Jane McGonigal- A Gamer's World

Based on the facts presented in the video lecture with Dr. Jane McGonigal, she constructed a well-thought out and intriguing argument. Dr. McGonigal on her own was very convincing, with her PhD in Performance Studies and being an experienced game designer. But when adding her anecdotes that she provided such as the quotes from well-known people like the famous economist Edward Castronova and the story of Herodotus, a Greek historian noted for creating dice games, she becomes even more credible. She brings forward things that relate to everyday gamers such as "epic wins" and how gaming has caused humans to become collaborative and optimistic. She depicts how these people are "super empowered hopeful individuals" and illustrates this point with four ideas: their "urgent optimist", their knowledge of "social fabric", the "blissful productivity" among the gamers, and how they feel that what they do (in-game) has "epic meaning". Not only does McGonigal appeal to the gaming community, but she also appeals to the average society of non-gamers by retelling a story of Herodotus, a man who saves his people by inventing dice games. She then brings her entire argument together by saying that gamers are a human resource. To further illustrate this point, she uses some statistics that show validate what she has to say. McGonigal mentions that gamers, in total, play 8 billion hours of games per week, and to solve worldly issues, that it takes nearly 21 billion hours per week. Proving that gamers are a reliable human resource, she says that 5.93 million years of playing time has been put onto the game World of Warcraft, a notable MMORPG developed by Blizzard, known for its addictive qualities. She concludes well when she says that with the amount of gamers and time they spend in game, along with their fantastic work ethic, saving the world could be one step closer, if they felt that they had this “epic meaning” in real life, as well as in game. When all brought together, the points that McGonigal makes construct a fantastic and interesting argument.

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I personally loved what McGonigal had to say, but I can not say that agree with it. I am a gamer at heart, I have nearly 3,000 hours on my Guild Wars (a game just like World of Warcraft) and I have played a huge array of games, so this really hit close to home with a lot of what she had to say. I know personally the feeling of an achievement, the necessity of "social fabric" and the "blissful productivity", I know what it all is like on a personal level. Although she has a point with all of her gaming references and things, I feel that she is also wrong. Gaming helps people escape real life. They aren't doing it to save the world, they are doing it for themselves to have fun. It is a hobby. It's like drawing for me; it's not really necessary, but it's fun; but I know when I am told to draw something, I don't like that. I no longer want to draw it, because, once something I wanted to do for fun has become something I have to do, it takes away the fun in it. If I were told to play games, that wouldn't be fun. I wouldn't be escaping the impacts of real life anymore, if the game was like real life. 

Rhetorical precis (8/28/2012)

The article, "WRITERS ON WRITING; To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Pulling the Wool Over Your Own Eyes" (2000) featured in The New York Times, written by Kent Haruf discusses Haruf's personal way of writing, and what works best with him. Haruf illustrates the process he takes when writing, along with his environment in which he writes best in and why it works for him so well. The purpose of this article was to allow insight as to how a professional author produces such great works, as to possibly motivate the readers to develop something similar, yet different, to aid their writing as well. When the writing style and content of this article are examined, it's plain to see that the article was intended for a general audience, any one who wants to improve their writing, and students.

Rhetorical precis (8/24/2012)

Introduction:

The introductory chapter of Choices 2.0, written by Joe Marshall Hardin (2010) discusses the choices many students face in writing and the difficulties that writing presents to many students. Hardin goes to explain this by elaborating upon how lack of dedication and hard work cause students to believe that they are unskilled at writing; whereas Hardin highlights the theme of being able to write from any level with a certain amount of hard work. The purpose of this introduction is to accent the advantages in writing, so to show that writing is the ultimate form of communication, across the board; whether it be posting to a friend's Facebook feed or writing a paper. Given the well structured sentances and the explanatory nature of the text, along with the content itself, it is evident that the author wrote this with the intention for students to read and learn from his text.

Chapter One:

Written by Joe Marshall Hardin, the first chapter of Choices 2.0 (2010) underlines the importance of rhetoric and the writing process of which one utilizes as they compose a written work. Hardin exemplifies the necessity of the writing process by elaborating on the stages of it, prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofing; as well as going into detail upon the definition and use of rhetoric in the writing environment. The purpose of this chapter is to depict why rhetoric and the writing process is crucial to students in order to created effective writers, as well as effective speakers. The writing quality and the content within this chapter are evidence that the author wrote this with the intention that students will read and learn from this text.

First post!!

Hey those from English 101! Who ever's looking at this, I hope you have a fantastic day and good luck with whatever your day brings to you.