Michael Brazil

Mike Brazil 1/13/2007

Part 1: Pick 3 objects (You've done this already)

a) Significant: How to Be a Superhero, by Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine

b) Inspirational: Nintendo Wii

c) Personal Project: RagnaRokk

Part 2: Questions (Take some time to do this properly, post it.)

a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
The book, How to Be a Superhero, is one of my favorite books. I bought it many years ago and shared it with my friends. That was, until, I loaned it to someone and never saw it again. I tried to find another copy of it, but it was out of print. After years of searching online and through secondhand bookstores, I finally found a copy and picked it up immediately. Due to the fact that my first copy was loaned out and lost, I refuse to let anyone borrow it, only letting people look through it when I am around.
The Nintendo Wii is inspirational to me because Nintendo is going after innovation and fun gameplay instead of better graphics. I often think about how I would use the unique control scheme of the Wii to make fun games.
Last semester, Max Geiger and I worked on a video game called RagnaRokk. It’s a platforming/music-making game that uses the Guitar Hero controller for movement as well as for playing music. While I totally believe the project we completed by the end of the class is nowhere near complete, I’m fully convinced that we will continue the project and it will be a success.

b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
A video game, a video game console, and a book that essentially boils down a pseudo-scientific look at superheroes and comic books are all, essentially, tools meant for entertainment and, some could argue, juvenile enjoyment. I, however, see a greater potential here.
The video game is one I developed for a previous class. While a casual glance at it would show a Norse themed, rock and roll game that is only for fun, the music control system can, conceivably, teach someone the notes required to play a certain piece of music. Since the notes are mapped out in order to specific buttons and button combinations, once the player knows what notes go with what button combinations, transferring the knowledge of the learned musical passages to another medium is as simple as learning what keys produce what notes.
The video game console, the Nintendo Wii, is unique in the fact that it doesn’t necessarily take someone who has played a lot of video games to get into it. In fact, people that normally wouldn’t be interested in video games at all due to their confusing control schemes can now pick up the controller and play along with more hard core gamers. This innovation opened wide the video game market in ways the Xbox 360 and the PS3 never could.
The book, in comparison, is a much harder case. The humor is immature, the subject matter is childish, and I love it. The only thing I can say in its defense is the fact that they really researched their subject matter to the point that, if the reader was actually interested, they could actually take the information to create superhero characters (assuming they cut through the stuff that was obviously there for comedic value.

d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I know pretty much what there is to know about my own project, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything to learn about the book. The only thing I’d like to really delve into is the Nintendo Wii. I’m really interested in learning how to develop for it, and what new things I can do with it.

Part 3) Step Back (Post this as well.)

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?
I don’t see too many intersections between my three objects. The book is funny and is about the many characteristics that go into the making of a superhero. The video game is a Norse themed, rock and roll video game that uses a guitar to control everything. The console is an attempt to get away from the traditional forms of video game play and head into a more form that allows nongamers to play too.
The only thing I can see that the three have in common is that they are all mostly centered on entertainment. I enjoy things that make me laugh and have fun.

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
The only thing my analysis suggests is that I probably should be looking into some sort of entertainment-based project, and probably steer clear of anything too serious.
I’m not certain if that is a piece of advice I should follow, however.