and some video
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
yay for blog
In the conclusion Jenkins talks about how TV is a medium that has made us dumber, while the internet has made us smarter (250). This is true for a few reasons, first off the TV gets all of its stories from the Associated Press. This means that they all have the same information, it's just up to them how they want to frame or spin the information that they are given. It's hard to provide diverse coverage on a story when everyone is given the same facts, so we end up with only one real view of the story. The internet on the other hand has a vast wealth of information and, as long as your willing to spend the time searching for it, you can find anything. The internet provides a more spread out coverage of every event so that you can look at the story from more than one angle and draw your own inferences. instead of spoon feeding you the information, the internet lets you discover it.
At the bottom of 252, Jenkins is discussing a method of essentially selling season of TV shows on a subscription or pay as you go method, which is interesting because now, 5 years later, we're finally heading more towards that direction. Hulu has come out with a new subscription based version called Hulu Plus, in which you get full seasons of shows in HD. What interesting though is how we arrived at the Hulu Plus business model. Before Hulu launched Hulu Plus there were already many sites that would offer you seasons of whatever show you wanted for free, granted you get a dead link every once and a while, but that's a small price to pay. In addition to costing money, Hulu Plus has advertisements, where as free sites, such as www.sidereel.com, do not have advertisements. So while Jenkins idea sounded good in 2006, it seems to have come out of order in the evolution of internet TV. By this i mean that since the current business model for TV is buy cable and you can watch shows with advertisements on a set schedule. Jenkins model/Hulu Plus allow you to pick what to watch when, but you still pay money and have advertisements, although not so many and it costs less than cable. The Sidereel model is free shows whenever without advertisements. While Jenkins was looking towards the future I think it's interesting that he saw this opportunity only from a business standpoint, instead of the adhocracy-like view of sidereel.
At the bottom of 252, Jenkins is discussing a method of essentially selling season of TV shows on a subscription or pay as you go method, which is interesting because now, 5 years later, we're finally heading more towards that direction. Hulu has come out with a new subscription based version called Hulu Plus, in which you get full seasons of shows in HD. What interesting though is how we arrived at the Hulu Plus business model. Before Hulu launched Hulu Plus there were already many sites that would offer you seasons of whatever show you wanted for free, granted you get a dead link every once and a while, but that's a small price to pay. In addition to costing money, Hulu Plus has advertisements, where as free sites, such as www.sidereel.com, do not have advertisements. So while Jenkins idea sounded good in 2006, it seems to have come out of order in the evolution of internet TV. By this i mean that since the current business model for TV is buy cable and you can watch shows with advertisements on a set schedule. Jenkins model/Hulu Plus allow you to pick what to watch when, but you still pay money and have advertisements, although not so many and it costs less than cable. The Sidereel model is free shows whenever without advertisements. While Jenkins was looking towards the future I think it's interesting that he saw this opportunity only from a business standpoint, instead of the adhocracy-like view of sidereel.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
SNS Sites
For the SNS project I'm choosing to do the video game counter strike 1.6, and the MR2.com forums. Counter Strike 1.6 is a game that has been around since 1999 and despite being over 11 years old, it is still heavily played and considered to be a classic game. That being said, the game's community has had more than its fair share of time to mature and become stable. I think it will be interesting to look at the community of one of the longest running and most popular first person shooters made. The way that the game is set up you join servers that are typically paid for and maintained by a clan. I have 2 main servers that i play on and would also like to use the clan's forum to flesh out the community if need be. The other website is for the Toyota MR2, a rare and unique car that i own and love. I've been active on this message board since 2009, so I have a pretty good idea of the forums livelihood, and member involvement is very high. In the past i have been working on my car and gotten stuck at some point, so I would go inside and make a post, and typically thirty minutes later I would have at least one answer, with step by step instructions and pictures. that's some pretty unbelievable response time and involvement. The site is mainly for maintenance help, buying/selling, and showing off your car; a generally more helpful community that Counter Strike so I'm hoping the two will contrast nicely.
Monday, January 31, 2011
blog post for 2/1
When reading Jenkins i found my self thinking about how I entered into The Matrix world and how willing to invest I was, versus how I would enter and how much time I would invest now. I remember I wasn't allowed to see The Matrix when it first came out, so there was already a world pretty well established when I finally did see the movie. I was blown away when I saw it for the first time, and the end left me craving more. I did play some of the games and found that they did an excellent job of driving the story along, unlike most video game/movie pairs. Other adaptations of movies to games or games to movies end up only leaving out parts of the other, The Matrix manages to present a fully formed view of their world, as well as a story that is as detailed as you want. By this i mean that if you were to just see the movies, as Jenkins pointed out, you will be left with a story that makes sense on its own; but if you enjoyed the world of the matrix then you can watch the animes and play the games that expand the story line and allow you to decide your level of involvement.
One thing that i wished Jenkins had included in the medias was the music, I may be saying this only because I am a musician and the music is important to me, but it seemed strange that it was left out. While the music isn't telling you the story of Neo, it heightens the crucial moments and, for me at least, creates a greater emotional investment. I will never forget the last scene of The Matrix when Neo blasts of the ground and flies away Darkness by Rage Against the Machine starts playing, a song written for The Matrix exclusively, feeling so excited my heart nearly bludgeoned its way out of my chest. This was mainly due to having seen a new world where anything is possible and wanting to be like Neo, but the "Don't tell me what to do, I can do what i want" attitude of the song, as well as its energy, left me dying to see the next movies and play the games (never have been one for the animes).
While music can't exactly tell a narrative the same way that a game, or animated short can, I still feel it is important to the converging media. the example I wanted to quickly touch on is the video game Halo. Halo, like The Matrix, puts the protagonist into a different world and follows a story line spanning 4 games and numerous books. But, whats interesting about Halo to me, is that they put a lot of work into the music, they've collaborated with Steve Via, one of the most talented guitar players in the world, to write some of the music for the second game, and produced solid soundtracks overall. so, they take the music portion of the game seriously and use it to ebb and flow with the game, as most do. However my friends and I consistently find ourselves listening to the soundtracks while we play board games, to make it more emotional and involving (without fail the music always gets to an intense part that corresponds to the game deciding battle in Risk, or when someone is trying to navigate the monopoly board with $20 and no property and everyone else has hotels everywhere). I also have put together a playlist of the slower songs, or songs with less movement and vitality, which i study to because after playing the game for so long i associate the calm music with being out of danger in the game and so it puts me at ease in real life.
One thing that i wished Jenkins had included in the medias was the music, I may be saying this only because I am a musician and the music is important to me, but it seemed strange that it was left out. While the music isn't telling you the story of Neo, it heightens the crucial moments and, for me at least, creates a greater emotional investment. I will never forget the last scene of The Matrix when Neo blasts of the ground and flies away Darkness by Rage Against the Machine starts playing, a song written for The Matrix exclusively, feeling so excited my heart nearly bludgeoned its way out of my chest. This was mainly due to having seen a new world where anything is possible and wanting to be like Neo, but the "Don't tell me what to do, I can do what i want" attitude of the song, as well as its energy, left me dying to see the next movies and play the games (never have been one for the animes).
While music can't exactly tell a narrative the same way that a game, or animated short can, I still feel it is important to the converging media. the example I wanted to quickly touch on is the video game Halo. Halo, like The Matrix, puts the protagonist into a different world and follows a story line spanning 4 games and numerous books. But, whats interesting about Halo to me, is that they put a lot of work into the music, they've collaborated with Steve Via, one of the most talented guitar players in the world, to write some of the music for the second game, and produced solid soundtracks overall. so, they take the music portion of the game seriously and use it to ebb and flow with the game, as most do. However my friends and I consistently find ourselves listening to the soundtracks while we play board games, to make it more emotional and involving (without fail the music always gets to an intense part that corresponds to the game deciding battle in Risk, or when someone is trying to navigate the monopoly board with $20 and no property and everyone else has hotels everywhere). I also have put together a playlist of the slower songs, or songs with less movement and vitality, which i study to because after playing the game for so long i associate the calm music with being out of danger in the game and so it puts me at ease in real life.
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