No wonder it's been tough...

As I have been searching sources for blogs to add to my blog roll I am encountering very few blogs that pertain to the subject of adult or alternative students and their personal experiences or survival tactics. One reason I could posit is that we don't have much spare time in which to blog. That got me thinking about the nature of this class and the texts we are reading and the panel discussions that I have attended. In thinking about Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games I began to muse about the type of game that could be created to argue for or against returning for a degree after one has already established their adult life. I can imagine that it could be modelled after Pac Man, maybe called Pac Manic. A chomping icon would feverishly navigate the landscape of the game screen, trying to accomplish a myriad of tasks accompanied by monotonously cheery digitized encouragement-speech. If this game was modelled after my experience, the screen for Level One would look a bit like this. The landscape would include seven different community colleges; Mt. SAC, Crafton Hills, Chaffey College, Irvine Valley College, Saddleback, RCC and Fullerton College. The task that the single player would have to accomplish in this level is to complete the necessary units for transfer by integrating a work schedule with the available classes offered at the various campuses (Tetras-style) while collecting points by performing various tasks on the job, at the player's children's schools, in the laundry room, in the kitchen and in the bedroom. An energy meter would dip precariously low and would only be replenished by grabbing fattening fast food items on the fly as the player collects required units as well as home and work brownie points. The pace in Level Two would double as the player attends just one university campus but continues to clock 30+ work hours in the workplace while commuting by train to and from the players home 40 miles away. Player Two will join the game at this point to assist Player One. Player One will continue to compete for limited space in the remaining required classes while attempting to collect tuition credits by working extra hours and opting for vacation pay instead of actual vacation time. Player One's energy meter dips precariously. The game transitions from two player to one player again, abrubtly, as Player Two requires expensive heart surgery. Player One must pause the game for two quarters to administer health tokens to Player Two. Joint resources are depleted necessitating that Player One dip into the Retirement Treasure Chest for tokens to continue play. At this point the game offers two options, sacrifice valuable resources to continue or quit and lose everything the player has accumulated thus far. Level Three is still in development but game designers hope it will include a lower difficulty factor, acquisition of many graduation tokens and attainment of the Holy Grail...a rewarding job.

Who would want to play this game?

It's Sisyphusian overtones will discourage the casual gamer. The real-time gameplay is time-consuming and exhausting. The unpredictable outcome may convince some players to choose other gaming options. Additional research is needed to design the 2.0 version of this game, in order to make its argument for mastery of all levels more persuasive.