Almost anyone can tell you what the American Dream means to them. But can anyone obtain this dream? We propose that now a days the American Dream is unrealistic for immigrants. The way American society and government are makes it more difficult for immigrants. Immigrant families are being separated from one another once entering America and are not given a fair chance at reaching their goals.
The inspiration came from the novel Americanah and the current news on immigration. Our goal is to create an experience similar to Americanahs chapter 9 when Ifemelu’s comes to America for the first time. Ifemelu arrives in America and Aunty Ujupicks her up from the airport in New York. Uju seems tense and unhappy, different from how Ifemelu remembers her. Ifemelu also relizes that when speaking on the phone Uju pronounces her name differently because that’s what people call her here in America. Ifemelu has to sleep on the floor, as Aunty Ujuand Dike share the single bed. Ifemelu expected everything to be more glamorous than it is, and she can’t fall asleep, overcome by the newness of it all. She looks out the window and notices how different the street looks from the one on The Cosby Show (Adichie).Everything since her arrival seems disappointing and even unfriendly to Ifemelu, and Aunty Uju provides an example of how the pressures of immigrant life can “subdue” and change someone (Adichie).
LATimesjournalist Angelica Quintero wrote anarticle titled America’s love-hate relationship with immigrants.This article is about how even though America is made up of immigrants it has a history of having problems with immigration. The articles stated “The poor, the sick and those espousing certain political beliefs were barred from entry into the U.S. under other new laws. Laws discouraging immigration from Southern Europe — mainly from Italy — reflected widespread anti-Catholic sentiment (Quintero).” This article also stated “President Trump ordered an overhaul of immigration law enforcement, stripping away most restrictions on who should be deported. Under the new guidelines, up to 8 million people in the country illegally could be targeted for deportation (Quintero).”
The platform we chose to use is power point. The experience we are trying to create an adventure game where the user/ player is an immigrant entering America and what you go through once in the “Dream Land.” We want to impact your experience as an immigrant to create a unique and memorable experience. Our users will make their own choices and each choice will have a different or similar outcome. This will put the user in an immigrant’s shoes and bring out different emotions ones you wouldn’t get from just watching T.V or reading.
QUINTERO, y ANGELICA. “America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Immigrants.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2018, www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-immigration-trends/.
I think using a game simulation where a user gets to determine their outcome is a good idea for this project. Some suggestions I have as you continue to work on your project are:
-Make the possible options in your game as close to what was described in Americanah (ex- make it so the person can either squeeze in a bed with their sibling or sleep on the floor, with no option to sleep on bed in their own room)
-Do some background research on what immigrants claim are some of the hardest obstacles they face as being an immigrants and incorporate some of those so it is factual.
-Try and appeal to the typical American’s empathetic tendencies so they can understand truly what these immigrants have to go through here.
Overall I think this is a really cool idea and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
I think game simulation is a really unique idea. My suggestions would be to mainstream the choices as much as possible because you could really end up far from your end goal. I understand that can be a part of the “choose your own path” goal, but make sure you are sticking true to an immigrants experience.
This idea is so interesting!
I think you guys would benefit from adding in somewhat of a background story to the character the player is becoming to further immerse the player in the story.
Hello,
The idea to have the audience experience the American dream through game simulation was a very great way to portray the concept. My only question is will there other features on the game besides images and picture? Audio would be a great tool to help keep the user engaged, perhaps even having a recordings of conversations the user could interact with would be very meaningful.
This idea is so interesting! Using a game platform is unique and different. My only suggestion would be to make sure the transitions are smooth. Other than that great idea!
That is such an interesting idea! Multiple choice interactive games are a great way to engage people, but I’m curious how it will work if you are using power point to do it. Will each choice have a key saying to go to a certain slide to continue, or is there some other mechanism through which it will transfer players automatically? Make sure you guys are careful to work that out, overall it sounds like a great idea though and I can’t think of anything else to add!