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Media 10 Final Essay

Number of Journal Entries: 10

The Nature of Media:

The Constant Struggle Towards Understanding Each Other

It has been a long semester full of watching, observing & understanding; there has been a lot to learn about the state of media today. With the introduction of many social platforms on the internet, the exposure and circulation of news, information, and ideas has never been stronger. Because of the ability to spread messages easily, and the accessibility of those messages, social media has led to a higher frequency of social movements in even larger numbers than history has recorded. What I've learnt is this: The ability to realize real social change is the strongest it's ever been, and it will exponentially grow stronger.

This class has exposed me to the past social stereotypes that have mostly disappeared, meaning that although they still exist, they are a mere shadow of how things used to be. The times are changing, with society pushing for improvements for the LGBT and Feminist communities, and other non mainstream minorities. Although it has taken almost too many years to reach this point, it is common knowledge that change does not happen overnight; but what used to take years to spread a message for social change now happens within hours of being posted on the internet.

Based on the lectures in class that have shown racial and sexual stereotypes and their negative and real impacts, as well as the different media samples of the past, it is wonderful to see the vast contrast of what used to be socially acceptable in the past to be completely unacceptable today. As more people become exposed to other cultures and ideas earlier in their lives, we are moving towards an open minded society that will become more well informed, and hopefully more tolerant and understanding of each other.

Although there will always be the bigots and discriminatory hate mongers, there is no denying that their ranks have dwindled considerably. There are many other parts of the world that are not so fortunate to have the privilege of accessing the internet, but the far corners are starting to become participants who can voice their plights. Governments will do their best to regulate these channels, but this is an age where it is hard to hide secrets of deviance and malice.

Also, there is a lot more responsibility now for each netizen, as there are very real consequences for negativity that can extend past the virtual space and into the real one. Such problems are cyber bullying and stalking, which victimize people even faster and strongly. The internet is a powerful tool, and can have either positive or negative impacts depending how it's used.

The cautionary tale here is this: Society should bear in mind the larger direction it is headed, and keep to task when it comes to improving the quality of life for everyone around the world instead of getting lost in pointless debates or resorting to hate crimes.

The reason why I was unable to complete all my journal entries is due to my commitments and involvement in the student club "International Student Forum" where I was responsible for liaising with the AS, on top of dealing with loss in the family back home, it has been a difficult semester.

#Media10

agamersperspective

"My generation of boys is f**ked," says Rupert, a young German video game enthusiast I’ve been getting to know over the past few months. "Marriage is dead. Divorce means you’re screwed for life. Women have given up on monogamy, which makes them uninteresting to us for any serious relationship or raising a family. That’s just the way it is. Even if we take the risk, chances are the kids won’t be ours. In France, we even have to pay for the kids a wife has through adulterous affairs.

Interesting read. Although the article is not an academic one, which may bring into question the legitimacy of its facts, there is a lot of logical merit to it in my opinion. In summary, some men are warning of a rising trend of men who are “opting out” of seeking female partners.

There is no doubt that feminism and feminist rights movements have made leaps and bounds in the past years, but what is the result? What this article claims is that many men feel that they are unable to meet what seems to be an almost ‘unrealistic’ expectation of them. Instead of going through the hassle of courting women, these heterosexual men retreat into their individual domains where they can be safe from the barrage of criticisms that men face these days.

In the battle for equality, many gender issues have been discussed, which should be a good thing. However, the reality is that, it was not so much a dialogue as it has been a one-sided berating of men.

Although this certainly isn’t the absolute truth, after reading the comments and reactions from the netizens, I conclude that many people resonate with this article, and echo its claims.

"My generation of boys is f**ked," says Rupert, a young German video game enthusiast I've been getting to know over the past few months. "Marriage is dead. Divorce means you're screwed for life. Women have given up on monogamy, which makes them uninteresting to us for any serious relationship or raising a family. That's just the way it is. Even if we take the risk, chances are the kids won't be ours. In France, we even have to pay for the kids a wife has through adulterous affairs.

Interesting read. Although the article is not an academic one, which may bring into question the legitimacy of its facts, there is a lot of logical merit to it in my opinion. In summary, some men are warning of a rising trend of men who are "opting out" of seeking female partners.

There is no doubt that feminism and feminist rights movements have made leaps and bounds in the past years, but what is the result? What this article claims is that many men feel that they are unable to meet what seems to be an almost 'unrealistic' expectation of them. Instead of going through the hassle of courting women, these heterosexual men retreat into their individual domains where they can be safe from the barrage of criticisms that men face these days.

In the battle for equality, many gender issues have been discussed, which should be a good thing. However, the reality is that, it was not so much a dialogue as it has been a one-sided berating of men.

Although this certainly isn't the absolute truth, after reading the comments and reactions from the netizens, I conclude that many people resonate with this article, and echo its claims.

#Media10 #sexodus

Swedish game industry trade organisation Dataspelsbranschen is looking to introduce gender equality in video games, by positively labelling new releases that promote equality.

Go Sweden! When a government agency gets behind a good cause, it always warms my heart.

Now, there is an interest to promote gender equality in video games. While I realize that not everyone wants a change to the games they love, I prefer to see it as a possibility for more diversity.

Video Games are still growing, and the only way to go is up. I'm personally excited to see what innovations will come.

#Media10 #videogames #diversity

Blizzard Entertainment's president and CEO Michael Morhaime began his presentation at the 2014 Blizzcon this afternoon by addressing some recent controversial events that have occurred in the gaming community. He didn't identify it as the Gamergate saga and everything that has happened around it, but come on: we all know what he was talking about, right?

There's been a lot of buzz surrounding gamergate, and boy is it a big mess. There are many sides to this story, and even more opinions surrounding the controversy. Most sources are from the gamers themselves more than the developers who make games.

Finally, one of the industry's big names has broken the silence. At Blizzcon, one of the largest videogame events of the year, Mike Morhaime, CEO and President of Blizzard, spoke out against gamergate during the opening ceremony.

"Let us show the world what we are truly about", said Morhaime, as a reminder of the positivity that the community is capable of.

Hopefully, the community will take note, and start to promote more positive behavior online. The change starts with us.

#Media10 #gamergate #blizzcon

On a bright Saturday at IndieCade in Culver City, Shawn Alexander Allen's panel on race and video games began with a shift that would highlight his own points about discussing race and the games industry.

There is a lot of discussions regarding the diversity of tech industries, such as Video Games, where people question the lack of ethnic and gender diversity.

Too often there are separate examples of diversity that exist in different categories of diversity, and often ignore other factors. An example would be a game featuring a female protagonist will be often seen as a form of gender diversity only when in fact there might be other aspects in that game that has other forms of diversity, be it ethnic or social for instance.

Diversity must be seen for what it is; a multifaceted aspect of both the people working in these industries, as well as the content created by those people.

By creating more genuinely diverse content, as opposed to 'token content' to satiate the call for diversity, the industries themselves will see more diversity in their employees as well.

#Media10 #videogames #diversity

The Games and Playable Media program picks up the Journey producer and co-author of the influential MDA framework as an Associate Professor of Art & Game Design.

It's always a good thing to see more people from the industry becoming involved with universities.

As someone who specifically wants to transfer to colleges that offer games programs, I don't have that many choices within California state.

Aside from UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz is the only UC to offer a games program, while big premiums such as Berkeley and Los Angeles do not. USC does have a well known program however, which is why it is one of my top choices.

First hand developer experience is the best form of education anyone can ask for while in school. And learning from some of the industry's best and brightest is a privilege I hope to have access to.

By collaborating with students, the industry and the schools can only hope to learn from one another, improving not only education in related fields, but also increasing exposure of video games, as well as exploring its many possibilities.

#Media10 #videogames&education

CHICAGO — As a teenager, holed up in his bedroom, illuminated by the glow of his laptop, Youngbin Chung became addicted to video games. Ten-hours-a-day addicted. His grades tanked. His parents fretted.

So let's talk about something that has been around for a long time, but has only in recent years started coming out of the woodworks and into mainstream news.

Competitive gaming has existed in niche events worldwide, stemming mainly in regions such as North America, various parts of Europe and South Korea, and eventually grew into it's own industry known as Electronic Sports, or Esports.

Since then, Esports has grown in audience and size, with video games such as The International, the official world competition of Dota 2, whose current prize pool is USD$10,924,502, offering a 1st place prize of USD$5,025,271 to the winning team. While League of Legends' world finals last year hit a total of 32 million viewers, just for that final match alone.

Many people still scoff at the idea of video gamers being considered athletes, believing that physical sports are different or above that of video gaming. Well those naysayers are slowly being proven wrong. The amount of skill, practice and knowledge that goes into Esports is comparable to Sports, and colleges are now recognizing the potential of having gaming athletes, and are now offering scholarships while forming their own competitive collegiate teams.

Times are changing, and the future holds much promise for the sleeping giant of the video games industry.

#Media10 #esports #league of legends #videogames #scholarship

"How long is your game?" That used to be the tough one. That used to be the question a video game creator could hardly give an answer to without birthing a scandal.

This one is a touchy subject. Identity politics is a topic that finds itself in almost any industry, as sexuality and gender equality has risen to the ranks of the top global issues, and rightfully so.

One diversity concern of video games is the lack of diversity in the protagonists of today; because most games feature male leads.

Personally, the issue isn't so much with the prevalence of male leads, but rather the lack of meaningful female characters in video games. Honestly, I don't really care what gender or race the main character is unless those facts are crucial to the origins or story of these characters.

In fact, I'd say the real issue is the stereotyped men and women in video games, and that the games of today focus too much on the gender tropes as a means of cheap attraction to garner sales. So long as the games plot and design are of good quality (beyond the visuals and cosmetics), I think that gamers of all genders would be satisfied.

This is however, only my humble opinion. It's hard to please everyone, but so long as nobody is being left out, I think any direction to achieve that would be good.

#Media10 #videogames #diversity

It's time to flush your stereotypes down the drain.

As someone who wants to work in Video Game development, there is something that I've never understood as a boy who plays video games. And that is the perpetuated idea that video games is a boys only activity and that it's a "no girls allowed" club.

Growing up, I never really stopped to think about who actually played the games that I played, only that I enjoyed them and wished I had more friends I could play with, or even talk about the games that I loved.

Being one of the few boys in a large extended family, I realised that most girls lost interest in video games, or never had any interest to begin with. And in hindsight, most of the games that I played didn't contain the objectified and sexualised women characters that receive so much criticism from feminists today. I am not saying that the claims aren't true, there is a lot of gender bias in the characteristics of female characters in the past.

However, today's selection of games features a lot more diversity and originality in terms of concept and design, which explains the equalization of the male-to-female gamer ratios.

And I couldn't be happier or more excited! Video games are for everyone after all.

#Media10 #girlgamers #videogames

The creators of Minecraft, for example, a game in which complex structures are built out of simple cubes, have created an educational version of the software.

As a gamer who loves defending video games, education is one of many applications that I have high hopes for with regards to video games enriching various facets of our lives.

In the article that I've linked, Professor Jesse Schell of Carnegie Mellon University, who is also a video game designer, explains that one of the concerns and counter arguments of video games is the problem of addiction. He explains that many video games are addictive by design, and concedes that if game designers were to make their games less addictive in nature, that the problem of addiction would be less prominent.

However, he also argues that such a solution is no better than telling fast food manufacturers less appealing. Although I agree that reducing addictive elements in fast food or video games would help combat the growing issues from addiction, I believe that as a society it is our duty to propogate good habits.

After all, too much of anything is bad, all things in balance is important.

#media10 #videogames&education

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