Halo/Destiny Crossover Exotic Concept - Digital Design

Bungie, Inc. is an American video game developer located in Bellevue, Washington, United States. The company was established in June 1991 as Bungie Software Products Corporation by University of Chicago undergraduate student Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones' game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000; the project it was working on was repurposed into a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox console, called Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo became the Xbox's "killer app", selling millions of copies and spawning a billion dollar franchise. On October 5, 2007, Bungie announced that it had split from Microsoft and become a privately held independent company, Bungie LLC. The company later announced it's new partnership with Activision. Bungie revealed their newest franchise shortly thereafter, Destiny. Destiny was released to much controversy and success. 

Why does this matter? Well, it may not if you never played any of Bungie's games. But to those who do, it is clear that Bungie has had quite the history. They started off small, created Xbox's biggest franchise, then switched sides over to Activision with an entirely new franchise. The thing is, Destiny is quite similar to Halo. They are both set in the far future, with humans and aliens clashing over a multitude of planets. This has led many fans to request a Halo/Destiny crossover. Will it ever happen? Probably not. But I'll try my best to simulate it with the power of Digital Design.  

Our goal will be to create a simulation of what a Halo weapon would be like in Destiny. In this example, I'll be using my personal favorite weapon, the Focus Rifle. This process will take a good chunk of time. As such, we'll be reffering to Alexander Mayward's Guide to Photoshop CC.

To start off, we need to know what we want to make. The Focus Rifle functions very similarly to a traditional sniper- so we'll make it an Exotic Sniper Rifle. 

Here you can see the view of an Exotic from the menu. We'll need to replicate this design if we want it to look legitimate. 

Now that we have our plan, we'll need our resources. This includes a gun model, a gun side view for the icon, the background, and some UI elements. The process of recreating the UI is quite complex and would probably take most of the blog, so I'll skip that for now. 

The Focus Rifle model, from Halo Reach.

Menu icon from Halo Reach.

The menu background from Destiny 2.

Now that we have all our resources, we just have to slap it together, and then add text. I couldn't really think of a cool name, so I named it Jun's Guilty Pleasure after the marksman in the protagonist's squad from Halo Reach. I found one of my favorite quotes on the Sangheili (the race who built these weapons) and replicated the rest. The only real change in the UI I made was giving the weapon a 21 round "magazine". This is because the Focus Rifle is powered by a battery instead of a traditional magazine in the lore. 

After all is said and done, it should come out like this. 

Looks good, if I do say so myself. All we need to do now is export it and share with anyone you'd like. I was personally proud of this, so I uploaded it to the Destiny subreddit. If you wish, you can add a watermark to discourage others from stealing your artwork. Although its not pictured in this version, I did put one on my Reddit post, as I do not want others to use my work without credit. Some people may not mind, however. 

Here's a question for those of you that have played Halo/Destiny- if you could bring one weapon from Halo to Destiny, what would it be? 

 Works cited:

Mayward, Alexander. Photoshop Cc 2015: an Easy Beginner's Guide. Alexander Mayward, 2015.

Destiny is an Activision franchise. Halo and the Focus Rifle are both owned by Microsoft.

Graphic Design - Rainbow Six Siege Operator Showcase

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person shooter game, in which players control an operator from the Rainbow team. Different operators have different nationalities, weapons, and gadgets. Ubisoft, the publisher of Siege, has released multiple artpieces of each group of operators. These are called Operator showcases.

Today, we will be making our own DLC operator showcase, like this one for the Brazilian BOPE unit. 

In order to do this, we'll need a couple of things.
-Two operator profiles (look & name)
-Two operator icons that fit the character's ability
-Fitting background and blending

Its a bit complicated, so this'll take a bit. To help us out, we'll be referring to Alexander Mayward's Guide to Photoshop CC.

For starters, we'll need to tie down our theme. While you can do just about anything, we'll be making a showcase for the Ukrainian BERKUT unit. This post will focus on the graphical design, so the actual abilities and backstory of these characters aren't important.

The first operator will be Voroshbyt, a trained marksman equipped with a precision scope and high powered rifle. His character is focused on accuracy and lethality.

To signify his attributes, I chose a character from a different game that has roughly the same mentality. It would be cool if we could make our own operator art, but I'm not a professional artist.

In order to highlight his attributes, I made an operator icon consisting of a scope zeroed in on a skull. After I got the main icon made, I added some grunge to signify his rugged personality. Lastly, I added some lines in the back to for added clarity.







Next up is Khmara, an experienced soldier with access to radioactive gas. Geneva certainly wouldn't approve. He is a disciplined soldier who will go to any lengths, legal or not, to get the mission done.

In order to tie the two operators together, I chose a squadmate of the character I used for Voroshbyt. Their similar uniforms and headgear distinguishes them from the rest of the R6 cast.

Khmara's defining trait is his use of radioactive weapons. As such, that will be the focus of his icon. Since the weapon is in the form of a gas, I made the radioactive symbol with gas. I was pretty satisfied with the icon, so I only added a bit of detail to make the icon look more professional.




Now that we have our operators and symbols, all we need to do is throw them on a background and add some text. We will also use the Ukrainian flag to show which country they represent at a glance. After the project is put together, I added some small effects for flair. With all said and done, it turned out like this.

Looks nice! Now that its completed, just export and share it with whomever you choose. If you wish, you can put a watermark to discourage others from stealing your work, but I found that it took away from the aesthetic. Now that you've seen how to make a showcase, would you be interested in making your own? If so, what country and unit would it be on?

  Works cited:

Mayward, Alexander. Photoshop Cc 2015: an Easy Beginner's Guide. Alexander Mayward, 2015.

Rainbow Six Siege is a Ubisoft property. The character models used for the operators are from Crysis 3. 

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

There are many social media platforms that many people use personally, or for some type of business marketing. But the main purpose of social media isn't to post your belief, but to actually gain valuable data for companies by companies to bring you the most valuable social media experience, It is just one big business! Many of these social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest and YouTube.

I personally enjoy the art of trying to market yourself which is what I will be blogging about. There are many ways people market off of social media, people market themselves (celebrities), people market businesses, people market organizations, and frequent/infrequent events. There are 3.175 billion global active internet users, which is almost half of the world's population! Social media accounts penetrate about 30% of these internet users, 2.206 billion people (Williams 10)

I will be blogging about the social media techniques that I use and learn from John Williams to grow my brand and organization to hopefully in the near future be able to call myself a successful social media marketer!

Twitter

I will be marketing off of twitter on the account @Haven_eSports and will try to grow from my point of 317 followers and 2.5k engagements daily.

I usually tweet infrequently and only tweet twice, maybe 3 times a day but after reading Willams section on Lifespan I learned I need to change this. only 92% of engagement happens only between the first hour of the tweet being made (Williams 37) an engagement is anybody ,clicking, liking, commenting, favoriting, or retweeting a post. So instead of tweeting less times a day tweeting more isn't only acceptable but preferred!

Through the next couple of weeks and months I will not only try to expand but do so successfully with a higher engagement percentage and follower count! Why not go and check out the twitter, and give it a follow!

QUESTION : What is your main purpose of social media? What are your hoping to do with the account in the near future if you are on it daily?

Williams, John. Social Media: Marketing Strategies for Rapid Growth Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube. 2016. Print.

Can Games Truly Bring Happiness?

Many people tend to not think of games as a catalyst for happiness, but McGonigal seems to claim otherwise. She states that part of the key to happiness is to practice random acts of kindness and to dance more. (McGonigal 183) Well, what exactly would these things have to do with happiness? McGonigal elaborates by saying "they're like the daily multivitamins of positive psychology: they've been clinically tested and proven to boost our well-being in small doses, and they're designed to fit easily into our everyday lives." (McGonigal 184) There are also lots of other ways that happiness can be achieved. However, it might not be as easy as it sounds. Part of the problem here is that in order to be happy, we have to do more than just know what makes us happy, we have to act on that knowledge, which incorporating into our daily lives could prove very difficult. For example, what if one day you just decide to not be nice to people or to make a simple gesture of kindness? This is just one of a few examples of why many people might not throw themselves out there to participate in such activities. These acts of kindness, however, don't necessarily need to be intentional.  Being spontaneous and out of the blue can very much help to find happiness in games.




My hunter character spontaneously dancing with fellow Guardians in the Tower.



For one last time (since this is my final blog post), I'll be returning to Destiny. Here, I take my trip to the Tower, the playable social area where people can pick up bounties, buy new legendary and exotic gear, and communicate. Usually, whenever I visit the Tower, I'll pick up bounties and whatever gear I might need for my next endeavor into the expansive universe of the game. However, this time, I found a couple guardians on my way out, standing by the Postmaster vendor, dancing. I, of course, decided to join them.

Going back to what I said at the beginning of my post, this moment and particular captures what McGonigal was trying to say perfectly. The "dancing" emoticon brought plenty of laughs into the situation, and sparked a communal bond between these players that I didn't even know. All in all, random acts of kindness don't need to always be performed, but when they can, will bring you an endless amount of joy to your gameplay and in real life.

My final question is: When have you performed a random act of kindness? How often do you do them?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

How Can Alternate Realities Benefit You?

In my last post I talked about how games can feel truly epic. Many people tend to believe that alternate realities or video games in general tend to be a tremendous waste of time. However, that belief is not necessarily true. There are principles in alternate realities that can be present in real life situations. For example, she references the game Chore Wars, which is a game where you play in your real life to enjoy it more. (McGonigal 120). You might be asking, how can you make a game out of life? The game is specifically designed for people to "track how much housework people are doing - and to inspire everyone to do more housework, more cheerfully, than you would otherwise." (McGonigal 120) Whenever you complete one of your chores, you go online and report on it through the game. Every chore is described to give you a specific amount of experience points, virtual gold, etc. You can also customize the game the way you want to, by adding modifiers to make the least desirable chores worth more experience points. McGonigal also states that "as an added bonus, [her] place is cleaner now." (McGonigal 121) This proves that the virtual reality created through Chore Wars can be an efficient and fun way to get work done.




Me looking at my review packet, reluctant to start it





Though McGonigal used Chore Wars to demonstrate how these alternate realities can benefit us, I used the same basic principle to use in real life situations. Recently, we've all been stressed out when it comes to finals, and we've all been bombarded with review packet after review packet. Having felt overwhelmed myself, I used these same principles in Chore Wars to help me complete my math packet. Going into it, I knew this was something I needed to do rather than something I wanted to do, so I did something similar to McGonigal. She rewarded herself with an abundance of experience points, whereas I rewarded myself with my favorite snack, Doritos whenever I completed a page of problems. It might sound silly, but these simple motivators, as present in Chore Wars, can be very effective when it comes to getting work done that you need to complete.

Overall, these concepts and principles of alternate realities have benefited me in real life by giving me the motivation and drive to complete my review packet. This, in turn, will enable me to score higher on the final exam. How do you incorporate some form of game principle/motivation into your everyday life?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

How Can Games Feel More Epic?

Welcome back to my blog! It's been a while since I made my last post, that being on how failure in games can lead to enjoyment. Today I'll be focusing on a much broader topic covered a little bit later on in the book: How we can be a part of something greater through video games. What that means is through our collective gaming culture, becoming a community of gamers all focused on one universal goal. McGonigal talks about how "In April 2009, Halo 3 players celebrated a collective spine-tingling milestone: 10 billion kills against their virtual enemy, the Covenant. That's roughly one and a half times the total number of every man, woman, and child on earth" (McGonigal 95). Why does something like this matter, you may ask. The 10 million enemy defeats was a symbol for the dedication of the fans. Sure, fans knew there wasn't any real importance or consequence to saving the human race in a science fiction video game, but even though there was no realistic value, there was meaning. This meaning was the feeling that we were all a part of something much larger than ourselves. McGonigal quotes philosopher Martin Seligman: "The self is a very poor site for meaning...the larger the entity you can attach yourself to, the more meaning you can derive." (McGonigal 97) This being said, it wasn't the Covenant kills in Halo 3 that gave it value, rather it was the massive communal goal that made it seem meaningful. Thus proving that something doesn't need to be real for it to have real meaning.


In "The Tower" with friends celebrating after a collaborative effort to complete the raid.

Likewise, in the game Destiny (which I referenced two posts ago), has a very similar concept. In the game, you are stopping the alien forces known as the Fallen, Hive, Vex, Cabal, and Taken. Though as an active player of the game I've defeated many a foe, it's not always about my individual efforts. Everyone I've played with has helped to contribute to the ever growing number to the expansive, epic universe created around the game. Another way Destiny is similar to Halo 3 in this way is the environmental design in the game. McGonigal describes the development of Halo 3, stating that it took Bungie three years to craft this gaming cathedral, with a team of more than 250 artists, designers, writers, programmers, and engineers collaborating together. (McGonigal 105). Destiny, having also been developed by Bungie, had this same care, attention to detail, and intricacy put into it as Halo 3. The Moon, one of the planets in particular, is very beautifully designed and well thought out, proving that good environmental design can make the experience all the more epic.

My question for this post is:

How does a larger community of players or environmental design help to change the experience in your eyes? Does it make it more or less epic to you?



 

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

Minecraft Survival: The End

Now that you've become a master at the art of survival there is on test left on the board for you. The End is essentially the last part of any journey. But, getting there is not so easy.

The End is known as a "terrifying spit of land in the middle of a space-like dimension known as the Void" (Milton 42). Once you defeat the boss, which is the Ender Dragon, you'll be rewarded with its egg; a trophy that lets you know you defeated it. You'll need eye of enders (crafted with ender pearls and blaze powders) to find your way to the strong hold where the ender portal is. The Eye of Enders will keep on moving and eventually drop (Milton 42). Once you have found the strong hold you will need 12 more eye of enders to activate the portal. Once you enter the portal, there's no going back, until you have slain the Ender Dragon or you have been slain. Be cautious with you decision!

An example of a Ender Portal

Once there The Ender Dragon's health bar can be seen at the top of your screen. You are tasked with destroying the ender crystals at the top of the pillars, because they give the Ender Dragon its health. You can use your bow for that, since its the easiest way. Enderman can also be found in The End, so be careful.

The hard part is to slay the Ender Dragon. Use you bow to inflict damage since, its main method of attack is to swoop and dive at you. Be wary of the Dragon's health bar. Your success depends on it to be empty.

If you've made it this far and defeated the Ender Dragon, then you have done it! You can successfully accomplish anything in the world of Minecraft. Once the credits are over, you'll be taken back to the Overworld. I hope your success will continue in the right direction!

What was your biggest success in a video game?

Milton, Stephanie, and Paul Soares. "Basic Weapons." Minecraft: Combat Handbook: An Official Mojang Book. Scholastic, 2014. Print.

Minecraft Survival: Mob Encounters

Minecraft is a scary world when you think about it. Zombies, Skeletons, and Spiders aren't the only monsters aka "mobs" that you can come across. I will tell you what mobs you can encounter in Minecraft and what to do against some highlighted mobs.

In the Overworld of Minecraft you can come across the following mobs:

- Silverfish

- Spider

- Cave Spider

- Slime

- Creeper

- Skeleton

- Zombie

- Witch

- Enderman (Note: Enderman could also be found in the End)

- Guardian

- Elder Guardian

- Endermite

In the Nether, you can find:

- Ghast

- Magma Cube

- Blaze

- Wither Skeleton

- Zombie Pigman

- Wither (Boss)

The mobs that I'll be highlighting are the Creeper, Skeleton, and Zombie. They are the standouts of Minecraft.

Creepers are the most famous mobs in Minecraft. "Their method of attack is to run at you and explode in your face" (Milton 22). They have 20 health points and drop gunpowder when they are slain. A good way to fight creepers is to keep a safe distance. Use your bow first, before you try to engage with your sword. Be careful, for you might come across a charged creeper that does more damage than a normal one!

Skeletons are equipped with a bow and arrow, to attack from a distance. They will shoot you down with your bow and arrow. To fight this mob, which also has 20 health points, use your bow and arrow against it. Remember to always take cover while its firing. Sometimes if you're unlucky (or lucky) you might come across a skeleton with armor on. The prize for a slain skeleton are arrows, a bow, and rarely its armor (that can sometimes be enchanted).

Zombies are simple minded creatures that just walk up to you and touch you to inflict damage (Milton 24). They also have 20 health points and can sometimes carry armor like the skeletons. They have the potential to attack with a weapon like a sword. Zombies are not something you want to mess around with, since they are known to break down doors. Take a zombie out with your sword. What I like to do is to get them to a place where you are safe and can take some swings. You'll end up with rotten flesh, and rarely armor and weapons if you're lucky enough.

Hello, Mr. Zombie

Mobs are not to be taken on low note. They are the reasons why survival can be so difficult. Now that you know the basics of Minecraft Survival, there is only one place left to know... The End!

What mobs do you struggle to fight against?

Milton, Stephanie, and Paul Soares. "Basic Weapons." Minecraft: Combat Handbook: An Official Mojang Book. Scholastic, 2014. Print.

Minecraft Survival: Enchantments

Enchanting helps boost the strength in your weapons and armor, giving you a better chance to survive. Learning how to enchant is essential for survival.

To start off you have to craft your enchantment table, consisted of one book, two diamonds, and three obsidian. After you have crafted you enchantment table, "place the item you wish to enchant in the item square, and a piece of lapis lazuli in the lapis square, then choose one of the three options that appear on the right" (Milton 48). These options will be written in galactic language, so you won't be able to know what it is until the item is enchanted. The numbers on the right indicate how many experience points you'll have to pay, in order to enchant (Milton 48). Having more bookcases around your enchantment table also increase the amount of experience points needed, but greatly improves your chance for a better enchant.

Enchantment Table Recipe

An anvil can also be used to combine enchantments from two items. The second item will lose the enchantment it has, to fix the first one. For this to work, the items must be the same. Place the item in the first anvil slot, and the other item in the second slot. The fixed item should appear on the end slot. This will also cost you experience points.


You may come across enchantment books along the way. You can use these books to enchant your weapons or armor. You can find these enchantment books in chests, located in strongholds, dungeons, jungle temples, desert temples, mineshafts, and from villagers. Just place the book on the second slot of the anvil with your item of choice on the first, to get your end product.

Enchanting greatly improves your chance of survival. I personally always try to enchant my items before fighting any big mobs. I highly recommend you to enchant your items, since it helps so much. Rack up those experience points!

Would you enchant your items too? If so, what is your favorite type of enchantment?

Milton, Stephanie, and Paul Soares. "Basic Weapons." Minecraft: Combat Handbook: An Official Mojang Book. Scholastic, 2014. Print.

Reality is Better

"If I'm going to be happy anywhere, Or achieve greatness anywhere, Or Learn true secrets anywhere, Or save the world anywhere, Or feel strongly anywhere, Or help people anywhere, I may as well do it in reality" -Futurist Eliezer Yudkowsky (McGongial 345).  Games are a great way to achieve all of these but whats the point when it only lasts for a few moments in a game compared to a life time in reality.  We can play the games we want, we can create any future we can imagine.  We play so many games for so long that sometimes it feels like these games have become our reality: but why not play it out in the real world.

McGonigal says," We can no longer afford to view games as separate from our real lives and our real work.  It is not only a waste of the potential of games to do real good - it is simply untrue" (McGongial 354).  But many of you haven't even played a "video game" or haven'y "played" it like a gamer has.  So whats the point? Well... "games aren't leading us to the downfall of human civilization.  They're leading us to its reinvention" (McGonigal 354).  If you think about it the great challenge of today is to integrate games more closely into our everyday lives, and to embrace them as a platform for collaborating on our most important aspects of our lives (McGonigal 353-354).

I play games to help myself learn about how to improve my real quality of life.  Games make us happy for a reason.  They aren't something we use waste time but something we use to fill our time.  Massive multiplayer games can help save the real world - by helping to generate more participation bandwidth for our most important collective minds.  Someone just like you.

We've come together to create new things.  Gaming isn't something that is to be looked down upon but something to be looking forward too.

Games have affected in the real life.  People do things like creating artwork or create music for these games.

Games have slowly found a way into our lives and people are finally starting to realize it isn't a time filler.  It's a part of life.

All the game time I've played has really changed my life for the better.  Through ups and downs games have always helped me get through tough moments as well as make happy moments into great moments.  I've taught you all I can about games and I hope one day that you will pick up a game and enjoy them as much as the gaming community and I have.  Do you think gaming will change our futures for the better or the worse?

Citation: McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.

Collaboration Superpowers

Part of why playing video games is so fun is because it feels like you have superpowers.  By the age of twenty-one, the average young American has spent somewhere between two and three thousand ours reading books - and more than ten thousand hours playing computer and video games.  Think that's crazy? Well think of it like this... to put those numbers in perspective, ten thousand hours is almost exactly the same amount of time an average American student spends in the classroom from the moment they start fifth grade all the way though high school graduation - if they have perfect attendance (McGongial 266).

One of the biggest traits you have to have both in real life and while gaming is collaboration.  Collaboration is a special way of working together.  "It requires requires three distinct kinds of concerted efforts: cooperating (acting purposefully towards a common goal), coordinating (synchronizing efforts and sharing resources), and co-creating (producing a novel outcome together)" (McGonigal 268).  Online gamer's are increasingly doing both collaborating while actively opposing them.  Thanks to two factors: the fundamentally collaborative aspects of playing any good game, and new game technologies and design patterns that support entirely new ways of working together. (McGonigal 268).  Gaming really just comes down to shared concentration, synchronized engagement, mutual regard, collective commitment, and reciprocal rewards.  Have you done this in any of your games?  Whether they are virtual or real life these things are always present.

Spending a long time playing this game when I should be studying so I can get better at this game. LOL

Creating a team and fighting together as a whole working on our communication skills so that we can outsmart the enemy team

Citation: McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.

How Gaming Makes an Impact on the World

Many people think that gaming has no purpose and is simply a time-waster but they are wrong. Gamers tackle involuntary obstacles every day inside games, making them some of the most likely people in the world to contribute to online projects."They already have the time and the desire to tackle voluntary obstacles. They're playing games precisely because they hunger for more and better engagement" (McGonigal 232). Gamers have a craving for obstacles and a hunger for entertainment, so how can these be combined to help benefit the world? The answer is with online games such as Free Rice that actually make a global impact the more you play.

Free Rice is an online game where the player answers trivia questions and as they answer correctly are rewarded with virtual rice. The questions get harder or easier depending on if you answer correctly or incorrectly. You may be wondering how this benefits the world but the trick is each virtual rice you gain is real rice donated to hungry people around the world. Earning 100 grains a day (10 questions worth) is hardly a teaspoon but with thousands of players earning 100 grains each day it all adds up to a total, so far, of 69,024,128,710 grains of rice. (McGonigal 234-235). The game makes you want to keep playing not only because you know that you are part of something bigger, feeding hungry people around the world, but also for the fact that you get instant feedback with a bowl full of rice on the side showing just how much you have accomplished so far.

This shows me playing Free Rice with a total of 190 grains donated from just a minute of playing.

Free Rice is a perfect example of how games can actually make an impact on the world to help end hunger or save lives. By harnessing gamers' natural craving for entertainment and obstacles, large-scale goals can be accomplished to better the lives of people around the world. If everyone reading this right now went to freerice.com and played just a few minutes worth of trivia we would be able to help a large amount of hungry people around the world. Does that not sound enticing to you? Let me know how much rice you earned in the comments below! 


McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

~Leveling Up in Life~

How can alternate realities make difficult activities more rewarding?  I'm constantly asked that by my friends and family and I have finally found a answer thanks to Jane McGonigal author of Reality is Broken.  Many people think of gamer's as these anti-social people who are "nerds" and don't do anything else besides game all day.  Well that is mostly true, truth be told, but compared with games, reality is pointless and unrewarding.  Games help us feel more rewarded for making our best efforts.

McGonigal states, "If I have one regret in life, its that my undead priest in smart than I am.  Technically speaking, its true: if you were to add up every A I've gotten in my real life, through junior high through graduate school, the total still wouldn't come close to my World of Warcraft character's intellect stat (McGonigal 146).  But I guess you can't measure how much smart you really get once you finish school, can you?

Many of you guys are in club or some type of sport and that can be very stressful and out of control.  Being out of control is a fundamentally stressful feeling.  "Researchers have shown that it takes a huge hit on both our happiness and our physical health.  And it's not just in the moment that we're negatively affected" (McGongial 149).  Feeling that negative feeling that we often experience makes us feel endangered or powerless, our immune system suffers as well and we experience higher levels of anxiety, depression, and pessimism for the rest of our lives (McGongial 149-150).

Many of my friends say I'm this happy person and I can be fun to be around, but I can what people don't know is that I can actually be a pretty depressed person.  I just don't show it.  But games, of course, help me feel like I am in control.  Real gameplay (LARP) is always considered voluntary meaning that while progressing towards our goals and getting better at a game creates a sense of power and mastery.

My character is obviously smarter than me with a 56,305 Intelligence Stat

Playing something over and over helps give you a sense of mastery and in the end  makes you feel better because you have control over what you are doing.

Citation: McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.

Becoming Friendlier and Happier In Life Using Video Games

You may not think of video games as a tool for building happiness but through games you can become a happier person and learn to reach out and help others more often. In society today it is unusual to have a stranger walk up to you and ask if they would help you. Games help solve this. "Compared with games, reality is hard to swallow. Games make it easier to take good advice and try out happier habits." (McGonnigal 189). Video games commonly have a social aspect of interacting with others and this helps gamers become more used to helping random people with whatever they may need. My favorite game Guild Wars 2 is commonly praised as having the friendliest community of players out of all other MMOs. Why, you may ask? Well the answer is because players are encouraged to help others and are rewarded for doing so until it eventually becomes a natural habit.

In the game there is a mechanic when your health gets down to 0 where you must fight for survival, one last shot at life. In this "downed-state" your character is laying wounded on the ground with a  limited set of skills such as throwing a rock or healing yourself up. If you manage to kill something while downed you will rally back up to continue the fight, however if you don't manage to kill a foe and your downed-state health bar reaches 0 you die for good. 

This shows me in downed-state with my limited skills and the words "fight to survive!" on my health bar.

This mechanic allows for other players to revive their friends in order to keep them in the fight. You can revive someone while they are downed and in doing so will bring them back up just as if they had rallied. This promotes a sense of friendship and makes you feel happy inside, knowing you were able to help someone out. The two biggest happiness activities known to science are showing gratitude and acts of kindness, even if you don't know the person (McGonnigal 189). This mechanic provides both of these activities to each player in this situation. The player reviving gets an act of kindness and the player being revived expresses gratitude. In this way players are able to practice small acts of kindness that eventually build social habits when in the real world, making you a happier person overall.

This picture shows me reviving someone in downed-state who got a little too close and personal with some enemies.

When I see someone downed while playing I always go out of my way to help them. Usually I don't even realize it, I just go over and help them out. I do this because it has become a habit to help others when they need your assistance. I want to know, when playing games, what is something friendly you habitually do that makes everyone happy?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

What Makes Games Feel Epic

Part of why we play video games is because they are epic. Games give us epic environments, epic projects, and epic contexts for action. "Compared with games, reality is trivial. Games make us part of something bigger and give epic meaning to our actions." (McGonigal 98). Reality really isn't exciting or filled with big epic moments; you go to school/work, do your daily routine, and repeat it all again. When playing video games you feel like you are part of an epic battle or are part of something much bigger. Games fill you with awe, an emotion that is only felt when being in the presence of something bigger and epic. 

One of the way games make you feel like a part of something bigger is through tracking your progress. The game may have a community-set goal such as 10 billion virtual kills of an enemy. Players know that they are contributing, but how they know their total is given through achievements or kill counters. In Guild Wars 2 there is an achievement panel where you can see how far you have gotten towards these goals. There are many types of achievements that all make you feel like a part of something bigger such as 'greatsword master' given by killing 10,000 enemies with a greatsword. These achievements are also real-time data that is a part of how gamers get better at video games. With progress bars and live feedback achievements help you become better at any game you are playing. (McGonigal 157). Achievements and progress bars help to give epic projects, cooperative efforts carried out by players on massive scales.

This shows my achievement panel, currently showing my progress towards a legendary backpiece.

Another way that games feel epic is through large boss fights. Boss fights are large, epic events that combine the games epic environments with epic contexts for action. Players all over are called to complete to kill the big bad boss that spawns and in the process feeling like you are part of something bigger. In Guild Wars 2's expansion, Heart of Thorns, the final map you go to has a large boss event where you must kill the Mouth of Mordremoth in order to continue to the final story mission of the expansion. When I did this event the first time I felt like my entire story had led up to this moment and it was and epic moment that filled me with awe.

This is a picture of the Mouth of Mordremoth boss attacking one of nine islands you must defend during this event.

Video games give you experiences that you would never be able to do in your real life. When was the last time you killed a dragon or battled in war against other players? If you can say a number other than 0 then you live a crazy life, but for the average person they want something epic so they turn to video games.

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

Minecraft Survival: Armor

A Good Defense is A Good Offense

Besides a stable weapon, Armor is an essential you need to get while in the world of Minecraft. Without it, chances of you surviving are slim. By reading this you'll find out how useful armor is, different recipes to craft armor and what kinds of things armor can protect you from.

Like the sword, armor can be crafted using different materials you get in the game. The materials you can use for crafting armor are leather, gold, iron and diamond. There is also chain-mail armor, however, "chain-mail cannot be crafted, but can sometimes be acquired through villager trading, or if a mob (monster) drops it when it dies. Leather, gold, iron and diamond armor can be also be dropped by mobs". (Milton 15). A unique fact about leather armor is that it can be dyed to get a different color, making you look stylish as you slay enemies. However, personally I think diamond is the correct way to go since its the strongest you could get.

When you equip a piece of armor in your inventory, an armor bar will pop above your hotbar. It consists of 10 chest plates. A chest plate is worth 2 defense points that represent 8% protection. (Milton 16). You can only achieve up to 80% of total protection, because you'll never be completely immune to damage in Survival mode!

The armor recipes for the different armor pieces are found below:

These Recipes can be arranged using leather, gold, iron or diamond.

Each armor piece has different defensive points depending on what material is being used. Down below are each piece of armor and a complete explanation of what they do.

A Helmet is crafted using 5 pieces of a material. 

- Leather is 0.5 defense point

- Gold, chain, and iron is 1 defense point

- Diamond is 1.5 defense point

Fun Fact: A helmet is not the only thing you can wear on your head. You could also wear a pumpkin or a mob head!

A Chest Plate is crafted using 8 pieces of a material. It is completely different from your chest plates above your hotbar.

- Leather is 1.5 defense point

- Gold and chain is 2.5 defensive points

- Iron is 3 defensive points

- Diamond is 4 defensive points

Trousers aka Pants are crafted using 7 pieces of a material.

- Leather is 1 defense point

- Gold is 1.5 defense point

- Chain is 2 defensive points

- Iron is 2.5 defensive points

- Diamond is 3 defense points

Boots are crafted from 4 units of a material.

- Leather, gold, and chain are 0.5 defense point

- Iron is 1 defense point

- Diamond is 1.5 defense point

It's smart to craft chest plates and pants first since they are stronger than helmets and boots, but the main goal is to craft armor for your entire body to protect yourself from danger. However, there are some dangers you cannot avoid from even if you are wearing armor.

Armor can protect you from:

- Mob attacks

- Arrows

- Explosions

- Player attacks

- Fire and lava

- Cacti

- Getting struck by lightning

- Being hit by a falling anvil

- Being hit by chicken eggs

However, armor cannot help you from the following:

- Falling into the Void

- Ongoing damage from fire

- Suffocating inside a block

- Drowning in water

- Poison

- Potion of harming

- Starvation

- Being hit by snowballs

- other harmful potion effects

Armor gives a player the best protection affordable. Like swords and bows, armor can also be enchanted to make it even stronger than normal. You now know what armor can do for you, and with your previous knowledge on swords and bows, you're able to face the world of Minecraft. However, you also have the possibility of enchanting your items for stronger use. Would you be ready for combat or would you enchant your items first?

Milton, Stephanie, and Paul Soares. "Basic Weapons." Minecraft: Combat Handbook: An Official Mojang Book. Scholastic, 2014. Print.

Becoming A Part of Something Bigger Than Ourselves!

I previously stated that gaming is just four defining traits: goals, rules, voluntary participation, and feedback system.  Generally 99% of the time, those four traits are what make a game fun for people to play over and over for long periods of time each day.  But think about this and I really mean think about it, you probably wouldn't be playing this game, digital or not, without someone out there encouraging and supporting you.  Same thing with video games.  There are so many communities out there who have the same interests as you and in reality that one person who got you hooked on the game, just brought you into a community so much bigger than you can even imagine.  Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken, basically described why people enjoy gaming so much and why its worth it.

McGonigal begins off by saying, "Whenever I walk through the front door of my apartment, I enter an alternate reality.  It looks and works just like regular reality, with one major exception: when I want to clean the bathroom, I have to be really sneaky about it." (McGonigal 119)  She does this because her and her husband play a game called Chore Wars and based on what you do earns you points and experience (exp).  "We need to engineer alternate realities: new, more gameful ways of interacting with the real world and living our real files." (McGonigal 115)  So why not?  Compared with games, reality is trivial.  Games make us a part of something bigger and give epic meaning to our actions.  Epic is one of the most important concepts in gamer culture today.  That word is how many people describe their most memorable, gratifying, and craziest experiences that will send a shiver down your spine. (McGonigal 98-99)  That's the number one reason why gamers love epic games.  It's not just that bigger is better, but waht bigger is more "awe-inspiring."

One game I like to play is Clash of Clans or "COC."  In this game you build up your base and train your troops to attack other people to earn money and resources.  You can also join up with other people in what you call clan and have a community of your friends and clan mates battle against another clan for the ultimate reward.

This is my cousins base.

This is my base.

Another game I play is Maplestory.  Maplestory is an Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) where you train solo or together with friends and the maple community.  In this game you do quests to achieve higher ranking and level up to explore new places.  Or you can party up with friends and conquer party mode quests together.  In this game the possibilities are endless.  Just depends on your imagination. 

In this game I am a level 163 Arch Mage (Fire Poison) and I teamed up with my friends and family to conquer different Dimensions.

In League of Legends I've teamed up with some friends at our school and we compete against other high schools.  Together we have team meetings and we talk about who is going to play what position and what our team's strategy is.  We like to bring this game into real life so that we can determine how things are going to play out and how can we as a team dictate the pace the game moves.

In this picture this is my individual rank in the gold division.  I compete within this small community of people to rank up and improve my stats. 

This picture shows my friends and I creating a team to go against other schools in nation wide competitions. 

It all comes down to the fact that video games can help strengthen your social connections with friends and family as well as forge new ones with other people.  Whether you are playing with friends and family or complete strangers you are still apart of a community bigger than you think.  This may sound stupid to you but a lot of people enjoy doing this because of all the excitement and fun.  You may not play video games but I bet a lot of you do sports or other group games and what not.  So tell me, how much of your life is digital and how much of your digital life is brought to the real world?

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

Citation: McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.