Sunday, September 2, 2018

PB1B Genre Generators

The first generator I analysed was the SCI generator, which generated computer science research papers. One thing I noticed immediately was every paper that was generated always had 6 sections to it. Each paper had an introduction, related works, results/evaluation, and conclusion section, and the other 2 sections seemed to be random. The results section always had a ton of graphs in it, and one of the random sections always had a flowchart in it like it was explaining how something worked. In the conclusion section there was a common theme of it explaining flaws or errors in what they did. After reading bits and pieces of multiple papers that were generated everything seemed completely random, and felt like nothing in the paper was related to each other. This made it feel like the paper was given a random title, and then the rest of it was filled with random computer science topics that had no correlation.

The second generator I looked at was the pandyland comic generator. This generator was very simple, all you did was hit generate and a three panel comic strip was generated. The same two characters were used for every comic, and something random always happened. Usually all of the panels in the comic weren't related to each other, which sometimes makes them funny and other times not. The first panel was always the two guys talking to each other, and the final two were anything from also talking to something unexpected happening. Most of the comics felt really absurd, because it would jump from one topic to another or it would have a surprising twist at the end. After a while the panels started to repeat themselves. This led me to believe that each panel had multiple different situations drawn for it, and then it would pick one at random for each panel.

The third generator that I examined was the meme generator. This wasn’t really a random generator like the others, it was more of a website that lets you create your own memes. The most noticeable thing about this generator is that it's all the old school style memes, where its an image that everyone knows and has one or two lines of text. The majority of the memes on the website are the same memes over and over again, and are are the iconic memes of the past. Most of the memes are ironic or are just puns. Something I noticed is every meme is almost its own sub-genre, and has its own conventions. For example the Bad Luck Brian meme is always he does something, and then something bad that is usually ironic or unexpected happens. The Philosoraptor, one of my all time favorites, always asks a question that is usually ironic or a pun. The Willy Wonka meme is always being sarcastic about something.

The generator that I found was a story generator. This generator makes you fill in a lot of things like adjectives, names, objects, locations, animals, and emotions, and then makes a story with all of them. The generator also will generate all of these thing for you to create a completely random story. Also you can choose things like the opening, conflict, and resolution of the story, and how they play out. Some of the stories created can be funny because it randomly puts together adjectives and nouns that you inputted, which can give you some really random things. For example in the story I generated it said things like solid newspaper, partying snakes, tame tortoises, and grateful rave. Depending on how you wanted the story to go, like it being violent or about a relationship, it would affect how the story was generated, such as my story was supposed to be violent and the generator made the characters fight.

5 comments:

  1. I think you nailed this one! I thought mine was specific until I read yours. Also, I like how you took on the assignment similar to me, by defining the specific conventions of the actual generators rather than describing the specifics of what the generator produces.

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  2. Jacob, great post! I'm actually really interested in the generator that you found yourself because I love reading books and coming up with my own stories. I think that was a really great option because it asks for a couple different details and based on what you want the story to be about, it will generate that for you. This was very easy to read and you went into good detail about how each website worked.

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  3. Jacob, this was a really good post! I instantly thought that you went in depth for the SCIgen website. Although I have already searched the site, I think I would know enough what it entails just by reading your blog post! I like the generator that you chose, because it's pretty amazing how you can type in names, locations, emotions, etc. and it creates a whole story for you. All the generators were described in great detail, and I enjoyed reading about them.

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  4. Hey Jacob, great description of the genre generators! I liked how you went into detail within the comic strip generator and the meme generator. You thoroughly explained how they work and what they can create. Though many of the generators recreate the same type of memes and comics, I found them to still be interesting. I also liked how you included how the story generator works. I find it really interesting that it is possible to come with a story plot just from filling in a couple of fields. This was a really descriptive piece on genre generators.

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  5. Jacob, Great post! I loved how you described each website you used perfectly. I like the generator you found and how it can just randomly create a short story from filling out a couple of the questions it asks you. I enjoyed reading your post it was very informative and simple.

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