Independent Component 2: What am I doing?

1) What are you doing?

For Independent Component 2, my independent component will focus more on independent research and writing for hardtoast as opposed to watching X-Play most of the time. Also, since 16.5 hours are carrying over from the first independent task, it will give me more of a chance to write more articles and do more research rather than watching TV. However, I will still be watching X-Play as it gives me some tips and tricks on what to focus on when I write.

2) How will I verify?

For the writing I do on hardtoast, I will print out the articles that I write to show as evidence. For the independent research, I will do a summary on what I read and what I would include from that reading if I was to write about it. And for X-Play, I will do another log that will have to be signed by my parent(s).

3) How does it relate to answering my EQ?

Watching X-Play relates to answering my EQ by giving me an insight on how to critique games, as in what to focus on and what the general public is interested in wanting to learn about. In doing independent research, it will help me get a better understanding of what real game journalists have to do, which is follow the game industry and all that stuff to get content to write on. Lastly, writing for hardtoast will help develop my writing techniques as well as give me some critique as to what I should and shouldn't change about my writing style.

Independent Task 1

Foreword: What I type out here, is exactly what is on my hard-copy of this log, as well as in the first picture on this post.

So, for my Independent Component, I watched a TV show called X-Play*, where the two hosts, Adam and Morgan do video game reviews, give some tips, tricks, and strategies for some games and talk about upcoming games in the game industry. Aside from that, I did independet research on upcomning updates, gaming systems, and games which I use to write for hardtoast.com. In writing for that website, so far, I've writting two articles for them, one that was in semester one, and the most recent being for semester two (which is for Independent Component 2). Here is the actual log which consists of the date and time I watched X-Play and how long it took me to write/research for my articles in Independent Component One:

*X-Play is on every weekday at 6:30 P.M. Eastern Time, which would be 3:30 P.M. here in California. If you want the full listing of every show on G4TV, go to: http://www.g4tv.com/schedule/index.html. I only watched X-Play on the weekdays from 3:30 P.M. - 4:30 P.M.

The Log:

 

Total time spent watching X-Play (for independent component one): 43.5 hours, Total time spent research and writing the article: 3 Hours. Total time for Independent Component One: 46.5 hours.

However, since 30 hours are only being counted, I now have 16.5 hours towards my independent component two.

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Literal:

a) I, Ryan Manalac affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work."

b) What I did for my 30 hours was watch a game show called X-Play, where the hosts of the show give game reviews on multiple games and gives tips, tricks, and strategies for the online multiplayer experience or the single-player campaign. Aside from watching the show, I did independent research on the games and news articles I write for hardtoast.com.

Interpretive:

This is valid for an independent task because in watching X-Play, I learn different was to give reviews; I now know that the TV game reviews are somewhat up-to-par with blogs and magazines, plus I'm more of a visual leraner, so it helped me get a feel for the game. Also, doing the writing for hardtoast.com taught me how to approach writing a review, even if its not a genre of game that I don't even like. Also, if you do happen to talk to me about a game, I now demonstrate the different techniques I've learned by saying that the graphics were good because or the game play was good because. It's totally changed the way I look at games.

Applied:

This independent component helped me answer my EQ by giving me evidence for one of my answers: Various Writing Techniques and the Audience you write for. In X-Play, their target audience is the teenage population that plays games and knowing that teaches me what vocabulary to use and how to write for that specified audience. The independent writing assisted me in how I should write in the future.

20-Minute Presentation Rough Draft

Topic: Video Game Journalism

EQ: What is most important for a games journalist to know?

Objective: To teach the students that a passion for video games is a crucial element into being a successful games journalist. I also want them to know what exactly having a passion for something is.

Lesson Plan:

1. Introduce myself, my topic, and essential question. Then I will ask if any person has ever read or seen any type of game journalism either in magazines or on the web.
2. Tell how I came into choosing this as a topic, which was me reading magazines growing up and my passion for video games.
3. I will then ask the class if they know what having passion for something is, and asking them to define the word passion in their own words.
4. After that, I'll give the dictionary definition for passion then give it to them in my own words.
5. I will give multiple situations, and ask the students whether or not that is true passion or not.
6. I will conclude by relating the definition of passion to one of my answers, which is passion for games and how it is a big factor in actually getting into the job but isn't that big of a deal when actually writing the articles and stuff.

Materials: Actually, now that I think about it, I'm going to need a power point presentation kind of thing. It would be easier to actually do that than to make separate boards and what not.