For the final entry in "I Wish I'd Written That" I have focused on articles written by Lane Haygood. Haygood writes for the blog I also write for, and every Friday when he posts I always read his articles and wish I could write as eloquently as he does.
1. Of JRPS and Nerds... and Nerd Love
As an unashamed nerd and lover of video games, if those two things can be different, this article immediately caught my attention. The one section that caught my eye was this:
"Social networking meant for gamers will have the same problem that social games have: the only people actively engaging in seeking companionship will be in entirely the wrong proportions. That is, the available, non-sociopathic, non-creeps will be vastly outnumbered, and any likely suitors/suitoresses will be frightened off by the crawling, grasping misogynist hordes."
The evolution of social networking has been something I have been interested in for a long while. Haygood makes a great point in the above quote about the problems with social networking in general.
2. Gamestop Gonna Get Sued
This article got me interested as I actually work for Gamestop. The article tells the story of a group of Gamestop customers who are upset that the used version of their game does not come with the downloadable content that the new version has. It was great to have Haygood write this article as he actually works as a prosecutor for a small district in Texas. The part of the article that got me thinking was this:
"But is that really a valid suit? After all, should consumers have a reasonable expectation that they are buying a full game when they buy it used and at a discount, especially when disclaimers appear on the packaging that downloadable content is available only to first-time purchasers? Would a consumer expect a used car, for example, to still be under the manufacturer’s warranty?"
This is something that I have been pushing more employees to inform the customer about for a long while. As I have had personal experiences with upset customers over the fact that they are unable to download content included in the new version of the game, I do not want anyone else to have to go through the same thing. I am very interested to see how this class action lawsuit pans out.
3. Double-Fisted Posting: On Video Games and Economics
It was very interesting to read about the various economics involved with game. The part that was the most interesting was this:
"I would argue that guild microeconomies and the wider, Auction-House based WoWconomy are the best modern examples of Marxist economics at work. This is, however, subject to a few corrupting influences, such as the availability of gold (currency, which has only a social exchange value) from a black market. Most gold sellers do not obtain their supplies of gold from legitimate means (such as doing quests, selling drops, or putting the products of labor on the Auction House) but through the illegitimate means of stealing accounts and selling all of the equipment."
One does not usually connect real world philosophy, such as Marxism, with the world of video games.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
I Wish I'd Written That: Part Four
For this week's "I Wish I'd Written That" I do not have a theme I stuck with. I just found three recent articles that peaked my interest.
1. Tokyo Beat Down: The Story of Yakuza
The Yakuza game series is one of my favorite series'. The combination of the drama, character development, and action in the games always keeps me on the edge of my seat and makes it hard to put the controller down. I knew the games had a tough time being localized for non-Japanese speaking countries, but it was interesting to read this article and learn just how difficult the process actually was. The one section of the article that intrigued me the most was this:
"It dropped the same week as LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, received a handful of glowing reviews, and quietly disappeared, selling only a (reportedly) scant 40,000 copies. Why, you might ask, release it at all? Sega says the answer was 'for the fans.'"
This part actually made me smile as most companies, especially certain video game ones, are not generally known for releasing a game unless they are sure it will be a big hit. It is good to see there are some left who remember that it's not all about the money.
2. Dr. Ed Roberts, 'Father of the PC,' Dies at 68
This is a short article, but an interesting read. I was not even aware of this man's existence until I read the article. The part that caught my eye was this:
"Roberts later got his medical degree, becoming an internist. His son said Roberts remained interested in modern technology, and up until his death was asking about the Apple iPad. 'He was interested to see one,' said David Robert"
It was nice to read about someone his age who was still hip to what new technology is coming out.
3. Bottling Lightning: Recording the Music of Battlefield: Bad Company 2
I still like to call myself a musician, although I have not had the chance to play with my piano as of late. As a "musician" any articles dealing music interest me. The soundtracks to movies and video games are incredibly important to movies and games, as it engages the viewer and player in the medium. The part of this article that interested me the most was this:
"While it may not be too unfair to picture game development as a dreary building full of people hunched in front of computer monitors for months on end, the industry certainly has plenty of appealing aspects as well. Obviously weapon demonstrations are a blast; motion capture sessions can be counted on to provide a few laughs for the uninitiated; and don't forget the occasional company picnic. But perhaps one of the most genuinely dramatic, if not fascinating events that can happen in game development (and sometimes the least understood) is the orchestral recording session."
As I have heard both horror and amazing stories working for the video game industry it was nice to hear that working in the music side of things is a lot of fun.
1. Tokyo Beat Down: The Story of Yakuza
The Yakuza game series is one of my favorite series'. The combination of the drama, character development, and action in the games always keeps me on the edge of my seat and makes it hard to put the controller down. I knew the games had a tough time being localized for non-Japanese speaking countries, but it was interesting to read this article and learn just how difficult the process actually was. The one section of the article that intrigued me the most was this:
"It dropped the same week as LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, received a handful of glowing reviews, and quietly disappeared, selling only a (reportedly) scant 40,000 copies. Why, you might ask, release it at all? Sega says the answer was 'for the fans.'"
This part actually made me smile as most companies, especially certain video game ones, are not generally known for releasing a game unless they are sure it will be a big hit. It is good to see there are some left who remember that it's not all about the money.
2. Dr. Ed Roberts, 'Father of the PC,' Dies at 68
This is a short article, but an interesting read. I was not even aware of this man's existence until I read the article. The part that caught my eye was this:
"Roberts later got his medical degree, becoming an internist. His son said Roberts remained interested in modern technology, and up until his death was asking about the Apple iPad. 'He was interested to see one,' said David Robert"
It was nice to read about someone his age who was still hip to what new technology is coming out.
3. Bottling Lightning: Recording the Music of Battlefield: Bad Company 2
I still like to call myself a musician, although I have not had the chance to play with my piano as of late. As a "musician" any articles dealing music interest me. The soundtracks to movies and video games are incredibly important to movies and games, as it engages the viewer and player in the medium. The part of this article that interested me the most was this:
"While it may not be too unfair to picture game development as a dreary building full of people hunched in front of computer monitors for months on end, the industry certainly has plenty of appealing aspects as well. Obviously weapon demonstrations are a blast; motion capture sessions can be counted on to provide a few laughs for the uninitiated; and don't forget the occasional company picnic. But perhaps one of the most genuinely dramatic, if not fascinating events that can happen in game development (and sometimes the least understood) is the orchestral recording session."
As I have heard both horror and amazing stories working for the video game industry it was nice to hear that working in the music side of things is a lot of fun.
Friday, March 26, 2010
I Wish I'd Written That: Part 3
For this week's "I Wish I'd Written That" I decided to focus on the universal portal for journalism: Poynter Online.
1. Will iPad Journalism be 'Good Enough' or Better?
Budding technology in journalism has always been an interest of mine. I've closely followed how technology has changed the industry, so I am very interested in how the iPad will either help or hinder journalists in the near future. The one section of this article that peaked my interest was this:
"The iPad, with its vibrant screen, fast processor and sleek design, doesn't look like a "good enough" device to me (though there are plenty of things it can't do-- yet). So the journalism that prospers on the device probably won't be, either."
With all the conveniences of the iPad, I have high hopes it will help journalists do their job better.
2. How ProPublica Investigated Nurses & You Can Too
I have many friends in the heath care industry, as registered nurses, nurses in training, and doctors to be, so this article caught my eye immediately when I saw it. The article has a few good points for investigative journalists, but there was one that I thought was the most interesting:
"This story was designed so that readers and users could interact with it in the way they saw fit. We put our database online so that users could search for sanctioned nurses and review all of the examples we cited (i.e., when we said we found 80 nurses, our site offered links to all of them). Dan Nguyen of ProPublica did stunning work making the database user-friendly."
The ability for readers to actually interact with this article is groundbreaking, in my opinion. The journalism industry is changing drastically, both in good and bad ways, but this aspect is a very good thing. I mean, how can a journalist report on what is happening in his or her beat without the feedback of the public itself?
3. Boyd Memoir Tells of Race, Politics, Plagiarism at the New York Times
I only know of the Jayson Blair's plagiarism through a few different news stories focused on plagiarism. I never knew of the gossip and racism that followed in the wake of his resignation. The one section of this article that got me thinking was about the morale of the newsroom after the fiasco went down:
"Days after the new appointments, terrorists struck the World Trade Center, giving the Times newsroom an opportunity to focus on a major news story. It had major journalistic success, winning seven Pulitzer prizes in 2002. That raised morale, of course, but then Blair's plagiarism came to light in the spring of 2003. Blair soon resigned and the Times wrote a massive investigative piece on his deception."
What made this the most interesting for me was the fact that the tragedy of the World Trade Center massacre rose morale for the newsroom. What I instantly wondered was, "Do those journalists who won the awards feel bad for prospering after such a huge, sad event?"
1. Will iPad Journalism be 'Good Enough' or Better?
Budding technology in journalism has always been an interest of mine. I've closely followed how technology has changed the industry, so I am very interested in how the iPad will either help or hinder journalists in the near future. The one section of this article that peaked my interest was this:
"The iPad, with its vibrant screen, fast processor and sleek design, doesn't look like a "good enough" device to me (though there are plenty of things it can't do-- yet). So the journalism that prospers on the device probably won't be, either."
With all the conveniences of the iPad, I have high hopes it will help journalists do their job better.
2. How ProPublica Investigated Nurses & You Can Too
I have many friends in the heath care industry, as registered nurses, nurses in training, and doctors to be, so this article caught my eye immediately when I saw it. The article has a few good points for investigative journalists, but there was one that I thought was the most interesting:
"This story was designed so that readers and users could interact with it in the way they saw fit. We put our database online so that users could search for sanctioned nurses and review all of the examples we cited (i.e., when we said we found 80 nurses, our site offered links to all of them). Dan Nguyen of ProPublica did stunning work making the database user-friendly."
The ability for readers to actually interact with this article is groundbreaking, in my opinion. The journalism industry is changing drastically, both in good and bad ways, but this aspect is a very good thing. I mean, how can a journalist report on what is happening in his or her beat without the feedback of the public itself?
3. Boyd Memoir Tells of Race, Politics, Plagiarism at the New York Times
I only know of the Jayson Blair's plagiarism through a few different news stories focused on plagiarism. I never knew of the gossip and racism that followed in the wake of his resignation. The one section of this article that got me thinking was about the morale of the newsroom after the fiasco went down:
"Days after the new appointments, terrorists struck the World Trade Center, giving the Times newsroom an opportunity to focus on a major news story. It had major journalistic success, winning seven Pulitzer prizes in 2002. That raised morale, of course, but then Blair's plagiarism came to light in the spring of 2003. Blair soon resigned and the Times wrote a massive investigative piece on his deception."
What made this the most interesting for me was the fact that the tragedy of the World Trade Center massacre rose morale for the newsroom. What I instantly wondered was, "Do those journalists who won the awards feel bad for prospering after such a huge, sad event?"
Friday, March 19, 2010
I Wish I'd Written That: Part Two
For this week's installment of "I Wish I'd Written That" I decided to focus on Newsweek, as many of their blogs are quite interesting to read.
This blog immediately caught my attention due to the title, because in my many adventures around the internet I have watched my fair share of gruesome death videos. I don't know why I watch these videos, but the morbid side of me forces me to watch them. The part of this blog that stood out the most to me was this:
"The Brancheau video isn’t autopsy imagery, but it is an issue of free speech and privacy—and in many ways, say legal experts, the precedent set by Earnhardt could still apply. 'Certain speech is not as valuable as other speech, and I think we need to say that,' says Solove, the author of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet."
My only problem with this logic is that it could possibly open the floodgates of what is "valuable" and what is not. I personally believe that all speech is valuable to someone in some way. Who can decide what future generations will decide what is valuable?
The idea of having a cyberspace "army" has been around since the early days of networking computers together. The idea of private companies educating people to form our "defense" against electronic attacks. This was the one part of the article that stood out the most to me:
"It was the first Cyber Challenge, in 2009 and sponsored in part by Paller's organization, that piqued Coppola's interest. The cybersecurity simulation (titled "Netwars") required the 240 contestants to hack into 12 servers. Each server was worth points and whoever had the highest tally at the end of the game would be declared the winner. But instead of going from server to server, Coppola decided to hack the scoreboard and give himself the most points."
The best part about this is that he actually won the competition by essentially cheating.
This article caught my attention, as I was under the impression that the gender gap in the workplace was almost non-existent, but apparently I was completely wrong. The opening to the article caught my attention the most:
"A new report by the World Economic Forum finds that even though more women are employed around the world than ever before, and now make up 52 percent of U.S. workers, major multinational companies are failing to capitalize on their talents."
It amazes me that we live in 2010, and problems we faced fifty years ago are still around.
Friday, March 12, 2010
I Wish I'd Written That: Part One
For my first blog entry in the "I Wish I'd Written That" series, I've decided to focus on one of my favorite sites: 1up.com. As an unashamed nerd, I browse this site almost daily for my video game related news and articles. Some of the best articles I've read have come from here, so here I have linked to three recent posts that have had certain parts that made me think.
As the article points out in its opening, science fiction and aliens in video games are a dime a dozen. Players enjoy the feeling of being transported from their normal, everyday lives into the shoes (or claws depending on the species) of some sort of alien creature. Before reading this article, I took alien-based games for granted, and I didn't even think that these games, while being "alien" and different, were still coming from a human perspective. The one part of the article that got me pondering was this:
"Inhuman otherness isn't something that can be achieved in video games at this point in time. Short of a full body and sensory altering piece of tech, no controller and television display is going to make you feel like you're a creature not born on this planet. At this point, though, that's no bad thing. Right now, game makers and players should be concerned with getting games to meaningfully and convincingly convey humanity before we start working on evoking the interstellar other. We're getting there. Every time we construct a new digital world and a set of rules to obey and break within it that inspires a deeply human reaction, whether it be joy or sadness, amusement or fear, we get closer to a point where games will be able to let us be a monster from outer space. We don't need games to show us what we aren't. We're only just figuring out how to make them to show us what we are."
John Constantine, the author of this article, points out a great fact: that developers and players should focus more on making games more "human" before seeking ideas from beyond the stars.
When Electronic Arts announced a video game version of Dante's Inferno, the classic poem by Dante Alighieri, I thought to myself, "They really must have run out of good ideas." Any doubts I had were squashed when what turned out to be a very good game released. I was very happy when Bob Mackey, who I have communicated with on several occasions, wrote this article about the pros and cons of basing video games off works of literature. The one part of this article that got me thinking wasn't even directly related to video games:
To be fair, it's nearly impossible for any narrative to escape the influence of Classical Literature; due to the importance placed on their works over the centuries, the epic stories of Classical authors set up a sort of storytelling template for their audience over the centuries -- even today, you can't escape 12 years of basic education without running across something like The Iliad or The Odyssey."
Mackey reminds us that something does not have to be completely original to be good, which is a lesson we as writers should take to heart when reviewing our own work.
It is always interesting to look back and reminisce about the past. Whether it be events, old photos, or even video games. The final paragraph of this article proves an important point in anybody's life:
The video game industry might be an entirely different world today, but as any good high school teacher will tell you, it is important to look back at our history so that we're not doomed to repeat it. Besides the obvious nostalgia trip a study like this brings, it also helps us learn a little bit more about ourselves and how far we've come."
While I agree that it is important to look back and not repeat past mistakes, I don't think anybody or anything can completely stop from repeating history.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Five Movies I Want to See
This is a list of five movies I have had on my "list", but have yet to watch.
1. Up - I have seen every Disney/Pixar movie except for Up. I don't know why, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Even though every person I've talked to about the movie absolutely loved it.
2. Michael Jackson's This Is It - I really enjoy Michael Jackson's music. The controversy surrounding his life did not have any affect on his ability as a singer/songwriter. I was also genuinely upset when he died. I am very interested in seeing what he was like during some of his last days.
3. The Wrestler - This movie got praised by everyone who saw it. Those who work in the wrestling entertainment industry, or had in the past, all said it was a perfect example of what goes on behind the scenes.
4. The Jerk - I have caught parts of this movie here and there when it is shown on television, but I have never seen the whole movie. It is praised as one of the best comedies ever and one of those movies everyone should see.
5. Silent Movie - This is the only Mel Brooks film I have not seen. He is one of the best film and theatrical writers ever. I have heard this movie showcases what makes his writing so good, as there is almost no talking through the entire film.
Internet Fighting
It seems like fighting over the Internet has been around since the very beginnings of the Internet. Most of the people who do this, most commonly referred to as "trolls" in Internet lingo, have fun while doing this. The anonymity of the Internet makes it incredibly easy to pick a fight as there is a very slim chance one would actually meet the person he or she is fighting with. Paul Bradshaw's "12 ideas for blog posts" even suggest starting a fight with another blogger in an attempt to gain traffic. The question that I immediately thought was, "Is this something we really want to be saying is alright to do?" To me it seems like doing this is the same as those Z-List celebrities, like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton, who practically whore themselves out in order to be famous. In my opinion, this is not how one should gain readership to a blog. Why can't we just write something substantial or thought-provoking that will make someone legitimately want to read the blog? If you can't write something like that and you have to resort to picking a fight with some random person on the Internet, maybe you shouldn't have a blog in the first place.
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