kbednare's blog

When I started playing Façade I thought it was very strange. The characters Trip and Grace in the game behave somewhat awkwardly and I could not understand why if their relationship was so terrible they were inviting me over. The more I played the game, the more I began to appreciate the purpose and innovation of the game. Playing therapist to Trip and Grace and helping them resolve their issues is the objective of the game.
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Playing “Colossal Cave Adventure” was probably one of the most irritating experiences of my entire life. The game does not make much sense and without the visual aspect, the purpose seems rather pointless. I fiddled around with the game for about twenty minutes and never really got anywhere. I managed to unlock the grate but nothing happened! I was so confused about what exactly I was supposed to be doing that my patience quickly grew thin and I just stopped.
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Doctor Murray-John’s discussion of medieval manuscripts and computer technology was very informative and thought-provoking. The main question Murray-John prompted was whether or not presentation was as important as the substance of a work. Upon reflection, I determined that presentation can be just as important as content. I decided this because I am a very visual person and imagery and presentation can most certainly evoke certain feelings.
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I was so excited when I found out that our guest speaker was going to be talking to us about mash-ups. I LOVE music mash-ups! I think they are a unique and interesting way of combining multiple very different music styles. Some of my favorite music mash-ups are “I Kissed Britney’s Boyfriend” which combines an Ashlee Simpson song, a Chris Brown song, a Britney Spears song and even an Aerosmith song. I also like Wale’s song “D.C. Gorillas” which are his lyrics rapped over “Dirty Harry”, a song by the Gorillas.
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In the second chapter of Marie-Laure Ryan’s book Avatars of Story, she defines fiction and nonfactual thinking in relation to narrative. She explains that fiction must at the very least offer an “embryonic story,” or a story that decribes a particular world. Ryan’s definitions of fiction and what is fictional got me thinking about reality in general. What defines something as fiction really? How do we know that something is actually fiction just because we haven’t experienced it?
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The comic strip “Krazy Kat” by George Herriman is not afraid to cross the line between what we conceive to be imaginary and what we accept to be reality. The innovative strip follows three central characters, a cat named Krazy that is in love with a mouse named Ignatz, and a law-abiding dog police officer named Officer Pup. Upon reading the first several frames of “Krazy Kat”, I was very confused and found the comic to be difficult to follow because of the unusual slang and the unconventional nature of the strip.
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The essay entitled “Mr. Griffith, Meet Windsor McCay”, the intricacies of comic storytelling. The essay really opened my eyes up to how far ahead of his time Winsor McCay and his comic genius were. McCay’s unique use of juxtaposed frames and panel transitions were unheard of at the time he was drawing his comics. McCay utilized a convention Fell refers to as “simultaneous continuity” in which several frames show a unique sequence of events. McCay has since influenced many others, including mega-powerhouse Marvel Comics Group.
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Okay, so let me give you a brief history of my experience with “Little Nemo’s Adventures in Slumberland.” I remember seeing the 1990’s movie release of Winsor McCay’s comic strip as a child of about five or six. I thought the movie was great UNTIL… Little Nemo was at a ball with the Princess and a giant black blob swallowed her dad, King Morpheus. It scared, excuse my language, the absolute CRAP out of me. I had problems going to bed for several weeks after for fear that my bed would take me to Slumberland and a big black blob would eat me.
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In Marie-Laure Ryan’s introduction to her book “Avatars of Story,” describes evolution of narrative storytelling with respect to modern inventions, namely computers and the internet. In the introduction of her investigative novel, she addresses the four different approaches used to explain the shift from written to electronic with respect to narratives.
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I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I first starting playing the game “Passage.” I have played numerous video games before and all of them have generally the same theme. Overall the object of these games is to beat up the bad guy and save the damsel in distress. I thought that the game “Passage” was going to be no different. However, upon playing the game I discovered that this video game is much more complicated than this stereotype.
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