VIDEO GAMES- 23rd April Tutorial
‘Both games and technologies are counter-irritants or ways of adjusting to the stress of the specialised actions that occur in any social group.’
‘As extensions of the popular response to the workday stress, games become faithful models of a culture. They incorporate both the actions and the reactions of whole populations in a single dynamic image.’
Marshall McLuhan
EXAMPLES OF VIDEO GAMES:
· Arcade Games
· Consoles- ps2, x box, nintendo
· Computer Games
· MUDs- world of war craft
· MMOGs
The Video Game industry rakes in more money than the film industry, even despite piracy.
ACADEMIC APPROACH TO VIDEO GAMES
Media Effects and Games- do they shorten attention span, cause shootings and increase aggression?
The Persistence of Effect- if play hotted up racing car game for 6hours and then get into real car, psychology suggests we still think we are in the game.
Games and Utopia; video games create worlds that are magical.
Thinking about video games as a new form of cultural practice... in the same way we now think about old media like newspapers, radio, television, films...- do VG have their own history?
what are some ways to approach thinking about games that might be unique to this genre?
Are there questions that are specific to video games that don't apply to any other form?
NARRATOLOGY- is the study of video games from the perspective of them being stories or literary works. Can we study VG like texts? Eg. Is it interactive fiction?
LUDOLOGY- Concerned with the Game Play elements.
The Aesthetics of Video Games:
· Game/play elements
· Fun elements
· Story elements
· Virtual world elements
Sunday, April 29, 2007
SHORT HISTORY OF THE INTERNET- week 4 March 30th Lecture
Great lecture this week! BECAUSE I actually thought that cyberspace, the web and the Internet...so now i know MORE! ! ! !
Benedikt-
‘Cyberspace is…a territory swarming with data and lies, with mind stuff and memories of nature, with a million voices and two million eyes in silent, visible concert of inquiry deal-making, dream sharing and simple beholding.’
THE INTERNET-
Is the sum of interconnected computer hardware and the software that runs it- practical material construction. The internet is a network of networks. These networks include servers and personal computers and other devices that use CMC (computer mediated communications) technology. They are loosely connected by telephone system, broadband cable and satellite services, linking people around world into an information-sharing system.
The internet, created in 1960’s. Researchers in Us were working on ‘Packet Switching’ which is system that breaks down messages into small chunks and transmits them from one computer to another. So then RAND struck a deal and set out to apply these concepts to utilise connections between computers and phone lines.
Us Dept of Defence originally funded project to connect computers working on defence matters through phone lines. ARPANET was developed. This was about downloading academic data, but then functions such as email were added as hobbyists, hackers and counter-culture turned ARPANET to own purposes.
WWW-
WWW is particular application of the net. In 1990’s researchers from ‘Cern’, a physics lab in Switzerland, were looking for better way to share info. They developed html and the first web pages.
The web merges techniques of internetworking and hypertext to make easy, global and powerful system that shares info.
CYBERSPACE-
Is the sum of users’ imaginations as they use the Internet. Cyberspace is a contrast with the tangible products of the web and internet. It is way people interact with pictures/ words, making them think they are in a different space/ place. William Gibson’s quote suggests the idea of hallucination, that people agreed to imagine they were in a new place- another form of reality.
It is a conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technologies.
EARLY INTERNET APPLICATIONS-
· Electronic Mail (email)
· File Transfer Protocol (FTP)- move larger files more directly than just to emails
· Internet Relay Chat (IRC)- early version of msn.
· MUDs (multiple user domains), MOOs, MUSHs- simple approaches to net.
RECENT INTERNET APPLICATIONS-
· Instant messaging
· Peer-to-Peer file sharing- ppl share programs that are on their comp eg. Windows
· Blogging
· Portable Audio (ipods, MP3s)
· VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)- use net as phone system
· Virtual Worlds- ‘Second Life’
· ‘Web 2.0’- YouTube
NETIQUETTE and BAD BEHAVIOUR-
The internet rapidly changes therefore so does netiquette, but always based on ‘do to others as you would have them do to you.’ The social construction of reality requires civility between participants.
Need for netiquette arises mostly when sending or distributing e-mail and or chatting. The practice of netiquette depends on understanding how e-mail and chatting actually work or are practiced.
Practices as spam (unsolicited email) and flaming(abusive communications) are bad behaviour that disrupts other people's use of the internet.
Cracking, is not hacking - hackers are computer experts and programmers, crackers are computer criminals. Cracking is computer crime.
Kevin Mitnick, notorious cracker, who got into US Air Defence System was jailed for reading a company’s email. Never hurt anyone, he just showed how shoddy security systems were.
Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people always reply to personal email quickly etc. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice.
Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people,always reply to personal email quickly etc. But they are often more quickly and effectively administered in the virtual world. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice. It's almost medieval! Rudeness is grounds for banishment.
It appears people are much more polite and caring compared to how they are in their non-virtual community. People who have never passed a word with the guy next door will maintain a network of relationships within a virtual community, ranging from close friends and lovers to acquaintances.
ECONOMICS OF CYBERSPACE
John Perry Barlow’s ‘Economy of Ideas’ gives utopian account of economic possibilities inherent in cyberspace and info economy:
· Information is an activity, experienced not possessed, propagated not distributed.
· Information is a life form, it wants to be free, replicating in the cracks of possibility, perishable and always changing.
· Information is a relationship between sender and receiver, the meaning generated has a unique value to both.
· Information may be commodified, but most importantly it is its own reward. -
As early utopian goals of the Internet (that net will provide revolutionary break with past economy) meet the financial forces of convergence we can expect to see further rapid change and a lot of instability.
The most important commodities on the Net are credibility, a distinctive point of view, familiarity and exclusivity.
There are vested interests that oppose cyberspace becoming the scene of economic activity, referring to it as a 'black economy'. What they are really mourning is the lack of bureaucratic/government control over the Net. As always with new technologies, the issue of who controls the buttons is of particular interest to governments and big business.
Cyberspace’s interactivity suggests new ways to think about capital that reflects new ways to do things with each other:
o Social network capital - the value in person to person interaction though we might never meet
o Knowledge capital - the value in ideas means that sharing information equals sharing power
o Cultural capital - the value in the values we share and that allow us to live creative lives in a civil society.
CONVERGENCE
The last ten years have seen a growing tendency to Convergence as the possibilities of communication technology develop.
Information technologies are converging as computer technology provides the means to draw together telephone, radio, television and print so that they can be accessed from the one point.
Great lecture this week! BECAUSE I actually thought that cyberspace, the web and the Internet...so now i know MORE! ! ! !
Benedikt-
‘Cyberspace is…a territory swarming with data and lies, with mind stuff and memories of nature, with a million voices and two million eyes in silent, visible concert of inquiry deal-making, dream sharing and simple beholding.’
THE INTERNET-
Is the sum of interconnected computer hardware and the software that runs it- practical material construction. The internet is a network of networks. These networks include servers and personal computers and other devices that use CMC (computer mediated communications) technology. They are loosely connected by telephone system, broadband cable and satellite services, linking people around world into an information-sharing system.
The internet, created in 1960’s. Researchers in Us were working on ‘Packet Switching’ which is system that breaks down messages into small chunks and transmits them from one computer to another. So then RAND struck a deal and set out to apply these concepts to utilise connections between computers and phone lines.
Us Dept of Defence originally funded project to connect computers working on defence matters through phone lines. ARPANET was developed. This was about downloading academic data, but then functions such as email were added as hobbyists, hackers and counter-culture turned ARPANET to own purposes.
WWW-
WWW is particular application of the net. In 1990’s researchers from ‘Cern’, a physics lab in Switzerland, were looking for better way to share info. They developed html and the first web pages.
The web merges techniques of internetworking and hypertext to make easy, global and powerful system that shares info.
CYBERSPACE-
Is the sum of users’ imaginations as they use the Internet. Cyberspace is a contrast with the tangible products of the web and internet. It is way people interact with pictures/ words, making them think they are in a different space/ place. William Gibson’s quote suggests the idea of hallucination, that people agreed to imagine they were in a new place- another form of reality.
It is a conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technologies.
EARLY INTERNET APPLICATIONS-
· Electronic Mail (email)
· File Transfer Protocol (FTP)- move larger files more directly than just to emails
· Internet Relay Chat (IRC)- early version of msn.
· MUDs (multiple user domains), MOOs, MUSHs- simple approaches to net.
RECENT INTERNET APPLICATIONS-
· Instant messaging
· Peer-to-Peer file sharing- ppl share programs that are on their comp eg. Windows
· Blogging
· Portable Audio (ipods, MP3s)
· VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)- use net as phone system
· Virtual Worlds- ‘Second Life’
· ‘Web 2.0’- YouTube
NETIQUETTE and BAD BEHAVIOUR-
The internet rapidly changes therefore so does netiquette, but always based on ‘do to others as you would have them do to you.’ The social construction of reality requires civility between participants.
Need for netiquette arises mostly when sending or distributing e-mail and or chatting. The practice of netiquette depends on understanding how e-mail and chatting actually work or are practiced.
Practices as spam (unsolicited email) and flaming(abusive communications) are bad behaviour that disrupts other people's use of the internet.
Cracking, is not hacking - hackers are computer experts and programmers, crackers are computer criminals. Cracking is computer crime.
Kevin Mitnick, notorious cracker, who got into US Air Defence System was jailed for reading a company’s email. Never hurt anyone, he just showed how shoddy security systems were.
Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people always reply to personal email quickly etc. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice.
Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people,always reply to personal email quickly etc. But they are often more quickly and effectively administered in the virtual world. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice. It's almost medieval! Rudeness is grounds for banishment.
It appears people are much more polite and caring compared to how they are in their non-virtual community. People who have never passed a word with the guy next door will maintain a network of relationships within a virtual community, ranging from close friends and lovers to acquaintances.
ECONOMICS OF CYBERSPACE
John Perry Barlow’s ‘Economy of Ideas’ gives utopian account of economic possibilities inherent in cyberspace and info economy:
· Information is an activity, experienced not possessed, propagated not distributed.
· Information is a life form, it wants to be free, replicating in the cracks of possibility, perishable and always changing.
· Information is a relationship between sender and receiver, the meaning generated has a unique value to both.
· Information may be commodified, but most importantly it is its own reward. -
As early utopian goals of the Internet (that net will provide revolutionary break with past economy) meet the financial forces of convergence we can expect to see further rapid change and a lot of instability.
The most important commodities on the Net are credibility, a distinctive point of view, familiarity and exclusivity.
There are vested interests that oppose cyberspace becoming the scene of economic activity, referring to it as a 'black economy'. What they are really mourning is the lack of bureaucratic/government control over the Net. As always with new technologies, the issue of who controls the buttons is of particular interest to governments and big business.
Cyberspace’s interactivity suggests new ways to think about capital that reflects new ways to do things with each other:
o Social network capital - the value in person to person interaction though we might never meet
o Knowledge capital - the value in ideas means that sharing information equals sharing power
o Cultural capital - the value in the values we share and that allow us to live creative lives in a civil society.
CONVERGENCE
The last ten years have seen a growing tendency to Convergence as the possibilities of communication technology develop.
Information technologies are converging as computer technology provides the means to draw together telephone, radio, television and print so that they can be accessed from the one point.
Lecture 3 - THE BIRTH
BIRTH OF THE COMPUTER- Week 3 March 19th Tutorial
Well, I found this lecture rather interesting BECAUSE, until now i had no idea in the world what Bill Gates actually did to be so $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. BUT NOW I KNOW. So here are my notes on what i now udnerstand about the birth of the computer!
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace
Charles Babbage was born in 1791. As the inventor of the first digital computer, a mechanical rather than an electronic device, he sketched out the logical structure of the modern computer. He made parts of the Difference Engine, but was not completed in his life time. Later, he conceived of the Analytical Engine: a massive, brass, steam-powered, general-purpose, mechanical computer.
Babbage was aided with Analytical Engine by an aristocratic woman with a creative approach to mathematics, Ada Lovelace. Ada saw herself as a metaphysician in search of poetical science. She conceived of a machine which would be able to compose and play music, produce graphics and be of everyday use. She also conceived the first computer program.
Turing and the Birth of the Computer
The serious work required for the development of the computer was done by Alan Turing. He studied quantum mechanics, probability, logic, and wrote a crucial paper clarifying the computability of numbers and the possibility of a machine to compute them.
During WW2 he worked with teams of mathematicians and cryptographers to devise the first working computer,The Bombe which they used to break secret German 'Enigma' codes. After War, he investigated programming, neural nets, and the prospects for artificial intelligence. His philosophical paper on machine intelligence suggested the Turing Test: a human sits at computer terminal and interacts with both a computer or a human by written communication only; if the judge cannot tell which is which then the machine has passed the test and it would be reasonable to call the computer intelligent.
Moore's Law
Computers were first commercially produced by IBM in 1950s- they were large and expensive used for military, government and corporate work. In 1965, Gordom Moore propounded Moore's law: the capacity of microchip's doubles every two years. His 2nd law claims because capital costs are rising faster than revenues, financial feasibility will limit the rate of technological development.
Xerox PARC
At Xerox PARC in the early 70s, a think-tank developed concepts such as the mouse, the graphical user interface (GUI) and pull-down menus that made the personal computers of today possible and approachable by the general user.
The first PC was released in 1975. It was called the 0 but didn’t do much, just got tech-nerds excited. But the Altair didn't have a language - a set of terms by which the user could communicate with their computer. Bill Gates dropped out of uni and began writing a language called BASIC so it could be used for word processing, basic accounting and games. In order to market his program he started a little company in his garage - Microsoft.
Apple
Computer nerds got together at meetings to exchange ideas and display their latest and greatest home-made PCs. Here, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started their own company - Apple. They produced the Apple I - machine with single circuit board, no case and no keyboard. They sold 50. Their dream was to produce/sell the 1st self-contained PC for people who weren't techies. Wozniak set to reducing the size of every component he could while Jobs went out to find some money.
Two years after the Altair, the Apple II was launched in 1978. Next two years saw Apple grow like crazy- they had made enough money so neither would ever have to work again.
IBM and Microsoft
At this time, IBM ( large ultra-conservative firm and slow to move) noticed what was happening. By 1980 they were determined to get into the PC market. Chairman, Frank Carey, called Bill Lowe, who promised IBM a product within one year. His product basically involved buying shelf products from a range of other companies and putting them together as a package.
To run computers, there are two types of software required: the language and the Operating System. As Gates/ Microsoft did not produce an Operating System, they directed IBM to Gary Kildall- but Kildall wanted a signing of a non-disclosure agreement before conducting a meeting. IBM walked back to Microsoft.
Gates promised an Operating System. They bought an OS developed by Tim Patterson called Kudos. Microsoft paid Patterson's employer $50,000 for it. In four months IBM had it running as PC DOS 1.0 and in the marketplace at $50 each. GATES WAS RICH.
IBM gained more and more of the market share through its association with Microsoft. For a long time Apple believed they owned and could rely on their position in the marketplace due to their user-friendly technology (GUI). But then IBM and Microsoft came up with their own GUI - Windows. By the time Windows 3 was launched, Apple was on a slide. Steve Jobs quit Apple. Pushed in a niche market by the convergence of IBM and Microsoft, Apple was on a downward slide. But the 1998 return of Steve Jobs and the success of its iMac line turned the fortunes of the company around.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
INTERESTING WEBSITES.......YERHA!
So....interesting websites is the topic of todays tutorial....YERHA COWBOY...how exciting...lets see what i can find.....
i went to www.scroogle.org then typed in 'plot generator' and a website came up where you can be a MOVIE CREATER and devise your own plot. It asks you:
ENTER TITLE
THE GENRE
MAIN CHARACTER
SIDE KICK
THEIR GOAL
CHARACTER GROWTH
WHAT IS THE MOVIE LIKE?
etc etc etc...it gives you options to choose from.
THIS IS MY NEW FILM
Susan
An original screenplay concept by Kate
Comedy: A pimply computer nerd teams up with a kind hearted prostitute to save the earth from aliens. In the process they deflower a gay interior decorator. By the end of the movie they run away from 7 oogly aliens and end up winning the admiration of their 3rd grade teacher, living happily ever after.
Think Titanic meets Happy Gilmore.
DEFINENTLY WORTH MAKING!
THEN
I typed in 'nickname generator'
It is a website where you type in your first and last name and if you want your nickname to be 'G', 'PG', or 'X' rated!
my new nickname is...
FAIRY BALD SMILE
That is all....
i went to www.scroogle.org then typed in 'plot generator' and a website came up where you can be a MOVIE CREATER and devise your own plot. It asks you:
ENTER TITLE
THE GENRE
MAIN CHARACTER
SIDE KICK
THEIR GOAL
CHARACTER GROWTH
WHAT IS THE MOVIE LIKE?
etc etc etc...it gives you options to choose from.
THIS IS MY NEW FILM
Susan
An original screenplay concept by Kate
Comedy: A pimply computer nerd teams up with a kind hearted prostitute to save the earth from aliens. In the process they deflower a gay interior decorator. By the end of the movie they run away from 7 oogly aliens and end up winning the admiration of their 3rd grade teacher, living happily ever after.
Think Titanic meets Happy Gilmore.
DEFINENTLY WORTH MAKING!
THEN
I typed in 'nickname generator'
It is a website where you type in your first and last name and if you want your nickname to be 'G', 'PG', or 'X' rated!
my new nickname is...
FAIRY BALD SMILE
That is all....
Sunday, April 1, 2007
NEXT ATTEMPT
SECOND ATTEMPT...im so good at photoshop now....the little man looks like he belongs.....sorta....kinda....hahaha next week i shall advance to a higher level. horay! im learning....
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