Travis Kearns

"The Perfect Crime" By: Peter Bozzo

    "The Perfect Crime" by Peter Bozzo was an argumentative essay assigned to our class to read. The reason that our class was assigned an essay like this to read and annotate is because our fifth and final project is to construct our own argumentative essay. Reading this essay will help us identify what this author does well to help support his claim as well as the structure of the essay itself.
     The argument that is presented in this essay is that the film, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills creates an image to the audience that the three teenagers accused of murder are innocent. The film supposedly was created by the film makers with the mindset that they wanted to allow the audience to form their own opinions on the accused teenagers, and that there would be no pressure towards one view versus the other. "According to the filmmakers, Paradise Lost simply presents information to a worldwide audience, thereby encouraging the "public use of reason" to assess this information in accordance with the ideals of the bourgeois public sphere." (Page 42-43). The author claims that the filmmakers did not present the information in a way that is in accordance with the bourgeois public sphere, but instead the filmmakers enter pathological public sphere.
       The structure of the author's argumentative essay is fairly straight-forward. Bozzo first begins by talking briefly about the film and the effects of media. This leads into the explanation of what the public sphere is compared to the pathological public sphere and the implications of both. The focus of Bozzo's argument then shifts to instances found in the film that support his claim that the film gives the accused teenagers a sense of innocence instead of allowing the audience to decide based on the evidence. Everything that is written in this essay has an intended meaning. This goes along with what we have been working on all year long, using concrete instances and making sure that our papers or stories are constantly moving towards what we are trying to convey. There are not many counter-arguments that I found that were refuted other than what the filmmakers claim about the film.
     After reading this essay, I plan on making sure that the structure of my essay flows smooth like that which is found in this work. I want to make sure that wraps all of my ideas and main points together without just regurgitating what I previously had said. Finally, I am going to go over my work and make sure that every sentence and point I attempt to make has a reason in my paper and that it helps to support my argument.

A Hollow World: World of Warcraft as Spatial Practice

     Our class was instructed to read the article "A Hollow World: World of Warcraft as Spatial Practice" by Espen Aarseth for homework. While we were reading it we needed to do a close reading and think about the cultural associations that the author makes. In the article, Espen Aarseth talks about why he believes that the World of Warcraft is one of the most successful MMOG games out there.
    Aarseth says that in the game World of Warcraft, the graphics are not as great as you find in other MMOG games. Espen Aarseth says, "it appears to remain essentially hollow, a multicolored shell with a hard, static surface and no inner substance to speak of.". Even though the game is simpler than other games like Everquest 2, World of Warcraft receives a higher game play rating than these other games. "Comparing metascores at gameranking.com, a site that collects and averages game review scores on a scale from 1 (bad) to 100 (excellent), we see that World of Warcraft gets 92, Everquest 2 83".  Aarseth then goes on to explain that the creators of the games did a great job of seeing what players enjoy in other MMOG games before creating World of Warcraft.
     In the game, the map seems to the player to be extremely large and complex, when in reality the game's map is really on 8 miles wide. The fact that players are able to go from one side of the "world" to the other in a few hours makes the game playable. Aarseth explains that if the map was to be any smaller it would not seem like an endless world to the players, and if it was any larger it would not be accessible. The layout behind World of Warcraft can also be compared to successful theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. "The World of Warcraft world, far from being modeled on fictional worlds or even on the real world, is a place where many different kinds of people come to have fun, play together and socialize, enjoy the scenery, and escape the boredom of real world travel and travail. In other words, the design ideal for these kinds of worlds is theme parks like Disney World and Universal Studios.".
     The content of this article are strengthened by reliable and strong resources that are cited throughout. The author does this to help create credibility with the reader. The article helps me to make cultural associations in my video game playing because the game I chose to play was World of Warcraft. Being that I only played the video game for about 90 minutes, and that I am not very good at video games, I was not able to see a lot of the map that Azeroth has to offer. I did notice two things when I played the game that were brought up in Aarseth's article. The first is that World of Warcraft does not have the best graphics and gameplay, and the second is that what you do in a game does not change the game. For example, if you kill an animal in the game, the animal doesn't disappear forever but instead reappears for the next player. As Aarseth described it, the game has no lasting marks but the only exist in the players memory. I plan on using the information from this article to draw cultural associations about why World of Warcraft is so successful in its setup. What part(s) of the game cause players to return time after time if there are games out there that have better graphics and gameplay, and what does that tell me about society?

Define Real, Moron!, The Sims Medieval, and Gamer Theory

     In Espen Aarseth's "Define Real, Moron!", Aarseth talks about how we can attempt to define games and whether games should be considered real life or just physical. In Kevin VanOrd's essay "The Sims Medieval", VanOrd does a critique of the new Sims game called The Sims Medieval. Finally, in McKenzie Wark's "Gamer Theory", Wark goes into detail describing many of the allegories that appear in The Sims game.
     On the surface, VanOrd's and Wark's writings sound like they would be very similar because they are both focused on the game The Sims, but in reality the way in which they talk about the games are very different. VanOrd is writing a critique of the game "The Sims Medieval" and in it he goes into great detail about all the facets of the game. VanOrd gives his overarching impression of the game after playing it, and then describes why he feels that way with specific examples from his gaming experience. At the beginning of the essay VanOrd says that the game, "lacks imagination- and it lacks the tools to let you flex your own.". Later in the essay he gives an example of this when he describes decorating your house. He says, "What you can't do is add walls or tear them down. There is no true building element to The Sims Medieval.". VanOrd does talk about the fact that the typical Sims game gives the player the feeling that they are God and that they are in control of everything in the game. McKenzie Wark also talks about the fact that the player is a God-like figure in The Sims in "Gamer Theory". Wark talks a lot about the different types of allegories that are found in The Sims and also mentions that the gamer is a God figure to the Sim. That the Sim "turns to face you, the gamer, and gestures wildly, as if cursing his God.". The Sim turns to the player when he/she needs food or need to go to the bathroom. Without the player the sim is nothing. The gamer gets to choose whether the sim eats or not, thus giving the player the role of God in the game.
     Both authors make the same point that the gamer is a God-like figure, but they do so in different ways. VanOrd describes the gaming experience and then draws the connection, whereas Wark talks about the different allegories found in the game and then comes to the conclusion that the gamer is a God to the Sim. Just as we look to God when things are not going well, the Sim looks to us when things are right. Both authors make a strong argument for the idea that the gamer is a God, but I found Wark's argument for this point to be more persuasive than VanOrd's. VanOrd's argument was hindered by the fact that the game he was describing left out a lot of the God-like characteristics you usually find in the Sims. VanOrd says that in The Sims Medieval, "the opening cinematic informs you that you are playing The Maker- that is, God- when, in fact, you are now no more of a middle manager, telling your sims to do what the game demands of you, not what you want them to do.". Because of this VanOrd does not have strong evidence that The Sims games provide the gamer with the feeling of being a God. In McKenzie Wark's "Gamer Theory", Wark talks about how the Sim cannot do certain things without the gamer's help. She provides examples saying, "You are too busy elsewhere to get Benjamin to the toilet on time, and he pees himself.". She is showing that the Sim cannot walk themselves to the toilet and pee without the help of the player.
      Wark talks about how the game tries to simulate life the best it can but it comes up short of this because the game is not real life. Aarseth debates whether something that we call real must be physical or can a real thing be found in a game in the paper "Define Real, Moron!". Aarseth uses the example from the game World of Warcraft in which a group of friends on the game had a funeral for a friend who had died in real life, only to have other players come and ruin the event and attack all the players who showed up for the funeral. A lot of people found that this was wrong of the players to ruin the event, and others thought that there was nothing wrong with it because it is only a game and the meaning of the game is to attack others. This shows that there is an ongoing debate among people as to whether games can be considered real or not.

Grayson Bonds and Eliza Larkin Project Critique

     After looking at two more excellent examples of what this project intends to accomplish, I have not only learned more about how a well thought-out argument stating that our video game play means something, but also I have generated more ideas for how I want to present my findings. The two projects that we were asked to look over and critique were made by Grayson Bonds and Elisa Larkin, both of which were students in this course last semester.
     The first project that I looked at was by Grayson Bonds. Grayson titled his project webpage, "Dreams of a Gamer". This was supported by a background of the galaxy with various stars. The title and background of Grayson's webpage really help to support the message he is trying to convey immediately because it is the first thing you notice when you open up the website. I plan on trying to create a backdrop and setting on my website that supports the ideas I am trying to convey to the reader. The second thing you notice about Grayson's website is that they separate their information into multiple tabs at the top of the page so that the website is easy to move through. They place their abstract, organized thoughts, and conclusion all on the home page. This is something I personally do not like and do not plan on doing. I don't mind placing the abstract on the home page, but I feel that the conclusion should be one of the last pages of you project because that is where you wrap up everything you have already told the reader. By placing the conclusion first, it gives the reader no reason as to why they should continue to read your work. The second tab on Grayson's work was titled "Dreams". In this section, Grayson takes his/her video game log and composes it in such as way to make it sound and feel like they are describing a dream of theirs. This technique is different than what I have found from reading other projects, but it is very creative and does the job of describing what goes on in the video game successfully.  The third tab on Grayson's webpage is titled "Interpretations", and in this section Grayson's uses credible sources to help explain some of the meaning behind the dreams (video game playing). The next two tabs can kind of go together, as one is titled "Archetypes" and the other is "Symbols and Motifs". In these two tabs, Grayson does an excellent job of finding and explaining the various archetypes and symbols that can be found in this game. The amount of work and research that was put in is very prevalent. The final tab is simply examples of the footage from Grayson's gaming experience. By placing the footage into the project, the reader can truly understand everything that is mentioned throughout.
    The second project that I had to critique was done by Eliza Larkin. Once again this project was well done, and the amount of work that went into creating the website is obvious. In saying that, I do not like the way this project's website was set up as much as Grayson's. I found the tabs at the top of the scene to be confusing at first because each tab contains sub-tabs. In addition, the title of the webpage is simply "Video Games", which is accompanied by nothing more than a plan white backdrop. If I opened up this website without knowing that this was going to be an example of a good project my initial thoughts would have been that this was not a well done project. I also do not like how music was piped into certain slides but not others. I found the music to be distracting, and I actually waited for a minute or two the first time I heard the music expecting someone to read or say something to me. On the positive side, I thought that the idea of keeping the gaming journals separate from the games was rather effective because it broke up the webpage information nicely. All in all, I still think this was a well done project, which definitely deserved a high grade.
     To wrap everything up, I thought that both of these projects were put together well, and that the researcher conducted was strong in supporting each of their claims. In addition,  I am able to come away with a better understanding of how I want to try and present my information after looking over and critiquing these two projects.

Can We Explore Games as Allegories for the World We Live In?

     After reading the section titled "Allegories" on MacKenzie Wark's website, a critical question arises in the mind of the reader; can we explore video games as allegories for the world we live in? If a game is considered to be an allegory, then it means that the game can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning of some sort. MacKenzie Wark compares the video games The Sims and The Sims 2 to our everyday life. Wark begins by describing the scene that is found in the game. She goes through what the typical day in the life of Benjamin (the Sim) consists of, and how this sounds rather similar to what the usual day for humans consists of. Wark talks about how you can buy the Sim new furniture and houses, which is something everybody strives for in real life. The game designer Will Wright even says though, “If you sit there and build a big mansion that’s all full of stuff, without cheating, you realize that all these objects end up sucking up all your time, when all these objects had been promising to save you time. … And it’s actually kind of a parody of consumerism, in which at some point your stuff takes over your life.”. This is just one of the hidden meanings found in the video game The Sims.
      More than being just an allegory for everyday life, The Sims is an algorithm. These games have many rules that must be followed in order to move forward in the game. The example that is given in the text is that in order for Benjamin to start his career as a Theorist he must have at least 8 friends, 4 charisma points, and a creativity rating of at least 7. If these have not been achieved by the gamer, then Benjamin cannot start his career to becoming a Theorist. This shows how The Sims is an allegory for real life. In order to become a Theorist, or a Doctor, or a Teacher; one must require the proper education, have networking capabilities, and be charismatic. Wark also says, "The images and stories that populate games are mostly cribbed from some other media, from novels, films or television. Games mostly just recycle, or ‘remediate’, bits of representation from other media.", which supports the claim that The Sims are an allegory for real life.
     Finally, MacKenzie Wark compares the gamer to a sort of God-like figure to the Sim. The Sim is controlled by the gamer, which means that the gamer can choose to be nice to the Sim or not. As the Sim becomes hunger, or tired, or needs to go to the bathroom; the Sim looks to the gamer for help. This shows that the gamer is a God to the Sim. Thus another allegory of the game The Sims is that the gamer is seen as a God-like figure to the Sims in the game. When things are not going well for us as real people, we may look to God for help, just as the Sim looks to us as the gamer for help. As we can clearly see from the example of the game The Sims, video games are definitely an allegory for the world we live in.

Sample Project 4 Works

     After looking over all the various project 4 examples from last semester, I learned that there are a number of different ways to present your finding, all of which end up having the same basic goal; which is to explain what video games can tell us about our self and about society. I will focus this discussion on two of the projects that I found that have a layout similar to the one I am going to try and incorporate in my work.  The first project does not have a name on it, but the person chose three different video games to analyze. The three games they chose were; Call of Duty Black Ops, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Assassin's Creed III.  This user's website consisted of a home page which simply stated that this is a multimodal project, followed by three picture, one for each of the games they chose. The next tab is titled "narratives", and clicking on this tab brings you to a page that tells you to click on one of the three games they chose to read about the different narratives in each game. Finally, there was another tab which is titled "argument", which talks about how these video games can be representative of our society. It was quite apparent that the intention of this author was to relate these video games to themselves and to our society. They did this through first explaining everything that happened during the video game, and then analyzing this information using sources that they found. I thought that this person's argument was affective because they did use strong sources, but their argument could have been strengthened if they included videos of the games they played to help show the reader what really happened in the game.
     The second project I will talk about was another website titled "Subin's Multimodal Argument". The setup of this site is the same as in the other project except that each video game has their own tab instead of being linked together under one tab. I prefer this compared to the previous project because I find it easier to navigate and find the information that you're looking for. Once again, this student talks about what happened during the game without providing any video images. This is then followed up with a well thought out conclusion that the student makes about what the games tells them about them self. Finally, the student has an argument section in which they ask the question "Are you a psychopath?". The student then goes on to talk about how games showcase what humans would act like if the rationality and morality components of life went away. I feel like this once again was a strong argument, but once again could have been stronger if it was accompanied by video evidence from the games.

Carl Jung: Dream Interpretation

     Carl Jung begins by saying that medical psychology cannot be tested through the usual means that we find with most scientific data. There is no way that we can perform a double blind placebo experiment to understand the causes of dreams, or the meaning behind each dream we have. Because of this it is necessary to use other methods because dreams are important. Carl Jung goes on to say that he must be careful when analyzing a dream, so that he does not offend the person. He says that when someone tells him a dream the first thing he thinks to himself is, "I have no idea what this dream means.". Carl Jung then says that he believes dreams are important even though it is not something that can ever being absolutely proven. He says that dreams are a "psychic situation" which does have a meaning to it.
    Carl Jung says that there are two ways in which we can help to show that dreams do have meanings to them. The first is to take a dream and see if it shows the fore coming of future events. The other method would be to back track the person's history and see if there is a correlation between there history and the dreams they are having. Freud thought that all wishes are wish-fulfillments, which Jung believes in not true. Jung agrees that some wishes can be considered this, but not that all wishes deal with repressed wishes. Carl Jung also states that dreams are the most common expression of the unconscious psyche, and that simple dream interpretations should be avoided.
     Carl Jung also states that in order to treat neurosis, harmony must be re-established between the conscious mind and the unconscious. This can be done through "living a natural life", persuasive reasoning, strengthening the will, or analyzing the unconscious. Jung also says that working with qualified assistance to understand your dreams for a long period of time leads to enrichment and a broadening of the mental horizon.
     Dreams begin with a statement of place, or a statement of time which is called the exposition. This is followed by the second phase which is the development of the plot. The third phase is the culmination or the peripeteia. This is where something changes or something decisive happens. Finally the last phase is known as the lysis, or the solution to the dream. Almost all dreams follow this structure according to Carl Jung. By analyzing the meaning of each of these phases, many conclusions about the self can be drawn and understood.

David Perry's: Are Games Better Than Life

     Watching the 20 minute TedTalk video titled "Are Games Better Than Life" opened my eyes to how games can change a person's view on reality. The video begins by showing how games have grown over the past 30 years or so, and says that they will continue to grow at this rate. In the video is a short story about a man who claims to be addicted to video games. He says that the games are changing his view and perception on the world. He says, "These games are beginning to make me emotional. I have thought in wars, feared for my own survival, watch my friends die in beaches and in woods that look and feel more real than any textbook or story.". This goes to show that he is not only addicted to these games but believes that these games produce the same emotions that he would have if he was truly fighting for his life in battle. He also says, "Play enough video games and eventually you will really believe you can snowboard, fly a plane, drive a 9 second quarter mile, or kill a man. I know I can.". After planning video games for so many years, and for such long periods of time, he has actually been able to convince himself that he can fly an airplane without training, or that he can kill a man. I myself am not into video games. I rarely play them because I prefer to do other things outside, in the real world. Because of this, I find it hard to believe that video games can actually affect someone so much to the point in which they truly believe that they can kill someone. I do believe that people who are addicted to video games do see the world in a different light, but I imagine that the majority of video game players would never attempt to fly a plane without training. As video games continue to become more and more realistic, to the point in which video games can be considered better than real life, I believe this phenomenon, which is talked about in David Perry's: Are Games Better Than Life, will continue to grow and be observed on a larger scale. Video games can be a great way to escape reality for a certain amount of time, but we should attempt to keep our video games and reality separate from one another.

Similar Short Story

     The memoir that I am currently writing and editing for Project 2 is about a moment in my life in which I thought my high school dream of winning a state championship in ice hockey was going to come true, only to lose the game in double overtime. The memoir I'm writing has what I would consider to be a twist ending. Throughout reading my memoir, the reader probably thinks I am going to win the state championship, only to be wrong. Knowing that this is the type of short story I am writing, I wanted to find another short story that employs a twist ending in it.
     The story that I came across that I decided is formatted in a similar way to the way to how I would like my short story to be was a short story called "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant. The story is about a young married women who is not happy with her life. She is very poor and does not have any of the things she would like and dreams of having. One day she is invited to a party that has a lot of famous and rich people. In preparation for the night of her dreams, she visits a friend and borrows a beautiful diamond necklace to wear. The party is everything she could imagine, except for the fact that on their way home she loses the necklace. Her and husband spend the next 10 years trying to save up enough money to pay off another necklace they bought for her friend. After the 10 years, she tells her friend what happened, only to find out the necklace that she lost was not actually made of diamonds and wasn't worth a whole lot of money.
     Throughout the story, Guy de Maupassant uses many of the tools that we have talked about in class. He does a great job of creating the characters that are in the story. Every character mentioned has a meaning in the story. In addition, the main character, Madame Loisel, had growth and change from the beginning of the story to the end. In the beginning of the story all she could think about was herself and trying to be someone she's not. She said at the beginning of the story, "I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear, I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party.". By the end of the story Madame Loisel cared more about her friend than herself. "I brought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it. You realise it wasn't easy for us; we had no money. . . . Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed."
     Because this story had a twist ending to it, there definitely was a sense of "not-knowing" that was developed to drag the reader into the story and want to continue to read. We learned about this sense of "not-knowing", and how important it is in short stories from reading Donald Barthelme's "Not Knowing" for homework. Without this sense of not knowing, the reader has no reason to continue to read the story. This is something that I'm really trying to incorporate into my work by not giving away hints at the ending that would cause the reader to anticipate what is going to happen ahead of time.
     This short story will help me in editing and re-writing my memoir because it shows me how to develop the characters properly. Each character adds something to the story, and the main character shows growth and change from the beginning to the end.

Structural Analysis

     After reading the attached document "Architecture" and thinking about my memoir while reading it, I was able to analyze my memoir and decide on a structure that I feel is appropriate for my story. The memoir I am writing for Project 2 is first and foremost obviously nonfiction. Everything that I write will be the truth and no information will be made up in order to spice up the story. From what we have learned so far in class, it is better to leave out parts of the story that aren't entirely clear, than to put in details that aren't true and destroy your story's credibility and your credibility as an author.
     Secondly, according to the document "Architecture", our Project 2 memoirs are considered to fall under the structure "Long and Complex". I always thought before that our memoirs are short stories and therefore would be "Short and Simple", but not according to the attached document we received. Long and complex structured stories should have character motives that are unclear and key information should be left out. Because I am trying to write a story that has a twist ending that most people might not see coming, I am going to try and employ the structure of long and complex. I will try and leave out information that would give away the ending of the story if it was left in the story.
     The next structure that I am going to try and employ in my story after reading "Architecture" is a hierarchical structure. A hierarchical structure breaks the story down into five sections. First the Setting is revealed to the reader. In my memoir, that is how I started my story. I set the scene of where I was and where I was going. The first few sentences of my story tell the date and set the setting, which is my hockey team and I waiting for our bus to head to the New York state championship ice hockey game. Next, the hierarchical structure tells the author to write about the character's motivations. In my memoir I write about how it is not only my dream, but the dream of all my teammates as well to win the state championship. The third component of the hierarchical structure is the action to accomplish this aim. I write for most of the memoir about how we are playing in the state championship, which is the action to accomplish our goals. The fourth section that the author has to consider is the complication in the story. For my memoir, this would be considered the part in the hockey game in which we find ourselves trailing 3-0, only to rally back and tie the game at 3-3. The last part of the hierarchical structure is called the Outcome. This is the portion of the story where the author writes about whether or not the main characters were successful or not. In my story, the outcome would be that we lost the game and were all left brokenhearted.