Relationships vs. Technology

Looking through the blogs that our classmates have created I stumbled upon a post by Jenn on Bloggin’ with Friends. The original post was done by Katy and the article can be found here. The article begins by saying that 72% of people do not believe that their relationship has not been affected by our ever changing technological world. It then continues to give different statistics including:

• “25 percent of married or partnered adults who text have texted their partner when they were both home together.”
• “21 percent of cell owners or internet users in a committed relationship have felt closer to their spouse or partner because of exchanges they had online or via text message.”
• “9 percent have resolved an argument with their partner online or by text message that they were having difficulty resolving in person.”
• “25 percent of cell phone owners in a marriage or partnership have felt their spouse or partner was distracted by their cell phone when they were together.”
• “8 percent of internet users in a committed relationship have had an argument with their spouse or partner about the amount of time one of them was spending online.”

After reading those statistics it was definitely an eye opener for me. My boyfriend of 2 and a half years is NOT one to be up with technology. While he knows how to pick out great presents (iPad, Macbook) he could care less if he actually ever used them. I almost cringed reading some of those because I would finish reading and say “that happened”.. “i did this”… it’s bad. I guess I have never realized just how much technology has consumed my life until I read this. I have definitely taken a step back and realized that I need to stop depending on my phone or computer as much as I do and enjoy the life that I live without it! 

 

They are just like us!

Pictured above is Jerry Sienfeld and his family. This photo is from a family trip that him, his wife and his children took to Disney World. The title of the article was “Jerry Seinfeld looks like a regular dad as he takes his wife and kids to Disney World” and I believe that it is important that people realize that behind all of the fancy cars, clothes and luxury celebrities really are just like us! 

Too many times I think that people do not realize that just because someone is making money playing sports or acting that doesn’t make them some immortal creature. I have seen in magazines different articles that show celebrities and how they are “just like us” (pictured below”

 

I believe that it is extremely important that people see articles like this to help bring them back to reality. There have been times in my own life where I have envied celebrities because their lives seem “perfect”. Looking through magazines and seeing spreads showing the fact that celebrities are just people too is a very positive thing because it shows that even celebrities (well, some…) do not want to be put up on the pedestals we as fans put them on.

What do Players Really Want?

Recently one of Ubisoft’s lead writers, Lucien Soulban, was being interview and a journalist asked “When are going to get a gay/lesbian AAA hero(ine) who isn’t a one-off joke?’

His response?

“Not for a while, I suspect, because of fears that it’ll impact sales.”

And you know what? He’s absolutely right. Publishers are afraid fans won’t be receptive to such a thing. While I think they’re being overly-afraid, the concerned is 100% warranted. That may not make the most sense the first time through the ears, so let me explain. Many people believe the video game industry- even the consumer base- is completely dominate by males. In actuality the percentage of gamers who are female is around 45%, according to the Entertainment Software Association. When the developers of the recently released Remember Me were shopping around for a publisher, they were turned down by several and given a response along the lines of “this won’t sell because the protagonist is a female and you see her kissing a man, and that’s going to upset players.”

So not only were they implying people won’t be comfortable playing as a women, but the idea of a male gamer playing a female character in a straight relationship  would disturb players. Well, hello there homophobia.

The thing is, while this prediction is more or less correct, it doesn’t mean nothing is happening on the regarded front. Case and point, Gone Home, the PC indie game centered around the very subject. The protagonist is a college girl who has returned home to find her family home empty. As you peel back the mystery you discovered the source of your family’s falling out to be the youngest sister’s lesbian relationship and the parents disapproval.

The game was also quite popular and won plenty of awards. So no, the idea of a character or protagonists isn’t unfounded and it can be successful. But it won’t come without its criticisms. What it comes down to is fan responsibility to get the word out there that such things are acceptable and desirable as a new approach for the art form.

 

Final Project!

I have not been exposed to Prezi that much in the past so being able to work with it for this project and get the very basic idea was definitely a learning experience! Just as I enjoyed this program, I also enjoyed this module. I liked being able to learn different sites and programs that will be able to help me in the future and throughout the rest of my college career! Click here watch my presentation about what I am taking out of this module.

Enjoy!

Writing and the Future

Technology today is ever changing, as is technology in writing. Everything is connected in some way, shape, or form. It is so easy to communicate to the world around us. Writing is evolving into something much bigger. What exactly is writing, and what defines a write? This is one question that I asked myself and explored in this video I made to question the big picture. With so much technology today, anyone can be a writer and anyone can write. This has me ask the question, what will writing look like in 10 years from now? This is one question that has me wondering if I really want to know the answer.

 

Please watch the video with the 10 seconds per slide.

The Evolution of Writing

In order to handle the amounts of information we have access to, we’ve adapted to multitasking. There’s our generation that can tweet and watch a television show at the same time – or, in class, we sit and livetweet our readings, thus giving us two outlets to pay attention to. Multitasking is one of the only ways we can handle all of this networking at once. Because of this, literacy is changing. Literacy needs to be more focused on short rather than long narratives that its readers could drown in. We tweet with quick messages, instantly accessing the world to just about every idea and every subject imaginable. Because of that, longer texts are diminishing, leaving the world so that we no longer have the mental capacity to take on a daunting piece of writing.

Click here to watch.

Using Reviews and Respecting Opinions

I’ve long advocated that reviews, no matter who the author, are not a be all end all of an opinion. Entertainment is incredibly subjective and what it comes down to is finding several reviewers who fit your tastes. What you shouldn’t do is act like a child when someone disagrees with your opinion. Totalbiscut, one of the biggest YouTubers out there, made an incredible video where he argues how to properly go about being a consumer of reviews.  I hate to undermine my own writing, but the man addressed the issue in a  way I always wished I could, but was never able to.

Instead I’m going to give you a little advice on finding reviewers you’ll like. Get to know the faces behind the reviews. The ones you like, and the ones you don’t like. I’m not saying you should spam their emails with personal questions and/or ask them out on dinner dates, but there are two easy things you could do. Firstly, read, read, and read some more! By reading reviews of games you’ve played, you can see how critical opinions stack up against your own — and, hopefully, why. Secondly, check out individual reviewers’ site profile, Twitter, Facebook, and all those other social medias. If they’re anything like me, they’re blabbing away all day. It may take some time to peg their tastes, but by doing so, you could end up saving yourself a fair bit of dough. Eventually, you’ll have a handful of reviewers you generally agree with, and you’ll come to rely on their insights.

Another separate part of this whole mess that I find shocking is how many people lack a healthy understanding of rating scales. A 10/10 does not mean the game is perfect, and a 5/10 does not equal average. Nothing we humans create is perfect, especially when it comes to entertainment. A 10/10 is simply the best score a game can possibly receive. No reasonable reviewer will ever use the word perfect to describe a whole game. Reality is never that simple.

For the same reason, 5/10 cannot mean “average,” because average is a relative term. To truly find the average game score, you would have to compare every interactive project under the sun. Going by how game development has generally improved over the years, it’s quite possible that a 6 would now be an average score.

Generally speaking, critics are normal people too and they have their careers because they know more or are extremely passionate about a given subject. Film, TV, books, video games, music, it doesn’t matter, use their advice to your advantage. But at the same time, don’t take everything they say as gospel. As I always say, entertainment is highly subjective.

There’s No Pride in Anti-fandom

Earlier today Ken Levine, co-founder and creative director of Irrational Games, the developer behind the Bioshock series surprised many by announcing a “winding down of Irrational Games as you know it.” Meaning, he wants to take the studio in a new direction, which includes laying-off all but 15 people.

In this Detructoid article, the news is called “bittersweet,” and the author is right. It’s sad to hear people are losing their jobs, but at the same time I’m excited to see how those who remain will handle the new direction.  There are gamers on the other-hand who are the complete opposite. They reveling in the loss of jobs and angry the studio hasn’t completely folded up.

Really?

I can understand not liking Irrational’s titles. Games are entertainment after all and entertainment is subjective, but to be rejoice at the plight of others is disgusting. It’s this sort of anti-fandom which breeds animosity not only between gamers, but between our culture and the outside world’s view of it. Okay, so you jumped on the bandwagon of the ludonarrative dissonance argument. Fine, you have every right to dislike a game for whatever reason. Not every has to agree with your reasoning, but so long as they respect your stance, that’s what is most important. But the same goes for you. Respect the fact that others enjoy something you don’t.

Don’t like a game, developer, or publisher? Simple solution. Don’t financially support them. If you feel inclined to, write a detailed and thoughtful review or editorial as to why you don’t. What it comes down to is not being, well, irrational. Or an asshole if you prefer a less pun-filled reasoning.

I’ve never been one for defining myself by the things I am not. Sure being anti-somthing isn’t intolerantly negative, but if all of your effort is spent towards removing something from this world rather than adding to it, you’ve missed the point of life.

Will the Real Batman Please Stand Up?

So as you have probably heard there is a new Batman coming out! “Man of Steel” sequel is set to release July, 17 2015 and when the casting of the new Batman was released, people had many things to say about it. Ben Affleck was casted as Batman in the sequel, and people are not happy! Fans are actually quite outraged by this! I personally think this is a little too premature to be saying this about him before he has even been given a chance. In this article I read it talks about how it really is too early to be judging the performance of someone before they have even performed! The article talks about how many people had lots of things to say when “The Dark Knight Rises” as released. For example, when Heath Ledger was casted as “The Joker”, everyone thought he was going to sink, but he did in fact swim! He even won an Oscar for it! Then there was the outrage against Anne Hathaway being cast as “Cat Woman”, which was a hit as well! So while many critics believe Ben should not play Batman, other people are saying to calm down and give the man a chance!

I personally think he looks pretty dark and mysterious here.

It is understandable that a character as old and as popular as Batman, many people are going to be very judgmental on who plays him and very particular about it. So this was only expected! When you think about it, there is probably no one loved enough in the entire world to play Batman! So fans really do need to calm down and quit trying to make petitions! Within the first 12 hours of the announcement there was already 30 different petitions on Change.org.

One article talks about how many fans can’t separate him from the films that he was not so good in that he has starred in before. Batman needs to be dark and mysterious and Ben just does not seem to have that. People need to realize that there have been five different Batman’s and every time there has been some kind of controversy about the person. In the end, no one is going to be perfect for the role, and as long as we live there will probably be more and more Batman movies out, which means there will have to be new character’s cast. And although everyone has something to say about Ben doing the job right, no one can really say anything until the film actually comes out in 2015. So let’s just all keep out comments to ourselves and wait and see how he does when the movie comes out! Then every one can bash him… that is if he deserves bashing!

TWEET OR DIE!!!!

Yes, this was in fact said believe it or not by a One Direction fan. Just when we thought Justin Bieber fans were the craziest ones out there, now One Direction fans are getting pretty close. This fan tweeted the band and said, “Follow me or I’ll break my dog’s neck” and then proceeded with a picture of her holding her dog in a strangling position against the floor with her hands around its neck. A few days later she then posted another picture of the dog with it’s eyes closed saying the dog was now dead. Now if this isn’t crazy then I don’t know what is! When she tweeted the dead dog picture to band member, Liam Payne, her tweet said, ” I love you. Follow me. My dog has just died”. Well I don’t hear any remorse in that comment.

This unidentified fangirl’s account has since been deactivated, probably because this has not been the first time she tweeted such horrifying pictures. She tweeted small animal’s in blenders, her mom in a choke hold, and a child tied up laying on the ground. It really is disturbing to see what great lengths fans will go to, in order to receive some kind of recognition from their favorite celebrities.

This girl is disgusting.

The band never answered the girl and still has not comment on the situation. I mean the group does receive millions of tweets a day I can see how hard it could be to read them all or even half of them! Some people are saying that this is a hoax and she was only doing it to get attention. And even if that is true, what kind of sick person would pretend to do such things?! And well if it is true then I feel so bad for this dog and quite frankly this girl should be charged with animal abuse. During this whole fiasco, where is the girls mother? The mother finds it okay to pretend she is being choked so her child gets a response from a celebrity? I dont know about you but I call that bad parenting.

The girl posts pictures of animal abuse when the guys are clearly animal lovers? No idea why she thought that would get attention!