Playing Yourself: The Rhetoric of Games

Mentally Stimulate Me

Mentally stimulate me, a game that reveals your true opinions and thoughts. A multiple choice game with pretty controversial questions. In this podcast episode, Ashley and I discuss the game in a new light, exploring its hidden agenda, political stance, and targeted audience. Tune in and get the tea (that was a pun based off the fact that the game uses millennial language, you wouldn't know that until you listen to the podcast, though).

The Sims

In this episode, we discuss the widely-known game series: The Sims.  We break down format of the game to identify how this game series has managed to remain successful over the years.  Additionally, although most players may not put much thought to it, the game exposes the natural tendencies of humans through their actions as players of this game, which are further observed in this episode of Playing Yourself. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.304809-Sadistic-Things-Youve-Done-in-The-Sims [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.304809-Sadistic-Things-Youve-Done-in-The-Sims] https://www.polygon.com/2013/8/26/4654086/the-sims-4-are-a-better-reflection-of-who-we-are-as-humans-today [https://www.polygon.com/2013/8/26/4654086/the-sims-4-are-a-better-reflection-of-who-we-are-as-humans-today] Katie Ly, interview

College Admissions

In this week’s episode, we have tried to touch on an unconventional game structure. We will be talking about the college admissions process and how this is a big game. Since, it is such a big decision of everyone’s lives, everyone wants to cross as many stages as possible: Resume, Essays, Grades, Standardised Tests etc. In doing so, people forget the true importance of education-learning, We end up focusing on the quantitative aspects of education like grades and GPA rather than qualitative aspects like: learning, team-work, and creativity. We will go deeper into this topic in our podcast and unveil many more aspects of the admissions process which contradicts the values the admissions committee tries to promote. Stay tuned to learn the real values of education and see for yourself what values you want to inculcate.

Minecraft

In this week’s episode of Playing yourself, Doraemon and The Kid will talk about Minecraft. Minecraft is one of the most popular sandbox video game that allows players to express their own creativity. Despite the negative connotation on the video game, many schools adopted “MinecraftEdu” as their learning tool. Therefore, this episode will analyze the different aspects of Minecraft that opened up the mind of the educator and the gamification of learning.

Kahoot

In this episode of Playing Yourself, Princess Peach and J explore the popular classroom game called Kahoot!. This game is frequently used by educators to test their students’ knowledge with multiple choice questions that are answered using electronic devices. This episode explores the benefits that come with playing the game (like increasing student engagement) juxtaposed with some disadvantages such as not being able to accurately assess how well the students understand the course content. Tune in and decide for yourself whether Kahoot! is an effective classroom learning tool.