AoD, Post #1

Two days ago I had a discussion with my dad where I actively listened about his work. Apparently, he was getting his new product certified and ready to sell to one of his customers. The problem was that his business partners, a company that allowed his company to build this new product, was being slightly un-cooperative. They wanted him to buy a certain number of product units from them before a certain date, or else they could terminate the agreement, which would be bad for both of them actually, just the owner of the partner business was young and had enough money to cushion a mistake. I was talking to him to learn about business a little more and to see if I could help him, maybe.

I unknowingly used the proper principles of active listening during the full length of the discussion. During the beginning, my dad brought the subject up as something to talk about during dinner. I then encouraged him to elaborate on the subject, so I could learn more about it. He told me that his business was getting ready to sell their new product, but their business partners were being stubborn. They wanted his business to order 500 of the products, and nobody would buy that many at first, plus they needed to see how the product would do in the market first. Their partners went on the reactions of their consumers when told of this new product, and thought they had better make 500 units for sale without first testing the market completely. I started to get some ideas about how to fix the situations, which I then presented to my dad. We discussed the subject and ways to fix it for 2 hours, and I eventually thought that baiting the partner business by telling them they would order more after the testing, was a good idea. This would prevent the partner business from becoming angry and leaving the deal, but would be enough time to get money from the project along with proper information to get rid of any doubts (or add to them). After that would be completed, my dad's business could attack the other businesses that he they believed were copying parts from their product, and the money would flow in. I believe he agreed with some parts of my idea, such as attempting to find a mediation between both the companies, and the investigations of his competitors products. In the end, I learned something new about his business and how to deal within business, and also something new about how my dad worked in certain situations.

ARG's (5)

We had to read the article on ARG's because we will most likely do one of these in class. It seems pretty understandable, but I still have a couple questions and concerns. First off, what type of enviorment will we be using for the ARG? Would it be the classroom, our lives I general, what? Secondly, I would like to know what makes it different from real life. Thirdly, I'm a bit worried about this no enemy thing. It said in the article that a game needs a big opponent, and thatif that is what a game needs, than an ARG isn't a game. I would find it hard to be in some type of gamish thing that has no overwhelming conflict. It would just seem like a chat room or something like animal crossing, blah. Anyways thoose are my only concerns and questions, as for your second question, I would assume that this ARG would grow realationships with other people in the class. It might also teach certain lessons that could benefit me later on in life.