Final Project

For my final project I created a blog, titled Social Media, that includes two blog posts. My first post is about how different generations are impacted differently by social media. It talks about what forms of social media are used most by the different generations and how they use it. My second blog post is how social media can be incorporated into the classroom and have a positive impact. It talks about different forms of social media that can be used and how it will benefit both the educator, students, or even the parents.

The World's Hackers

I decided to do my final essay on Hacktivism. I looked at Hacktivism as a whole and famous Hacktivist like Aaron Swartz, Anonymous, Deric Lostutter, and The Jester. I hope you enjoy!

My essay can be found here!

Video games and violence

The full piece may be found here

This piece will discuss my opinion on video game violence and if it can cause violence in real life. The things I go over include: A movie, Violence for fun, Violence as a plot device, Violence as a shock factor, my temper, video games and mass shootings, common video games, and me concluding with my thoughts.

In this post, I tried to include more than my usual amount of links and images, so that it felt a bit more expanded, and when I checked the length, it had a little over 10 pages worth of material, and above 2000 words, so I feel like I have plenty of material in it. The only thing that I feel is a problem is that most of the material I cited were news stories and the games themselves (believe it or not, there is actually a way to cite software (I did not cite it by hand! I used EasyBib, which does the grunt-work of making citations for you!)). I did however find "Grand Theft Childhood" by Cheryl Kutner and Lawrence Olson to be of great use, where a study from 2006 was discussing points like why kids play video games and what video games they play (I did not cite it very much in this paper, but used it liberally in several other papers talking about the same issue). As I look over the paper, one thing I do realize is that the part of violence in real life is an afterthought. Even so, I hope that you enjoy viewing this piece!

Digital Humanities Exhibit Reactions

One of the exhibits that caught my eye was entitled "Rated E for Everyone", which was focused around the subject of video games. It starts off with the Fortune 500 report that the total revenues for the video game industry in the United States hit $25.3 billion last year. He then adds that most rumors have been dispelled about links of video games to violence and obesity. In fact, video games can benefit people of all ages. A study found that compared to non-players, children that were moderate gamers "showed higher levels of pro-social behavior and life satisfaction and lower levels of conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, and emotional symptoms." Moving on to teens and young adults, apparently playing video games could make them better surgeons, help overcome dyslexia, improve vision, ease pain, help them to make quicker decisions, and reduce stress. He also mentions in his presentation that senior gaming is on the rise. Neuroracer, which is a game created by neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, is a simple driving game that causes players to take fast turns and make quick decisons, that has also dramatically increased memory and multitasking in seniors.

Another exhibit that I enjoyed was Angelina's topic about social media, mentioning many aspects it it. She talked about the challenges that social media poses to society, such as making it very easy to hide behind technology. She also brings up how people tend to voice their controversial opinions about things that they wouldn't normally do in person, and even that many social media accounts are false. Another topic she tackles is how social media impacts different generations. Baby boomers tend to not understand social media very well, Generation X finds it a bit easier to get used to and navigate, and Millennials are extremely social media savvy because they have practically grown up with it. She then moves onto a more important issue regarding the potential addictive qualities of social media. In 2016, 78 percent of Americans had a social media profile, which is a 5 percent growth compared to 2015. She concludes with results from a survey conducted by Tianjin-based Nankai University, that 68 percent of young people spent over six hours a day surfing the web during they summer break.

How Are Women Portrayed In Video Games?

My essay, "How Are Women Portrayed In Video Games?", tackles the issue of the misrepresentation and sexualization of female characters in video games. It talks about specific video games, as well as people such as Anita Sarkeesian who have addressed this issue. The main purpose of this essay is to inform readers about how women are commonly represented in video games, and why a change is extremely necessary and long overdue.

Reaction To Digital Humanities Exhibits

The first exhibit that I had focused on was created by Michaela Fapore. The name of this exhibit was Women In Video Games. For her exhibit she had created a type of powerpoint. From working through the powerpoint I had learned a lot about how women are portrayed in video games. Personally, I do not play video games often. So reading these facts such as how only 2 of the top 20 video games in the United States feature a woman on the cover surprised me. Michaela also talked about empathy studies such as how adolescents whose favorite video game was violent had scored low on empathy scales. After I had finished working through this powerpoint, I felt as though I had learned a lot about how poorly women are portrayed in video games and how video game developers portray them in that way because if the woman in the game was a solider, boys would not find it believable.
The second exhibit that I had looked at was created by Amanda Deasy and was called Video Games: Bringing Social Awareness. The main idea of her exhibit was about answering the question, "Can digital games make users more socially aware". Amanda had focused on 3 video games that share a bigger picture, which it portraying a current social issue. The first game she had talked about was a game that we had talked about in class, Dragon Cancer. This game is about a boy who has pediatric cancer. The second game was named Papo y Yo which focused on child abuse. Lastly, her third example was Depression Quest which had the social issue of depression. I enjoyed working through this exhibit because it was nice to learn about video games that aren't just about violence. These games are about social issues that still give you a fun experience while playing the game. After reading about these three games that Amanda had mentioned, it makes me want to learn more about them and eventually play these games.

Reactions to DH Exhibits- Jacob

No Man's Sky and Procedural Generation (Devin Vickroy)
This exhibit focused on the video game "No Man's Sky", and how it uses procedural generation. The only form of procedural generation I have witnessed in video games is Minecraft map generation. As an Xbox gamer, I have had no interest in No Man's Sky, as I viewed it as Minecraft set in space (In fact, I secretly wished the game would be a failure, which as of right now, seems to be the case). The good screenshot selection did convince me that I was viewing the game incorrectly, as I saw a good deal of variety in vegetation/flori, as well as animals and terrain. I did also feel like this game would only be worth getting at launch, given it has the ability to "discover" a planet. This presentation was generally effective, though I would like to have seen a few more examples (I.E. Left 4 Dead director AI placing items for good pacing, spawning hordes and witches for those taking too much time).


Video Games Good for You (Kiersten Worthy)
This presentation focused on the benefits of video games. I really liked how the author did a good job with research and bringing up examples. I really loved the one with "Minecraft" and children on the ASD (Autism Spectrum). I and a little brother are both on the high functioning end of the ASD, and even though I do not play Minecraft nearly as much as my little brother, we both find it a fun game to play together and to talk about (such as moments where he is trading with villagers and I am preparing an ambush on the village), and after he played Minecraft, I noticed that he became increasingly social. "That Dragon Cancer" was also mentioned, which was a game about dealing with a child who had cancer. I have not played this, but I like the concept as a coping mechanism of sorts. There was also a mention of virtual reality technology (did not mention video games specifically) helping out veterans with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I was rather shocked at the way this was presented, since I assume that most heroes of war jump to the assumption that these sort of media desensitize us to war, but it appeared to have actually helped veterans cope with PTSD. Ultimately, I feel like this presentation was very well done.


-Jacob

Convergence Culture

A contemporary convergence culture is when new and old culture collide. There are several types of convergence such as media, technological, economic, social, cultural, and global.

As long as new technologies keep flying in and off shelves, there will always be obsolete technologies and their respective followers.

Take for instance a video game you can buy. These are the formats that I can list off the top of my head:

• Cassette Tape (beyond obsolete)
• Cartridge (apart from nintendo mobile systems, obsolete)
• CD (obsolete)
• DVD (facing obsoletion, still used for physical pc platform distribution)
• Digital Downloads (Very current, existing since the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 era)
• Blu-Ray (Current, used on Xbox One/Playstation 4)

Here are the game systems that I am currently aware of which have had a newly produced physical game:

• Xbox One
• Playstation 4
• Wii U
• 3DS

Of course, the game publisher has the discretion of which console they wish to publish a game on. Several publishers such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Studios, and Sony Entertainment have entirely abandoned consoles from last generation (Xbox 360/Wii/Playstation 3). Why is this? The games being published are often times too heavy to run on a previous generation system. The last major release I recall seeing on any previous generation system was the Xbox 360 getting Rise of the Tomb Raider (and that was considerably heavy).

Generation exclusivity might also be used as a tool to entice players into a new generation. For instance, when I played Halo 5, I felt like it could fit well on the Xbox 360. It felt about the same graphically and technically, and if Microsoft wanted to, they could have easily ported it to Xbox 360. The only problem with this is the new gameplay mechanics, a nearly double length campaign, and well over 50 GB of additional content (at this point, I believe there is so much content that the current game size is the launch size doubled).

This is just like the decline of video cassettes. At first, when DVDs were considered the new luxury format, releases were relatively rare, but quickly speeding up. People who wanted to keep video cassettes could stay with cassettes, but eventually, video cassettes became phased out due to the increasing popularity of the DVD and the infancy of the Blu-Ray. The DVD is currently undergoing a similar phase, but they are at the beginning of their end. In a way, Blu-Ray can be considered a reincarnation of DVDs. The Blu-Ray can hold far more data than a dvd, has higher quality, is far more scratch resistant, and all Blu-Ray players are reverse compatible with DVD discs (ensuring nobody had to purchase their favorite films again). All of these changes are welcome, but it took me a little while to decide to switch. The primary reason for me converting was due to me getting tired of DVDs repeatedly freezing up and skipping.