What is reality?

When I was told I would have to create a blog for my class on video games, I thought long and hard about what I should name it.  I didn't want to name it something boring like "Julie's Social Gaming Blog" or something.  I finally decided on a simple question of which, I feel will become more unanswered and less clear as the semester goes on.  I do not intend to answer this question.  Rather I intend to blur the line between reality and everything else even more so.

During the summers I work at a marvelous place where children pretend to be space heroes and save the universe.  (Did I just say pretend, because I am not sure that is the correct word.  They are space heroes for several hours and they do save the universe.)  When I am working on the bridge of the star ship, commonly the last thing I will say to them is that, "And now, unfortunately, it is time to transport you back to reality."  Which comes from what the camp director would say to me when I was a camper there.  Near the end of the camp he would say something to the effect of "then you will go back to reality."  And we would all get sad.

I work in a place where imagination is King and the lines between reality and everything else are very blurred. The Christa McAuliffe Space Education is a marvelous place where children learn Social Studies and a little bit of Science through a simulation.  For a couple of hours, they literally become the bridge crew of spaceships and have to defend their beliefs against opposing views, normally Romulans or something of the like.  It is an experience like no other.  The children are immersed in a story in a setting that tells them that it is real.  (Now I know and they know that they really aren't astronauts in the 24th century, but for a few small hours they put on the WSOD {Willing Suspension of Disbelief} glasses and it seems real to them.  They really make a difference in the lives of others (I know that the others are made up aliens), and also to themselves.  They have proven to themselves that they can do something hard.  The Space Center changes lives, creates teams, and teaches children in a way nothing else can do.

Now what on earth does this fantastical place where I spend my summers have to do with a class on the social aspects of video games, where we read books called "Persuasive Games"?  I believe that the Space Center is the very type of persuasive game I will be studying this year.  It is more than a video game, but it is very similar and has all of the aspects needed for it to be a game.  It uses computers, stages, and imagination to create a learning environment full of procedures.  The Space Center is the ultimate persuasive game, and it is my intention to use this place, this wonderful place as a theme to this blog.

I believe that blogs should be informal writing about things that the author knows personally.  Although this blog is an assignment for a class, I intend to make it much more than that, and examine exactly why I love the Space Center in an academic pursuit.

Good night everybody.  Coming soon will be what makes the Space Center a persuasive game.