Category: BCM 114

When initially considering gameplay and game-making as a topic, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I entered BCM300 with little knowledge of the subject and was ready to delve into what ‘Games’ meant in terms of what they communicate, how they speak to the player and how they have changed over time. When investigating these factors of game-making, it is also vital to enter this framework of thinking by viewing the play experience from a different perspective. This is not simply a game review, but an in-depth look into the game’s process, my responses and the overall effectiveness of how the game communicates its mechanics and themes to the player.

What is a game?

Defining the word ‘game’ is no easy feat. It is a topic that has been widely argued and discussed amongst scholars such as Egenfeldt- Nielson and Wittgenstein. There have been arguments that games must be ‘unproductive’ and ‘imaginary’ and that they must be separated into four categories as Caillois states or Mcluhan’s ideology that games are a reflection of their culture.

The definition that resonated with me the most when trying to pinpoint the word game was within week one’s lecture ‘What is a Game?’. There are family resemblances that connect games and that they are a balance between systems and stories. Whilst scholars such as Wittgenstein focused on the rules of games, week one’s outline of what games usually require proved to be the most helpful.

Games require time
Games require space
Games require material
Games affect psychology
Games communicate
Games affect our behaviour
Games affect our world

It is also incredibly interesting to focus on how games enact consequences and how they reflect social reactions to cultures.

I decided I would enter this topic by starting simply, in a way that I would understand, but that also effectively communicated the overall desires of the topic. ‘Guess Who?’

Instead of simply playing ‘Guess Who?’, I reminded myself that it is vital to not get lost in the ‘fun’ aspects of play, and to focus on my reactions and observations to the game’s themes, genre and purpose.

This board game is a mass market game, having dominated shelves since 1979. Originally developed by Israeli designers Ora and Theo Coster, ‘Guess Who?’ is a traditional themed family and children’s game. At first glance, this board game presents itself as a colourful, easy-to-follow game that immediately draws the player’s eye to the numerous cartoon characters available for guessing. Although originally designed to entertain children, ‘Guess Who?’ has proved itself to be a timeless reflection of culture, one of the largest goals of game-making.

Forever an easy-to-follow play, this game is centrally focused on identifying people based on a set number of questions each player must take turns in asking each other. The winner is simply whomever guesses the opponent’s character correctly first. Wildly popular, ‘Guess Who?’ has managed to adapt to cultural reactions and has survived the growth of other types of gameplay such as video games and TikTok. Society has truly driven into the nostalgic tropes of ‘Guess Who?’ and has adapted its family fun aspect onto the online streaming platform TikTok.

The community has found different ways of engaging with this classic board game, by interpreting the rules in their way and asking more relevant and updated questions that now relate to the trends, ebbs and flows of society (a classic question now asked “does my character look like a Karen?). This is also a popular example of how gameplay can stretch over a spectrum of Paidia or those games that aren’t bound by rules to Ludus or a “game that is strictly regimented”. While originally ‘Guess Who?’ followed a set rule system, mainly simple so that families could play together, now we have seen this timeless game adapted to suit everyone, with more of a flexible nature wherein players can make up their own rules and add their personalities to the play.

While playing this game and reflecting on what I had learnt in the week two module, I found it interesting to see different aspects of the below categories intertwine and overlap.

1. War Games
2. Role-Playing Games
3. Euro games
4. Ameritrash
5. Collectible Cards

Ameritrash games tend to hold the characteristics of luck. They also tend to involve plastic pieces, colourful features and emphasise a highly developed them. While ‘Guess Who?’ does incorporate some aspects of Ameritrash (e.g. colourful, plastic pieces and player-player conflict), it also shows features of a role-playing game. Players are encouraged to get involved in the game by adapting to their character’s archetypes and pinpointing certain features about other humans to understand the mystery character’s traits and defining features. Reflecting on this allowed me to focus on the strategy of the game and hone my decision-making skills. Experiencing these qualities in a game that I had previously only utilised for fun and escapism was interesting and allowed me to view my skills of observation on a deeper level.

When discussing this within week four’s content, I was mostly drawn to the mechanics of the ‘Turn’.

The idea of taking turns during gameplay seems quite arbitrary and like a common feature of most games, however, it’s important to understand how this action affects gameplay and how the player interacts with the game. Having players wait for action within the game by taking turns tests patience and builds suspense. It brings out emotions the game is evoking, whether this be stress, anger or excitement. It allows the player to stick to the features of gameplay while also testing themselves. ‘Guess Who?’ allowed me to have a human response to a game mechanic, which then drew me further into the play aspect, building a connection with the game.

Hello all! It really doesn’t feel like i’m heading into my final semster of my second year at UOW! Once again, my name is Tegan Sereno, I am a 22 year old Communications and Media student who has a passion for travel, books and Japanese food.

When I reflect about my time at uni, it also comes hand-in-hand with thinking about who I was before i started my studying journey. I thought uni would be a scary place that would transform my life into a continuous study session. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Uni has proven to be a place that has enlightened me on so many aspects of life. Socially and educationally. I feel like I have broadened my research and communication skills while maintaining my personal life at the same time.

After reflecting on what I thought university would be like and what it turned out to be like for me in the end, I thought it would be interesting to ask a family member who has not studied what their thoughts are on the uni experience. My mum is a person who hasn’t been to university but has found their passions through a career in travel, her being a flight attendant for QANTAS. When i asked her what her thoughts are on unversity as a construct, she stated that although it’s extremely helpful and useful in life, she doesn’t beleive it is a one-way ticket to success. I definitely agree and i’m so lucky that it turns out university was the right path for me!

This weeks topic was particularly interesting to me. The discussion of meme warfare and how this can influence different people’s attitudes, beliefs and in particular, their behaviour formed my remediation above. This may come in the forms of political elections to general public online presence and opinion.  Within the lecture, the ideologies and differences between legacy media and distributed were discussed. It is vital to look into distributed media, “a strategy of content distribution that no longer relies on native websites to host and distribute content” (Cision, 2016, p1), and the way this relates to the idea of meme warfare. Looking at the way this influences propaganda has shaped the way I think about the way the future is heading. The reason why distributed media has increased in popularity, is due to the fact legacy media depends on the audience not acting as a publisher. Social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has created such a decentralised platform, it has decreased the centralisation causing legacy media to not work effectively. Take the structure of the news model

Story –> Coherent narrative about reality

Frame –> Spin/ideology/propaganda

Event –> Real or Imagined

By looking at the structure above we can see that distributed media and collective intelligence can become very unreliable system where information can be altered and propaganda can cause meme warfare. I, for one, am not sure we are prepared for the outcomes that meme warfare may bring due to the insecure nature of storytelling in today’s society. The perfect summary may be found in the week 6 lecture, stating “the people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all.” (Mitew, 2020) A great example of meme warfare would be the unauthorised use of an individuals wedding picture, posted and posed to look like an ad campaign for Hilary Clinton . These disinformations and half-truths are the essence of ‘meme war’. (Technology Review, 2019,p 1)

So we’re finally here!! The ‘Making’ phase of my Digital Artefact!. Just like as it states in the Week 8 module presentation by  “one of the best ways to grow is to share!”. Thus, this is exactly what this process was aimed at for me. I wanted to continue sharing and gaining feedback so I cold grow and reach my digital artefacts maximum potential! On of the main issues for me as a beginner Instagram blogger was the fact that there was so much competition but I utilised this to my advantage and grew my audience this way for example, I chatted to other bookstagrammers an DM’d people who liked their content and ended up enjoying mine!

Testing

This module for my digital artefact was also mainly involved around testing! After making my tangible models in my prototyping stage, I placed the emphasis on testing the changes I made through feedback loops. The whole point of this process was to create a ‘natural endpoint’ for the prototyping stage by evaluating the changes I made. It was vital that I didn’t halt my progress altogether but instead altered to meet what would benefit my project the most. So how did I do this? The main issues that arose during my prototyping stage involved the competition I would face in the bookstagram community as well as how to make my project stand out amongst others while still gaining valuable feedback. I mind mapped (as shown in my beta presentation and below) while also asking for feedback on my blog (a successful example of a feedback loop) and once I gained this, I evaluated how to input this into my artefact. An example of this occurring in my model was the feedback that I should focus on a particular genre for one month as his may attract more people and narrow down my focus thus giving a unique interpretation of book reviewing. I evaluated this advice and moved on to testing. I created a blog post specific to horror novels for the month of October and Halloween. The response I got was successful as it attracted a whole other demographic; horror-novel consumers. This allowed me to come to conclusion that in order to successfully share, I must utilise feedback and test this different user groups to gain my audience and followers. 

It was also vital for me to test with users who, in a sense, had no interest in my project. It was incredibly interesting to see if my project could gain traction amongst users who wouldn’t normally interact in the bookstagram community and could give me feedback that wasn’t biased and based on others work. I did this by asking friends and family, whom are not readers, to rate my blogs and also twitter users, who do not know me personally. This allowed me to gain large responses in a short amount of time (#FOST anyone?) and also narrow down a perspective for feedback. I did this through online surveys which allowed users to remain anonymous which further allowed for honest and helpful responses. I then received this and adapted it to meet my demands. 

Analysis

The next step in the making stage was to analyse my results, see what worked and what could be improved. I documented results found in surveys and acted accordingly. The main consensus was that people used Instagram the most, liked bookstagram because it showcased their passions or adversely didn’t like it because they weren’t interest in books. While the fact that people who didn’t like literature might not like a book related Instagram was already known, it was helpful to gain this as it drew attention to my artefact from a different audience, one that was impartial and could help. Thus I analysed by carefully observing my audience, interacting with them regularly and implanting the advice I got, no matter good or bad. I always implemented the idea that I should ‘test presuming I was wrong’ (Mitew, 2019). I was open to change and knew that what I did could be done better and always can, hence why I will always look for feedback. 

‘The Femme Edition’ is a design focusing on the exhibition of literature aimed at young adults. TFE was “designed by women, for everyone” and is presented in the form of a website, which includes monthly and weekly blogposts, as well as an Instagram page which connects me to followers. I wanted to create the Femme Edition because through my research, I found that the bookstagram community was lacking in spaces for young people to grow and come together to chat about literature. As noted by ‘The Lit Nerd’, “Bookstagram can be a part-time job and is very competitive” (2019) so I wanted my space to be unique and my own but also incorporating #FIST. The Femme Edition can therefore act as a social unit, bringing people together whilst also contributing to my passion and hope to become a publisher. This digital artefact is essentially providing users with something they don’t already have by targeting young people and the love of all literature, not just one genre.

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Based on my research involving online book communities, I decided to make a website and Instagram as this seemed the most effective way to reach out and share my thoughts whilst also engaging In the aesthetically-pleasing side of bookstagram. It is widely known that the book sharing side of Instagram is forever-growing and although it is a “part-time job” (2019) for many people, I knew if I was passionate and incorporated #BEBO (blog early, blog often) I could reach a number of people. I thought this method of sharing was useful for my audience because it would reach the most amount of people possible while not limiting myself to one platform. 

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The Femme Edition was a project that required a lot of effort but was successful. Incorporating ideologies from my pitch and beta, we can see a timeline of progression e.g. my project started as a webpage involving a number of topics with no clear focus and was later specified into a book related website and Instagram.

Beginning with my pitch, I originally planned to form a website for young women that involved a range of topics and issues such as body, health, travel, fashion etc… but after feedback from Instagram users I sensed that my project had no sense of direction. Whilst my project did incorporate the process of producing and curating content, it wasn’t particularly aimed at anyone. Moving on to my Beta section of my digital artefact, I had then narrowed down my original DA to suit the needs of myself and users, taking on advice through feedback loops to alter my artefact for maximum engagement. My pages were now growing and gaining attention. As shown in comments, direct messages and Instagram analytics, we can see that my page is growing and getting more likes and feedback the more I post (#BEBO). Step one was to plan out physically what I wanted to show. I mind-mapped and used other Instagram pages such as ‘The Lit Edit‘ for inspiration. I took incentive from how others spoke to their followers e.g. “How are you liking this book? Let me know in the comments” and their designs on their pages, usually bright and simple. One example of a feedback loop that I found beneficial to my project was the advice to blog about a certain genre one week, I took this and applied it to my blog and found that the response was good whilst also adding a range of ideas to my page, therefore engaging a wider audience.

Whilst critically analysing the growth and social utility of my project, we can see a clear aim of the audience (book-orientated people) and the progression it made to meet the standards I am at now. Below is a cycle displaying the growth of my project, week by week, based on the changes I made. Firstly I made, asked for feedback and changed, then iterated.

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Things just weren’t working out…#FEFO

But thats okay! After the ideation process it is vital to enter the prototyping stage. One of the main components of this phase is iterations and changes from feedback loops which made the parts of my DA that weren’t working obvious. Prototyping basically means making tangible physical models of the problem solving you generated in the ideating stage (Mitew, 2019). In order to do this I incorporated lots of feedback devices as well as paper prototyping! I physically jotted down what was working and what people weren’t engaging with and came to the conclusion tat people aged more with a particular topic instead of a wide range of interests. My website ‘SHEEVOKES’ focused on many components but I narrowed this down to my main passion, literature. bookstagram and book blogs are so incredibly popular amongst the book-loving community so my purpose and audience was automatically fulfilled.

So how did I find and fix the necessary changes?

The answer? Feedback loops and lots of them! Firstly I ironed out what needed improved. I received comments on my blog, Instagram and through Instagram stories letting me know what I should change, an example being having a clear topic each week to chat about. I then incorporated this into my blog by making “book of the week” and monthly top tens! I iterated through many feedback loops, one being from students and tutors encouraging me to interact with my followers, doing so I gained more reach whilst also increasing my blogs likability as well as an increase in connection with my followers. In the charts below of Instagram analytics it is obvious from the comparisons that my first attempt at social media wasn’t reaching out to anyone in partular, however, ‘The Femme Edition’ has a clear audience who share the same interest but also benefit because my blog has its own quirks and uniqueness. Below we can see exmaples of feedback from instagram users, letting me know that my aim wasnt very clear and that i should narrow it down. We can see by my followers before and after that the feedback loops and iterations were effective.

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Within my prototyping stage it was also vital for me to ensure my project was in line with the concepts of #FIST (fast, inexpensive, simple, tiny). I ensured this by keeping my blog and Instagram which are free to interact and create. I also needed to step up my #BEBO (blog early, blog often). This was encouraged by my audience in feedback loops so it was vital that I was interacting every single day and taking comments on board. It also made me seem like a real person and not just a website or piece of technology. Prototyping is such a vital stage in the digital artefact process and I can clearly see an increase in my interactions as well as an expansion in my online content curation through feedback and hard work.It was helpful to relate this and utilise the lectures as well. Teodore’s lecture on prototyping gave me insight into step-by-step DA building and how to engage with my followers. I put the notions of #BEBO into action and the results speak for themselves.  

While heading through the prototyping stage of my Digital Artefact, the iterations and changes from feedback loops that I needed to make became obvious. So prototyping basically means making tangible physical models of the problem solving you generated in the ideating stage. So firstly I ironed out what needed improved and I did this through the process of feedback loops. I received comments on my blog, Instagram and through Instagram stories letting me know what I should change, an example being having a clear topic each week.

I took this and started simple. I sketched out physically what I wanted to achieve in a mind map (as shown below) . I iterated different topics such as travel, fashion etc.. until I landed on literature! So now I incorporated the concept of #BEBO! Building early and building often was vital in the feedback process as it allowed me to observe how ym audience behaved to these changes. I tested on twitter and Involved my followers in the models I made and got positive feedback so I continued on my project due to the engagement I was getting!

The main focus for me was making a difference and serving a need so I was open to getting feedback early and starting over if need be! It’s so important to remember Eric Raymond’s quote “spending time looking some else almost-good-enough is more likely to give you good results”. I took this with me through the prototyping process, was influenced by others and it really helped. 

 Ideation is Creation!

In the process of ideating and establishing an idea to create a digital artefact, I was intensely drawn to what I know and what I am passionate about. Helping other women and creating a space in which women can join to connect about issues and things that they love. This is what inspired me to create an artefact based on young females and their general interest to fix the issue of taboo topics and communication. Building and constructing an artefact I would be able to keep for future portfolios was also important to me, as my future lies in the publishing industry, which incorporates communication with others and curating online media presences. Whilst thinking about my artefact, it was vital that I incorporated the ideology of #FIST, otherwise known as fast, inexpensive, simple, tiny. So how did I do this? What could I create that would be accessible and easy to make but also hit my audience and targeted goal within my time-limit? A website. This is how I landed on SHEEVOKES. SHEEVOKES will be an online forum/ website that incorporates a discussion page for all women to access when they need a chat or just want to share what they love. There will be five tabs: travel, love, books, clothes, workouts/ recipes.

‘SHEEVOKES’ will incorporate an Instagram account I will produce, which will feature my personal style and aesthetic but can also relate to the average woman. A website/Instagram was the platform chosen as it is the main platform that is most influential to young girls and can hit my target problem of communication amongst a wide audience of girls. These social networking sites are also one of the largest platforms for bloggers. 

#FEFO- fail early, fail often. 

Starting my ideation process didn’t prove to be easy. I was conflicted with what would best serve my purpose while also maintaining #FIST. I did encounter a few early fails, one being a book reviewing site. I realised that this wouldn’t necessarily reach out to as many people and didn’t help individuals with a variety of issues so, instead, I incorporated this into my second idea and therefore fulfilled all parts of fast, inexpensive, simple and tiny! 
Whilst creating,  it was so important to me that I was meeting the criteria of ideating while also fulfilling my passions in my project. Like Ward (2005,p 18) states “As you learn and develop, new elements are introduced, and complexity increases. Fortunately, these new elements add utility, functionality, or maturity, so goodness also increases”. This was so true in the cyclical process of SHEEVOKES. Even though #FIST still applies, the work and effort that is needed evolves with the project, therefore creating more opportunities for myself and the women that can relate to it. Further,  as I researched into my idea, I began to look at accounts with similar concepts to investigate feedback and interaction. This is a vital step for my process as these accounts are targeting the same audience as myself. Reading comments, viewing likes and tracking followers showed me that these accounts have a vast amount of positive feedback. This was a significant issue that was highlighted. This is a feature I wanted to go above and beyond on. Curating all of my ideas so that women can actually comment and strait conversations through chat rooms is what will set my account aside and go above the interactions that are currently available. 

My goal is to create a platform that is not only available to young women, but also engages them with others and sparked a conversation about issues for this generation. That is SHEEVOKES. 

I wish to architect and launch a place where my knowledge of women and issues surrounding females can grow and expand. SHEEVOKES be a website catering to the female audience. It will be an online place for woman to share, contemplate, chat, and plan virtual and concrete girl centric things.

As a woman, I noticed that our communication and mutual growth can do better. Speaking to girls around the UOW campus, I noticed this lack of conversation. Rachel* stated that she lacks “a good group of girls to chat to when times get a bit tough”. So lets change that! 

This website will give young women the opportunity to reflect, better their mind through discussion and blog posts, better their health through easy to manage workouts for the busy woman as well as social health through the opportunity to colloaborate with other women experiencing the same issues. Having an online presence in which women can access allows them to feel safe and actually contribute to each other’s lives in a positive way. Through ideating, prototyping and making this project not only helps other young women but also assists me in my future goals in curating and processing media information. So Enjoy SHEEVOKES!