Assignment 10: Wild Card

Hmmm, I can write about anything?

While I bide my time until the next KBO game, I have decided to write this blog post. I am going to be writing about something near and dear to my heart and something I believe will shape the future of a particular industry. That's right, I'm writing about video games again, but not with a very positive outlook this time around.

I'm going to discuss microtransactions. Yes, such a naughty word if you happen to be a gamer but if you are not, let me care to explain. Microtransactions are additional downloadable content for a game that you can access for a fee within the game, most often with real money. For example, a typical Fortnite skin costs 1,500 V-Bucks (the in-game currency). You can earn V-Bucks by playing a particular game mode in the game, which can take a prolonged period of time, or you can purchase V-Bucks. 100 V-Bucks is about the equivalent of $1, so 1,500 V-Bucks is $15. There are also more exclusive skins which cost 2,000 V-Bucks, or $20. However, Fortnite is a free video game, so minute costs like this every now-and-again aren't drastic, as well as the currency can be earned in-game.

Let's take a look at Rainbow Six: Siege, another popular game with microtransactions. Rainbow Six: Siege is currently retailing for $19.99 through the Ubisoft store (the developer and publisher of the game). There are three other editions of the game: deluxe edition, gold edition, and ultimate edition each retailing for $29.99, $54.99, and $89.99 respectively. Let's purchase the standard edition for $19.99 to save some money in the long run.

The game features operators who serve as the various playable characters. In total, there are 54 operators each with a cost attached to unlock them. In the game there are two forms of currency, renown and credits. You can earn renown for playing the game, about 250 per match (if you win) or you can purchase credits. You can get 600 credits for $5.00. The cheapest operators cost 5,000 renown to purchase, or about 20 wins that each earn 250 renown. A match can take anywhere between 10-30 minutes, which rounds out to about three and half hours of game-time to unlock a single operator. This doesn't sound too bad, until you realize you can only buy 12 operators for the price of 5,000 renown. Due to the game being constantly updated, new operators have been added at an increased cost to purchase, from all ranging between 10,000 and 30,000 renown each. I have over 150 hours in the game and I am still missing 12 operators.

Of course, you could take the easy way out and simply purchase the operators for cash. It'll cost you 1200 credits, or $10.00 to buy one operator, not to mention that each operator has unique attires that can also be purchased for in-game currency. You don't want to spend money on cool outfits? You can buy an 'alpha pack', which is a slot machine for items! Good luck you get what you want!

Still not convinced that this is not horrible? Rainbow Six: Siege is a skill based game that cannot simply be won based on the operators you have. It can give you an advantage, but never guarantee a victory. Games are always pushing the limit as to what they can give people who are willing to spend extra money on items in-game. 

FromSoftware, the developers of the Dark Souls series are the front-runner in the correct way to create DLC (downloadable content). Each of their games usually has one to three DLC's, each costing $15-$20. However, this cost is not for a single character or a weapon. It adds hours upon hours of gameplay, enough to warrant a $20 purchase. I purchased the DLC for Dark Souls and spent about 12 hours in the area that the DLC added. I fought 3 DLC bosses and I feel as if I got my money's worth out of the DLC.

The first DLC ever to go on sale was in 2006 for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda, the developers, sold cosmetic horse armor for $2.50 to begin testing the market reaction to DLC. Now, the industry is plagued with content hidden behind paywalls that should be up in the first place. Game developers are creating content for the main game, story intrinsic content, then putting a pricetag on it. It's downright greedy, but people continue to pay. Why?

You've heard the story of the kid who bought Fortnite skins on his mom's credit card, right? That's the problem. It's people who don't want to invest the time into a video game and would rather pay an extra $20 to be on equal footing as people who played the game normally. That's understandable right? People have jobs where they can't play games all the time and they just want to keep up with their friends. How is that fair to the people who put the time and effort in to reach this position naturally? It's not. So where do we draw the line? Do we draw the line at the developers and tell them to create game without as much of a grind, or do we cut off the paywall?

I don't think there is a right answer. Games are nickel-and-diming everything they can in their games nowadays, and it's only a matter of time before we have to put a quarter in a coin slot to be allowed to use a controller.

Assignment 9: Classmate Blog Critique

Let's Bring it Back to Basics.

What feels like eons ago, I started schooling here at Southern Arkansas University. One of the very first classes I walked into was 'Introduction to Mass Communications'. I still reminisce on the nervous attitude I had towards everything and just how under-prepared for college I was. I went to Wal-Mart earlier in the day because I didn't have a backpack for all of the things I didn't know I was going to be carrying. So I sit down in the middle of the classroom, a couple of rows back from the front screen, and wait for class to begin. About a minute or so before class started, a guy walked in with a military buzz cut and a stride that presented nothing but confidence. He looked around for a moment, seeing most of the other seats taken, and he sat next to me.

A couple of minutes went by without saying anything to each other. I then realized I probably wanted to have some paper ready for class. I reached down to grab my backpack when I noticed it had moved under his chair. I worked up some confidence to ask him to scoot back, before I realized that it was actually his backpack. I turned around and looked at my backpack lying behind me. We looked at one-another, then at the backpacks, and laughed because we had the same backpack.

This man was Rhett Gentry, and he was my first friend here at Southern Arkansas University. We have a lot in common, from backpack, to major, to favorite TV show, and the list goes on. I couple of years ago, we shared a class  called 'Reporting and Writing for the Mass Media' and in that class Rhett did a classmate blog critique on my blog, diving deep into it. I've decided to return the favor this time around, and will be diving into Rhett's blog.

Here is a link to Rhett's blog.

Appearance

The blog isn't too over-the-top when it comes to color scheme or fonts. The homepage is very simple to access and find what you're looking for, with not too far to scroll down to see all of the work on the website. I actually prefer that style of blog simply because it's much easier to find specific assignments compared to mine. My website reads like a newspaper or a forum, whereas his reads like something more professional. I really dig it.

The background is very simple, a nice image rather than bland colors like my blog. I am a bit disappointed that Rhett didn't add a profile image on the side like he normally does, but it is what it is. The images he uses for the title-card for each assignment are usually nice to look at, assuming he didn't use a meme again.

Format

Rhett has yearbook experience, as well as writing as many blogs as I have in the past four years, so he knows how to format his work. It's very concise and organized into small, 3-4 sentence paragraphs that make the work easy to read with a great flow. He's like a miniature Suzanne when it comes to formatting, but he lacks length to fit that comparison fully.

Content

The content is well above-average. In fact, I'd call it exemplary. Rhett definitely put a lot of work into his essays in high school. He's a big fan of using sequence words to organize his points, which makes the content easier to read in the long run. Though I am not a fan of sequence words, I think they're appropriate for his style of writing.

My primary complaint with his content comes from his punctuation. Sometimes I feel he misses a comma here and there, but nothing too major to ruin the entire piece. Other than that, it's nearly perfect.

That's all I really have to say about Rhett's blog. Check it out if you want to read into it more than I have. Maybe you'll find a military conspiracy somewhere.

Assignment 8: Predictions (Network/Cable, Streaming, Online, Social, Gaming, or AI)

The Future of Storytelling.

A theme I enjoy touching on every now and again is storytelling. Storytelling is what makes the world go 'round. It's an art-form that few possess, and even fewer are able to use effectively. It's an art that is pliable to one's senses, and can be understood by many in the most obscure ways.

Storytelling is the way in which stories are told to convey something. To convey feeling. To convey love. To convey loss. To convey happiness and sadness. Storytelling is the life that we live and the world is the medium where they story is told. Philosophy is the storytelling of the fundamental nature of life. Science is the storytelling of the beings and functions that make up the entirety of everything. This blog is storytelling my thoughts and beliefs through probing from Professor Reppert's assignment list.

Life is storytelling. So, I've decided to make predictions on the future of storytelling, through various mediums.

Movies

Movies are probably my second favorite pastime after video games. I try to go the movie theater at least once a month and I've collected every movie ticket I've bought for the past five or so years. It's not seeing the movie that makes going fun, it's the experience you have. It's about grabbing some food with a friend then catching a flick. Sitting around while trailers crawl across the screen and deciding what movie I'll waste some money on next.

I have a suspicion that after all this quarantine mess is over, the movie industry is going to have a massive shake-up. Trolls: World Tour released digitally nearly two weeks ago and did just fine at the virtual box-office. Scoob! will be following suit by skipping the theater release. So what does that mean for our future of going to the theater? I think you'll begin to see more movies releasing digitally over the box-office, especially smaller market indie-films. We'll likely see an increase in online distributors willing to deal out some cash to promote and sell smaller market films due to the possibility of a surprise hit. The quarantine has everyone sitting around watching shows and movies and soon a business model will capitalize on this better than Netflix and Hulu.

I'm willing to bet that the digital marketplace is the new 'straight to home video', with a much higher quality of course (hopefully).

Streaming

We've seen just how far streaming can go this year, and I think it will go further. There are only so many shows and movies on Netflix and Hulu, and they can only replace old ones so fast. Sooner or later, there won't be much else to watch except the critically despised films, so what will they do then?

The Criterion Collection streaming service is going to skyrocket. We'll be diving into the best of the past and that will shape our future. Films have halted filming and shows have stopped shooting. While we wait for things to return to normal, people are gathering inspiration. Inspiration to tell stories in ways they've never been told. We're going to need the oldies for that one.

I'm also waiting on a streaming service that solely produces interactive content. A week-to-week broadcast that has the subscribers vote on certain outcomes in the show. Then, next weeks episode is tailor-made to that vote. Kind of like how comic fans killed off Robin, but in a TV show.

Video Games

Now we're onto the good stuff. Video games at this point have already become interactive films (or novels, I don't discriminate) and that can only be pushed further. Sooner or later, we'll have full body virtual reality gear that can detect the movements of every part of our body. Suits that emit forces onto our bodies when we bump into something in the game, or heat up when we step to close to the fire. We're already on our way with that with PlayStation's DualSense controller, which can adjust tension in the triggers based on what is happening in the video game (for example, the triggers being difficult to pull back while pulling back a bow in the game).

There will be a psychology to rectify from video games. Games already have us making decisions, hard decisions, that affect us outside of the game. The psychology of video games will be documented and games will be able to change based on our emotions, whether it be detecting this through a suit, a controller, or a camera of some kind. The artificial intelligence will be able to react to this emotional stimuli in unique ways for every player playing. We can always go deeper!

Books

Eh, they're books.

And that's all I have regarding the future. I really hope our future robot overlords don't find this and take my blog down.

Assignment 7: Binge Watching (Old, New, Domestic, or Global)

The New Norm.

Quarantine is a time to learn about ourselves. We have free time that some have never experienced before. Families are being reunited at home under strenuous circumstances as parents are jobless and the kids aren't in school. We're being brought together in the worst way imaginable without the choice of wanting to or not. But let's hop out of the gutter for a moment and talk about what's going on at home.

Streaming services are at an all-time high. Netflix stocks just recently rocketed past Disney, which is astonishing. PlayStation just gave out two (four total) free games to gamers on the PlayStation 4, as well as supporting small indie developers with some cash to keep them afloat (read about the Play At Home Initiative). The world is working together to keep things as normal as possible in a not-so-normal time.

I've been sitting in my room playing video games or working everyday, all day, for about a week straight. The good side of working from home is that the company I work for was prepared for the virus. The bad side is now that I'm a little less busy, I don't really feel like working and would rather put my time towards doing things that I normally wouldn't have time for.

If binge-gaming were a thing (which I believe it is, but I couldn't find anything for it), that's probably what I've been doing. This isn't about video games though, this is about binge-watching, so let's get on with it.

Binge-watching, as defined online, is the act of watching episodes of a series (TV or online) consecutively for a long amount of time. Watching 3-4 episodes of a show isn't binge-watching, but watching a season within a day definitely is.

I'm not really a binge-watcher. I haven't watched a show all the way through since I watched all of Breaking Bad in 2015. I binged the first five seasons of Game of Thrones before the sixth season began a few years ago, but that's about it. Right now, the current craze is around Tiger King (which I have no doubt someone will talk about in one of their blogs) but like I said, I'm not a binge-watcher.

I'd like to specifically address content creators that are based online. They are likely the biggest benefactor of the quarantine boredom crisis as they continue to create content for a trapped populace. If you happen to follow a creator online, check how often they are uploading content now and compare it to how often they were uploading six months ago. I'm willing to bet there's a difference since now they have all the time in the world to create content. If that's not the case, they're likely falling into the same routine as I, where relaxation is the new norm for now. Whatever the case, if they're still creating content, they are doing it for us.

When I was in high school, every night as I went to bed I browsed YouTube and fell asleep watching a series of some kind. Usually, I would watch someone play NCAA Football 14 where they would rebuild a bad team (often the University of Alabama-Birmingham). These series would go on for years, about a decades worth of seasons in-game would be at the cusp of my fingertips to watch at my own pace. I could get through a season every other day, with each video being about 20 minutes long. The takeaway from this is that binge-watching was already a thing (we knew that), but it's the new norm now. It's all people are doing, it's all they're talking about. We all want to go back to normal, but will life ever be the same after this is all said and done?

We'll see.

Assignment 6: Global Trends (Programming, Streaming, Online, Social, or Gaming)

The Future is [VR]ight Now.

The video game scene is ever-changing, with the next big breakthrough always around the next corner to outshine the previous one. The Video Game Awards narrows down the "best games of the year" to four or five titles, but there are likely a dozen or so games worthy of the nomination, and the community will let you know when they feel that a game has been snubbed. Apart from those dozen or so games, there are 8,000 other games released to the market every year that try to break boundaries and create the next big game genre. Every game is competing for the spot of 'Game of the Year', but very few are worthy of that accolade.

The last major release that shaped the gaming industry for the future would be God of War (2018), which set a new standard for storytelling within an action-oriented game. Before that, Demons Souls (2009) and Dark Souls (2011) would be the largest shake-up in the gaming world since online gaming. Demons Souls and Dark Souls launched a new genre of video games, called 'souls-like'. If you're not familiar with gaming terminology, we often use the name of games that stand-out in the industry to classify the new sub-genre they've created. For example, Metroid (1986) and Castlevania (1986) launched a new sub-genre of action-adventure games called a 'metroidvania'. The distinguishing factor of a 'metroidvania' game is using newly discovered items within the later parts of the game to access areas that were previously inaccessible earlier in the game. 'Souls-like' games are characterized for being very difficult in nature, with brutal enemies, punishing bosses, and an in-game currency used for upgrading your character, which can be lost by dying.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling about various sub-genres. What you should get from that is that the gaming industry is stagnant, until it's not. Every 4-5 years, something groundbreaking comes through that shapes the industry for a while. Fornite (2017) is a good example of a game that has shaped the industry that you may have heard of. The logistics of the video game industry are hard to read. It's difficult to tell when a game will succeed or fail. Often, we use 'hype' as a means to justify a games success prior to release. If a game has a lot of 'hype', or excitement, about its release, it's likely to do well, though this is not always the case.

The current shake-up in the industry is virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), formally called extended reality (XR). You most likely know what VR is but if you don't, then you've got some learning to do. Virtual reality is the act of 'entering' a computer generated world through exterior means, usually a virtual reality headset. The player can interact with things in the world by using a controller, often controller attached to the hands to mimic the player's hands within the game. This gives the feel of actually being in computer generated world.

The interest in VR skyrocketed a couple of years ago when the technology became viable with industry-standard technology. Now, we're exceeding expectations. Half-Life: Alyx (2020) launched with much anticipation and amazing reviews, being cited as the next big thing in VR. So, what are the next steps.

It was anticipated that VR technology would boom in 2019, and it did, but what does the future hold. One day, we could be playing every game in virtual reality. Games within games? It's already a thing. Living within a game? That sounds like a step in a dystopian novel.

Only the future can tell.

Assignment 5: Surveillance and Law Enforcement

Cameras: The Good and the Bad

Listen, I'm no Big Brother but I do believe cameras stationed in major population centers are a good thing. People are really stupid (and you can't fix stupid with duct tape, as my grandma would say!) and I believe that cameras can do more good than bad when in the right place at the right time.

Now hear me out; cameras and microphones everywhere isn't a good idea. George Orwell's iconic novel, 1984, is the idea of a perfect dystopia. A place where the authority figure is in complete control over the populace and any thoughts against this authority results in the removal of troublemakers. Fahrenheit 451 is another classic novel set in a dystopia which heavily relies on government surveillance. No one wants this sort of surveillance.

The Ring Video Doorbells are a step in the right direction for the future. Not only can they catch a thief and other no-good people in the act of crimes, but they can also unintentionally catch crimes that would normally occur without any sort of video evidence. For example, I've embedded a video below of a man being robbed on his front porch. Without the Ring Doorbell, the criminals may not have been identified as easily by the man, and little proof would be available to the police in search of the criminals.

Not only are cameras very useful at private residences, public places need them just as much. An elementary school gym teacher is currently undergoing a court trial about his interactions with children as young as six years old while conducting a gym class. The likelihood of these young children coming forward to their parents or other adults are slim considering the nature and thinking of young children. The surveillance camera in the gym may have saved a lot of children.

Surveillance can also be used in a negative way, though much less common. For one thing, the technology can be abused by those in authority positions, specifically law enforcement who have access to camera feeds and databases. These abuses are mostly along the nature of spying on susceptible targets to blackmail, such was a case in 1997 when a police officer in Washington, D.C. used security cameras to target and blackmail gay couples, with whom he tracked down by reading license plates outside of a gay club. You can read more about liberties that are intruded upon by CCTV here.

If we can move past the bad, we can have something really good. That goes without saying, for just about everything.

Assignment 4: Advertising Analysis

Share an ad, share a Coke.

I recently had a conversation with some friends about the way people talk differently in different parts of the country. We got caught up in the usage of the word 'coke'. We all agreed that no one really says, "Hey, grab me a coke," when they want something different, like a Dr. Pepper. Most of the time, they actually mean a Coca-Cola. However, they will use the phrase when they are expressing they are thirsty and they may or may not actually get a Coca-Cola. My step-dad will often say while we're outside working, "Let's take a break and grab a coke," though he knows that I would prefer to drink a Dr. Pepper and he's most likely about to have some whiskey.

That's just part of the advertising that's been ingrained within our culture. Some parents still call home video game consoles 'the Nintendo', and if you shout, "Red Robin," someone is bound to yell back, "Yum!" I'm not sure if any of this has a real effect on me (I'm sure it does), but it has a massive effect on the way we communicate in society.

I'm specifically going to talk about Coca-Cola for a bit, focusing on their various forms of advertising.

Let's start with Coca-Cola's iconic slogan. In my lifetime, the primary slogan has been 'Share a Coke' but I do remember the 'Open Happiness' campaign. You can find a history of the Coca-Cola slogans here on the Coca-Cola website, as well as a semi-updated list here.

The Coca-Cola TV adverts have been a staple on television for years. Their commercials are often universally loved because, unlike their competitors and fellow advertisers, they often don't take a stance on anything. They simply advertise the drink that everyone loves, and they do it well. Who doesn't love that family of polar bears? My grandapa personally loves the polar bear family. "Ha ha! Those silly bears are drinking a Coke!" Here is a complete list of Coca-Cola's most recent TV ads.

I don't often read the newspaper or magazines, but Coca-Cola advertises through those sources so I need to touch on them. They recently invested in print ads with sound. The images in the ads are meant to resonate with the reader and promote a sound that is associated with the image, such as the sound of the bottle popping off a bottle of ice-cold Coca-Cola (blog brought to you by Coca-Cola).

Coca-Cola's online presence is similar to that of their TV presence. Generally, you'll get a short ad in front of a YouTube video 

However, the internet will know if you're craving a Coke.