Strangely This Feels Like Work Except That I'm Not Getting Paid

While researching how I was going to do my CogTools project, I started thinking about I should best demonstrate how the game teaches players to play.  I really wanted a fun and exciting presentation with some clips of live play if at all possible.

I have been playing Dino Hunter on my kindle and I wanted to know if it was possible for me to put an Android game on a win8 box?  After doing some looking, I found out that it is indeed possible (depending on the game and a variety of other factors,) but I needed an Android emulator.  I had worked with emulators in the past, however they were built or maintained by others, specifically people with computer science or software engineering backgrounds.  Nevertheless, I researched more and came across recommendations for Bluestacks App Player (BETA) – a free emulator download.

After doing even more research, I concluded that Bluestacks and their beta app player seemed legitimate enough for me so I took the risk and downloaded it.  After install, I launched it and went to the app store to search for some games.  I found Dino Hunter and selected it.  Now I was getting excited!  However, the path said ‘Incompatible with your device’.  Strangely this feels like work does. 

I wondered if it relied on a touch-screen?  Would I get the same issue on a win7 box?  Do I have software I can uninstall that it does not like to work with?  Is it my Java version?  Wish I knew what makes it 'incompatible'.  I REALLY wanted to troubleshoot it, but didn't have 7 hours or so to do it.  So I got onto Glu Mobile Inc.’s website, registered for an account on their forums, and posted a question for more help.  So far 32 views but no responses.  I had to opt for a plan B.  Bummer.  Incidentally, I did get some other games and can play them just fine (through the Bluestacks emulator on my win8 laptop).

Later, I found that the game is newly available for play on Facebook.  But I didn't want any grief from them if I used some stuff off of their site and put it on YouTube. I'll have to investigate this more for the future.

The Other AR - Core Values

What is important to me?  Relationships, leadership, monetary, etc.

These are the notes that I have regarding our first AR entry.  Then I reread the syllabus on entry 1; three core values…

Surprisingly, my answers to these two are somewhat different, although intertwined at many points.  What is important to me; my Christian faith, my beloved family, my livelihood (continuous employment), the health of those I love, and respect.

My Core Values: (well I will cheat a bit, because they are so ingrained in me and go with three Air Force service core values.  They are Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do… those three phrases were stolen from the A.F. the rest of the read-in on them is my take of what they mean in my life).

1.      Integrity First – If one strives to always be honest, whether it is as an academic, co-worker, father, or husband, it reaps the reward of removing barriers to good communication and often instills or strengthens good moral, ethical, and Christian behavior.  I love the Lord and Christ Jesus and while never above reproach or free of mistake or sin, I try always to live honestly as I believe I should be a man of good Christian conduct.

2.       Service Before Self – Service for and to others requires a willful desire to set your own personality, individualism, ego, and agenda aside.  This is nearly always accompanied by hardships and sacrifices the individual must endure and overcome for a larger purpose, goal, mission, or enterprise.  Therefore, service and sacrifice are often required as I recognize that the majority of my life and loves (family, professional achievements through work, participation in acts of charity, etc.) are contributions to causes bigger then myself (or my already gigantic head).

3.       Excellence In All We Do (Excellence in all I do / Hard-work ethic) – I strive to excel in anything I confront.  Excel is a highly subjective term and depends heavily on the task at hand.  As I have gotten older, I have realized that excelling sometimes is simply completing something, often can mean confronting and conquering an obstacle, or can refer to completing a task ‘above-and-beyond’ what is required.  I am impatient, so often I may have to fight my haste to act and instead wait to assemble a plan or collaborate with others how to really achieve a task or excel at a task or responsibility.

Integrity in everything and a hard-work ethic requires ownership and responsibility to be taken for all actions.  This can be much more difficult when things do not go well, but good morals, character, and ethics require taking personal responsibility (accountability).

Close to making the list:

- Attention to detail

- Flexibility with situations confronted

- Fighting the ‘I’m not going to share this experience or piece of information I know…’ (because it makes me more valuable to …) keeper-of-the-keys ideal that is all too present in commercial work-places

- and the list goes on and on…

I Just Came to Break Stuff

This is a little dry, but suck it up a little and just read on,

While I am sure I will go through much more self-discovery as the year progresses, I am starting to get a glimpse at what ‘It’s all about the process’ may be all about.  Through reading, playing, and self-reflection about past experiences, I am realizing that ‘the process’ just might be more- learning through a series of events (sometimes teaching or training,) can and should be fun… it should be about the learner’s progression of getting better at whatever they are confronting.  Not necessarily about a grade or parent-teacher conferences (the product,) but about how learning is enjoyable.  Skills and their development are not often enough explicitly thrown in front of the student/learner/trainee.  The light bulb of discovery and enjoyment at achievement often comes when they put together earlier learned principles and connect those to harder concepts and continue building from there.  Synapses fire!  Learning has occurred!

I don’t think I have ever written the word ‘enjoy-‘ in a paragraph twice.  It’s a little soft for me, considering my normal, hardened personality.  I am almost disappointed with myself.

From an interactive standpoint, games are continually drawing on this goal of building skills; from a fundamental introduction, through progressive tests, and finally in the reward of succeeding at tasks a learner may have felt were unattainable.  I am getting better at this!!!  Read the last sentence again, out loud.  It is a great feeling to finally realize that one is gaining in skill, and thus eagerly awaiting future challenges.  Games (of nearly any kind) constantly display this to the player.  Player should be synonymous with on-going active learner.  For that is what they are doing while learning game principles and attaching those skills to confront obstacles.   

There is nothing more fun or enjoyable then attaining skill through challenge and confronting a task at hand.  And then the reward?  Well, sometimes the reward is just plain expanded knowledge… and hopefully the reward also comes with a sense of accomplishment and an awareness of building on earlier learned or discovered principles to achieve amazement at one’s ability.

Game players are unwitting victims in this whole process.  The realization that they are learning is cloaked in armor and shielded under the guise of money, points, and fun at overcoming obstacles.  The process of learning is not explicitly thrown in front of them as a red-inked, circled B+ at the top of a sheet of paper.  Instead it is displayed in real-time as a “level-up” or “bring on the next challenger” to my progressive learning of this game!

Joy has now appeared five times in this post… perhaps joy is what learning, and ‘the process’ are all about.

How Is This Thing Supposed To Work Again?

The more reading I do, the more I have thought about how I feel about having to play games for class.  The other day I came upon Gee’s mentioning of how ‘damaged’ gamers may need to find the right game to start to feel more accomplished in their abilities (or perhaps more specifically, more rewards for their efforts).  In order to conquer perceived inability with gaming.  I started thinking about how I have felt intimidated to play many games because I have difficulty using equal dexterity between hands (on a controller) in relation to hand-eye coordination and my patience or lack thereof infringes on the experience.  This became obvious playing game console first-person-shooter games with friends while in the military.  In general, while I know I have shortcomings it is difficult for me to face the ones that I see as weaknesses - or disappointments.

On one hand I want to neglect these shortcomings with refusal to work on them (a bad move, in life or gaming).  And on the other, I try to reason that I have done other things well that tested what I believed this ability would display. For example, years ago, I qualified on the M-16 left-handed because I was bored shooting right-handed and I wanted the challenge.  I can also bat in baseball better left handed then right handed (although I am far from good at either).  And possibly a few other examples.  However, neither of these regard rapid controller manipulation with both hands according to visual inputs.  Patience, is a shortcoming I know I need to work more on.

So, I have also thought of how a fundamental key to learning or getting better (as also mentioned in our readings,) is putting the time into it.  Possibly I need to invest the time in it.  Or stay away from some controller-required games.  So since these are shortcomings that bother me (and that I see as weaknesses,) at least now I consciously realize that I just have to train more at them if I want the expectation of a positive outcome.