week 8, lecture week 7 on games

So, Adam took week 7's lecture on video games studies. I'll admit that I'm not really a fan of video/computer games. When I was younger and got a playstation, I used to love playing crash bandicoot, but that was years ago. However, I can't deny how hugely popular they are. I see lots of men, boys and sometimes women and girls playing them for hours at a time, so obviously I can appreciate that they have their appeal. The lecture was probably the first time I've actually considered games to be a form of communication. It's interesting to think that one day they probably will be viewed in the same way we now look at newspapers. And of course with so many technological advances, it's a whole other thing to think about the potential games have. Especially to think that the army uses some games to train soldiers! That goes to show the significant role they play. The tute tasks for this lecture were to check out the games on the net. I went to Activeworld. Seeing that made it so obvious to me how games are actually forms of communication. I mean, direct communication with other people. You create your own character and world, and then chat to other people that have done the same. And as conversation is such a basic and obvious form of communication, coupled with the fact that these things like Activeworld are new technologies, games fit nicely into the whole 'new communication technologies' thing!
til next time!

week 8 tute task

Activeworlds: It lets you create your own 3D world, and visit other people's created worlds. In these worlds, you become a character and so does everyone else, and it allows you to interact with each other in an imaginary world. You can talk to each other, and fly, swim and walk around, and see the other characters. When they speak, it comes up as a speech bubble in the created world, as well as in text-form in the conversation section underneath; that part is similar to the msn set up. The actual graphics of the created world are pretty cool too; there's little bunches of flowers growing, and lakes and grass and even brick walls. Those are all the qualitative differences between Activeworlds and msn, as msn doesn't have any of that except for basic chat. Msn allows you to chat to other people, but you have to already know them or at least already have their e-mail address. This is unlike Activeworld, where you meet people when you visit their worlds or have them visit yours. That's why the socialising is different; on msn you talk to your friends as yourself. On Activeworld you can create an environment, become a character and talk to others who have done the same. The fact that Activeworlds is 3D obviously makes a difference because it allows the creation of the worlds and everything that comes with it.

I've seen the ads for Habbo Hotel, and it looks to be similar-a place where you create a character and interact with other characters created by other people. The difference between it and Activeworld is that, from what I could gather off the ads, Habbo Hotel is more real-life situations, like the Sims, where you live in a house, maybe hotel from the name, and have parties, hang out with other people etc etc. Habbo Hotel is different from msn for the same reasons as Activeworld; characters fitting into a certain environment and interacting with others. Again, that is a big step-up from the basic qualities of msn. Habbo Hotel, like Activeworld, takes chatting and socialising to a new level by the creation of new worlds.

week 6 tute tasks-news worthy

NEWSWORTHY: As I said in last week's task when I used this for news, it is news-worthy because it definitely has the characteristics of being a story in the news. For one, it has the element of impact because it's a rough sea and it's crashing into a house. I then added the speed boat crashing into the wall because that increases its news-worthiness, by creating a freak accident, as well as the unusual, because this isn't heard about very often.

week 6 tute tasks-friends

FRIENDS: This image is friends because it's a boy and his dog, and as they say dog is man's best friend. And generally the boy has his arm around the dog and they look like pals! I put the sky in there to illustrate what the boy is pointing to, and it also has the feel of spending a day with a friend, because the clouds are rolling, and this shown in fast motion usually means a day gone by. It shows two friends hanging out for a day, which is what you do with your friends, even if you're not doing much, just sitting around like these two.

week 6 tute tasks-communication

COMMUNICATION: These walkie-talkies are a mode of communication, that's why I chose them. Even though they are probably not used very often with so many things like mobile phones, e-mail etc, they still provide some form of contact between people, which is basically what communication is. I added little speech bubbles saying 'hi,' to demonstrate an actual conversation, as conversations are a popular and common mode of verbal communication.

week 6 tute tasks-celebrity

CELEBRITY: This image of Britney Spears to me represents what I think makes a celebrity, and makes people interested in celebrities. Someone who is famous for whatever reason, and then has people love them, hate them and scrutinise their every move, which is shown in this photo where someone has already pointed out everything she is doing 'wrong' in this photo. I made the addition of faces watching from everywhere, as it seems that is what we do with celebrities, and camera flashes going off. Only a celebrity could make going to the toilet something to read about in magazines.

week 6 tute tasks-games

GAMES: I chose an image of the board game snakes and ladders, obviously because it is a game played between people for 'fun.' I altered it by putting angry faces on the once-smiling snakes, because you know you are playing a game when you start of for fun and being friendly, but then it turns competitive and into a series of arguments. At least that's how I can remember all my game-like experiences; board games, sport games, all of them!

week 6 tute tasks-Popular

POPULAR: I chose a mobile phone to represent popular, because they are obviously hugely popular devices. I modified it by creating, not that you can tell, a human heart behind it, because people always say "I couldn't live without my phone." As the heart is a vital organ in living, I put them together to show the dependence people have on their phones!

week 6 tute tasks-Australian

AUSTRALIAN: I know it's such a cliche to have this for my Australian image, but that's why it's so Australian! A koala (Australian animal icon) wearing a national shirt with the words 'Down Under' is pretty Australian to me! The changes I made to it were just to make the background green and yellow because they are indeed the Australian colours!

Week 5 lecture post

Good afternoon,
Week 5's lecture was about virtual reality, philosophy and the screen age. It re-capped all the things that existed before and ultimately helped to create virtual reality; like telegraph, telephone, cinema etc. It also explained virtual language; most of it I remember learning in high school english, but it was still really useful to be reminded of all the concepts. And to re-read them all reminds me how important they are to videos, for example sound, as well as all the different camera angles. However, all this virtual reality stuff confused me...until vision, sound, touch and taste and smell are used as examples, and that makes it clear to me. The touch one is interesting; like force feedback-forces acting on muscles, joints and tendons. Although I'm not sure if I can think of a time I have experienced this, maybe that's because I don't really understand the touch part, but it's still cool to read about! All this virtual stuff is still a little over my head, maybe I need to read it in simpleton terms! But anyway, they were the stand-out concepts of the lecture, because I kinda understodd them and they were interesting!

Til next time!