It is hard to come up with a topic when your experience is limited… Here’s an attempt to brainstorm.
spending a lot of time on one subject v. not
stereotyping v. not
-the gov’t
-the liberal media
-groups of people, Asians, females, sec. homosexual trait
–good point to it, because it lets you think of people you don’t personally know as a person
–lets them think of a group as being one person, which is easier than individualizing
–makes them treat the group as the stereotype, which could be good or bad
–lets them think of the group as people
–actual people v. further away (less experience) so you don’t think of them
–which is worse? your brother dying or 1000 people dying in an earthquake
—lets you think of the 1000 people as people even though you’ve never met them
people in stereotypes become a flat cartoon character–that’s bad b/c it takes away their personality
*criminal-Did you kill anyone? No, just cops. Okay.
people in stereotypes
book: animorphs, harry potter, watchmen, v for vendetta, swamp thing, elfquest, comics, screwtape letters, inherit the wind, animal farm, Fahrenheit 451… 1984, War of the Worlds, Red Badge of Courage, The Old Man and the Sea, Diary of Anne Frank
TV shows: Psych, Buffy, Dead Zone, Bones, Farscape, Angel, Red Dwarf…
–C/C sci fi stories v. mysteries
Computer: Apple Works v. MSWord, use a search engine, browse the internet (Firefox), play games, boards-bob and george, gamefaqs, hero games, valour zeal, cadrifey,
Comics: Scott Understanding Comics, alan moore, Dilbert, Squiddy
songs: Maxwell Silver Hammer, rimmer, weird Al-constipation
– anti-heros
predictable patterns v. unpredictable human patterns in video games
–computers, NPC
–human controlled characters
*supply different types of game play
*predictable, good= game play is formulaic, soothing
computer isn’t mean or ugly
can be easier
can teach pattern recognition, memorization
*human, good= introduce rock/paper/scissors, but more complex
more unpredictable
more competitive b/c you have to figure out the other players’ strategies
w/computer either completely random– you only win by luck
or you can learn it- easy to beat eventually
w/human PC– you have to figure their strategy, learn to predict them, but they can still change
or there are more options
w/ computer- figure it out and do it
w/another player- both predict them and defy their predictions
ex. use the same stuff, then stop…
And doing this, he finally decided to write on computer controlled v. human controlled players in games.
Sometimes we spend a lot of time on ideas which don’t pan out. That’s okay. It’s part of the preparation.