How Bad Can we get Addicted and Physically get involved with the Virtual World?

With the ongoing topic on internet addiction, the question arises whether we should consider internet as a new type of addiction or just a platform for people who are already addicted to other sort of things to experience it online e.g. online poker.

I personally don’t think internet could be confined to the world of phrases of the term addiction; it is rather a tool which I would consider as a second human brain or the greatest thing after the mythological library of Alexandria. The vast amount of information and things that can be done through it is profoundly astonishing and something more than we can imagine, at the same time without recognition from us it will not be able to subsist in our lives or in the dangling data wires. The question of addiction? Well humans have a tendency to align themselves and seek shelter in something which is safe proof for our life; how can we term the word addiction when there are millions of people who live their life through the virtual worlds, it is not that we are losing our connection to reality but rather confining ourselves in the beauty of something completely new, we could compare it to the ideology of “having or obsession to have a home” and label it as an addiction or something we are craving for in reality.

Internet is just another platform where the human kind has managed to bring something virtual to a more physical experience. Internet through the computer screen, with its videos, texts and photos intensifies our physical emotions. And the ideology of bringing the physical closeness to internet, a new device called the ismell has been invented, it can be attached to the computer and it will trigger our sense of smell physically though in reality the particular surrounding or the dish could be somewhere else in the world; this is just the starting step of experiencing the virtual world in real life stimulating our senses.

Humans have passed through different technological stages confining ourselves to a new technology every era from movies, to telephones and cars etc. Internet is also another age where we are simply just expressing our emotions because it brings all the things of old technologies into one simple easy to use technology. Its not an addiction but rather an admiration.

free downloading

I'm going to talk about free downloading.

To talk about the merits first, for example, a free MP3 file saves us money from the cost of buying CDs and lets us choose only the songs that we like. Also, we can play them in most of the computers and we can listen to the music with only a few simple clicks.

However I am going to take the stand against free downloading. The reasons being it takes lots of money and labor to create the artist’s music and it is their intellectual property and the singers cannot earn money through CDs because MP3 files on some sites are for free. Downloading these MP3 files for free violates the artist’s copyrights because there is no remuneration back to the artist. For that reason, singers, actors, and directors loose a lot of money.

Also, a corrupted downloaded file can carry a virus worm or Trojan that will corrupt your computer. I think, to eliminate free downloading, the creators should provide us with lot of services. For example, making downloading with fees to be easier and faster, and make it so that it is easier to find hard to find items.

Kim, Hye In

Two for the price of one

Today I bought Rilo Kiley's new album Under The Blacklight. I had downloaded the album when it first came out, and although it's very different from their previous albums — they've pretty much abandoned their alt-country indie roots and sold out — I like it enough to warrant buying it. The real point of this post however is not to ramble on about the album, but to highlight an interesting emerging trend in the record industry.

I very rarely buy CDs; I prefer the sonic texture and warm feel of vinyl, and the price of a new LP is comporable to buying the same thing on disc — around the $35 mark.

The recent surge in popularity that vinyl has enjoyed (largely I think due to the indie rock scene releasing screeds of various 7" editions of singles, particularly in the UK) is something that the industry has become aware of, and they're trying to make the analog product as attractive as the digital one. In order to do that, they have to include bonus material to entice consumers, similar in a way to how DVDs include special features.

Instead of getting a coupon to download (presumably DRM'ed) mp3's of the album from the label's site, — like what accompanied The Shins' highly-anticipated Wincing The Night Away earlier this year — packed inside the gatefold slipcase was a promotional edition of the full album on CD.

I think this is a really good idea; although I already have a digital copy of the album (albeit an illegal one), I now have a physical copy of a disc that would have most likely just sat around the record label's offices waiting to be thrown out or sold on eBay. It makes you wonder though, if they can afford to give away promo discs with vinyl copies of albums — and not charge any extra — how much of a profit margin exists in the Compact Disc market?

oh F%$&* THIS

Damn this Bloggy, i swear...

Yesterday..., i already forgot the date cause im the type to forget that type of sh#t but damn, i was trying to figure out what the hell to write on here. haha, cause after what went down on the (checks calendar) 26th.. NEVER AGAIN! So i thought..why not bring my frustrations ONLINE...after all, that IS what my essay question was about.. Virtual communities and such and such..

It all started the night before (aka 25th), when i had finished polishing up my 1500 worded essay. I thought to myself, hey, why not go into uni and type it up there..since its closer to the assignment box than West Auckland, u know? So i did. By 12pm (26th of September 2007), i had fully finished polishing up and re-reading the word-processed essay. Then Lagi thought to herself, 'hey imma get me some of dat chinesse'...yummm yummm..... then pressed control 'S' (to save the final product) SUDDENLY......the screen went blank...OH?... no panic... started looking for essay through folders and usb....OHHH?..EVERY WHERE...still no panic......log off computer...log back in...look again...OHHHHHH?..and again....and again...UHHH OHHHH....moves chair back a little....nostrils start flaring like crazy......panic rose from the bottom of my empty stomach giving me chills that seemed to seep out of my UNBELIEVING dark brown eyes.....and my appetite disappeared.

I couldnt find my essay anywhere...in other words, it was gone.. at 12 P.M...4 hours before the due time. So i sat my brown butt back down and started typing like crazy...at that time, i was on that buzz you get after taking too many party pills.. i kept telling myself..No pain, NO GAIN..hahaaaaaa By 3.45pm i had finished.. so pressed the 'print' button...... goes to printer....'Nothing spooled for ital005. please try again'...... presses print again.....goes to printer....same message... THIS occurred several times and continued until after 4.10pm....i email kevin straight away ( sorry for worrying you btw!) 4.15pm...sees the itc(or is it ICT?) people NEAR munchymart..they explain everything...and i walk away speechless....

4.30pm...sitting at computer waiting for printer to stop being a biatch and start doing what it WAS MADE to do....


MY POINT FOR THIS RAMBLING?????

Technology really IS a part of our lives...we need it to LIVE and get through with LIFE! ANNNND its PISSING me off, because when they DONT do what they are SUPPOSED to DO..then our lives are basicly ummm...whats another word for f...ed up?? yeah, think about it! were depending on them sooo much nowadays its at that danger zone... :( i guess its the future way of living...or is it the NOW way of living? i dont know anymore... what im typing out at this very moment...is just repetition of what other more popular and smarter theorists/ psychologists/ lecturers etc have been preaching for years...decades...centuries......just another voice in the wind i guess.. but the question still remains the same...what are we to do about it???? the dreading answer to that.....Nothing...absolutely nothing. and its just 'GUTTING' to know our fate...the red pill?? or the blue pill?? its your choice Neo..lol


We're at that age where to get degrees, papers and assignments need to be WORD-PROCESSED..keyword???- 'NEED'....



eh, EFF THIS Sht..

Gaming Experience

Playing game at home on the tv screen and playing internet games which connects players together, do the two give people different experience and one tend to prefer one from another? Does playing games on different medium give people different experience? And which one is the most preferred medium for people to play games? Personally, I tend to be sucked into the game itself as if I'm in the virtual world itself and get really tense even scream when I get attacked by the enemies or close to losing my life. Although I do get tense and scream comparing to the children that I've seen they are way more into the game than I am. When children play games, I've found that they tend to get really tense and simply cannot stay where they are , but instead they get closer and closer to the screen and move around. Maybe it is because that they are digital natives and see the “virtual world” as the normal world as they are so familiar with it. Playing games online gives oneself another different experience as one can interact with net players. Communication can be achieved through typing comparing this to PS3 this is a big step and improvement for the games. Many young people can play games online for hours and hours even for days just playing games. This is really to an extent hard to believe how they could do it for so long as I don’t really get this involved in playing a game. Stopping a game for me is totally fine, but I believe for other players they just don’t want to stop as they might miss out something in the game. Playing simple games on the mobile and ipod provide another kind of experience for people. The games in these devices tend to be simple which one could play whenever they had to fill up their time. By playing games through these devices, they are not as powerful to draw people into it as with video games and internet games. Is it the screen size or the complexity of the game that draws us into the game or is it both? It is really interesting to see how games improves combing communication and physical movement to make players feel involved.

Facebook.....a danger?

"Facebook is one of the world's fastest growing social networking sites and one that New York's attorney general says is unsafe."- a recent quote from the 3news website. The accusation that facebook is dangerous is a ridiculous one, simply because its the responsibilty of those on facebook to make their priles etc private. Unlike Bebo etc, facebook tailors its settings so that only those who know each other can view each others profiles. Those who become friends are invited to become friends. People on facebook have already made friends in real life and use facebook as the tool to keep intouch with them, that is the core reason why facebook even started. facebook and other sites warn those joining to make sure that they know who they are accpeting as friends, so really, who to blame?

Turnitin Now Working

Hi everybody.

Many of you have noticed that Turnitin was having issues this morning. Thanks for all of your emails and messages, it was very useful to get a heads-up quickly.

Fortunately Luke has been able to fix the problem and everything should work fine from this point.

If there are further problems which occur AFTER 1:30 PM on Wednesday the 26th, then feel free to get back to me.

Good luck!

- Kevin.

I found this article about Elton John wanting to rid the world of the internet. Here is a quote:

First, the crime. In an interview published in the U.K. tabloid the Sun on Aug. 1, Sir Elton claimed that the Internet was having a negative effect on the production of quality culture, since people were holed up in their rooms blogging instead of getting out and interacting with other people. And so he offered this proposal: "I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole Internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span."

While I do love the man's music and at karaoke I am without a doubt going to sing "Tiny Dancer" i think his viewpoints are quite frankly really stupid. Because if it was not for the internet and people working on music in the confines of their bedrooms we would not get the amount of talent that we have seen come through in all arenas of art music, film. photography. I mean quite honestly maybe he is able to have to be so cynical about people creating art of their laptop but he is afforded himself that luxurious viewpoint because of his large frame which is no doubt the result the result of his 250 million dollar fortune. He can live in a posh studio for a year and not worry about the bill. My viewpoint is that yes there are a lot bloggers with no lives there as he said but in destroying the internet you are damaging creativity and some talented people who unlike Elton do not have a PR machine or millions of dollars to spend on professionalising their music.

Turnitin

Has any one tried to send their essay to turnitin yet? Dont tell me its a personal attack... is it a sign im going to fail if im getting denied by turnitin? ouch....

Games... Will Bring Us Together.

Is it just me, or does gaming bring people together more than seperate them for the world?
Personally, gaming has always been a chance for me and my brother or my friends to just have loads of fun directed onto one medium - a game. I'm sure our parents were all the more happy for it in a way because it meant nothing in the house got broken from wrestling around or no bones were broken playing ridiculous sports outside.

Multiplayer games, such as the classics like Mario Kart, Goldeneye and Super Smash Brothers (to name a few of my old Nintendo games) and others like Tekken and Halo were something that could provide hours of cheap and fun (and seemingly safe) entertainment. It prevented us from getting into trouble during the holidays, but not only that, it also fuelled our imaginations and competitive spirits.

Looking through other blogs and listening to comments in the past few lectures it has become apparent that I am not the only one who has shared many special evenings bonding with my brother or my friends over a games console. Getting a new game as a kid would often compel friends to come over with controllers to share and learn the new game together. It was always a shared experience. Whilst we played we would eat and drink and talk. The multiplayer game was the host for a small party of friends. It ensured we were entertained and that we had plenty to share and talk about afterwards. Its for friends in a living room what a water cooler provides for tired office workers - a central place to assemble and talk and bond over something.

Playing in this way, I see no correspondence between videogames and segregation or violence or the like. Gaming has always been a social pleasure for me. But I agree, I've never sat around playing games like 'Manhunt' with friends. If parents show a little consideration to what their kids are playing - by paying attention to the ratings of games, then there is nothing to worry about. Me and my brother, both in our twenties, still continue to play weekendly. After a few games of FIFA 07, we even go outside to kick a soccer ball around to try and recreate some of the moves that we've tried on screen. If that isn't a healthy thing for a game to promote, then sue me. Multiplayer games are fantastic in my eyes, and they don't deserve all the bad press they get just because too many parents are letting their kids play the wrong games. Having played games as a kid, they don't need to be sadistically violent to be fun. They just need to be fun enough to bring people together the way the games I've named have done for me and my friends, and you're onto a winner.

Nintendo Wii's on its competition.

About one year ago, an esteemed colleague and I were writhing with anticipation of the release Nintendos next generation console, the Wii (formely know as the revolution). Its attraction was simple, that good ol' Nintendo gameplay combined with state of the art graphics, technology ect. Im sure everybody of the Generation X/Y demographic has fond memories of The legend of Zelda 1 and Super mario brothers and for that nostalgia alone, I scrambled to accumulate enough money to buy one. The nunchaku remote controller was my favourite feature. When I was sick of whacking virtual baseballs on-screen I could keep my peskys cousins at bay with the threat of a contoller to head contact. In the beginning of my Wii experience, I was clocking more than a ferrari murcielago. The longevity and fun factor of the Wii altered my lifestyle until I became somewhat nocturnal, only emerging from my dimmed cavern for neccesities of life (food and water). Concurrently the playstation was dropping its new feature console, The PS3 or the price soarer 3 as I refer to it as. I attended some exhibitions displaying its so called 'superior' graphics engine and its wireless controllers but all I could think about was the Wii. Origionality impresses me and I must admit the PS3 was just another 'upgrade'... Nintendo takes risks and to quote the S.A.S motto 'who dares wins'. Nintendo dared, Nintendo won. P.S im not a fanboy.

IDK, MY BFF JILL

A new advertisement for AT&T Wireless:

It's so true!!! Omg wtf are all these little kids saying these days? lol

Game'boys'...

Sooooo last weeks tutorial brought up some interesting thoughts for me, and quite possibly the other 3 people in the room ... As we go on about gaming, violence, geeks, and blame for mass murders, I take the general drift that Gaminig is for BOYS... Not saying that girls do not play them or enjoy them, but a quick look in any Video games store and its clear as day that Grand Theft Auto, Warcraft, Rugby 07 and Street Fighter were most probably not marketed to be played by girls. Hell even walking into the store, i felt the piercing stares of 4 or 5 pimply 13yr old boys wondering what the heck I was doing on 'their' turf.

Anyways... in our tutorial we began talking about gaming and Sexism. and without a doubt we have to concede that there is a certain sense of male domination in the gaming world. whether it be the violent fighting games that I'm sure most girls would not agree with or the anti-feminine narratives like Grand Theft Auto where lo and behold the women are most probably prostitutes (that you can press a few buttons to 'rape' her) or are pedestrians which are easily run onver, shot and killed. Lovely... now i myself am neither a raging feminist nor gaming addict and yet my small introductions into the gaming world have left me quite astounded at the overall representation of women in video games. Take for example, Tekken 5 (a game I actually CAN play), the women are all dressed in tight little dresses that accentuate both chest and butt area, yes I agree that they fight but the graphics have been so enhanced that not only are these women 'fighting machines' but they're sexy and visually stimulating for the boys that play them. now realistically I've never seen a kapoeira or karate master with the same size chest as any of the women in the Playboy mansion, but in Gaming world - this is fine... Too my shock not only are the women characters dressed like hookers but before and after fights they say some saucy little line like 'you want some more baby' or 'come and get me' (with the character bending over to show cleavage)... So what exactly are my little brothers learning about women I wonder?

so i take a step back and look at games like Lara Croft... Female protagonist... and what do we have her chest is enhanced, there are special moves to make her bend down and actions that accentuate both her 'booty jiggle' and cleavage. Kevin had the pleasure of learning about this too, if you don't believe me.

I suppouse all media have some sort of anti-feminist readings its just a matter of how subtle it is. However after all the talking of violence and guns etc in class, none of which particularly appeal to me. I thought i'd share an observation that I found rather intriguing. So who says gaming isn't for girls, perhaps it is only us that can stop these insults against us!?

Lena W

Rollcall: PEARLY.

Hi everybody.

Once again, more people have signed up in the last week, which is great. Also promising is that the number of people I can't identify is dropping - with one exception.

Whoever has the login of Pearly has posted for several weeks - which is great - but I don't know who they are.

As such, nobody knows who they are, and this isn't an anonymous blog. This means that anonymous posting isn't fulfilling the point of the assignment.

So, if Pearly could please tell us who you are, either by sending me an email or by signing off your next post with a name, that'd be great.

- Kevin.

Article about Google

I thought this article was pretty interesting, check it out for a quick read.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10465412

Cheers
Ranitha

Game is just a game in Life

My view on this subject is quite straight - everything is good in its place. Our lifestyle consists of lots of hobbies and activities. Game, smoking or alcohol can be part of it. People have free choices to enjoy them or totally get away from them. Video game violence critics generally believe that the computer and video game is harmful and addicting and which cause people, especially youngsters become aggressive and violent. But pondering this – film, television, cartoon book and other forms of entertainment are also flooded by all kinds of violent subjects, and they don’t raise such moral panic by doing so. In fact, such issues like violence, sexual themes or pictures shown in the computer and video games are mainly caused by the game makers – computer and video game industry. And government should take a full responsibility to regulate game’s content and the censorship. There is nothing to do with the game players. For example, if government allows drug selling in market, there is nothing wrong with the buyers. Game is just a game for fun.

Fans ahoy!

As Ebare claims in his article on digital music and subculture, the “cassette recorder is one of the audience’s most effective ‘weapons’ against the version of culture capital imposed” on society. Today of course the cassette recorder has been replaced by MP3s, i pods and filesharing programs such as Soulseek and torrents, as I described in my previous post. Ebare claims that these mixtapes and pirated copies are “counter-hegemonic practices by an active, politically-charged audience.” In this respect the term ‘pirate’ can be seen as apt. Back in the day, the pirate ship was one of the best examples of a direct democracy. They were anti-authoritarian, existed in their own stateless world and shared their bounty evenly between the crew. There was of course a captain, but he (or in some cases she) was under no illusions of job security. If the crew didn’t think the captain was acting in everyone’s best interest, there would be a mutiny. Similarly, the ‘plunder’ obtained from a money hungry mainstream music industry is shared amongst fans over the internet. Administrators or blog owners can be seen as the captain and if people don’t like the job they’re doing, they can simply start their own blog.

As Ebare’s article points out, it is subcultures who have made best use of file sharing technologies to create their own communities and new way of interacting with each other. He is correct to claim that there are active users (what he calls citizens) who are more than happy to share music as this boosts their ‘status’ and passive users such as leeches. The reason I’m so fond of the Soulseek program is that it is very subculture based. There are many different ‘rooms’ you can go into (ordered by subculture) such as black metal, hardcore punk, thrash, reggae and so on and talk to and share music with other like minded people. However another great avenue for sharing music I’ve begun to utilise more recently is the blog. A number of blogs have been set up recently as forums for old punks with huge, obscure vinyl collections to archive and share their rare records with others. One of the best examples is http://madblastsofchaos.blogspot.com/ set up by a guy from Hamilton. The interesting thing is that he also owns his own punk record store which makes claims from giants such as Real Groovy that music piracy is hurting business seem laughable.

I see the free sharing of music as a great form of promotion for artists. As far as I’m concerned their prime motivation for making music should be to expose it to as many people as possible, rather than simply make a profit. I also believe that if the first goal is achieved, the second will follow. Free downloads are basically an effective means of free advertising. Having been in many bands myself, I make a point of making our material downloadable on sites such as myspace and make sure its accessible on Soulseek. File sharing simply means you are exposed to a greater variety of music. It keeps up a healthy level of interest in music and since I began downloading albums, the money I’ve spent on physical copies has increased because lets face it, a double gatefold LP on slime green vinyl complete with poster is infinitely cooler than a bunch of MP3s and copied cover.

Like the pirate captain who becomes too power hungry and is forced to walk the plank, artists who speak out against music piracy, such as Metallica, Che Fu or Brad Guerwitz from Bad Religion, also suffer a backlash from their ‘crew’, losing credibility and hence record sales.

Psychotic Little Brother

I was thinking about what Kevin said about how when he was working at a videoshop: kids would be denied R-rated videogames, only to have their mothers return complaining and rent the games on their behalf. I think this issue with censorship is quite interesting.

I remember playing revolutionary-(in terms of violence) games when I was young like the original Grand Theft Auto, (where the player could run over long lines of Hare Krishna pedestrians), and Carmageddon (where the player would play as psychotic drivers and could run over people, cows etc) and we all sought after games like these more than anything else! The fact that we werent allowed to play these games gave us the incentive to find any way we could to get our hands on them.

Then when Grand Theft Auto 3 came out when I was about 15 I can remember that old feeling kicking in and went straight to buy it, HOPING to god that the clerk would take me for an 18 year old. "Oh umm sorry, I left my ID in the car.. cya" and home I went to my Mummy so she could get it for me, and after a very poor amount of convincing she did. Soon I was in a fantasy world working as a mafia lap-dog, where I could steal any car, drive as fast as I wanted, kill anyone in any number of ways. But I begun to get bored..

When I see my younger brothers play GTA now their game always consists of killing people this way, killing people that way, kill, kill, kill, and in the end when theyve killed in every way possible, they get bored and ask "arent there any other ways to kill?" When their friends come over and boot the game up, the first question they always ask is "what are the weapons cheats?" "what do I press to shoot?" and "How do I find prostitutes?"

I have second thoughts about getting a pirated copy of Manhunt now...

In this sense, videogames are really not a good thing for society, and sure as hell arent a good thing for kids. (Once youve seen a kid hack off someones head with a hammer, youll know where im coming from). Some awareness is all thats needed. Parents really need to see what their kids are playing before they buy an R rated video game ignorant of the Contains: graphic, high level, coarse, sadistic violence label.

Azureus

I feel sorry for my mum and dad who are still using dial up back in Bolivia.
I just reached my 10 gigabytes cap for this month so I am stuck with dial up til the first of October. The main reason I reached my limit this month is because I've downloaded all of the episodes from Flight of the Conchords, Sicko, and a Japanese movie, Kamome Shokudo.

I was at a friend's house a couple of days ago who had recently seen Habana Blues at the Academy Cinema and was captivated by the soundtrack of the film and really wanted to buy it. But he couldn't get it anywhere, "I even tried Amazon" he said with a disjointed tone. So I made the next obvious question, why don't you just download it? But he didn't know how.

That is when I realised that perhaps many people in class don't fall under the geek category like I do and wish they learnt how to get stuff off the Internet. So here is my attempt to teach you guys.

First thing you do is, visit the Azureus website and download the software. This is pretty straight forward, just follow the wizard. Once you have the Vuze software, as they call it, all you do is go to Google and type what ever it is you would like to download and make sure you type torrent at the end of your entry. A website like this is going to show up, click on the download torrent and you will get a small file of about 54k into your computer, open that file with Azureus and it will automatically start downloading your film or music. It is so simple it upsets me.

My friend not only has the soundtrack now but he also has the movie.
A bit off the subject, please watch Indigenous affairs on Maori TV next Sunday at 9:30, they are going to broadcast a documentary on Bolivia which seems to be quite good.

See you all in class tomorrow.

Poor internet usage

My use of the internet has degenerated into simply a new way of expanding on the age old "did you see that bloke.......?" and laughing at others misfortune. This is mostly due to the fact that i've only recently decided to 'check out this youtube thingy'. Most innapropriatly the first thing i looked up was 'ice hockey fights' and have only continued to use it to see sports fights, streakers and old letterman interviews.
A fine use for my rather expensive Pc and broadband connection.
The only other thing im using it for these days is study for pub quiz on wikipedia. i make more money in bar tabs doing that than i do working. classic.
Regarding the previous post where Tucker Max was introduced - http://www.tuckermax.com/. the best thing about this bloke is that he has managed to turn what originally started out as an internet page that was designed to get him a date in to what could only really be described as a empire of different sites under his rudius media label, to combination of which manage to earn him a (self confessed) 10 000 bucks (US) a month. Isn't this a great example of what the internet can do? it allowed a drunk bloke who tells stories about spewing, drinnking and rooting to get rich and famous. fantastic. Hey- i even brought his book, avidly titled 'I hope they serve beer in hell'.

Warning: Explicit content may offend...

In response to Hannah’s post regarding professional bloggers, I would like to share two sites that I personally enjoy: www.maxtucker.com and http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/. These two blogs basically feature controversial (and hilarious) real life stories from their daily lives, both resulting in best selling books.

Tucker Max recounts his drunk, obnoxious, womanising ways with absolutely no remorse, shame or anonymity. On the other hand, Abby Lee (a pseudonym) uses her blog to share sexual exploits and resulting her feelings and thoughts.

What is especially interesting is how they have both been affected by the celebrity that has accompanied their success: a mixture of praise and disgust.

Tucker Max, who embraces fame, is the first to admit that his notoriety has only further enabled and encouraged him to act like an even bigger menace, providing him with even juicer fodder to share with his devotees, whilst Abby Lee, who endeavoured to remain anonymous (but was later ‘outed’ in the media by the London Sunday Times) has experienced quite a negative backlash in response to her frank and explicit sexual diary.

Not only did she lose her job as a result of her outing, but she and her family became the target of the merciless British tabloid press, causing quite significant ramifications to all of their lives.

Anyway, I thought these were two interesting examples of people that have experienced fame and success through blogging. I highly recommend checking out their sites if you are keen for a fun and smutty read!

Personal Computers and Consoles

It seems like the future of gaming lays more within the hands of the consoles judging by the recent game sales trends and how major game development companies have turned their attention to making games for this platform. But what will happen then to the computer gamers?? Surely the computer will not solely become and instrument of non-gaming things, nor the console remain stagnant as simply a game specialist.

With the advent of the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, we saw a leap into a completely different realm from the ways of the Xbox (The First Xbox from Microsoft) and the Playstation 2 from Sony. Within this first generation of consoles there lay an ability to upload music from compact disc and put it onto your console to listen to it within select games as a soundtrack to your gaming experience. Which vastly improved some games' dismal repetitive soundtracks. With this new generation of gaming consoles, we have seen the expansion from simply music players, to movie players as well. This new ability has required more hard drive space which can be used for not only movies and music, but also game demos. With the Xbox live marketplace (an online feature that requires an annual or monthly subscription fee),  you can download demos of all the new games that are being sold in the store currently, or are yet to be released. This addition of video and game download has brought the console much closer to the PC as far as content. Yet it still lacks when it comes to the functionality of the PC because the PC can do a lot more productive things. What I think we will see is the mergence of Television, Home Theatre, Gaming and basic computer tasks (email, internet) all wrapped up into one package, A "Jack of all trades".

A noticeable feature of the two platforms differences is their standard control inputs. While both console and PC users can buy different controllers like steering wheels and joysticks, the standard controllers are keyboard and mouse for the computer (arguably the better for first person shooters such as counter-strike and strategy games like age of empires) and game controller for the consoles (a better all rounder). Moreover with the "Wii", Nintendos entry into the console wars, we have seen the first move towards more realistic and less abstract control input. It operates on motion sensors within the controllers that respond to your movements and translate to an action on screen. It makes you feel as if you actually are swinging at your friends face as you try to knock him out in a comical representation of a boxing ring. It will be interesting to see where these platforms decide to compromise through evolution, and if there even exists these platforms to even compromise with each-other at that point.

The consoles are making their way away from the specialist gaming platform and branching out into more capable machines, but as they become better at more things, I ask you the question, how far is this melding of specialization going to continue? Would it be ridiculous to assume that we will have one computer in our house that controls daily functions such as energy management, plays us our favourite music, communicates with our friends and enables us to play our newest games online, together?

StarCraft in South Korea

"Professional gaming in South Korea is an example of how e-sports can attain a social status

similar to physical sports"

The fame of StarCraft online games in South Korea shows how online games can effect the real lives and in South Korea, there are many proffessional online-gamers

who are treated as celebrity often appear on news and reports. I am also from South Korea but at first I couldnt understand the fact that such a childish game can be treated as 'culture' and the proffessional gamers? >.< and quite often people die in internet cafes, playing online-games day and night due to not sleeping or eating properly.

There are so many internet clubs and cafes and StarCraft syndrom created so many new jobs. There is a special television cable channels on StarCraft mania who enjoys the live competition between the proffessional gamers.

There are people doubt about how long the StarCraft will last in this fast growing game industry, yet the realease of StarCraft 2 and the clip which Kevin showed us how the StarCraft manias went mad with the new graphics and structures of the game.

The seemingly overnight emergence of online gaming serves as a successful case study in South Korea's drive to strengthen its flagging economy with new technologies. An unprecedented program to build a national broadband network has provided the fast Internet connections required for online gaming to thrive. The digital pastime has, in turn, created new businesses looking to meet the demand for more products.
More than 28,000 gaming parlors operate throughout the country, according to various estimates--one for every 1,700 residents. Three cable TV channels are dedicated exclusively to covering tournaments and how-to shows on games like Blizzard Entertainment's "StarCraft," a real-time strategy game not unlike the Milton Bradley analog classic "Stratego."

The gaming boom also shows how quickly a relatively new technology can inspire widespread cultural changes. In just a few years, online games have become serious competition to movies for mass entertainment in South Korea, despite the stereotypical images of game parlors as ill-lit rooms filled with cigarette smoke and budding criminals.
"PC baangs," as the parlors are known, are usually clean and wholesome places where teenagers often go for dates. Last year, Webzen invited gamers and their families to an event to help dissipate some of the negative reputations of online gaming in downtown Seoul. Around 30,000 people showed up.

http://www.news.com/Consumers-Gaming-their-way-to-growth---Part-3-of-South-Koreas-Digital-Dynasty/2009-1040_3-5239555.html

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality

I really confused about the difference of these three technologies. For this reason, I did research from wikipedia, and find different answers.

First, ‘Virtual Reality (VR) is an environment that is simulated by a computer.’ (It is the most clearly definition for me to understand.)

About Augmented Reality, some one states, ‘Augmented Reality was introduced as the opposite of virtual reality: instead of diving the user into a synthesized, purely informational environment, the goal of AR is to augment the real world with information handling capabilities.’
Other arguments say: ‘VR is a special case of AR, in the sense that AR adds to what VR already does.’ Or ‘Augmented Reality displays will overlay computer-generated graphics onto the real world. AR is concerned with the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and "augmented" by the addition of computer generated graphics’.I think the following explanation would be more suitable: The TV overlay isn't a very good example for Augmented Reality since by some definitions it isn't AR at all. Ronald T. Azuma defined AR as systems which:1. Combine the virtual and the real2. are interactive in real time3. registered in 3DAugmented Reality is to enhance their field of view with virtual elements usually generated by a computer.

Mixed Reality is ‘the merging of real world and virtual worlds to produce a new environment where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact.’ Probably a specialisation of augmented reality and interactive media(i guess).

Honestly, I still unable to distinguish AR and MR very clearly. There is some clips to view from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4891862904939433910. (don’t know how to upload them, Sorry ar =) ).
--Xiaofei H.

MANHUNT

The 31 October sees the release of Manhunt 2, the second release of the controverisal Manhunt game series created by Rockstar Games. The Manhunt game series revolves around a graphically violent narritive where you play as a character who must survive planned carnage set up by 'the director' (owner of a Snuff Porn distribution company) by performing executions on gang members. The degree of violence in which you perform each execution gains you more or less points; for example a plastic bag usability for execution ranges from strangling the viction to pulling it over his head and performing funky move in which breaks the gang members neck.

Controversity has surrounded the manhunt games series ever since arrival on the market in 2003. It has been banned, criticised and even linked to a murder of 14 year old Stefan Pakeerah in England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Leblanc

British, New Zealand and Australian ratings authorities all banned Manhunt and it looks as though the same will happen to Manhunt 2, however they still seem to allow films such as the Saw 1,2 and 3 and Hostel to be viewed in our cinemas. To me the sadistic violence inherent in both Saw and Hostel would worry me more, then the cartoon violence within Manhunt gameplay. The higher truth modality within films such as Saw and Hostel of whether such a sadistic piece of violence is realistic does not come into effect as much within gaming.

However is this all controversy and publicity on the game really going to stop gamers from playing it? Or is it only going to increase the curiosity of a wider range of gamers to see what the hell all this public outcry is about? the media has really saved Rockstar Games a heap of money on advertising, for the amount of primetime exposure their game has received on all forms of media mediums.

The Golden Shield Project

Aka the 'Great Firewall of China' is a censorship and surveillance project that is run by the Chinese government. The purpose of this filter is to enable it easier for police or other government agencies to monitor what information has been moving in and out of the country and by whom. They have collaborations with American companies such as Cisco systems (Provide hardware) and other major search websites such as Google & Yahoo.

There are a large number of sites that are not available to Chinese internet users and these sites are important to the history of the country. An example of a blacklisted search term is 'Tiananmen Square' in reference to the infamous protests of 1989. If you go here http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org you can test to see if a website is banned. Very useful and important sites such as Wikipedia are not available to these people.

In April 2004 a journalist called Shi Tao used his Yahoo account to send details surrounding the governments plans for the news coverage of the 15th aniversary of Tiananmen to an overseas website. His email was caught by the golden shield and the Chinese government requested his identity (and files) from Yahoo. They obliged and he was arrested and placed in prison for ten years.

Google's slogan 'Do no Evil' doesn't fit with their censoring of websites.
Yahoo would not be the term that comes to mind after your free webmail host gives you up for an opinion.

The Chinese government is wrong in their actions but when international megacorporations are complicit why is it we rarely see them in that negative light and their actions condemmed by websites?

It makes me wonder... perhaps those sites are filtered over here.

GTA - Agency?

I remember being at high school and eargerly waiting for the holidays for two reasons. 1) Obviously no school, and without a part time job in those days it actually was a holiday. 2) Come holidays my broter and i would always either go the whole way and purchase a new game or simply take the less risky option and rent one for a week or so.

For me there was nothing more excitiing then getting home with that new game and opening the case to read through the manual and decide on which players, tactics i would take when playing the game. Being the younger out of myself and my brother, i often found myself watching him play the game. This is because quite simply my brother was better at gaming than me in general. I didn't mind however as i used to love watching him play the game as he would usually play quite well and therefoe it was a joy to watch. however i often found myself watching him play but at the same time thinking of what i would do at the same point in the game. This is where the frustration would kick in, i would adopt the backseat driver approach and call out what i thought were the right things to do. being the observer meant i wasn't fully immersed in the game like him, nonetheless, for me it meant i could relax, eat, drink and if he stuffed up i wouldn't feel bad as it couldn't possibly be my fault.

After a couple of years of watchig my brother play, i soon took over in the skill department and quickly became the one who would win the 2 player tournaments we would have. this is when i decided to buy Grand Theft Auto myself and finally try to play a lengthy role play game. the thing that attracted me to the game was the idea that you could simply scrap the narrative and go off and pretty much do whatever you wanted. Kevin touched on this in the lecturers, and refered to it as 'agency', basically meaning the extent to which a player can go freestyle with what they are doing and the question of whether the prodcers of the game had intended it for that use. With a game like GTA, its obvious that the porducers have made the game with the intention to give the player as much agency as possible. However whether or not the things you can do in that game are actipons that the porducers didn't intend is where i'm unsure. If they have produced this game with all its freedom (guns, bikes, cars, jumps etc) they obviously know the each player of the game will manipulate the equipment in the game to do whatever they want.

Finally in tutorials we spoke about 'consequence in game', which is the idea of what will happen to your character or whatever you are controlling when you die or are hurt etc. we spoke about how through the existence of consequence, a players immersion can be depleted, which i feel is very true. if you know that you can walk freely amongst a stage filled with 'badies' for example, your immersion is taken away as you know you can die and just restart the game from the last saved point. it got me thinking about about how we can increase consequence. Imagine if you purchased a game and had one life and if you died had to take the game back to the store you bought it from and had to have it reset, maybe not something as extreme as that but you get the idea. In this instance, you would definately become more immersed through increased concerntration and the fear that if you died, the consequences would be far more inconvieneint then simply loading your saved game and starting again. just a few thoughts, would love to see what 'consequence' increasing ideas anyone else can think of....

David Dunlop