Author: teddixon3333

Brain Games

Recently in class we discussed the topic of video games. Why are they so entertaining? Are they helpful or hurtful? Why, even when we know were wasting time, must we play games rather than do something productive? Personally, I think the idea of an alternate reality is what addicts people to games. The idea that you can be a professional soccer player, or army man or alien without actually going through the physical aspect of these characters is what makes people come back for more.

Anyway, tonight I read my section in Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind and got his opinions on what makes gaming so addicting; the humor, the joy and sense of accomplishment, and just getting away from everyday life to play. All of these are valid points. Another topic brought up in class was the idea of right brain games or games geared towards serving a purpose in everyday life. (like FIFA doesn’t?) So when given the choice to pick one of Mr. Pink’s activities presented at the end of the section, I chose to research right brain games.

Jane McGonigal presents in her TEDtalk her ideas on video games in relation to the right brain. She believes that right brain games are to be taken seriously. She says that they can give meaning to playing a video game. I disagree.

After searching the net for different critiques of right-brain-geared video games, I found that they are not catching on simply because they are too realistic. They serve too much of a purpose.  This relates to my opinion on video games: people play video games because they want to escape reality. You don’t use your Xbox to study. Who practices math problems on their Wii? Video games and productiveness do not translate.

Jane McGonigal argues for video games in her TEDtalk, saying that they can potentially increase productiveness. As much as I would love that, it is truly too good to be true. Who really wants to waste money and time on a video game that you could play written down on paper? Video games are supposed to be creative, and fun, not educational.


They call me Ted Picasso

At the end of our latest reading section for English, Dan Pink presented us with a challenge. Anyone draw the comparison with both Dan and Ze’s giving out challenges? However these tasks were no earth sandwich, they were far more simple. We were given multiple options; skim a magazine, follow links, or draw. Being the artist I am, I chose to draw. My five line portrait took much planning and concentration. I consider this to be some of my finest art.

I promise, I didn’t just take a snapshot of my head, It does look like it though.


Invention Mob!

The most recent work in English 1101 was a beautifully unorganized group assignment. Being free flowing, and having minimal guidelines, the work was fun. We liked the idea of free reign on a project for once. Yay college! Myself, Quinn, Murtaza and JB groupeed up and began brainstorming.

We thought about the Ze frank “Chillout Song”and other similar projects for a base, and we considered the resources we had around us. We liked the idea of a video, as well as incorporating the city of Atlanta. But a video tour of the city of Atlanta would be far to simple, so we had, and are still in the process of a hardcore brainstorm sesh. We then thought about different views we could present of Atlanta. We thought about free runners and how they see things as well as skate boarders. Me and Quinn both know a free runner and wondered if he would help us film a run throughout different parts of the city. But would that be too complicated? This was our main concern so we thought of different ideas.

We thought about a project on the legend of the “freshmen fifteen”. This would incorporate older students here at tech. We would interview them asking about their freshmen experiences with the dining halls and other aspects of potential weight-gain. We could incorporate the employees of the dining hall and ask them if anything in the dining hall has changed overtime in response to the growing amounts of childhood obesity.

Another idea we had was a speed frame video of “A Day in the life of a Georgia Tech Student”. We figure we would take a constant streaming video of each of our days and speed it up to give those applying to tech a feel for the campus as well as classroom setting and even the rare fun things around Georgia Tech.

For now, we’ve got a great base set of ideas, but we certainly need to narrow our project down. I’m sure we will find our final idea soon, but for now we’re still brain storming.