Sunday, October 16, 2011

Blog # 9 --Part 2

In the "Gaming Transcript", we discussed "Message Units" and "Interactional Units". Both of these seem to focus on a certain topic, however the "Interactional" one deals with two people or more. They are ways of how someone says something. Throughout the given transcript, the reader tends to learn how Chandler and the other person reflect on software as being games. Transitions occur during signals, such as feelings of laughter or hestitations.

The transcript with patterns of actions:

Interview between Chandler and another person.

Message Units—Something that someone says—One topic between two people

Interactional Units—A discussion between more than two people on the same topic.

Interactional Set 1—Discussing the software as a topic:

Ch        I wanted to talk a little, you  talk about yourself as a hardware expert, you said software novice, although I bullied you into being competent, what software do you know how to use?
B          you know, what everyone else knows how to use, word, frontpage, powerpoint, excell, spreadsheet things
Ch        so it's interesting, games aren't really considered software are they?
B          they are -
Ch        so you know lots of software
B          yeah, but it's just games (laughing) –Laughs = actions and transitions to new topic.

Interaction Set 2—Discussing software as a game:

Ch        so what kind of crossover did you find between learning the games and learning the software everyone needs to know?  Obviously it wasn't real hard for you to learn, frontpage
B          I think it's because I had ah, background exposure
Ch        what background?
B          Well, just in learning how to learn a program, I just see buttons, tool tips and ah I make a go at it, the scissors mean I can cut in here, and I can just cut and drag and drop - these a simple things everyone knows, I guess the only reason I can pick up learning a program is that I just have that knack, no other way to explain it.
Ch        that's literacy - you have the basic tools, the right basic set of assumptions for how to read, understand, interpret a program.  And so what I'm looking for is the connection between all the gaming experience you have and your ability to do that with the applications - the academic applications
B          well like a lot of games, in the beginning, there's menus.  You don't just start playing.  There's menus, you get to customize your decal your spray, clothes,
Laughing –Laughs indicate the transition.

It's not all playing the game it's a lot of process to prepare for it, there's like box, scripts, you practice it, and you're not playing with other people, you're just like fooling around.

Interactional Set 3 –Discussing how the software works as a game:

Ch        OK so all those things - same kinds of processes, same kinds of moves - so navigating menus is something you learned from games that can carry over - anything else?
B          I think that is the main thing, I can't connect a First person shooter with Microsoft word, that would be a real stretch
Ch        how about file systems and gaming spaces?
B          you know, you're right, because the game, the games are still software, and they're still files, so there are certain organization of a game that is different from regular files
Ch  - so what's another thing - so playing those games when you were a little kid set you up to be able to disentangle that DOS system more easily than your stepfather, so what were you doing?
B          like I was navigating through menus
Ch        you got used to trial and error

Interactional Set 4: Discussing how you learn by making mistakes:

B          I wasn't being graded - there's no - all right man, let's pass this class you've got to
Ch        so you're completely comfortable with messing it up and starting over.
B          Oh yeah
Ch        I think the print generation has a lot of hangups with that - what's something else
B          there's a song by Natasha Ben ? I hear it on the radio - it goes like, she says in her song, that we're taught not to make mistakes, we really can't live that way

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