpick about myself; however, overall, it was a fun experience, and I’m really proud of everyone and myself for being able to get things done and for how our presentation went!

A Side Quest

Posted on by Jay

When I first started my college career, my intention was to go into this learning about new ways of extending whatever artistic skills that I possessed, and possibly learn something new about myself that could help with that. I wanted to expand on how to draw people, and how to create things from my imagination. I wanted—and still want—to be able to tell a story that people can enjoy, no matter what form of media that comes in.

While I have been progressing in skills—and learning new ones while at it—I sort of lost the capability to create for myself; in turn, that meant that I lost the capability to create a story that I could be proud of. When I was in high school, and a lot younger, I would write to myself a lot. A lot of those writings have since been deleted, and anything that I produce currently only last about…maybe a paragraph or two, or if I’m lucky, they last multiple smaller paragraphs when inspiration hits for longer than just a few minutes. I have slowly been trying to get myself back in the groove of things, though I know that this is a long process that can’t be fixed overnight (though I wish that was the case for most things).

This all came to a burst during the middle of my spring quarter of 2024. My motivation was at an all time low, I felt like I wasn’t able to do anything to get through it, and I was struggling really bad at even starting things, let alone finishing the things I was in the middle of doing. I ended up conversing about my professor about this, asking to meet outside of class time to discuss and ask about what to do.

To put it in an embarrassing way, I was asking my professor for motivation to continue trying.

For a good half an hour, it was a back and forth between her asking me questions, and me answering them as I tried not to cry too much (I had broken down almost immediately at the beginning of the call. I also failed at trying to suppress my crying). It was almost cathartic, though I sometimes look back on it with a little bit of shame for breaking down on her like that.

It wasn’t until we got onto the topic of creating and what I enjoyed doing that she was able to come up with an idea to get me back on a creative streak.

As creatives in the work field, we rarely get the chance to create for ourselves, or to have a chance to create things in the way that we love (unless we are able to find a job that allows us to be selfish). In order to give me that leeway to continue doing work for class, as well as be able to be expressive and hone into this passion of mine for storytelling, I was given a side quest.

Why not tell the story of The Hero’s Journey? Create something that allows me to use my passion for storytelling to give people something to interact with in a way that inspires others to follow their own passion and dreams?

That conversation birthed the storybook: an engagement object that I created in Second Life. A thing that would hold the story that is found within the Hero’s Journey. Something that people can interact and read through as they go along.

This is definitely a project that will progress past this class, but it is definitely one that I will be excited to continue as I continue my college career.

Creating Virtual Goods in a Virtual World

Posted on by Jay

While I myself don’t have many plans for creating virtual goods within a virtual world outside of a school environment, I would like to believe that, if I could, I would like to provide things that people will actually use and enjoy, and be able to build upon themselves. I don’t have anything in particular that I would want to create, I would just like to create something that can help others for anything that they need.

I have always loved the concept of being able to create things that people can become inspired by, and utilize, to create something for themselves or to use for other things. Things like this already happen, such as assets and meshes provided in Second Life, or images that are royalty free or licensed under Creative Commons to use freely with attribution towards the creator. These things can help inspire other people to create their own things, and to provide those things for other people to use, which can create a continuous cycle of creating, promoting, inspiring, and so-forth.

I think that, as much as it’s very nice—and sometimes even a necessity—to place things behind a paywall in order to make more money to pay bills, or to be able to buy food and other necessities, I think it’s equally important to be able to cater to those who can’t afford to buy assets. I believe that open resources can help provide assets and tools to those that are limited on money and resources, or for those who do not want to pay money to use it, and help smaller creators with getting themselves familiar with how everything works. It’s important to create things that everyone can use, even if that means giving up the monetary resource that you can make from it.

Immersive Engagement Proposal

Posted on by Jay

Premise and Purpose

The Hero’s Journey is a project that has been worked on by previous Digital Storytelling students from previous years and is a continual project where new things are added each year to create a wonderful world. This is a project that caters to new students, as well as new for people who are considering entering the college world. There are a total of 12 steps. The step that I am working on, step 5 of the Hero’s Journey, is supposed to represent the part of the hero’s story where the hero takes their first step into the new world of their journey that they’ve embarked on.

It’s supposed to be engaging because, not only is this supposed to be viewed within a virtual world where you can interact with almost anything that catches your attention, but it was made to help encourage new and potential students to join and pursue their passions at the college, and to take that first big, and intimidating, step into the world of Peninsula College.

Audience and Market

The intended users for this are anyone who has an interest in Peninsula College, as well as new and even current students—whether they are technically savvy and can comprehend how things are working in this virtual world, or if they are just curious how this was made. There is hope that this project can appeal to them because of the integration of art and technology to create something that is truly amazing.

The usage of virtual worlds, information, and art integrated into one thing is not something that is new; many interactive and games catered to learning and teaching already exist—even things that exist within virtual worlds.

Medium, Platform, and Genre

The Hero’s Journey takes place in the virtual world of Second Life, which is a virtual world where anything can be created and used for other user’s personal—or, in this case, educative—purposes. SL has a function where people can communicate to others via instant messaging (IM), or even vocally. Each user remains anonymous unless they decide to share in their In Real Life (IRL) profile who they are outside of SL.

The strength of using Second Life for this project is that, unlike creating something physically, you are able to create almost anything that your heart desire—this includes replicas of things that you find in the real world, as well as things that do not exist at all. There are practically no limitations when it comes to creating something and customizing yourself within the space. The real limitations that I can think of is that people who aren’t tech savvy, or don’t work well with virtual spaces because of the nature of them would not find the process or nature of Second Life to be appealing to them. I also believe that, without the right technical and graphical components, as well as a lack of internet access, it can be hard for people to participate in Second Life.

Second Life is a 3-dimensional (3D) virtual world that can only be accessed through the usage of a computer or PC that can run the application. The genre of Second Life itself is virtual reality.

Narrative and Gaming Elements

The Hero’s Journey itself is a narrative that outlines events that could happen to the hero of the story; not every step is completed in the same order, and some can even be repeated. The objects that are found at each step, and surrounded everywhere as you walk along the path and other places of note, also contribute to the storytelling of the Hero’s Journey as they each have their own story, meaning, and interpretation attached to them.

The tone of this story is to be a sort of guide to people, and a way to showcase a journey that everyone goes through, even if each person’s circumstances are different, or don’t happen at the same time. It’s supposed to encourage others to identify themselves with where they are in their own journey, and to inspire themselves to seek out solutions to get them to the next step.

Some people can consider the Hero’s Journey as sort of a self-fulfilling game for themselves, with themselves as the main character of the story—aka, the Hero. Except, unlike other games, there is no real loss. The only thing you are capable of achieving is learning something new with each step, and the act of trying even if it fails at the end.

User’s Role and Point of View (POV)

The user sets themselves up as both the observer and the Hero—just as though they were playing a game of their own, but using themselves rather than a different character. They can consider this a first-person interaction through an observant lens.

Characters

The non-playable characters (NPC) are the animals and objects that are scattered throughout the Hero’s Journey that can be seen as the hero walks the path. Their purpose is to help enhance each step with their own stories and meaning behind them, to hopefully inspire the hero as well and make them ponder while they navigate.

Structure and Interface

Chronologically, in the Hero’s Journey, the starting point is at Step 1: The Ordinary World Before the Adventure Begins, and ends at Step 12: Becoming the Mentor and Return with Education Elixir. This is meant to be viewed from one point to the next until the user/hero makes it to the end; however, the user/hero can go back down the path and view each step and its location at any time. They will be able to navigate using their own character.

Each step is labeled, so it is unlikely that the user will get lost as they navigate the path and stop at each step. After they have viewed and visited each location and the objects it has to offer, they can progress on from there.

Storyworld and Sub-settings

The island that the Hero’s Journey is on in Second Life is called Etopia, which is an island inspire by the Pacific Northwest (as that is where the location of Peninsula College is located), and littered with forestry and animals found in the PNW. The path weaves towards different ecosystems and weather biomes that showcases the multi-faceted areas and locations that are set within the PNW. It can be challenging, creatively, to create a world with different types of seasons and ecosystems, as it takes time to create a diverse setting and make it all work with each other; however, I think because of that, it makes the entirety of the Hero’s Journey very interesting and intriguing to navigate through.

Our time period is present day, but with different genres mixed within—a mixed theme of science fiction, fantasy, and Neo-Pirate Steampunk.

User Engagement

I think being able to have interactive objects that contain things within each object will help with making people feel engaged as they explore our project and wander around. The goal of the project is to both gain something out of it—learning something new about the college or themselves, or about the virtual world—and to have had a good experience with engaging within the virtual space, whether or not they have experience in this type of space. It’s important, as storytellers, that our audience is able to identify something that they have discovered and carry that with them for whatever task they decide to pursue next; either that, or they are able to enjoy whatever they have read and watched.

I personally believe that is no need to add tension to this particular project. This is meant to be a learning experience, as well as a fun one, so there shouldn’t be any reason to create tension in a space that is supposed to be calming and fun. That means that there are no set rewards or penalties as well, aside from gaining experience and learning something new.

Overall Look and Sound

I am leaning towards the usage of text and imagery to tell the story, as I feel that it is easier for me to write as a way to visualize and tell my story rather than using imagery (though I do think that using imagery will help a lot in what I am trying to convey).

The overall look, I feel like, is supposed to be welcoming and whimsical, as well as eye catching with the bright objects, all at the same time.

Interactive Scavenger Hunt

Things that people can find in the scavenger hunt are the objects and animals that have been littered around Second Life, which can help with people teaming up together and possibly becoming acquainted with each other. While each team, or individual, finds each animal and object, they can have the opportunity to learn more about them and how they intersect with the Hero’s Journey.

Since Etopia is supposed to be a virtual and personified representation of the Peninsula College campus and its resources, each location is a representation of the buildings and locations found on campus.

Marketing of The Hero’s Journey

I think a few ways for our project to be marketed is on social media, as well as by advertisements throughout our college campus for those who go to class in person. From my knowledge, students are the most active on Facebook and Instagram, so I believe that those two areas are the best areas to market our project. Things such as flyers and maybe even an electronic banner/slideshow with our project marketed on there would be a nice way to advertise our project as well.

I believe that it would not hurt to have someone who is an expert at marketing and management help us advertise our project outward to others, as well as encourage the creators participating in this creation make efforts to advertise as well in some way shape or form.

J.E.D.I. Hub Overview

As part of the project of our Digital Storytelling World, we have been tasked with creating objects and choosing an animal to go with our Area of Study that’s found within the J.E.D.I. Hub. I have decided that my storytelling animal will be a Jellyfish. It is a little bit of an unconventional animal, as most of the animals that you will see on Etopia are either land or sky animals; however, I believe that there is a way to incorporate a sea creature to a storytelling world such as this. I plan to make sense of it as I create my story and the objects that I have to go with it.

Images used for the textures are credited to the users on Pixabay!

Backpack Mood Board

Leather Background Structure | Monsterkoi
Ropes Threads Fiber | inmorino
Belt Leather Buckle | weinstock
Ring Jewel Silver | noiresur

Storybook Mood Board

Book Read Old | garten-gg
Book Volume Ridge | _marioosh
Foil Gold Packaging | stux
Drusy Druzy Green | starbright