Kyle Kopta DTC 206

   When we were given our list of terms to reference in our second digital reflection, I immediately knew that I wanted to explore the idea of the meaningless of data without a narrative. In DTC 375 we have been working on data collection and visualization, so that is where my mind has been for a while. With this project, I wanted to further explore the culture of data sets by connecting the ideas of data without narrative, data as destiny, and quantification bias.    The first concept I am drawing from is the meaningless of data without a narrative. It is often the case that we associate data sets with complete objectivity and pure numbers, but that is not the case. If one were to stumble upon a piece of paper in a classroom filled with simple tally marks, what would they make of it? Was it the number of questions someone got wrong on a quiz? Is it a tally of how many students attended class? Furthermore, the context of a data set is just as important as th...

Area 1:    The game Never Alone follows the adventure of an   Iñupiaq girl Nuna and her Arctic fox. Throughout the game, you swap control between these two characters as you solve puzzles and discover the source of a blizzard that has continued to devastate the village. In a style much different from other games, Never Alone is presented in the form of an oral tale that you play out, and the player is rewarded with documentary-style videos on the Iñupiaq culture. Area 2:    In terms of telling a cohesive and culturally relevant story in a short amount of time, I think this game really excelled. I felt a real sense of genuine human storytelling while also being professional and concise. The game is also very accessible, with it being available on virtually every platform and giving several subtitle and language options. That being said, I personally did not stop to watch every short video until I finished the game. Not because I did not find...

   The game I chose to score is Stardew Valley. For my score card, I wanted to look at a game made by a single individual rather than a large and established game developing company. However, I also wanted to evaluate a game that was fairly popular and sold well across several platforms. Because the game is very character-driven, I decided to score the game based on its representation of age, race, gender, ability, and sexual orientation and the way in which it is done. For the purposes of the score card, I'll give each section a score out 5, but I will also go into depth further on each one. Score Card Does the game represent characters of different ages?  4 While the character you create is always a young adult, the other characters in the game range from small children to the elderly. That being said, the portrayal of the older characters sometimes fall into stereotypes of grumpy old men or overly-nurturing grandmothers. Does the game include character...