As Klug states, “the experience a player has with a ‘game as story’ is even more satisfying than when that player watches a movie… In a game, the player is creating the next image by choices he makes during play and is more invested in the secondary image than a movie watcher can ever be.” Using a storyline is how they try and hook people into the game because it is very interactive and you are creating what happens. I think this is what scares me about video games. I get so involved that if I mess up or something in the story doesn’t go perfect, I feel like I failed. I find video games to be very stressful in this sense! In the article, Klug talks about how massive multiplayer online games utilize story because they involve change and conflict. These things are what makes the games interesting because everyone likes conflict!

I found it interesting that Klug related massive multiplayer online games to television. Every day, I want to see a new episode of my favorite show called, “The Young and the Restless.” I need to see what is going to happen next in the story line. Yesterday the show was cancelled but they put a reminder at the bottom of the screen that it would be returning tomorrow again. This is so that people, like me, don’t get out of the habit of watching their favorite shows. With multiplayer online games they need to do this as well so that people don’t get tired of playing their favorite games. If they can deliver changing content that wraps itself in conflict, and if they do this on a regularly scheduled basis, they are giving the audience what they are expecting.

Here is a clip of a Massively Multiplayer Game that I looked up on you tube….It is an advertisement for the game “Tabula Rasa.” During the ad you see this addition of a storyline in the game. It takes place in the near future, after an evil race known as “The Bane” have destroyed Earth and the human race has fled to space. In the game you are a survivor and you must face off against powerful alien soldiers, armored machines, and vicious predators in order to save humanity!

“Tabula Rasa combines a vast, persistent game world and ongoing storyline with fast-paced action, resulting in a striking new approach to the design of multiplayer online games.”

This is what it said at the end of a little write up about the game to hook the person into the storyline of the game. This is exactly what Klug was discussing in his article because he is talking about implementing stories in Massively Multiplayer games to get more people playing them. Here is the video…

As Klug suggests, In 10 years, gaming and television will be in the same space competing for the same time and dollars. Whichever takes the initiative first to try to capture some of the audience of the other, will profit. Currently, gamers are not taking themselves seriously as story tellers. Only time will tell if they ever will.

This issue deeply affects me because three years ago my mom got breast cancer and had to get a masectomy. Today, it is such an important part of being a woman that my mom is very self-conscious and in a way feels like less of a woman because of the images she sees on a day to day basis. Whenever she tries on t-shirts she must make sure that they aren’t too low or not too tight because then she feels uncomfortable. Even though you would never be able to tell. When we see all of these images of the perfect breasts in the media it makes the people who don’t have them feel that they are abnormal (which is the majority of women). I see my mom face this all the time and she, along with all the other women in the world shouldn’t have to feel like they have to to live up to this “ideal.” But as Tiffany noted in her presentation, Bourdieu says: “The media functions as models that the self continually measures itself against”.

I hate that I compare myself to people like this who are fake!!!

This is a split infinitive:

Eg: “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

The infinitive is to go, and it has been ‘split’ by the adverb boldly.

Split infinitives are frequently poor style, but they are not strictly bad grammar. In the example above, to avoid the split infinitive would result either in weakness (to go boldly) or over-formality (boldly to go): either would ruin the rhythmic force and rhetorical pattern of the original. It is probably good practice to avoid split infinitives in formal writing, but clumsy attempts to avoid them simply by shuffling adverbs about can create far worse sentences.

And that folks is what Wikipedia says a split infinitive is!!

My initial reaction, when I heard the news that the reality show “Survivor” would involve segregation, was one of disgust. What would the millions of people who have worked for years to ensure that everyone was indeed treated as equal, regardless of the color of their skin, think of such a backwards step? How ridiculous to separate contestants into teams according to whether they are Caucasian, African American, Asian or Hispanics? While I was appalled, there was also a morbid curiosity as to what the final result would be. Would the contestants remain true to their ethnicity or would interpersonal relationships evolve, that would transcend the lines of color?

In the article, Probst talks about the low number of minority applicants that apply for the show. This may be a symptom of something which is much bigger than a seeming lack of interest on the part of minorities. If one considers that many minorities migrating to the States are coming with little or no English, it is not surprising that they would not be able to apply for a spot on the show. I know that when Deal or No Deal came to Canada, I thought I would complete the application on-line. It turned out to be a very lengthy and complicated process that involved hours of writing and the ability to access and utilize the internet. Perhaps many of the minorities do not have the same access to the technology that is prevalent in the average American household. Statistics clearly indicate that other than the Asians, the minorities tend to score at much lower levels than their Caucasian counterparts. This would obviously contribute to a smaller number being able to get through the application process.

In the end, the fears of rekindling negative race relations never materialized. It seems that in the end we are self-centered and willing to do whatever it takes for us to get ahead. The contestants were willing to sacrifice anyone as long as it was to their benefit. What was proven is that it is not the color of the skin that matters, it is the color of money and people will do whatever it takes to win the million.

Here is the video preview of the Survivor Cook Islands show(incase you didn’t see it)…
Sorry its a little blurry but it was the shortest one!

Here is a video of the Advertisement so you can see how silly it really is…

HERE ARE THE LYRICS…
and below I will explain why I like this song…

“The Dolphin’s Cry”

The way you’re bathed in light
reminds me of that night
god laid me down into your rose garden of trust
and I was swept away
with nothin’ left to say
some helpless fool
yeah I was lost in a swoon of peace
you’re all I need to find
so when the time is right
come to me sweetly, come to me
come to me

love will lead us, alright
love will lead us, she will lead us
can you hear the dolphin’s cry?
see the road rise up to meet us
it’s in the air we breathe tonight
love will lead us, she will lead us

oh yeah, we meet again
it’s like we never left
time in between was just a dream
did we leave this place?
this crazy fog surrounds me
you wrap your legs around me
all I can do to try and breathe
let me breathe so that I
so we can go together!

love will lead us, alright
love will lead us, she will lead us
can you hear the dolphin’s cry?
see the road rise up to meet us
it’s in the air we breathe tonight
love will lead us, she will lead us

life is like a shooting star
it don’t matter who you are
if you only run for cover, it’s just a waste of time
we are lost ’til we are found
this phoenix rises up from the ground
and all these wars are over

over
over
singin’ la da da, da da da
over
come to me
singin’ la da da da, da da da
come to me

Meaning Of the Lyrics to me: (NOTE: there are alot of speculations as to what this song means)
I think the lyrics describe the reunion of two lovers after a period of separation. This song is really meaningful to me because I have been in a long distance relationship for almost 5 years… and when we get to see each other it reminds me of this song and the two lovers reuniting. (Corny I know! haha)
We also like to listen to this song together.
I find this song very soothing and relaxing!

It’s a good song! Check it out if you haven’t heard it!

The most severe consequence of Marx’ “Fetishism of Commodities” is that we are taking a finite resource and using it up in exponentially increasing amounts. In the days of our parents, things like appliances were built to last 30 or more years. Today, “built-in obsolescence” ensures that it is more expensive to repair something than to buy a new one and we now have a totally disposable society. This cannot go on indefinitely.

I am not proud to admit that I have bought into this “consumerist lifestyle”. I have been raised in the era of constant bombardment of advertising and the need for bigger and better. Whenever the newest products or things come out, I feel the inescapable urge to go and purchase them. Even though I have much more than necessary to survive, it seems like I always need more! How have we become so obsessed with the accumulation of goods? Will it only end when we have literally used everything up? Recycling is not a feasible long-term solution. As long as greed is the driving force, there will never be a day when enough is enough.

 

I just went to see this movie called, “ZODIAC” last week. It is based on the true story of unsolved crimes and it uses the actual case files from these crimes. “Zodiac” is a serial killer who terrifies the San Francisco Bay Area and taunts police with his ciphers and letters. The investigators in four jurisdictions search for the murderer. The case becomes an obsession for four men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues. I thought that this movie was very exciting and it keeps you guessing!…it was well worth going to see! I had never heard of the Zodiac killer and it was even more creepy knowing that this actually happened!!!

Here is what they think the actual Zodiac killer looked like:

In the article, some of the kids stated that music nowadays is all about making a profit and no longer contains important statements. In the past, artists would use song lyrics to send political and social messages out to the masses. While the messages were not always popular, they were viewed as important. The messages in today’s lyrics tend to be much more extreme and glorify violence and suicide, thereby desensitizing the youth of today.

I was shocked that modern music was of little interest to more than one-third of the youth Hayes interviewed. These youth would rather listen to LPs than CDs. Hayes felt that it is their way of fighting against our capitalist system and maintaining personal agency. Everything in today’s society is aimed at making our lives easier and automating everything. Perhaps this has gone so far, that the youth now actually crave doing the mechanical tasks that were involved with both playing and maintaining vinyl records. This interactive aspect of Vinyl records is something that you don’t have with CDs. These youth enjoy having to do the manual work because it shows their commitment to the music that they love. With LPs, all songs don’t sound the same. They have different crackles within them, which seem to the youth to be more authentic and natural. The quality of sound does not appear to be as important as the total experience surrounding vinyl. Additionally, a very attractive feature of the LPs was the actual album covers. These were produced as artwork that was as much to be appreciated, as the music inside.

While some may feel that it is surprising that today’s youth are so enamored with the oldie’s music, it really does make sense. If you listen to most of today’s commercials, they are filled with music that is older than 25 years. The reason for this is purely monetary as the advertisers are not required to pay the high royalties that today’s music would require. If the public is constantly exposed and bombarded by something, there is a very good chance that they will become accustomed to it.

While it is possible to purchase vinyl today, it is obvious that corporations are pricing the vinyl recordings at a 40% higher cost than CDs to ensure that they are still able to sell the CDs. This is the corporation’s only way to maintain their power over the consumer.

In the article, it talks about Adorno’s thoughts on “exchange value” and “use value.” Adorno believes that now we are all concerned with the exchange value of products. The use value is secondary. The value of products is determined by exchange value in our consumerist society. It relates back to supply and demand and our current obsession for collecting and collectables. A big part of the total experience is the hunt for that rare commodity that very few possess. It doesn’t matter whether you like the music. What determines the value is the scarcity of it. The price is not arbitrarily set by a corporation, but rather determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. This process of fetishization is the ultimate in determining the value of commodities.

The Last night some friends and I went to see the movie called, “The Number 23.” I found it to be a pretty good movie, but I was expecting it to be alot different by the commercials for it. It’s about a guy who’s wife buys him a book called “The Number 23″ and he reads it and starts to figure out it’s exactly like his life. Everything from the time he was born to his social ID# and drivers license number all added up to 23! He becomes obsessed with a book that appears to be based on his life and ends with the murder of the main character.

It was really interesting to watch the movie and see peoples reactions to it. You could just tell people in theatre were searching the movie screen for what things added up to 23. I  couldn’t necessarily see this but I’m sure people were trying to see what added up to 23 in their own lives…because I was! I think alot of people enjoyed the participation factor of the movie of trying to see what added up to 23. When people left the theatre almost everyone was looking around and joking about what added up to 23. I found this very interesting to see that people just couldn’t leave the movie without doing this. 

My roomate went out to her car yesterday and someone had written the number 23 all over her car in the snow. I thought this was pretty funny!

I would suggest going to this movie because it is really different and has a shocking ending! Although Jim Carey plays a completely new role that differs radically from his usually comedy…here is a little clip about the movie if you haven’t heard of it!