And We're Rolling

After spending a few hours exploring the world of The Movies last week, I decided that this week, I would officially open my studio.  Thus, the story of Cheep Chick Studios (note: the studio name is the result of a song that was stuck in my head and an odd logo on the game menu--it is not meant as an insult to the ladies) has begun.

While my start-up studio is still at the bottom of the charts, the hiring of two directors has allowed me to become extremely productive.  The studio is turning out movies at a record pace, although none of my movies have earned more than one star from the critics.  With regard to my video game persona, I have decided to cast myself as the aloof, thick-skinned, independent film producer, who doesn't care what the critics have to say.  At this point, I am mostly concerned with helping my actors, directors, writers, and crew members gain valuable experience that will help us dominate in the future.

As far as the game play is concerned, I am still not well versed in some of the "rules" that will help my staff make better movies.  For instance, when casting the male lead in an action movie, the ideal actor is over 30 and has a good physique.  With movies in the romance genre, I need to make sure that I cast an actor with a high "looks" rating.  As for the comedy, horror, and sci-fi genres, I have not yet unlocked the secrets to proper casting.  

My employees in the research department will soon unlock the features that will allow me to make my own movies, so next week, I think that I'll take a "stab" at directing my first film.  

Probing...On a Sunday Afternoon

My copy of The Movies came in the mail yesterday, and this afternoon I was finally able to crack it open.  While I know that academics get published because their theories are seen as acceptable and relevant to their field, I was still amazed at how closely Gee's probe, hypothesize, reprobe, and rethink cycle fit my first experience with the game.

I opened my studio, ready to take the movie industry by storm; however, after my first few movies were released, I found myself exactly where I had started--at the bottom of the heap.  Why weren't my actors giving better performances?  Why was my director always stressed?  How could I get my writers to produce better scripts?  To develop my next plan of action, which would hopefully take my little studio to the top, I began experimenting.  I looked to see what would happen when I gave my actors a raise after a movie or treated them to a makeover.  I took my director to the snack van after a hard day of shooting, and I made sure that my writers had adequate experience with a particular genre before making them churn out a script.  

I also uncovered a few details that will definitely help my studio: the news releases will let me know which types of movies will be popular with audiences (when the stock market crashed, people were all about the comedies!), and actor will get very jealous if everyone except him gets a pay raise, and too many trips to the snack van will result in a food addiction and require a trip to rehab.

After this first round of probing, I find myself wanting to start over to give my studio a better name...looks like my appreciative system (Gee, 2003) is in full effect.

I'm not wasting time playing video games...It's research

Originally, I thought I would have to force myself to play video games for one hour per week; however, last week, I played Diner Dash (1 & 2), the Chocolatier, and Guitar Hero, and I observed a few of my dorm-mates playing Call of Duty and Bioshock.  Needless to say, all of that took a little more than one hour, but my research trip to the gaming world, especially my interaction with gamers, was an interesting experience.

In my own game-playing experiences, and in my conversations with other video game players, motivation and engagement were common topics of reflection and discussion.  While in the real world I am an intensely focused person, when playing video games, I seemed to get disengaged very easily.  Diner Dash and the Chocolatier were fun at first, but after awhile, I got bored with the repetition.  I only had fun playing Guitar Hero when I was with a large group of people, when the challenge of trying to engage the crowd added a new dynamic to the game.  

I was also surprised at the wide variety of answers I got when asking people the reasons why they play video games.  For some, the idea of fantasy, stepping into a new world as a new person, was the biggest motivator, while others seemed to play in order to fully appreciate the music, sounds, and graphics of a well-designed game.  

I'm still not sure which game I will finally decide on, but I am excited by the possibility of finding something that will challenge my perceptions of video games and their relationship to learning.