Final Reflection

In my opinion, this project  can lead to a valuable experience for those who have a more "traditional" idea. To explain, someone reading up on a project that is similar to their tastes could be more beneficial to them as they already know about it and could more easily build a connection to their blog as a whole. 

This project was inspired by the Google 20% project, where employees would spend 1 day a week on something that they like and show it to the world. I think that this initial idea is a great one, it gives people an outlet to show what they are passionate about and let them explore it even more by explaining it to others in an appealing way. This project, I would imagine, would yield very good results for the overall happiness of employees and their ability to function at the workplace.

Now, apply this idea to "traditional schooling". Let students spend some time outside of their schooldays on something that they love doing, and reporting on it. I think that this in a normal school environment would be very helpful for boosting the morale of students in classrooms everywhere. Students commenting on blogs that they like, and then talking to their classmates about them at school. This would do nothing but help students.

For me however, this project was a bit less so. To me personally, and I do not mean any offense by this, it felt forced onto me. It took me a bit of time to come up with an idea for a blog that I am supposed to be passionate about, and that met the criteria of the project. The project's purpose, as I understand it, is to help students with everyday writing skills, while letting them showing off passions. And with those two things, I think it is great. The part that seems forced to me is the "community service" part, for lack of better terms. To find something that you like doing, and molding it to meet a criteria of, giving back to a community, took the life out of the project. Passions are supposed to be uninhibited by outside barriers and students should be able to choose whatever they want to talk about for their projects.

Online gaming is something I do everyday of my life. It is how I communicate with others, and how I express myself. Just as cooking or sports is how someone else expresses themselves, online gaming gives me that same sort of feeling. Thus making it easy to talk about. But I don't know. This project gave me personally a feeling of whether or not I am "doing it right". This should never be the case with passion. Passion does not have a right or wrong. It is something that is personal to you and no one can tell you that it correct or incorrect. 

If I was to change one thing about this project, it would be this.

Let the students write about whatever they want, whenever they want. This meaning, if someone finds something new to talk about a different day, and wants to talk about it. They should be able to. I think that the requirement to have a "final product" inhibits the true meaning of this project, which is to cultivate passions, while boosting writing skills and morale. This can be accomplished without many requirements.

Anyways, this was my two cents on the project as a whole. Again, nothing was meant to be harsh, and if it was taken to be this way, I apologize.

Rush

That rush that you feel when you score a goal. That feeling when all the pressure is on you, and you clinch a tough situation for your team. When everyone is counting on you, in the last play of the game, that is the feeling that people love in sports. Well, in E-Sports, that feeling is still there.

I play these games everyday, as it is something that I am passionate about in my life, and it delivers that same rush that others feel in traditional sports.

How can something digital and "not real" deliver physical impacts on your life like raising your adrenaline levels?

Well, numerous studies have been taken on people trying to figure out this so-called phenomenon. One particular study, has the players heart rate and pain tolerance studied before and after they play. The results? 100% of the participants showed higher heart rate levels than before playing.

This proves that video games can affect you physically.

I also have personal experience with this feeling.

There are times where I am the one who the team is relying on. Whether it be to capture and objective, or to survive the round, the pressure is on me to win. When this happens, you feel that rush of adrenaline as you would with any other sport. Your heart beats faster, you start to focus more, and you almost feel numb to anything else in the world, besides the task at hand. When you deliver, it truly feels like you have won something. That feeling that you get at the pit of your stomach knowing that you accomplished something. Ask anyone who has played a video game somewhat seriously and they will tell you about this feeling.

Still not convinced that video games can deliver physical response? Just look at horror games, with jump-scares and eerie tales, these games seem to frighten any players, and this also gives a sense of fear, even though you are in no danger at all. It is not dissimilar to movies in that aspect. In horror movies, people get scared, its what they are meant to accomplish. However you are never in any danger, while watching a movie.

This is because emotions and hormones do not have the capacity to use logic. It is difficult to settle them just by knowing that something is not "real".

This is why video games can deliver the same adrenaline rush that you feel in any other aspect of life.