New Comm tech hmmmmm



The course has been a pleasant breeze up until now. Where 15 chapters are demanded to be read and I have less that a week. I must say vector, dialectic and meme does not phase me as such. However, finding out that using my daily communication technologies like myspace has become of use to me. I never knew that the quizs we took that told more about ourselves were memes!!! Wow, I actually find such definitions useful and when it came to simple definitions like technology that we use everyday, I struggled to come to terms with what it was...shame.



Similar courses like culture, media and society use similiar terms to this book and that makes it a whole lot better. Topics I found interesting in this course was about video games and questions like are they simulations or representations. I still haven't made up my mind. I think they're more simulations but who knows. I'll probably go good in this area of the test.



to be continued...





maybe lol



I have to go study now for the exam

I'm back and today was the day I completed the exam, i took my time but i think i passed lol. It was easier than I had expected.

I enjoyed the questions about the movies, as i found the movies interesting, something i'd usually never watch. My favourite was Alphaville and i didn't mind the voice over lol. La Jetee scared me and Primer was a little boring and hard to understand but I enjoyed the idea that they watched to make a time machine, the movie was so realistic which i enjoyed a lot unlike other movies such as Back to the Future that don't look realistic one bit.

I did enjoy finding out how technoligies work and how they developed over a period of time.

Writing blogs each week was fun, photoshop was enjoyable, the activites was quite easy.

All the theories in the book were interesting but trying to remember all the names is just to hard, i had trouble remembering who produced, directed, theorized what. I'm not good which dates either.

Yes, overall the subject was ok, not my favourite one i'm sorry.

I'd prefer to just buy new technologies rather than having to question how they were made, i think it's because I'm a little lazy, but who isn't these dahys in this century?

Thanks

Natasha

Tutorial Task: Complete the Exercises below, and then write a report in your blog about your experience doing the exercises; were there any problems? what were your solutions? Did you find it too simple, or was it confusing? Can you see how this software might be useful to you?

This excerise like the other one, started of simple and it actually remained simple throughout the excerise. There was a lot of reading involved which i didn't like reading and it consumed a lot of time. In result of this, I tend not to concentrate to the best of my ability.

There were no serious problems, lazy me forgot to press the arrow down where the bar names are is that makes any sense. I was looking for macro and couldnt see it straight away and didn't press that black arrow down to reveal everything so I asked Hannah who was sitting next to me to help me and so she told me i had to click "down arrow" and there I found it!

It was pretty simple. I don't like graphs in particular, these confuse me but when it comes to doing it yourself, you seem to understand it more.

Doing graphs might be of use to me where I have to do statistic graphs and such. I don't do busine or maths so it won't be of use to me there. I also like the idea of putting equations in aand pressing answer to get your result. When the numbers start to get high, that technique becomes very useful. Creating buttons was very neat too and it was interesting to see quickly which clients created gains and which incureed losses. I didn't understand what the recording button did. I didn't know if it worked or not, obviously it must have down something if i was able to get through the hole excerise.

It would be good if the excerise told me what the recording buttons purpose was so I would undertand why I'm clicking the buttons that I'm clicking.

Good tips that I hope to use, if the chance pops up!

Tutorial Task: Complete the Exercises below, and then write a report in your blog about your experience doing the exercises; were there any problems ? what were your solutions? Did you find it too simple, or was it confusing? Can you see how this software might be useful to you?

Microsoft is a very useful source, I use it for everything, I not only use microsoft word but microsoft powerpoint. This weeks tutorial class was pretty simply. I followed ther instructions and when ok. The question marks that were meant to be inverted commas confused me, i think it was a typo. The exercises were easy upto advanced exercise 1. Advanced exercise 2 was easy to start of with then i followed the prompts and looked for "create" and I couldn't find it. I took me maybe five minutes to find it. You had to go into "type a new list" and this wasn't said in the instructions. My bullet point was kept on "existing file". So yes after trying to fiddle around I found it.
It then said to go to add new but it was actually "new entry" however, I got in straight away.
When showing the tool bar, I couldn't distinguish the difference so I did it again and noticed that there was an extra grey bar, silly me!

After and other than that, I had no problems. It was a little time consuming which makes it a tedious process, but I got their in the end. I didn't find it too simple and it wasn't confusing at all, it might have been a little tricky. You just have to play around with it a bit and start to familiarize yourself with buttons that you usually next use. So throughout the end of the excerise I really had to concentrate on the instructions because I had never perfomed them whereas, the first three exercise I always do so I was just skim reading, asuming I was doing it right.
I didn't ask for help because i knew they were simple instructions, you just had to concentrate a little at the end.

Using letter and mailing has never been used by me, but I can see that it will become very useful. I like the idea that it makes copies of my letter into documents to as many as I want. It looks easier than trying to send copies via hotmail so i think that I mmight give it a go, especially when I comes to my resume and I want everything to go perfect.

Some useful tips!!!
Thanks

Video games success

Film characteristics have, to some extent, influenced and converged into video games. Some Hollywood blockbusters are routinely turned into video games as part of a wider process of developing successful franchises. (King and Krzywinska 2002:1). However, how might they offer their own distinct approach and pleasures that are currently making them more successful than film?

Watching movies, we enjoy obtaining the sense of escape and inspiration from the actor’s lives, imagining becoming them in their worlds. In video games, you can become them through... “Becoming actively involved agents in the world we escape into. This is what makes 3-D virtual worlds so compelling” (Christopher cited in Vorderer and Bryant, 2006: 92). Becoming someone different to ourselves and escaping to a world different to ours, we become the actors we watch on screen, experiencing the feeling and adrenalin we can’t in film.

Video games might share the same visual features as movies but their entertainment content is quite different. Films lack the element of control (Grodal 2000 cited in Vorderer 2006:43). Control gives us the chance to make a series of interesting and important decisions while simultaneously witnessing our consequences and outcome while navigating an open-ended world (Prensky 2006:61). A large satisfaction of control is when players feel themselves improving in their decisions, while aiming to a rewarding conclusion (Prensky 2006:59). Video games are a learning process and “ The secret to why people spend so much time on them is that they are learning things they need for the twenty-first century lives” (Prensky 2006:5). Control also causes a user to identify with a character to a greater degree than is possible with characters portrayed in film because the user is the central character in the game (Vorderer and Bryant 2006:43). Becoming identified with your character through the possibility of control is what makes video games a more exciting entertainment package than film.

Video games don’t need to encourage players to blast everything in order to become popular, neither do they need to be dramatic or consequential. One of the most successful video games is Will Wright’s The Sims, scoring 17 million fans (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). Why do people thrive for the virtual domesticity in Sims when they don’t in films? According to Psychology Today, it’s not the Sims themselves that go about their day-to-day routines but the spaces they inhibit (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). People can easily mirror their real-world homes by projecting aspects of their lives into the Sims characters (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). Will Wright states, “Sims is a laboratory for understanding not only our personalities, but also our personal spaces” (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk). Through playing video games, people understand more about them and this is an exciting journey that makes video games more popular than film. People can always pull back from film and criticize characters when they cross certain boundaries. In video games you understand your character since it’s possibly the only medium that allows players to experience guilt over the actions of their characters because they choose what happens to them (Jenkins 2007).Through such engagement we start to understand ourselves and this is why they are more as successful than film.

We cannot contribute to the narrative in films, but rather follow and accept what’s shown. The producer has all power. It is clear then, that there is a line between producer and the consumer (Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:153). Video games blur the boundary between author and consumer… “They are a two-way dynamic medium that have earned their own unique discourse” (Mark Bernstein cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004: 153). Games don’t ask the player to interpret what the author is trying to tell them (Pearce cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:147). Instead, “The author shifts into a role as facilitator, and the audience now takes over the role of storytelling and create their own narrative” (Pearce cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:153). Having this authority given to them, the line between audience and author becomes un-noticed and they are free to create their own entertainment in the game. It is clearly evident then, that having this two-way medium, makes us enjoy video games more than film.

Video games, whether designed for single or multiple players, simultaneously offer action on screen and the cooperation and friendship between the players. Video games are significant because “Players help others learn, by sharing information on strategy and technique through talk and observing the play of others.” (Newman, 2004). Movies don’t give you the opportunity of interacting with friends to that extent because you’d be missing parts of the movie’s dialogue.
Video games tend to set new goalposts or unveil more spectacular worlds that invite players to “just one more level”, making them reluctant to quitting until they’ve met their goals. (Jenkins, Henry, date unknown).This tactic is used as a reward for having survived the previous environment, making video games more attractive than films. Since video games are not finalized products like films, they are open to extension, repeatedly re-releasing upgraded versions. (Flynt, 2006:188). People who like a particular video game are sure to buy the upgraded version and therefore, video games succeed in the long run.

Time operates differently in video games then in film. (Joshua Meyrowitz 1997 cited in Cover). A video game can narrate the events of a thousand years but be played in a couple of hours. They give you no sense of knowing how long you’ve been accessing the virtual world and how long you can expect the program to continue (Kermode, 1967 cited in Cover). Time is unknowable and the situations are always un-expected. Unlike movies, you always have a sense of what’s coming in a structured time and this is why they are not as successful as video games.
On the whole, there are many contributing factors that make video games more popular than film. Firstly, you turn into a character who becomes actively involved agents while escaping to the world of your choice. Secondly, the element of control gives you power to make decisions and help you identify with your character to a better degree. Thirdly, the removal of the author gives you the freedom of storytelling. Socializing effectively and the irresistibility to play longer due to play value, along with the satisfaction of narrating events of a thousand years in a matter of hours, all contributes to an overwhelming, enjoyable experience, that make video games more popular and successful than film.




References

Jenkins, Henry, 2007 Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about video games debunked Online Available: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html Kcts Television

Jenkins, Henry, (Date unknown) Complete Freedom of Movement”: Video games as gendered play spaces. http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/complete.html

Fromme, Johannes (2003) Computer Games as a Part of Children’s Culture (1. The cultural and pedagogical relevance of electronic games) (Online) Available: http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/fromme/ GameStudies

Drucker, Steven, Li-wei He, Michael Cohen, Wong, Curtis, Gupta, Anoop (Date unknown) Spectator Games:A New Entertainment Modality for Networked Multiplayer Games (Online) Available: http://research.microsoft.com/~sdrucker/papers/spectator.doc Microsoft Research

Cover, Rob, (2006)Gaming (Ad)diction: Discourse, Identity, Time and Play in the Production of the Gamer Addiction Myth (Online) Available: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/cover Game studies

Paulk, Charles, 2006, Signifying Play: The Sims and the Sociology of Interior Design. (Online)Available: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/paulk Game studies

Vorderer, Peter, Bryant, Jennings (2006) Playing Video Games (motives, responses, and consequences) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers London.

Prensky, Marc (2006) “Don’t Bother Me Mom-I’m Learning” Paragon House, Minnesota

King, Geoff, Krzywinska, Tanya (2002) Screen Play (cinema/videogames/interfaces) WallFlower Press, London and New York

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, Harrigan, Pat, 2004, First Person (New Media as Story, performance, and Game) MIT Press, London, England.

Newman, James, 2004 VideoGames, Routledge, London

Flynt, P John, 2006, In the Mind of a Game, Thompson Course Technology PTR.