Podcast Reflection

There was a lot that went into planning our podcast episode, Survival in Minecraft and in Quarantine. Since we were the first group to create a podcast episode, we did not really have much to go off of. We wanted to focus on what made Minecraft such a successful game, and what aspects of it were so endearing to the player. Looking back at it, we could have added more about what one could learn from Minecraft and less on the enjoyability of the game. We may have gotten a little carried away. I don’t think our group really thought of using the roles as a method of dividing the work. We were all pretty excited about recording a podcast about Minecraft, so we all decided to split up the work and make it together. Our first course of action was to write what aspects of games we can analyze and relate it to Minecraft. We chose to look at concepts like probing telescoping in the game, as well as analyzing how the type of game Minecraft is (sandbox) helped enhance its cause. We decided to do a preliminary recording after we put information down, without a script or flow, just to get out some initial points we had, and to test out the feel of the recording. It was successful, and we ended up using some points from that recording in our final one. In terms of organizing the podcast, we decided to focus on the different modes of Minecraft, and our personal experiences with the game. We were flirting with the idea of having a devil’s advocate who never played the game as a character, but we thought that concept was too forced. Focusing on personal experience made our podcast seem more authentic. Then we could add specific terms and concepts to explain our experiences. 

In terms of constraints, I do not think our group had many. As the first group to go, we had a little extra time to make our podcast, and we ended up covering all the topics we wanted to. Our podcast ran for 19 minutes, which was a few minutes above the recommended time for the podcast. Ideally, if we were recording in the same room, we would have jumped in on each other’s conversations more, and built of what we were saying. It was hard to signal when we wanted to jump in and out of the conversation, which made it hard to add on. 

Our podcast project could be considered the ultimate representation of the class’s learning objectives. We were able to summarize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate our group members’ ideas during the podcast as well as the works of other writers writing about games. We were also able to undertake writing as a process as described by one of the objectives. We researched different concepts and works that could describe Minecraft and drafted our first podcast run. We revised our information and made a more clear outline in order to make our final podcast episode, and I am now reflecting on that process myself. This project allowed me to go through the writing process, collaborate with others, analyze various works, and use technology to connect to others. Although some aspects of typical essay writing can be found in the learning objectives, such as analyzing works, drafting revising, and reflecting, the podcast project was able to combine all of the aspects into one. I feel like I grew more as a writer and a thinker during my time working on this project. I also grew more open to other mediums of writing and sharing ideas. As an individual, I think I could improve my speaking and social skills when it comes to projects like this, as I feel like I have good ideas, but I find it hard to express them verbally.