CAPSTONE: Cultural Event- In the Next Room(or the Vibrator Play)...yea

The Vibrator Play...

Did that get your attention?

The play is actually a well written funny play. It centers around the doctor’s prescription of “pleasure” for hysteria. 

     According to the play’s program “hysteria” was a female medical condition categorized by symptoms like unhappinessness, faintness, and “occasionally, the unwillingness to obey’s one husband.” Prescription: orgasm. 

     How is this cultural...well sexual topics in general have been in society, in culture for years. Yet during certain time periods speaking about these subjects openly was taboo. Now there’s Playboy and various reality shows showing people suggestive situations. 

     This play however is set after the Civil War in the 1880s when I assume people did not understand “pleasures” as today. For when the vibrator was used on the patients the reactions were like the did not know what the feeling was or never experienced these feelings before. Seems like there was a lack of understanding of sexually in those times by some. Certainly there was a lack of sexually in popular culture in those times as well. The reactions were a funny part of the play but the reactions between the characters were as well.

     Yet there is a painter character in the play that does know of pleasures with woman. He has a carefree personality. He gives another dimension of the type of people in those times. Even though some may have been uptight back then with covered up dresses and suits there were still those who were easygoing with open sweaters and loose scarfs. 

     Another character Catherine Givings wife of Dr. Givings, the doctor giving the “prescriptions” has a very upbeat personality. She loves to talk but feels lonely from her husband since he seems so busy with work or going out after work. These times in marriages were seen then as they are now.

     Times change. History lets us now how things can about. The invention of the vibrator made people more “carefree”. Birthing the emergence of a more sexuality accepting culture. 

CAPSTONE: Cultural Event- Macbeth

Romeo, Romeo where are thou Romeo?

This isn’t that play

     This is about Macbeth....another play of by the great Shakespeare of betrayal, temptation, and greed for power. 

     Macbeth is an insight into today as well as how people spoke and dressed in Medieval times. Through actor's movements and expressions one can follow the play. Actors speak more than just words. 

     Returning to the themes of Shakespeare; greed, power, temptation, betrayal these are apart of culture today as there were in Shakespeare’s time. Why his plays are still being performed today. 

     Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill the King and servants to fame them for the murder. Macbeth is overcome with guilt throughout the play. As well as tempted by the witches throughout the play. More people are killed during the play and at the end there is still a fight for power. 

     Power is a part of culture. Wars are still fought today. The wars are still over who will control what. In Macbeth several people are wanting to be king in order for the ability to control. Then the murders committed are done by people who are under control by someone else. 

Power is temptation. Thus it creates greed and causes people to betray one another. 

Follow Macbeth and watch the play and one will see this. 

Can’t understand what they are saying? 

Listen close. Watch expressions and movements. Expand your cultural horizons.

CAPSTONE: Plugged Everywhere

source

    What to plug in a website? Plug in plugins for a WordPress site. When researching for WordPress plugins several appear list after list. Whether its the 8 essential WordPress plugins, 16 essential plugins, 32 essential plugins or 15 incredible plugins these plugins keep popping up for every blog/website needs certain necessary parts to be successful.

Top Essential Plugins:

       1. Sitemap - A sitemap is needed to find the pages of your site easily by a search engine. 

Plugin: Google XML Sitemaps

        2. Analytics - Analytics is imperative to have a successful site. It allows one to track visitors to a site and what they do. In return one can see what works and what is popular on their site.

Plugin: Google Analytics

        3. SEO - A SEO plugin is needed to be seen above everyone else. It helps ranks one site for it is a search engine optimization site. 

Plugins: All in One SEO / WordPress SEO by Yoast/ HeadSpace2 SEO

        4. Contact Form - A contact form is needed on a site for visitors to be able to contact the makers of the site instead of leaving an email address. 

Plugin: Contact Form 7

        5. Cache - A cache plugin is needed to keep one’s site performance up and keep loading times fast. 

Plugins: W3 Total Cache/ WP Super Cache/ Quick Cache

        6. Spam - No one, the makers or readers of a site, wants spam on a site. There are plugins for spam checking. 

Plugin: Akismet

        7. Comments - Conversation is key to keep a blog or website alive. There are plugins to keep the conversation going or to just say thank you. 

Plugins: Subscribe to Comments Reloaded / Reply Me - send email for reply to one’s comment

                Thank Me Later - sends email to everyone who leaves a comment

    There are thousands of WordPress Plugins to choose from for a site. These are essential the rest are up to the admin to choose. Think of plugins that will electrify one’s site. 

Learn Something...Go Play Online

     Social Issues are not a game. Yet they can be turned into games. This can be figurative nowadays but also literal. There are games today that teach different age groups about social issues....about anything really. I had played 4 educational games found online.

• Climate Change
• Stop Disasters
• MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B.
• Engineering - Design a Cell Phone

The first three deal with social issues while the last game is also educational but deals with business and design. 

Game 1: Climate Change

     Climate Change is a role play game where the player is the President of the European Nations. As President the player must make policy decisions regrading the nations as a whole, local communities, agriculture, trade, and environment. 

• Target age group: Late teenagers to adults

Younger children would not understand all the policies. Late teenagers and even adults may not but they understand that leaders make these decisions.

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player:

1. World policies
2. Outcomes of leader actions
3. Importance of carbon emissions 

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?: 

     It is successful that it gives real life decisions that a world leader has. I would improve the rounds that player must go through due to the fact the options did not change much but good to see that a previous option is no longer available due to a previous decision. Present decisions affect the future. 

Game 2: Stop Disasters 

     Stop Disasters is a game where the player can pick a natural disaster scenario and try to save lives. This is done through building housing and defences. 

• Target age group of this game: middle school to high school students 

Adults would already know defences against natural disasters and I feel would be bored with game. To middle school and high school students it would be more of a challenge so they would play the game all the way through. 

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player.

1. The effects of disasters
2. How to protect an area against a disaster
3. The cost of disaster protection and aftermath

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?:

     It is successful that there are many available options to protect the island that would be used in real life. I would improve the way a player can move to see all of the island. It would have been easier to have a pan out option. 

Game 3: MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B. 

     MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B. is the first game in a series of games where the player is a NCDC (Neuropolis Center for Disease Control) agent in 2254 after the Great Plague that kills millions. 

• Target age group of this game: Late elementary to high school students 

Adults would find this game childish. High schoolers may also find it childish but would learn from this game.

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player:

1. Types of infectious agents & how to defeat them
2. How infectious agents are spread & how to prevent getting disease(medicine, vaccine, soap)
3. How to identify a germ 

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?

It is successful this game gives a large amount of information throughout several short games. I would improve the going back option in some games and shorten the number of different games. I feel like younger players would get bored after awhile. 

Game 4: Engineering - Design a Cell Phone

• Target age group of this game: Middle School to High School

This game is too simple for adults. 

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player.

1. Research is needed to understand product
2. Important to reach out to target market wants
3. Design and testing of a product

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?

It is successful that a player can get feedback and go back to research and/or design to improve the cell phone. I would improve the options for designing a cell phone. The basic options are fine but there is not much room to change the phone after feedback for there are only so many options. 

CAPSTONE: "Common Senseless"

     What if a leader had no common sense? What if those who elected leaders had no sense? Well that makes no sense!! In the words of Richard Dreyfuss it is “common senseless”. For the leaders of today, politicians, children, and the public to not know the values of this country or how this country is run is senseless. The Dreyfuss Initiative wants to start a vehicle of bringing common senseless to light. For my capstone I will create a WordPress blog to do just that. On the blog I will write examples, include videos, have news feeds, links to TDI social media, and create a forum. This blog is part of a social media strategy for TDI.

     This blog idea comes after the two TDI events I helped with this weekend. During the first event I helped set up, signed in media, sold CDs, got to people join the email list, and answered what is TDI to those who asked (more than a few). Which means this message needs to reach more people which is my job. The second event was at Shepherd and the topic of my next blog. 

  My research for this week is to look at professional WordPress blog websites. Blog websites that are more then just....well blogs like this one. Through looking at popular ones so far I have noticed navigation menus, social media links, and layout. Sidebars hold popular posts, there are sidebar menus, there are site maps at the bottom, comment boxes at end of every post, voting on posts, and clean simple backgrounds. I plan to model the blog in similar fashion. My research throughout this whole semester will be to find examples of “common senseless”. This is unfortunately not to hard to find today. I will continue to watch and read the news daily. Which we all should be doing already right? 

CAPSTONE: Taking the Initiative

     The end is near.......of my college career. For my capstone project I will be working with The Dreyfuss Initiative. My role in the Shepherd team is marketing and press. For the upcoming events, September 17 I will be a press liaison. TDI is also looking to us as college students for ways to engage people in this internet savvy age. Additionally, aspects of branding like helping to prepare displays are also a part of the marketing. The events this month introduce an important area of the organization. 

      I have expressed to the executive director of TDI that I am interested in PR aspects as well as the theatre area of TDI. TDI is composed of three different areas. One of the areas focuses on theatre. TDI is holding an American history play competition. Working with the theatre and helping to handle logistics was an idea suggested to me. 

     I also have expressed my enthusiasm to write press releases. At this time the executive director writes the press releases but I hope to at least help get the information to the media if I am not given the opportunity to write any press releases. TDI has a message and I am here to spread it. 

Build a Straw Tower with Meaning

     One plays a game to win, to lose or just play. Whatever the reason there is always an outcome even if the game is left uncompleted. Playing a game involves a series of actions. These actions can have a player gain something in the end or all effort falls to the floor like a leaning straw tower. Random...yet it is an example. Building a straw tower does have meaningful play. 

     Actions have meaning in a game or at least for successful game design the goal is meaningful play according to Rules of Play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman.  

The book describes meaningful play as descriptive and evaluative. 

• Descriptive - relationship between player actions and system outcome 
• Evaluative - relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are discernable and integrated into larger context of the game. 

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsmall/3506616038/

     
     Back to building a tower out of bendy straws as experienced in class every straw added to the tower affected how the tower would respond. For some groups, like mine, the tower would lean and for others the tower would continue to rise. This would be descriptive meaning play. A player would add a straw and the tower, the system, would respond. Support is needed to build a tower and thus straws were added for the intention, meaning, of support. As well as the meaning of adding height. 

     The building of the tower would also be evaluative meaningful play. This description of meaningful play maybe easier to distinguish. 

     Discernability details when a player is aware of the outcome of their action. Grab a diamond theres a sound. Add more straws add more length to the tower. 

     Integration details when an outcome of an action affects the game as a whole. The outcome is not immediate. One can not know how tall a straw tower will be until all straws are added. How a straw is added or the decision of how to add a straw affects the way the tower will look and if it will lean or stand. 

     Actions in a game have meaning to be a successful game. One should think before they act in a game. One should think before they act in life. Every action has a outcome thats immediate and/or intended for a later outcome.