So although Soundcloud's wikipedia page looks sparse and lacking in information, it was difficult to think of anything that wasn't already summarized by previous posters. I ended up adding a statement to the "Features" block about the groups on Soundcloud and their function as an innovative way of facilitating community online. I think in the future, this aspect of Soundcloud could warrant its own whole section of the wiki page because of the recent surge in use and popularity.
This project has helped me not only to discover many new features of this site I had no idea existed, but it also put some of the features and functions in perspective by providing theories through which these activities can be understood.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Souncloud as a tool for the non-artist
Everything I've posted thus far about the media sharing site Soundcloud has been oriented towards an audience engaged directly in music production. However, Soundcloud can be a great tool for anyone who just wants to discover new music. As I browsed many of the accounts of other users, I noticed that a large portion of the community hasn't uploaded any music of their own, yet taken full advantage of the "favorites" function that allows people to add tracks to a list of favorites. Passively engaging in what Souncloud has to offer is not a bad thing at all. Many of these non-artist users still engage in the community aspect of the site by posting comments on people's music and contributing to artists' "hype" by following them much like people gain popularity through followers on twitter. This "following" function has made soundcloud basically the twitter of music. Instead of logging on and scrolling through your friends', family, and celebrities' tweets, you can browse through all of the brand new music that your favorite users have posted that day.
Practicum 7 - A Final Wrap Up
I've spent a lot of time this semester researching, making a powerpoint, rereading articles, applying concepts, and writing this paper all for the sake of this practicum. I chose to do my practicum project on specialized information sites and in even more detail I picked a very heavily commented articled entitled "Creating an effective Facebook Post" by Carley Knobloch on the information website eHow. While I did learn a few new aspects of the new Facebook in the article what I learned most was how specialized information sites affect the concept of collective intelligence and the community on these types of sites are very user information consuming. Articles are written to teach and inform instead of be critiqued and analyzed. The site eHow does accurately fit Pierre Levy's three aspects of Collective Intelligence. While the real-time coordination of intelligence is a bit of a stretch it can be argued that authors can upload their articles onto the site as soon as they're written. For the most part specialized information sites such as eHow are an endless source of information that allows users to gain and understand skills that they did not have before. Facebook has become a very important part of the internet and is used as the way to post comments on an eHow article. While the community on the actual site is not very active, the eHow page on Facebook is updated with new articles where users from all across the globe constantly comment and debate different ways and tips to enhance each users experience with the article. In the end I searched and read through many how-to articles to find one that showed community and that interested me. When I found the article that fit my needs I was able to learn and discover about the idea of collective intelligence.
eHow in Pierre Levy's Eyes (Practicum)
Pierre Levy wrote an article on the Collective Intelligence and how it is created and maintained through the internet. He stated the goal of collective intelligence as "the mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals rather than the cult of fetishized or hypostatized communities." It is through communities that knowledge is built up and expanded upon through the sharing between users. All total knowledge resides in humanity and the premise of these specialized information sites is to gather as much information using as many users as possible. eHow embraces this concept by gathering as many articles written by as many experienced authors as they can. The users are information consuming who have the ability to request or drive up the demand for certain articles on a wide variety of subjects. Pierre stresses three main aspects that tend to make up collective intelligence. These are intelligence is constantly enhanced, real-time coordination of intelligence, and the effective mobilization of skills. The first eHow is a prime example of because any time an author decides to write an article and post it he/she adds to the already large bank of knowledge. Real-time coordination does not really work for eHow because information is not updated every second it is discovered, it takes an author to find something to write about and then spend the time to write, edit and upload the article. eHow is a prime example of Pierre's final aspect, the effect mobilization of skills. This is what the website is built on, all the articles are meant to teach a wide spectrum of skills and tasks to anyone who is willing to learn them. These are usually in step-by-step form and users are allowed to share their own tips and experiences to benefit other users.
Practicum 7 - Wrapping Things Up
I figured I would use this final practicum post to kind of summarize some of the experiences I had on Kongregate. Over the course of the semester, I participated in various parts of the Kongregate forums, as well as some attempts to interact with the Kongregate chat rooms. On the forums, I posted just under 300 posts over the course of the semester (20-25 a week). I also spent time on the chat rooms, although I had almost no success in making networks with the chat rooms.
On the forums, it took a solid month of posts before I was acknowledged with any amount of seriousness. The Kongregate community niches, at least the few that I participated in, seemed to be resistant to new comers. But, through persistence, I was able to carve out my spot and my answers began to fit in the persona that the other users came to expect. This is the first time I spend a continued amount of time on one forum (usually a bounce around 5-8 different ones without ever being a regular contributor). I hadn't expected to have to put in so much time to gain acceptance into the community.
I would imagine part of the community's hesitance comes from two main reasons. First, the community as a whole seems to be pretty young, probably 13-17 for the most part. I would imagine that the people who were posting in 'Serious Discussion' where I spent most of my time would be hesitant to take somebody who had a grand total of zero posts before I started this project seriously right away. Second, many people on the forums seem to, at the very least, try to troll. There are a ridiculous amount of troll alts on this site among the forums, I would imagine when people saw me roll in, that they thought I was just another troll alt.
In short, I was only really able to make a real connection with one other person on the forums. Generally when posting I tried to be confrontational which didn't foster many friendly connections among the other members. But, it was interesting to see some of the theories that Danny discussed in lecture play out within the Kongregate community.
On the forums, it took a solid month of posts before I was acknowledged with any amount of seriousness. The Kongregate community niches, at least the few that I participated in, seemed to be resistant to new comers. But, through persistence, I was able to carve out my spot and my answers began to fit in the persona that the other users came to expect. This is the first time I spend a continued amount of time on one forum (usually a bounce around 5-8 different ones without ever being a regular contributor). I hadn't expected to have to put in so much time to gain acceptance into the community.
I would imagine part of the community's hesitance comes from two main reasons. First, the community as a whole seems to be pretty young, probably 13-17 for the most part. I would imagine that the people who were posting in 'Serious Discussion' where I spent most of my time would be hesitant to take somebody who had a grand total of zero posts before I started this project seriously right away. Second, many people on the forums seem to, at the very least, try to troll. There are a ridiculous amount of troll alts on this site among the forums, I would imagine when people saw me roll in, that they thought I was just another troll alt.
In short, I was only really able to make a real connection with one other person on the forums. Generally when posting I tried to be confrontational which didn't foster many friendly connections among the other members. But, it was interesting to see some of the theories that Danny discussed in lecture play out within the Kongregate community.
Copyright Experience
I've never really been afraid of breaking copyright laws online because I have always in favor of free torrent sharing; until recently. Since I got my first computer I've been downloading torrents saving money like the vast majority of americans do as I accumulated over 6,000 songs. It never really concerned me to buy artists albums since I've always had the mentality that "I go to the support artists at shows and buying merchandise". Recently however for my practicum project I have developed a different mentality towards pirating. I think it is wrong. I spent several hours on every song making sure every note was how I wanted it to be and honestly I can't even begin to imagine the work that professionals do before commercially releasing records. The first action I took after I began creating music was signing up for an itunes account. Believe it or not it took me 6 years to sign up for an account, but now I've already started buying albums. Proud to say my first album bought was the shins; I just had too. But copyrighting is serious and it is getting out of hand in america. Just a couple months ago of my friends who lives in the same apartment complex got an email from warner brothers for illegally downloading your highness. The letter threatened to shut down their internet if downloaded again as well as prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law. Copyrighting is an important aspect of the music and film industry that has constantly been abused. Luckily action is being taken over the last couple years when mass media sharing websites such as limewire and megaupload have been shit down. In all buy music, respect the artist.
and respect me by checking out my songs... soundcloud whaddup!
http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=ben+roif
Article for Specialized Information
The article I chose to focus my practicum on was "Creating an Effective Facebook Post" by Carley Knobloch on the website eHow. The reason I chose this very article is because it was one of the very few with more than a few user comments and its subject matter was something I am fairly familiar with. Carley is a feature tech blog for eHow who focuses on the personal and professional benefits of social media. She has a very broad background of technological knowledge. Her article explained how Facebook has changed and the new updates and features its users have access to. Carley started her article by explaining the new Timeline profile feature. Along with Timeline she explained the new geo-location that can be added to pictures, videos, posts, etc. so persons know where a photo was taken or where you are making your post on their wall. Another feature on Timeline is the ability to add Life Events to your timeline so you and arrive one else can remember and celebrate the important milestones in your life. Besides talking about the new features of Facebook, Knobloch talks about proper online etiquette. She stresses that you and the person you are posting with are not the only ones who can view that post so be careful to make sure comments do not cross the T.M.I. line. One great bit of advice from her is to check your homepage Minifeed to stay updated to your friends so you make sure your friends online stay your friends in real life. Since Carley is a media expert she explains how adding all different types of media to posts can not only enhance the post but show that you know and understand the technology you are using.
Specialized Information Sites Practicum
There are countless types of specialized information sites. Wikipedia, eHow, instructables.com, etc. are all great sources of information that can be accessed for free by any user. The trend in the specialized information community is for the users to be more lurkers than actually contribute their own input to the site. With Wikipedia being a main exception to this trend, I noticed that when Wikipedia users edited and redact each article it is overseen by a special group of users named administrators. On these other sites of specialized information the main way users are allowed to interact is either in a forum or on a comment section at the end of each article. eHow, the website I chose to focus my practicum on, was a community of lurkers who consume the endless articles of information, usually step-by-step, instead of contributing their own ideas. This mostly comes from the way eHow operates by paying freelance writers small sums to write article for the site which drastically affects how well the articles are written and the amount users participate on the site. It was very difficult to find any article that had one if not more comments by users. There is no way to create an account but the way one can comment is by signing into your Facebook profile to post. From their you can choose to post it to your wall, minifeed, or not post at all. The online eHow community is much larger on Facebook. Articles that are posted on the actually site are uploaded to the eHow Facebook page where they are flooded with likes and comments by users all over the world. These users interact more and take each other's thoughts and comments into considerations. Even on some articles users give advice on how to improve or do easier the action the article was explaining. It is through this platform that users are free to interact with one another in a much more sensible and noticeable community.
History of the Internet
Reflecting of this course I realized just now that I missed the very first blog assignment. I came into the class a couple weeks late and it must have slipped my mind. Seeing this video for the first time after the semester rather than in the beginning gave me a very different reaction than I imagine I would of had in the first week. I've come along way since the beginning of the semester. I had no idea the complexities of the internet and how it all came together in only the past 50 years. I find it really interesting how the internet is such a global necessity and but only months ago I assumed America was behind all of it by itself. It's amazing how little I knew and how much I have taken from this class looking back on it. The internet is pivotal in daily life and I'm surprised this class isn't mandatory outside of the com arts major. For people, especially college students, that depend on computers, the internet, and social media sites everyone should have to understand what exactly they are using. It was also really interesting getting a time-elapsed version of how the digital age took of in America and around the world so quickly. I wonder where the internet will be in the next 50 years.
Wikipedia Post
I've never posted anything to Wikipedia and was actually kind of excited to see my contribution published on the site. I've heard that a lot of what people post gets cross-checked by some collective of editors, for relevance to the topic, accuracy, and grammar. I'm not entirely sure what criteria they use, but I could see why thats necessary, especially if people are going to Wikipedia for accurate knowledge. I wonder how fast it takes for a Wikipedia editor to spot a new post, I'm sure there's some sort of indicator that lets them know where revisions have been made. But even when an editor finds something out of place how do they determine whether or not its accurate? Obviously there are revisions that are clearly inaccurate and are the results of trolls, but I'm curious as to what that the standard is, and how they apply that criteria to the revisions.
Regardless, here's what I added to the MiGente.com Wikipedia
"MiGente.com has aesthetics comparable to Facebook.com and utilizes many of the same networking tools Facebook.com does, like friend requests, chat, tagging, etc. However, a key difference between MiGente.com and Facebook.com is that MiGente.com allows for more customization when it comes to your profile page. Also, unless customized by the user, anything posted on MiGente.com is public and users are also allowed to comment on anyones post, unlike Facebook.com, which automatically requires you to be friends with the person whose post you are commenting on."
I think this is accurate, hopefully the editors do too.
Regardless, here's what I added to the MiGente.com Wikipedia
"MiGente.com has aesthetics comparable to Facebook.com and utilizes many of the same networking tools Facebook.com does, like friend requests, chat, tagging, etc. However, a key difference between MiGente.com and Facebook.com is that MiGente.com allows for more customization when it comes to your profile page. Also, unless customized by the user, anything posted on MiGente.com is public and users are also allowed to comment on anyones post, unlike Facebook.com, which automatically requires you to be friends with the person whose post you are commenting on."
I think this is accurate, hopefully the editors do too.
Practicum 6
So I've been frequenting the chat room for a couple days now. The rooms that are available are "Spanish Speakers", "Lesbian", "Latino Lounge", "Gay", "30 Somethings", and "20 Somethings". Like I said in my previous post the online the only chat room that had anybody in was the "30 Somethings", and it had about 9 people in it. I wrote about trolling in my paper, and highlighted how I had encountered a couple trolls in the comment section of a Youtube. I was always curious about trolling. Today I let my curiosity get the best of me. I don't plan on going on Migente after this, and every time I've been in the chat room I'm usually ignored because everyone else in there are regulars and have a specialized language. So I decided to try and get everyones attention by trolling in the chat room. It worked. Not only did I get immediate responses, but the conversation lasted well over 30 mins. Surprisingly though no one booted me from the group, in fact, they seemed to embrace me after awhile. All I really did to troll them was call them names and talk negatively about Migente, and soon they started make fun of each other and badmouth Migente along with me.
I found it interesting how it took vulgarity to get people to respond. This whole time I've been trying to communicate with people on these websites by asking questions like, "what do you think of Puerto Rican independence?", or "How do you feel about Latinos portrayal in the media?" All of the responses I received from those questions did not lead to any substantial conversations or any sort of connection with the members. I guess people don't really want to discuss those issues in chat rooms. However, I feel like I would need to do more research and a thorough ethnography to make claims like that.
I found it interesting how it took vulgarity to get people to respond. This whole time I've been trying to communicate with people on these websites by asking questions like, "what do you think of Puerto Rican independence?", or "How do you feel about Latinos portrayal in the media?" All of the responses I received from those questions did not lead to any substantial conversations or any sort of connection with the members. I guess people don't really want to discuss those issues in chat rooms. However, I feel like I would need to do more research and a thorough ethnography to make claims like that.
Practicum Post: Wikipedia Mashup Page
I have had a lot of fun doing this project. My main focus through out the semester has been my work on my mix-tape Lil Peppa. I've never posted on wikipedia before and what better to than on the mashup page as a little tribute to what I have done. I do a sort of commentary addition under the "remix" category in the mash up post. I was confused why such a broad category would be a sub-section to a specific type of remix but whatever.
My addition...
"All mashups are remixes yes, but not vice-versa. Mashups are a category of remixes but only on the most basic level. Remixes can combine songs but it in addition they add other original layering to make the song more of a transformative work. An example of a popular remix artists that primarily remixes single songs but also mashes songs are The White Pandas. The chicago-based duo has emerged as one of the biggest upcoming DJ's. Their latest full length mash "Pandamonium" has received over 1 million downloads."
I don't really like the idea of posting on wikipedia especially with all the privacy settings I lose because of it. Since I am not registered to Wiki my addresses and IP number are stored as public records. Regardless of how I feel about posting I do think it does conclude this project well, sharing a glimpse of what I have been researching and spending the bulk of my time doing this semester.
"All mashups are remixes yes, but not vice-versa. Mashups are a category of remixes but only on the most basic level. Remixes can combine songs but it in addition they add other original layering to make the song more of a transformative work. An example of a popular remix artists that primarily remixes single songs but also mashes songs are The White Pandas. The chicago-based duo has emerged as one of the biggest upcoming DJ's. Their latest full length mash "Pandamonium" has received over 1 million downloads."
I don't really like the idea of posting on wikipedia especially with all the privacy settings I lose because of it. Since I am not registered to Wiki my addresses and IP number are stored as public records. Regardless of how I feel about posting I do think it does conclude this project well, sharing a glimpse of what I have been researching and spending the bulk of my time doing this semester.
Practicum Post: Editing Problems
Wow, editing is hard. Until recently I have only touched the surface of the potential final cut pro has to offer. Fresh off of intro to film 355 I falsely assumed I had a great grasp of the editing software. Although I have done serveral shorts this semester that I am proud of, I always feel that the production aspect of them could be greater. For the past couple of weeks I have taken to my own devices to get a greater understanding of the software I have been working with for close to 8 months already. I've spent hours already trying to make sense of what I can controll and slowly it is all coming together. It is amazing what you can learn from youtube videos. Getting into the film industry is hard and it is nice to see so many "professionals" putting out very in-depth tutorials on youtube for exposure purposes. I have learned a lot from this one particular user on youtube "reelcleverdotcom". It took me awhile before speaking up on these youtube walls to ask for a more personalized help when certain problems arised "reelcleverdotcom" was actually helpful and after waiting two days to respond we had a brief but informative conversation on how specifically I can work on my color correction problem. I have never learned or tried to color correct a shot in final cut before. As you can see on the screen shot I took from a video project I'm working on a lot goes into color correcting a shot. The tools in final cut allows the user to control every aspect of the shots color. You can work with the color wheel where you can pinpoint with a brush any color in the frame and change it to your desired color. Under the color wheel there are the basic options of saturation, bulking or thinning the mids (skin tones), blacks and whites in the shot. The small view finder (all the way to right) constantly updates in real time when corrections are made but it is difficult to tell what looks right. "Reelcleverdotocm" was really helpful for this and taught be the very basics of the histogram and waveform that allows me to see what blacks are true black, if the skin color matches everywhere, and so on. A lot of this process of trial and error learning took many hours longer than it would have been with an instructor or anyone I could talk to in person. I realized hours after I went in indivually and corrected each shot of my short film I am working on that the shots don't allign with each other well. Meaning when I quick edit shots together it doesn't look right; each shot had a different exposure and I corrected the skin differently so it all looked off. I took my problems to the IMC in vilas where I learned the rest of what I know on final cut pro. I learned how to use view finder (picture below) which enables me to see multiple shots at the same time to make editing a lot easier. I can now base color corrected shots off of previous ones and edits are more cohesive now. It has been a lot of fun using this program, let me know if anyone needs help with it!
Practicum 5
As much as I don't really enjoy going to Migente as a social networking site I must say there are some pretty cool options when it comes to customization. You can add songs to your profiles, change up the layout, and even switch to different color schemes. For me I think the website has become this sort of post-Facebook relic of what social networking sites used to look like, i.e. Myspace. I feel like Facebook has now set the standard for social networking sites, and all the past SNS's are either shattered versions of themselves quietly dying in the far corners of cyberspace, or old relics that are relegated to mere novelties of a once thriving and diverse scene. Maybe it is a good thing to have one centralized website where everyone goes to get there social networking fix, it might make networking a lot easier.
But then again, sites like Migente cater to a different audience, one that embraces the quirky and sometimes tacky customizations that made Myspace so popular at one time. Danny made a reference in class about how Facebook is like the suburbs; nice, clean, and orderly, and Myspace is like the city, cluttered, noisy, and filled with people of color. Its no surprise that Migente, an obvious offshoot of Myspace, is full of latinos, obviously with a title like Migente thats what it was designed to be. It's a place where people who share common cultural, traditions, practices, and languages can get together, network with each other, connect, and customize their social networking site as an overt expression of themselves.
I will admit, Facebook has sterilized my tastes when it comes to SNS. Regardless, I feel like the reason I think these customizations are so cool is because I haven't seen or used them since Myspace. I would compare it to that feeling of nostalgia you get when you find your favorite toy from childhood. Although you don't really want to play with it because of the social backlash you might receive from society, its nevertheless something you used to enjoy, and it reminds you of your roots. Your SNS roots that is.
Here's a screenshot of one of the customization pages
Practicum Post: We Found Love (In Chipotle)
I told you guys about this during my presentation. I had in my powerpoint the teaser for the music but now I am glad to say its finally finished. If you guys have sometime to check it out follow the link after the jump. Make this go viral!
It's on my website and I also linked it to my youtube account.
http://benroif.wordpress.com/
Practicum 7
For my final blog post is venture to Wikipedia and search for the online network gaming page. Unfortunately there is no such page, so my next idea was to try and find the page for FIFA 12. After reading through the page I found that there was no mention of FIFA 12 Online mode, so I decided to write up a short summary basically describing what the online function does.
I mentioned how users connect with each other, and that they need a Xbox Live account to connect. I also touched on the fact that there are different game modes available on FIFA 12, including some multiplayer ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_12
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_12
Practicum (Editing eHow Wikipedia Page)
As a follow up to my practicum I went to the eHow Wikipedia page to add my own two cents.
What I found when I got there was a much shorter than expected Wikipedia entry. The introduction told about eHow and how its content is created an added to the site using freelance writers who are paid per article written. The other two subpages were the history of eHow and criticisms. eHow started in March of 1999 and has seen countless new owners. Continually sold and resold because in the past the site constantly lost money, eHow is finally run by a few owners and programmers to help keep costs down. The only place I saw fit on this page to add my own thoughts as part of my practicum was in the criticism section. Most of the criticism involve calling eHow a content mill meaning they pay low price for low quality information as much as possible to create as many pages that turn up more often in search engines. In recent years search engines have changed their algorithms to combat this idea of content milling. I wrote in this section "eHow can be seen as an information consuming site by its users. Users do not provide articles, let alone very little feedback, to the site and thus users cannot directly affect the type of content that is seen on eHow. Compared to more user driven sites such as Wikipedia, eHow's user community tend to be more lurkers than contributors." This was my conclusion to my practicum project.
Practicum 7 - CMC & Wikipedia
One of the most vital aspects that pulls together the virtual community within DC Universe Online is Computer-Mediated-Communication or CMC. CMC consists of any form of communication that takes place through multiple computers. At the begining of the game, there was very little CMC, as almost every line spoken to me, untill I reached level 4, were coming from the game and not an actual person. Once I began speaking to people, CMC completley took over my gaming experience and essentially ushered me into the real world of MMORPGs. CMC includes everything from chating with one other person, to chating with a group of people, to posting a message to whoever would enjoy reading the post, to sending someone a private message who will never know who sent the message, to group interviews were two existing members of a group or league will interview the user who desires to join their group. When I looked up CMC on the internet, I instantly found information detailing the synchronization and asynchronization of CMC, but was surprised to find no other information on other types of CMC. As a result, I decided to edit the section which listed the types of CMC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication#Types
Types
CMC can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous modes. In synchronous communications all participants are online at the same time (e.g. IRC), while asynchronous communications occurs with time constraints. (e.g. email). People choose asynchronous communication like email for delayed, controlled and longer messages. They also prefer email for negative emotion as they are distant from the receiver ("shielding" effect). On the other hand, people prefer synchronous communication like IM for immediate good news. They also use it because they can multitask while talking. CMC can also be divided into categories of how many people are communicating, how many people are they communicating with, and how are they communicating. Some examples are one-to-one communication, one-to-many communication, many-to-many communication, monologues, diologues, and multilogues.
In conclusion to my practicum project, I would like to say this was one of the best projects I have ever completed and thoroughly enjoyed every second of playing DC Universe Online and learning about MMORPGs and interactive media. It is amazing that such vast virtual worlds exists and that there are so many users who so strongly desire to be a part of a virtual world and community. I feel that there should be a ton more research going into MMORPGs because it is clear that such virtual communities are the communities of our future and it is clear that such games can create communities that cross borders, oceans, religions, races, and nationalities. If there was somehow a way that such virtual communities were created where users from 3rd world countries were able to learn and communicate with citizens of industrialized communities, the benefits are endless and could lead to such things as the end of hunger if people somehow managed to bring some form of currency into the game that can be transfered to the poorer users through gameplay, or education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication#Types
Types
CMC can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous modes. In synchronous communications all participants are online at the same time (e.g. IRC), while asynchronous communications occurs with time constraints. (e.g. email). People choose asynchronous communication like email for delayed, controlled and longer messages. They also prefer email for negative emotion as they are distant from the receiver ("shielding" effect). On the other hand, people prefer synchronous communication like IM for immediate good news. They also use it because they can multitask while talking. CMC can also be divided into categories of how many people are communicating, how many people are they communicating with, and how are they communicating. Some examples are one-to-one communication, one-to-many communication, many-to-many communication, monologues, diologues, and multilogues.
In conclusion to my practicum project, I would like to say this was one of the best projects I have ever completed and thoroughly enjoyed every second of playing DC Universe Online and learning about MMORPGs and interactive media. It is amazing that such vast virtual worlds exists and that there are so many users who so strongly desire to be a part of a virtual world and community. I feel that there should be a ton more research going into MMORPGs because it is clear that such virtual communities are the communities of our future and it is clear that such games can create communities that cross borders, oceans, religions, races, and nationalities. If there was somehow a way that such virtual communities were created where users from 3rd world countries were able to learn and communicate with citizens of industrialized communities, the benefits are endless and could lead to such things as the end of hunger if people somehow managed to bring some form of currency into the game that can be transfered to the poorer users through gameplay, or education.
Practicum 6 - Virtual Community
As my superhero character, Macro Man, in DC Universe Online continues to grow in skill, strength, and experience, my horizon of friends, groups, leagues, and rivals, is continuing to grow as well. Now at level 15, I have 22 friends (more appropriately acquantances), I am a member of 3 groups, and I am still in only one league, even though my rank and influence in that league is growing quickly. The reason I feel more comfortable calling my 22 friends acquantances is that 4 to 5 of my so called 'friends' are actually people who I have dueled with and felt that they were of equal skill as myself and would be a fair fight in the future or a good fight to see where my improvements stand against other users improvements. AKA...rivals.
Now that I am clearly adapting to the game, I am begining to really get a sense of the magic behind the virtual communities which often come about from MMORPG and other forms of MMO games. For example, if I ever have a question about any aspect of the game that I need to know, there is absolutley no need to search for an answer on the internet as I am sure that a 'friend' of mine could help me out with the answer on DC Universe Online. If the ability to ask others for help is not an aspect of a community than I dont know what is.
Another aspect of a virtual community that I have found to be ever present in DC Universe Online is the shared interest amongst users towards both DC Comics and MMORPGs. As I continue to speak to more and more members and ask them the reason for why they are on DC Universe Online, the answer has almost 100% of the time been either, "I like superheroes/comic books" (or a specific superheroes name), or "I <3 MMORPG". With these shared interests, communication between users is much more casual as the users are aware that there is at least one aspect of their lives that are similar to eachother, and users are also more motivated to speak to people if they believe that they are going to turn out to be similar to them. For a lot of socially awkward teens and adults, turing towards these virtual communities appears to be the best option because they find these sorts of shared interests between themselves and the users around them without having to actually communicate with them.
Now that I am clearly adapting to the game, I am begining to really get a sense of the magic behind the virtual communities which often come about from MMORPG and other forms of MMO games. For example, if I ever have a question about any aspect of the game that I need to know, there is absolutley no need to search for an answer on the internet as I am sure that a 'friend' of mine could help me out with the answer on DC Universe Online. If the ability to ask others for help is not an aspect of a community than I dont know what is.
Another aspect of a virtual community that I have found to be ever present in DC Universe Online is the shared interest amongst users towards both DC Comics and MMORPGs. As I continue to speak to more and more members and ask them the reason for why they are on DC Universe Online, the answer has almost 100% of the time been either, "I like superheroes/comic books" (or a specific superheroes name), or "I <3 MMORPG". With these shared interests, communication between users is much more casual as the users are aware that there is at least one aspect of their lives that are similar to eachother, and users are also more motivated to speak to people if they believe that they are going to turn out to be similar to them. For a lot of socially awkward teens and adults, turing towards these virtual communities appears to be the best option because they find these sorts of shared interests between themselves and the users around them without having to actually communicate with them.
Computerized Devices
Here is a list of the computerized devices I used yesterday.
(Just a heads up that this list might be quite extensive as I am a Sony Electronics Ambassador and have many electronics that I used yesterday during a demo)
(Just a heads up that this list might be quite extensive as I am a Sony Electronics Ambassador and have many electronics that I used yesterday during a demo)
- Alarm Clock
- Electronic Toothbrush w/ timer
- Cell Phone
- Laptop
- PS3
- Xbox
- Television
- Microwave
- S1 Tablet
- Bloggie
- Cybershot Camera
- Walkman
- Elevator
Google Yourself
For many years now it has been a hobby of mine to google myself and my family members in order to learn new information on people, or to see the extent of information available about people on the internet. Personally, there is quite a lot of information about myself on google and I am not sure whether I should view this as a positive thing or a negative thing. On google you are able to find what high school I went to, what sports I played and how I did in those sports (swimming times and basketball stats), the names of my family members, where I live, the name of a CD I sang backup on when I was 7, where I went to camp, my facebook/myspace/livejournal, and almost everything else I have put on the internet. For things like family member names, where I live, my high school, or my social media sites, I believe the access google has to private information and the ability they have to promote these websites that contain this information is quite unbelievable and I feel that this definitely, in some way, breaches my rights to privacy. At the same time, there are also good things about google searches, for example when I am 40 I will be able to see how many points I scored in a high school basketball game, I also sometimes use google to conduct research on family members who have deceased and I never had a chance to meet. For example, on google I discovered a list of my great-grandfather's favorite films, and as a film lover and comm arts major, this list had a huge impact on my life and my taste in films.
Copyright Experience
Since my earliest experiences with the internet, I had always been aware of Copyright laws, but in the most part, chose to ignore them. When I was only 8 or 9 years old, I used to illegally download music and games from Napster. I had been told in school that downloading music on websites like napster was illegal and had always heard stories from friends who had friends who had friends who had gotten in trouble with the government and had to pay thousands of dollars in fines, but because I had never experience such punishments first hand, I completley ignored them. After Napster I moved on to Limewire and continued downloading music, videos, and games without paying. Later on after Limewire began making my computer run slower, I began file sharing off of applications like Mojo, where any users on the same network can transfer songs, videos, or pictures to one another through itunes.
In terms of the morality of what I am doing, I am deffinitley fully aware that I am stealing somebody elses property, and that it is wrong and illegal. This is especially a problem when it comes to illegally downloading movies as my family owns a chain of movie theatres and film piracy has led to major drops in the cinema market. At the same time, there is also a side of me that wants to simply state that if it is available on the internet for free, then there shouldnt be any punishment for viewing it, and that part of the responsibility and challenge of these media producers is to adopt to the online age and figure out ways to provide free media to audiences while still profiting off of advertisements, like Hulu, being able to pay off the media creators.
In terms of the morality of what I am doing, I am deffinitley fully aware that I am stealing somebody elses property, and that it is wrong and illegal. This is especially a problem when it comes to illegally downloading movies as my family owns a chain of movie theatres and film piracy has led to major drops in the cinema market. At the same time, there is also a side of me that wants to simply state that if it is available on the internet for free, then there shouldnt be any punishment for viewing it, and that part of the responsibility and challenge of these media producers is to adopt to the online age and figure out ways to provide free media to audiences while still profiting off of advertisements, like Hulu, being able to pay off the media creators.
Practicum 5 - Gameplay Cont.
Currently in DC Universe Online, I am level 14 and my character is nearly unrecognizable due to the vast amount of utilities I have added to my characters physical appearance.
With the addition of each of these new utilities, my character can improve in attack efficiency, attack strength, defensive strength, health, speed, and other character skills. Also, characters can learn different attacks and use different weapons based on the utilities on hand. For example, I originally started of the game with fist projectiles as my weapons, but have since added the battle axe to my weapons in my utility. With the battle axe, I was able to learn an entire new series of attacks while still being able to return to the attacks I learned with fist projectiles. The way at which I attain these new utilities is through leveling up, mission completion, or by stealing it from other users while battling individually, in groups, or in leagues. Personally I have gained the most experience and utilities while participating in group battles, but in this post I am going to specifically discuss missions and how rewards work in PvE. Just a reminder from my earlier posts that PvE stands for Player vs. Environment, where the user is only completing computer generated missions and battling computer generated characters.
A few of the missions I have gone on so far in DC Universe Online were; Save Robin from Joker, Help Superman Destroy Brainiac's Gorillas, Defeat Flash in a Race, and Help Wonder Woman Destory Brainiac's Computers. It should be pretty clear that most of the early missions in this game are with some of the more popular characters in DC Comics, and if one is able to complete the missions in a certain alloted time or with a certain number of kills, the character gains the mentorship of the superhero. For example, after I saved Robin from Joker in under 10 minutes, I received Robin as a mentor and gained Loyalty as my personality.
All of the missions I have gone on so far are relatively simple and I have not had to much difficulty completing them. I have read on chats that the missions do get much more difficult when you pass level 30, but I have a long way to go until then.
Lastly, one of my favorite aspects of these missions is that even though they are assigned to you alone and your results are yours alone, there are sometimes other users who are completing the same mission as you at the same time. For example, in Help Superman Destory Brainiac's Gorillas and Help Wonder Woman Destroy Brainiac's Computers, there was an unlimited number of gorillas and computers to destroy, so an unlimited number of users can be completing this missions at the same time as only 15 gorrilas and 10 computers are needed to be destroyed before the mission is complete.
A few of the missions I have gone on so far in DC Universe Online were; Save Robin from Joker, Help Superman Destroy Brainiac's Gorillas, Defeat Flash in a Race, and Help Wonder Woman Destory Brainiac's Computers. It should be pretty clear that most of the early missions in this game are with some of the more popular characters in DC Comics, and if one is able to complete the missions in a certain alloted time or with a certain number of kills, the character gains the mentorship of the superhero. For example, after I saved Robin from Joker in under 10 minutes, I received Robin as a mentor and gained Loyalty as my personality.
All of the missions I have gone on so far are relatively simple and I have not had to much difficulty completing them. I have read on chats that the missions do get much more difficult when you pass level 30, but I have a long way to go until then.
Lastly, one of my favorite aspects of these missions is that even though they are assigned to you alone and your results are yours alone, there are sometimes other users who are completing the same mission as you at the same time. For example, in Help Superman Destory Brainiac's Gorillas and Help Wonder Woman Destroy Brainiac's Computers, there was an unlimited number of gorillas and computers to destroy, so an unlimited number of users can be completing this missions at the same time as only 15 gorrilas and 10 computers are needed to be destroyed before the mission is complete.
Practicum 4 - DCUO Demographic
In my last practicum post I asked the question to the class, "Are the majority of users on DC Universe Online fans of MMORPGs, fans of
Superheroes and DC Comics, or both?" Since posting that question, I have decided to do a bit of research into the subject of DC Universe Online's demographic as I believe it is a critical aspect of the games success due to the games attractiveness to both fans of MMORPGs and fans of superheros and DC Comics. Using an app called Raptr, which is a social networking app for gamers, researchers were able to track the users who were playing DC Universe Online and the other online video games these users were playing. According to the statistics, DCUO users were found to be much more interested in other MMORPG games, like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, then other comic book genred games, like City of Heroes.
Prior to reading these statistics, I had fully believed that the majority of users of DC Universe Online were more interested in superheroes then they were in the games MMORPG style. This was because of the lack of games garnered towards the strong communal aspects of the comic book community and the idea that MMORPG fans would have already been too busy dedicating their time to much more popular games like World of Warcraft.
Even though this new information does go against my original thought that the game was primarily comic book fans, I still believe this info adds more validity to my claim that much of DCUO's success comes from the rare combination of multiple demographics; comic book fans and MMORPG fans.
Prior to reading these statistics, I had fully believed that the majority of users of DC Universe Online were more interested in superheroes then they were in the games MMORPG style. This was because of the lack of games garnered towards the strong communal aspects of the comic book community and the idea that MMORPG fans would have already been too busy dedicating their time to much more popular games like World of Warcraft.
Even though this new information does go against my original thought that the game was primarily comic book fans, I still believe this info adds more validity to my claim that much of DCUO's success comes from the rare combination of multiple demographics; comic book fans and MMORPG fans.
Final Practicum: Remix Production
As my final practicum post I had to update a wikipedia entry, but I could not think of the right wikipedia page. The term "Remix" was just too broad, so I chose one of the sub-categories that were in the wikipedia page for "Remix". There was a sub-category titled "Remix in Media and Consumer Products", so I decided to add summary of my practicum post on remix and comedy. Honestly I really didn't know what to write about, and the idea of adding something to one of the worldwide content website scared me a bit.
I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one in this class that has never updated a wikipedia entry. Although I have used wikipedia for many purposes, I have never thought about actually adding something from my knowledge in the page. I didn't really know what to write about remix production, so I just decided to add some examples of the media that use remix strategies. The wikipedia page for the topic was already very thorough and detail,ed so my entry was very short and simple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix#Remix_in_media_and_consumer_products
I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one in this class that has never updated a wikipedia entry. Although I have used wikipedia for many purposes, I have never thought about actually adding something from my knowledge in the page. I didn't really know what to write about remix production, so I just decided to add some examples of the media that use remix strategies. The wikipedia page for the topic was already very thorough and detail,ed so my entry was very short and simple.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix#Remix_in_media_and_consumer_products
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)