2020 has been an interesting year to say the least, from bushfires all the way to a global pandemic it has not been a pleasant year. With this all-in mind I felt for my DA I needed to go with something that brings me joy thinking about it and that’s video games! More specially story-based video games. As far back as I can remember I’ve always played story-based video games starting back with the first Jak and Daxter on the PS2. (which I still have and should still work with the right cables) having spent years playing story games it shocked me to hear that quite a large number of people I know don’t play or have never really played video games for their story, they tend to stick with multiplayer games which is where the idea for my DA came from. Starting out as perspective into video games based on their stories, it quickly evolved into more of a quick review series on games with a focus on story leading me to giving an overall quick review of the game in question, what its about and who the game is for. The utility for this particular Digital Artefact is for people who want to expand their game library with games they likely never really thought of playing prior due to a lack of experience with the genre, My aim for the Digital Artefact is to raise the awareness of story based video games with my first few episodes having a focus on non-linear stories with Hollow Knight, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Feedback for my project has overall been quite positive with most of it having good information from online articles that provide extra insides into the games im talking about, I’ve also had some feedback in regards to audio with the music being a little too loud as well as some possible advertising and monetising of my Digital Artefact. Overall I think the trajectory for this Digital Artefact is going well as its the most interesting Digital Artefact out of all the ones I’ve created throughout the BCM subjects and its one I enjoy creating. In the future however I will likely have to advertise my Digital Artefact on more platforms to get a larger audience.

Hello and welcome to my beta. Just something before we begin I’ve decided to change my beta to more of games I recommend based on how much I enjoy the story and who the game might appeal to.  For my first episode I’ve decided to talk about Hollow Knight one of my favourite videogames in recent years with its challenging yet rewarding gameplay and its story and world building that kept me coming back for more. In a report written by Ben McIntosh, Randi Cohn and Lindsay Grace, Nonlinear Narrative in Games: Theory and Practice, they describe nonlinear storytelling in video games to have a few categories Open world, branching and parallel. In open world the player is able to experience different aspects of the story whenever they chose or are able to find other smaller stories through side quests. In branching storytelling, the player is able to chose different options that allows them to discover different endings based on choices made and finally parallel storytelling is where the story unfolds based on how the player controls their character. Within Hollow Knight I believe the game falls somewhere between open world and branching storytelling as the game allows you to explore the vast world of Hallownest at your own pace with only certain areas being locked behind some progression. With the game not forcing you to explore everywhere this leads to a number of ending which require certain prerequisites gained from that extra exploration.

References

Mcintosh, B., Cohn, R. and Grace, L., 2008. Nonlinear Narrative in Games: Theory and Practice. p.2. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262250055_Nonlinear_Narrative_in_Games_Theory_and_Practice [Accessed 15 October 2020].

A summarizing reflection of what you learned about research and research communication, and what you would do differently next time. What I learnt, that’s very interesting question because I think many will agree and say that the whole online Uni thing has been tough and, in my opinion, a massive pain it the neck. I don’t feel like I’ve learnt much of anything new with everything being online. Nothing feels like it matters because I don’t have any exams and it feels like half if not most of the content taught in tutorials has nothing or little to do with the new tasks assigned. side note if whoever is marking stuff leave a comment that just has the letter F to let me know that you’ve actually read this because I honestly it seems like a waste of time. As for what I would do next time….. avoid online classes as much as possible. Now I realize this is no where near 400 words but that shouldn’t matter should it cause its not getting marked and if it does get marked then what does this mean? “We won’t grade your reflection, but it must be there.” anywho overall I think my project went fine. If I was to do it again id likely try to start earlier and I know it sounds ironic but not procrastinate as much.

Ideating, prototyping and now making. One of 3 main concepts for any idea, product or project, making is greatly important because without it then you don’t really have much of a project. Making can be a tough part of any project as it involves finalising the prototype of your project to iron out any kinks and incorporate and feedback. Sometimes the process of making can be easy especially if the feedback for your prototype is mostly positive, in some cases little to nothing needs to be changed however sometimes you might have to start from scratch when it comes to finalising and making your project which can be a tedious task.

nothing you make online is set in stone. Because of the openness of the internet anyone can cook-I mean anyone can create anything, with this vast resource creating online can feel daunting with a high failure rate however if you do succeed you succeed big. For some their Digital Artefacts have grown massively gaining a large following and has become something they can profit from and for others their Digital Artefact hasn’t garnered that kind of attention, For me it’s a bit of both. Initially I decided to continue my Digital Artefact from BCM112, a movie review podcast where I would watch and review movies for those who wanted something quick to listen or to watch while in the cinema lobby, while shopping or even driving. The aim was to provide a quick take on a movie for people to know if the movie was worth seeing or not however at the time, given that UNI student life (yo) it wasn’t easy to see new movies in the cinemas that most people would want to know about. Given these constraints I decided to move away from that to something that was easier to create, curate and get out into the public eye and that’s how I started a second twitter account The Internet Pie. My concept for this project is based around most people finding reddit way to intimidating to browse and I completely agree with that, personally it took me over a year to begin actively engaging with others on reddit. With the knowledge that most people are to afraid to browse reddit I decided to create a new twitter profile with the intention of posting some of the best reddit has to offer in the hopes that it would encourage people to browse reddit and fully grasp the content, opinions, news and questions found on reddit. Initially I wanted to post whatever I found that was interesting on reddit however without a following yet I decided to stick to images that peaked people’s curiosity, these images ranged from funny to confusing in a curious way however due to twitter feed system I was only getting views from people who followed me on twitter. After some due thoughts I decided to begin posting images I found that related to worldwide trending keywords and hashtags and this is where I got most engagement on my profile. In the couple of tweets, I had made with trending keywords and hashtags i got from a couple of hundred impressions to some thousands leading to more views on normal posts I made. This overall was a large learning moment as gaining a following on twitter takes more than just posting content, you need to relate posts to trending topics and then people who enjoy that content will share it around.

Arguably the most important aspect of any given project is the prototype, without it no one can say for sure if it would work. When thinking about prototypes they are basically feedback machines, designed to be criticized. Without prototyping a project will likely fail, whether it be the project not reaching enough people or not resonating with the intended audience. With my DA I have created a twitter account where I post images from reddit aimed at those who find reddit daunting to browse. So far it has come with some success here and there with posts I have made getting a large amount of views and engagement however feedback outside of this has been limited. Fortunately for me this is my prototype of my DA and I aim to make certain changes such as posting images with captions that ask questions or encourage people to comment. Right now as it stands my DA has had some successes but I am willing to push on keep posting in the hopes that my audience will grow and gain more feedback.

Check out my DA over at https://twitter.com/TheInternetPie and using @TheInternetPie

Change and iteration

Creating something online for the public and be daunting to some, with others thriving of the success in their projects and others like myself changing their projects on a fundamental level. Originally, I created a movie review podcast aimed at those who wanted a short straight to the point review of a given movie that could be listened to either on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube on the way to work or just in the comfort of their own home. The reviews were meant to be short and straight to the point kind of like and elevator pitch that went for 3 mins but instead of an elevator, your in the lobby of a movie theatre trying to decide what to watch. However, throughout the semester I changed my Digital Artefact to base my project around reddit and the shocking realisation that many people I know are too intimidated to browse reddit, whether it be a large and scary aspect of the internet or too much negative feedback on posts they have made and seen. This is why I have decided to create a twitter account where will post some of the best reddit has to offer from the safety and comfort of twitter. Titled the Internet Pie, my aim is to bring reddit to people who are to intimidated to browse and engage in reddit. When I started little over a week and a half ago it came to little success in the aspect of views however after changing my posts from just random images to targeted posts based on trending key words and hashtags my posts and account began to gain more and more views with one post getting over 7000 views.

If you don’t know what Ideating is, then you are probably not a teacher and most defiantly not a BCM student. Ideating is arguably one of the most important parts of creating a project or prototype, it can come in all shapes and forms a change in where you post and advertise your project to changing the project as a whole. For My Digital Artefact, ideating for the time being has only really changed in the creation of episodes and the platforms I have been posting on. My initial Project that I started in BCM112 was a movie review series in podcast form to appeal to an audience who want quick movie reviews that can be watched but mainly listened to. My initial posts wee only on SoundCloud however through changing and updating my podcast I will also be posting episodes onto YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud. I also changed the way I created my podcast episodes with the initial episode being scripted and cut together however after some feedback from my audience and some self-reflection I have decided to change it to unedited, raw audio leaving the episodes feeling more like a podcast than a straight YouTube documentary as well as being more discussion oriented.

If I had to say I would say reddit would be my public sphere as well as certain podcasts and discussions with my friends, now it probably sounds sad but I haven’t watched any show in front of an actual tv in a solid 4 or 5 years. As soon as I got into high school, my friends introduced me to the wonders of the internet and from the public spheres I used to participate in (Big bother etc) I don’t anymore. Now I participate in discussions online and in person with my close friends and family, reddit, YouTube and a couple of podcasts. As for how the public spheres I participate in function, well it varies from sphere to sphere. For starters I think anyone with a social life (actually taking to people not a social media life) already understands how that sphere works however it is different with sites such as reddit and YouTube. Being part of the public sphere on reddit is one to behold with varying opinions flying six ways to Sunday. Even just reading comments made by other people can include you within the discussion by simply clicking an arrow pointing up or down. YouTube and podcasts are similar although the discussions had aren’t in Realtime unless continued in comment sections. However as with anything made by a human there are always fundamental flaws with theses public spheres. For staters reddit has the problem of being such a large platform it may be hard for your opinions on topics to herd by the people also participating in the topic. In  regards to YouTube and the various podcasts the aforementioned live discussion doesn’t really take place with the comment sections excluded, furthermore the creator of content my also be to thick headed to read and respond to others opinions voiced in comment sections. When it comes to reddit pretty much everyone and their grandmothers are included in discussions however it has been well documented that so called “free speech” are in fact not free speech as creators disagree and remove you from participating further. In regards to YouTube and podcasts, most if not everyone can be included but often aren’t as a direct result of algorithms recommending YouTube videos and the desire for people to just sit and listen to people talk for upward of an hour.

Ahh the media, it’s a wacky world for trying to discover the truth about given topics, with a variety of different topics for news it becomes had to understand who owns and or control the media. It depends where you get your news from and what topics the news you read are based on, most of the time however it depends on the author and the publishers. For my news It varies because I look at news for all different types of topics from politics to recent movie news. Due to this variety in new topics I uses many methods of reading news from the morning newspaper to YouTube videos. In regard to news articles online it is the author and publisher that ultimately decide what to post, especially when writing works personal biases play a large factor in the production of news. And on top of that the publisher ultimately has the final say about what is posted so the biases held by them also gets thrown onto me. The larger question for news is does it matter who controls my media and the media other view ,I believe it does matter as the personal biases held by authors and publishers will ultimately restrict the information I read, maybe there are 2 sides to a story but I only get to fully understand the side that the author personally believes in. The trust I have in the news sources that I frequently view depends on what news is being reported, in regard to political news stories my trust is on the lacking side as I believe the personal biases in the authors restricts my ability to understand the full story so I end up looking to other sources. On the other hand, for less important news I rely mainly on specific YouTube videos and channels as the news reported is less likely to affect my world view and majority of the time tends to have the full story or doesn’t require me to go looking elsewhere for more information