Chapter 10 discusses the ways in which technology influences modern society and popular culture. It begins by stating the pros and cons of video games and online gambling. Complex video games can assist in cognitive development, expanding one's problem solving abilities, and training leaders. However, both video games and online gambling can become addicting to the users. Technology addictions can cause many problems due to lack of face to face communications. Next, the author explains the fusion of the real world and virtual worlds, such as video game economies and anonymous rating of professors. Newspapers all over the country are encountering problems making profit, due to the abundance of free online news sources. Finally, Grazian covers the three trends of media in the digital age: convergence of content across platforms (movies, books games), participation of audiences to produce content (youtube), and collective intelligence as media power (open source software).
I found it interesting that such a good argument was made toward the benefits of video games. I had already thought that it could help in developing logic and problem solving abilities, but it never really occurred to me that the same type of leadership in an online MMO could resemble that required by corporations.
For discussion, do you think that in the future watching video game tournaments will become a spectator sport? Blizzard has been pushing for this with Startcraft and the World of Warcraft Arenas; worldwide invitational's are held each year and broadcast live. The reason I think they will not catch on is that they do not offer spectators anything to attach themselves to. For instance, in Pittsburgh we can get excited for the Steelers or Penguins because they represent us. However, in these online tournament, it is basically just some no-name people with no connections to the spectators.
-Derek Leidemann
P.S. I used to play wow quite a lot years ago, and none of the games being played in the picture on page 202 are World of Warcraft, I don't know where he got his info.
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I also found the information on the benefits of games interesting. They promote skills and problem solving. People feel a connection to their virtual self that makes them want to expand that person's life, abilities and so on. The future of games is yet to be seen I believe.
ReplyDelete-Kayla O
Nice attention to detail on that page 202 reference haha. That's some improper citation there it would be a serious wiki-foul.
ReplyDeleteI remember the University Times a while back had this article were they were talking about the internet. They had a stock photo of someone typing into a keyboard, the problem was that the photo was from the 1970s and the keyboard was this big weird looking thing with switches on it. Someone even wrote a letter to the editor about it, it was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLou