Assignment 2: Video Podcast

CCT205 Assignment 2
Chan Wai Kin 994059601
http://chan-k-2008cct205.blogspot.com
Cheng Yat Sum 995526499
http://cheng-ys-2008cct205.blogspot.com
Cheong Reagan 993364373
http://cheong-r-2008cct205.blogspot.com
Lee Ka Ki Jeffrey 994657849
http://lee-k-2008cct205.blogspot.com
“Game Addicts”

April 1, 2008

Excessive playing of online game has caused many negative impacts upon the modern generation. Therefore, we have chosen “Game Addiction” as our topic for the vodcast since it is one of the main issues affecting the youths today. According to our research, game addiction often leads to lack of social interaction as well as engagement in outdoor and indoor activities. Online games have provided players virtual identities that allow them to escape from the cruel reality. Thus, a sense of fantasy world is created where gamers are granted the unique powers and strength to gain recognition. The vodcast consists of several interviews showing how gaming culture affects the society and the differences between gamers and non gamers. On the other hand, the interviews also show how gamers and non-gamers of different gender spend their time differently. Towards the end, we can see the influence of game addiction consisting two sides effect. Gamers lose physical social interaction while playing games, but they are able to communicate with others through the virtual world. The Internet has linked people from all over the world together in a virtual space, while online games have provides players an opportunity to know different people around the world. Since online games are not likely to be eliminated, it is necessary for us to come up with a solution to cope with the negative effect of the gaming culture.


Bibliography
Media Awareness Network (2008). Excessive Playing.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/video_games/concerns
Raph. K (2008). Current and future developments in online games.
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/futuredev.shtml
Daniel Terdiman (2007). The state of online games.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62031991,00.htm
E. J. Mundell (2007). Video Games’ Addictive Nature Unclear: AMA.
http://www.healthonnet.org/News/HSN/605801.html
Science Daily (2007). Online Multiplayer Video Games Create Greater Negative. Consequences, Elicit Greater Enjoyment than Traditional Ones.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019174410.htm
Associated Press (2008). Communing without nature.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/05/nature.interest.ap/index.html
Mark Ward (2004). Virtual gaming worlds overtake Namibia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3570224.stm
Media Family (2005). Computer and Video Game Addiction.
http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_gameaddiction.shtml
Silicon Valley Sleuth (2006). Online games and their environmental impact.
http://siliconvalleysleuth.co.uk/2006/12/online_games_an.html
Beth Winegamer (2005). When does online-game fervor become addiction.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/18/news_6118921.html
Stanley A. Miller II (2002). Death of a game addict.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=31536
Associated Press (2007). Virtual Epidemic, Real-Life Scenarios.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/21/tech/gamecore/main3189020.shtml?source=search_story
Nicholas Yee (2002). Study of Online Game Addiction.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/everquest/study1

Week 10

Project 2 Proposal

The no life gamer project will explore the phenomena of video gaming culture and how it is integrated to the lives of the new generation. The short film we try to create will ridicule and mimic the life of a gamer.

Thesis:
Video games is a form of entertainment that acts as a stress relieve or pass time for the children of the new digital age. Ever since online games (such as warcraft, starcraft, diablo) debuted to the scene of internet, the new trend spread like cross fire across the world as children of all ages slave away day after day to prove their superiority in mastering such games.

Online games is a sense of augmented reality which allows its user to embed themselves to a world that even a average person can become a hero. To a certain level, online games provide what Maslow would call the self actualization stage in the hierarchy of human needs, which is the ultimate strive of every human being. Achieving the ultimate hierarchy of human need would undoubtedly leave the person with little to strive for, which could very well explain the unproductive behavior of most online gamers.

Regular exercise have become a difficult task to incorporate within the urban culture as the demand for labor employment have decrease drastically over the years. The introduction of online games have further limit the exercise opportunity, and may very well become a major issue of health hazard for the future generation. The life of a game addict is not only unproductive, but also very unhealthy (whether it'd be social life or biological health).

The impact of gaming have the potential to ruin lives of people, but only in the sense if one should become addicted to games. If properly balanced, online games can be a great form of stress relieve that acts as self fulfillment as well as venting of anger. Therefore it is important to understand the culture of gaming and prevent the potential hazard that could be caused.

Preliminary Research:
The online game concerns:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/video_games/concerns/excess_play_videogames.cfm http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/futuredev.shtml http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62031991,00.htm
Health problems:
http://www.healthonnet.org/News/HSN/605801.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019174410.htm http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/05/nature.interest.ap/index.html
Online game impacts:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3570224.stm http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_gameaddiction.shtmlhttp://siliconvalleysleuth.co.uk/2006/12/online_games_an.htmlhttp://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/18/news_6118921.htmlhttp://zonaeuropa.com/20060304_1.htmhttp://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=31536
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/21/tech/gamecore/main3189020.shtml?source=search_story
Survey:
www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/everquest/study1.pdf
Video:"Katie Couric's Notebook: Kids And Sports" http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3683084n

Treatment:
Our podcast will be split up into three parts. The first part is the introduction that will first show our group’s topic through narration. The narration will continue to introduce the topic, as different clips of video games will be shown with imbedded background music to demonstrate the ideas we’re trying to convey. The background music will mostly consist of the theme soundtracks from video games that appropriately portrays the points being made. The clips will stop in the scene of two people playing board game (outdoor/indoor). The volume of the music will decrease when the narrator or actors talk. The introduction part will take around one minute. After the narrator finished the introduction, the scene will move to a room where a addicted gamer is playing video in front of the computer. He is always concentrating on his games and constantly ignores his girlfriend. His girlfriend is frustrated at him and decides to break up, his grades are getting worse, and essentially he has nothing left in his life. This scene will last around one minute. Then the camera will move to other places, e.g. basketball court, gym room, or library which people are having other activities but not video gaming. The narrator will give a conclusion and showing examples of other healthy activities. The video will lead to proper usage of games that could very well balance with existing healthy activities. This may take less than one minute.

My Team

Team Name: Game Addicts

Project: No Life Gamers

Group Members:

Chan Wai Kin (Film editor, Camera man)

Cheng Yat Sum Ianthe (Background research)

Cheong Reagan (Director, Coordinator, Narrator)

Lee Ka Ki Jeffrey (Podcast cast, Research)

Project Concept:

The video podcast will deal with the phenomena of video gaming and how it has affected our culture. Online games have taken over the leisure time of most children in the digital age, and have replaced conventional pass time such as board games, and sports. This phenomenon has lead to limitation of physical interactions and may very well become a health hazard for the future generations due to lack of exercise.

What makes a good video podcast? A Review of My Fav.

Since the late 20th century when Tim Burners Lee invented the World Wide Web, a whole new world have emerged to the public leading us to a new way of life.

The video EPIC 2015 is a video podcast released by Museum of Media History that forecast the future of internet by the year 2015. The podcast begins the epic battle between microsoft and google as a online service provider that allows user to better manipulate and navigate through available functions on the internet. The video follows closely toward the companies accumulated by google in the attempt to produce leverage over their service market against microsoft. After 2007, the snowballing effect of google was predicted to merge with amazon to produce what is known as googlezon. Google provided unparallel bandwidth and search engine capabilities while amazon provided billions of personal marketing data that allows the company to understand each user's need. Microsoft loses out on the battle while Googlezon later on dominates all media providing precise media that caters to each user. Googlezon's power over the internet forces print producers like TIMES to halt all online summaries and concentrate purely on printed media. The ethics of media becomes blurred during googlezon's domination as news are no longer fact and purely written in the way the user wants to view the world.

This podcast is put together in the form of a documentary that produces visuals through multiple imageries, which provide examples while the narrator reveals this epic battle between microsoft and google. The cutting and editing of these imageries are simple and easy to understand while the main colour theme of black and white makes the message more precise and not confusing to it's viewers. Although the video lacks any sort of animation, the mystical background music combined with the steady pace of narration provides an interesting story telling method that will keep it's viewer thinking without getting bored. The story began with a very clear introduction as to what will be discussed in the podcast, and the snowballing effect of the story ends off hitting hard on the possible issues for the future of internet. The podcast leaves it's viewer thinking about the morality of personalised news when news are no longer fact but are reconfigured to a structure that best suit our taste and preference.

The podcast lacks any groundbreaking techniques, story telling, or editing. However, after viewing this podcast, it has shown that basic narration and simple colour use are the most effective way to communicate any ideas to it's viewers.

Web 2.0 and Podcasting where is this heading?

Web 2.0 is defined by Tim O'Reilley during his web 2.0 conference as the trend in web design and development. It is perceived as the second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (social net work site such as wikis, blogs, and youtube) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The web 2.0 era began surfacing as a form of personal expression and media, but it is slowly developed into a mainstream tool that is able to cater to the needs of university professors and project management for many professions to replace convensional communication methods.

Podcasting is a collection of digital media files distributed and stream online through Internet such as youtube. Sooner or later it should be able to be used for online conference or lecture where the students and professionals can also greatly benefit for not being physically present. This method will also greatly benefit people who are disabled and have problem with mobility.

The future of both applications are endless. Just imagine, a world where you're suspended in the space of your own imagination. Everything you ever wanted, the things you wanted to see are customised and catered to your desires. Given the right technology that can enhance the realism of virtual experience (such as the cave automatic environment system), it is very possible that the next level of web 2.0 and podcasting can very well submerge it's user into a virtual life as a virtual avatar (virtual self). Why stop at simple 2 dimensional broadcast when all of this can be enhanced towards a full fledged virtual reality experience.

week 3 videopodcast

Seeking a best of… a scientific blog review

Although the subject science may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who are interested pharyngula (a.k.a scienceblogs.com) is the most clear and concise blog about random scientific discussion available online.

Pharyngula is a blog run by PZ Myers (professor in Biology of University of Minnesota) which focus heavily on relating biology matters. The site displays a vast span of debatable topics ranging from validity of evolutionism to topics such as genetics. Pharyngula is listed by the science journal Nature as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist, and it is easily understandable once entering the site where every blog is clearly categorized and organized into date of post as well as subject of relevance.

Pharyngula is multidisciplinary in every sense; It is informational, instructional, social, and even political. A large variety of videos, and article are the arsenals used by the bloggers to convey their opinion upon a subject matter. The style and format of these post ranges greatly, some of which are random rant upon a subject matter, some are written to make a brief statement about local happenings, and some are in depth critique of a article that includes a lot of counter thesis that are backed up by scholarly research.

The post Trading Food and Grooming for Sex from a Behavioral Neuroscience Perspective, is one that refers to the finding of such phenomena upon chimpanzees. Jake Young(the author) goes in depth supporting this finding and ties it to the Biological marker theory (a theory which implies that animals possess a host of cognitive capacities, some of which were previously only ascribed to humans). He also used the article where monkeys were trained to use little plastic wafers as currency to backup his thesis. The article finishes off with Young's interpretation of the primate brain anatomy explaining how such phenomena is possible, which is a process beyond my comprehension.

In short, the pharyngula blog puts itself ahead of the other blogs with a clean cut interface. The discussions are intriguing and engaging for those who are 'science savy'. The humours at some of the post such as Ali G's Religion Interview are just the icing on the cake.

What is the biggest issue facing blogging, citizenship and the future of media?

Before interpreting my opinion upon the impact facing blogging, it was essential that I understood what it is. A blog (web log) is a website where entries are displayed in reverse chronological order, and have been a medium which essentially becomes a form of public sphere in the new digital age. Although I have used web logs like Xanga as a personal diary, and specific forums to discuss my own interest with people around the world, I have never thought about the specifics of what a blog is. It is my understanding after substantial research that a blog is a very broad genre which includes Youtube as a example of a vlog, and forums which consistently participate in the act of micro-blogging.

The modern world is flooded with advertisement at every corner of our physical world, and would spare no difference within our digital one. No matter what sort of web service we decide to use nowadays, there are always going to be a form of advertisement either on the right hand column or the left hand column on your screen. It is easily understandable that some of these fabulous free service we enjoy on the web such as youtube, and google will undoubtly consist of advertisement from the sponsors of such services. All of this lead to the issues of spamming and spyware where some sites may force the web users to actively receive unwanted advertisement that covers the span of your monitor. It is a issue that is rather intrusive to a web user's experience and have been a problem that's as difficult to contain as piracy of copyrighted material. Hence creating yet another double edged sword that came out of our new digital world.

Blogging becomes a space for freedom of expression across the world, although some of these contents are questionable in it's validity, it is also a great concern as to the subjects that are created within its content. Freedom of expression is a great gift, but how far can we push the boundaries in the digital space? since we can talk about anything in a blog, is it justifiable to attempt to influence others in your believe to harm others around you? and if a perfectly normal citizen who happen to have a bad day decides to rage across his blog about his hate toward the world in a attempt ot vent out his anger, would it be justifiable to arrest this individual before harm can be done?