The title, a parody of the lyrics from Geto  Boys – Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta.

It represents the sentiment of my mini project I set out on: Solo Competitive Gaming and Mood.  I had always noticed when ever my mood would shift, my game play would be affected, for better or worse.  Struggling to come up with a interesting task for my final project, I decided to make an excuse to force myself to play games in the busiest weekend of the semester…

How does my mood reflect my in game performance? What is influencing my mood?

In order to get a general understanding, I recorded several types of data:

• Mood before/after a match
• Behavior of teammates/opponents
• Number of games played
• Time frame of gaming if I was Fresh (0-2 hours) Prime (2-4 hours) or Fatigued (4+ hours)
• Skill level of opponents/teammates

To get a little more insight I hit the discord scene in servers I am apart of in order to get some outside help, some advice was more helpful than not; which is typical for discord.  I’ll share just a little bit:

 

The games I decided to play to best separate “Pure Solo Competitive Play” and “Team solo Competitive Play” were Hearthstone and League of Legends.

 

Here is the overall graph of the days I was playing both games, the white line is the median mood.

The first day was relatively successful, had two losing matches overall and the trend was already starting to show itself.

Despite having a teammate flaming me, I shrugged it off and enjoyed my first victory back into gaming.

Another round of gaming towards the end of this little case study of mine shows how taking a significant loss in games affected my mood for the rest of that evening when getting demoted in a ranked matches. The main reason for the negative feeling was I believed I had been positive in “ranked points” when I won my last ranked game I played of League of Legends, but it was a normal game and I was mistaken. Perspective and information was the enemy of my mood.

iMoodJournal – Gaming Project 12.5.18-12.10.18

Above, I have a complete PDF file on all my logs including more personal ones to show a more complete daily cycle of my mood outside of gaming as well.

The conclusion for myself with this study is the difficulty and success of the game play was the main factor in my overall feeling towards a session of gaming. Adversity is acceptable so long as I’m not my own adversary or my teammates are an obstacle. Another weird thing I noticed with my mood was when I felt I needed to play for this assignment, it really took away from the enjoyment of the game. Which has me wondering how professional gamers feel when the game they play is no longer out of desire but a necessity. I’ve heard some people talk about that transition and it feeling like work, but I would be genuinely interested in doing a small study on the transition of casual to pro play and mental health/well being or mood… with the proper resources and tools.

Thank you for your attention! :smiley:

I’d say yes far more than no. I didn’t even realize how much time had passed when the music video ended, which seems longer than most music videos these days.

 

When given the task to do a music video, I was mentally overwhelmed by the task. I took it beyond simply giving personal insight into the structure of a music video, and viewed this opportunity to show case a piece of me that only my closest friends get to experience; my musical taste. Music has always been a major factor of my life, I refuse to listen to anything that doesn’t resonate with me or challenge me mentally or spiritually. I went through a cycle of so many different artists who I appreciate and observed countless videos. Eventually I came to the conclusion I would share a song from one of the more successful artists within my array of current musicians I can respect and tolerate. The artist I chose to share and go into a brief analysis of is Nate Feuerstein (NF).

I’m not even sure when I first discovered this artist just before his first major album Mansions released in 2015, I recall relentlessly refreshing the music playstore in anticipation for the digital release so I could listen in isolation to the album from front to back. I was absolutely blown away by the genuine content of his lyrics, style and instrumentals. He is often compared to Eminem, but the only thing they have in common is they are both white, grew up in Michigan and rap well… other than that; they are on opposite ends of the spectrum as far their music goes. If you appreciate rap at all, I can confidently say you will find very few, if any songs that you do not appreciate from NF.

The song I chose to speak on is Outcast, it has straightforward enough of a message in the visuals of the music video and complements the music effectively. The message is: I don’t belong to the rap game, I don’t speak about those same things; this cage of isolation was my intended destination.

 

Within the video you see NF in the spotlight isolated then surrounded by a few people pressed up against the cage he’s locked in bouncing to the music with a transition to having the cage open to allow fans to come in to meet him. Then every time he is pressed up against the cage or crowd surfing with the fans he has a painted smile on as a show of looking happy for the fans but being uncomfortable with the environment. The shots with the car don’t seem much deeper than, “I don’t want to make this journey the safe way.” Towards the end of the video, you will notice fans painting smiles on their faces and joining NF inside the cage, no longer hyped up by the music, seems he is gaining a following himself.

For the Media Channels and Platforms class at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), we were asked in a small group to brainstorm a concept for a reality TV series. Elements involved are: participants, competition, how the show would educate, what would separate this show from others and how it would incorporate other media platforms to interact with viewers.

The show we came up with, with a working title; was: Criminal Enterprises.

The series would start by introducing a qualified criminal mastermind and a qualified law enforcement agent. They would both get teams of untrained individuals to show them their trades and be pitted against one another. The criminals would learn to run organized crime, and the law enforcement would work at gathering intelligence and putting the crime to an end.

Every season there can be different types of criminal activity, such as: growing marijuana, chop-shop, smuggling, robbery, running casinos, laundering money and hustling. In order to avoid legal issues, all of these crimes would be staged and altered to work within the law but simulate actual crime in structure and action.

One way to interact with audiences would be through social media such as: twitter with trending hashtags, Reddit and the in-depth forum discussion, and working with communities to involve locals in the action and to participate as “clients” for the criminal enterprise.

Depending on the sponsorship attained from local businesses getting involved we would have different cash prizes depending on the complexity and efficiency of the successful capture by or evasion from the law.

I would like to say this is going to be an exciting read and present all sorts of mixed media to bring this experience to life for those who are subjected to my journey. Unfortunately this is not going to happen this time.
Upon arriving at the Mind Trek convention, I soon realized that the hope of cutting edge technology and revolutionary application of these products was a figment of my imagination. Apart from all my interactions, I recall one quality presentation From Space Technology to Industry Services. The talk was given by Boris Krassi of Delta Cygni Labs, it granted insight to the challenges of working with NASA as a small technology developer; I recall roughly eight to nine people in total within their organization being mentioned. The team Boris Krassi worked with had developed a type of laser that would be mounted to astronaut helmets in order for the team of engineers in Houston, Texas to control the laser to direct the astronauts attention to areas of desired inspection. The product was loved but a new challenge was presented to them. When working with an industry such as NASA, they need to partner with established companies and not small scale teams. This was a requirement of NASA gained through the errors of purchasing products in history and realizing when time came for updates and orders, the partners they once had liquidated under various circumstances and those connections were lost and a new search would begin. I have learned this information people who had friends that worked for NASA–fun fact.

Long story short, Delta Cygni Labs created a software for industrial companies to train, communicate and establish orders of operation. It was a good topic to sit in on and a reminder of how undesirable it is to consider working in a single field for more than a decade. The thought of dedicating my life to be a potential call boy for a cash cow like NASA makes me extremely uncomfortable. I’ll be sure to avoid those situations thoroughly.

I tried, for a long time to think about something positive to say about a video game with a decent story. I thought for several hours about it. Honestly, I left gaming behind shortly after I got married because I believed they are a distraction and will prevent me from obtaining important goals in life. I think of it as a sacrifice of self-indulgence for potential gain. The hours I will no longer spend in the future gaming, I will be able to dedicate somewhere else. With that said, I will talk about the game I dumped the most hours and most money into my entire life.

League of Legends (LoL), the story of this game is: Your team is the good guys, their team is the bad guys. Your team is only the good guys when you’re winning, otherwise you will also see that your team is also the bad guys you have to beat to win. Sound fun yet? It isn’t. There is a massive lore aspect of LoL that is constantly evolving, I used to keep up with the narrative of the characters but lost interest as they continued to update previously and poorly established backstories.

The mechanical aspect of the game is impressive, sometimes. There are some characters (champions) you play that feel so intuitive and rewarding when everything works out the way you plan, there is no better feeling than completely outplaying the enemy team.

There used to be a lot of outdated champions but the team that developed LoL, Riot is working hard to keep everything as fresh as possible to retain the interest of their player base. Riot’s number one method of income is cosmetic skins, they are the most effective salespeople of unnecessary but desired content for a game that cost absolutely nothing to play.

If I had to guess, from 2011-2018 I spent around $700 on extra content; this is a very conservative estimate. They not only sell the visual aspect of these cosmetic overlays for their champions, but a story and a theme that spans across the timeline they are constantly establishing. Great product, impressive community, but at the end of it all; the gaming scene is just not a part of my future.

The task I have been given this week is to interpret and provide meaning behind a scene of one of my favorite film of my choice. I had only gone through a few options in my head and I recalled the movie We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story by Steven Spielberg. Through out the years, it has remained my most cherished animated film.

When I watch any movie, I am always looking for the message. In most feature films, everything in a scene is intentional, dialogue is intentional, characters are intentional. These statements are amplified in animated films, there are no accidents; especially when it is a hand drawn animated feature film.

With that said, I love ripping apart hidden meanings and drawing connections to symbolism across the board. We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story takes place in a early 90’s New York. The movie begins with Captain Neweyes is going through history collecting dinosaurs with his time machine and feeding them his “Brain Grain” to increase the intelligence of the dinosaurs to civilize them. The goal is to bring them to modern times for kids to experience live dinosaurs, a childhood dream.

On the other end of the spectrum, we find the maniacal evil brother, Professor Screweyes who is up to no good and orchestrates a scheme for the docile dinosaurs to consume his “Brain Drain” reverting to their prehistoric nature, becoming the center piece for his freak show circus to instill primordial fear in his audience.

When all is said and done, the dinosaurs are found and rescued by the good brother, Captain Neweys and this is where the scene I’ve chosen to analyse comes into play:

In the final showing of Professor Screweyes, he has just been humiliated by his employee circus clown which is why he is taking off the red nose cap. His willingness to shrug off the confrontation is expressed with the prideful removing of the cap flicking away the object. Even with all of the trouble caused by the Professor, his brother still desired to extend a hand with the condition of repentance (a reconsideration and change of direction). Without hesitation Screweyes gives an adamant “Never” crossing his arms and turning away in pride. The good brother accepts the decision and regretfully departs as they ascend in the light, which is a depiction of right standing and elevation in offering peace without compromise.

The light brought in by the brother fades and the faces in the crowd disappear. There is immediate regret in Professor Screweyes as the only moonlight remains from the hole left by the departure of his brother. The final words as the birds of the air circle are “Brother, brother; wait. When I am alone… when I have no one to scare, I get very frightened myself. The crows could… *gasp*” the crows circling him, waiting for his isolation then surround him and form a murder, leaving nothing left but the cold steely screw. Even the screw is removed from the scene by the final crow leaving nothing left of the brother.

I believe there is deeply hidden symbolism throughout this movie, and chose this short scene to spare typing. This movie has many scriptural teachings and uses many occult references. In this scene alone, we see the birds of the air, which in parables of Jesus would be a symbol of demons. There is also the symbol of the metallic eye where the Professors namesake stems from. A popular image that corresponds to the “all seeing eye” which many occult groups ascribe to as their source of knowledge, power and wealth. The only power shown in this scene is the ominous green vapor left behind, yet the eye was not consumed; instead, carried away by the creatures who removed it from the failure of the man it once inhabited and empowered.  The lesson here is when evil has it’s way, the life of the participant will ultimately end in loneliness and failure; to then be discarded by the very evil that guided that person down their path of willful destruction.

The words Social Media brings about a knee jerk reaction to roll my eyes and think “anti-social media” in response to the platform. Just today, I was going through my Facebook timeline having a self induced cringe party as I attempted to clean up my personal feed, deleting posts starting from over a decade ago. I didn’t make it past 2010 before I gave up, the method was slow and the cringe was often unbearable laughing at my style of status updates in a twitter format.

I have to say, it was interesting to see how different Facebook interactions were a decade ago. When people still went to your Facebook page and posted status on your wall, subverting text messaging and direct messages were few and far between. Today, I feel Facebook especially has little to do with oneself; it has been reduced to a wayback machine of late memes and a platform for arguments of opposing beliefs on hot topic issues. I can foresee a final departure, or exodus from these forms of social media for the rest of my life before I finish my studies here at Tampere. I feel I’ve convinced myself I need to wait to have something to replace it, yet there is a belief ingrained in me that I won’t acquire the new things until I sacrifice the old ones.

 

Outside of my personal social media, my interest in the platform is in education. I am anticipating a new form of teaching to become available with the merging of augmented reality and social media. I desire a feature where we can have professional instructors of the highest caliber present in any part of the world that is equipped for the task.  I imagine being able to go to a gym and have my favorite personal trainer grafted into my environment to begin our high intensity exercise routine. Being able to watch a recorded demonstration on how to repair a fried circuit board with augmented overlays showcasing step by step repairs in live time. Currently, it feels like a pipe dream. The world of integrated technology that isn’t used for simple advertising and marketing, but a platform of access to the highest quality instruction for improving individual quality of life. This reality will be just short of having master artisans fine tuning every aspect of life imaginable. At least we will be able to learn from these masters, interacting with them in a free flowing holographic display. Where the augmented reality become a tangible formality.