Blog #7 Stock

Prompt: Write an anthropogical examination of the communicative conventions of a blogging or other online social media subculture (for example, mommyblogs, right-wing politics blogs, Harry Potter fanfic blogs, model railroader discussion boards, et cetera: seek out a group that your classmates might not be familiar with), investigating who the members of the group are, what types of language they use, what types of arguments they make, how they use media, and what types of messages are acceptable or unacceptable in the group.

Anime/Manga/Comic conventions/message boards

In so far as a social media subculture, I believe a major one is the anime or comic book conventions and threads. These conventions are held throughout many cities and the message boards are in a mass abundance online. These boards have a variety of sections and topics for members to discuss. In general, it is difficult to tell who the members of the forums are, however, it is easy to discern that there is definitely a type of language for the community. Each community's "language" has many references to the specific anime/manga the board is based on. (I know that sentence is horribly phrased). Anime/Manga/Comic message boards also often reference other Anime/Manga/Comics in general even if the forum isn't based around said work. In anime and manga, sometimes a character's name is slightly different in the Japanese and English versions, generally in the community it is usually preferred when one refers to the character's Japanese/original name.



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Blog #6 Stock

Dear Future College Student,

I know you are only 10 years old, but by the time you get into college, technology has probably changed a whole bunch. Originally when I started going to school, many instructors used overhead cameras to display documents to the whole class. Overhead cameras were basically machines that you would place a piece of plastic on and write on it. While widely not used in today's day and age, it was widely used and many people from my generation can remember using it during class. Hehe, it's funny how much technology has changed over the years. I remember back in the day when I had to actually take 30 minutes to connect to the Internet and load just 1 webpage. I know you probably don't find this very important, but it's always good to know what it was like before and how much it changed to today. By the time you're reading this, you might have a lot of e-books in your collection or required for your class, but you might not be asked to use hard print books as much. Although it might not necessarily be hard for you to understand physical books by the time you read this, it's just that physical books might not be in much use anymore. Growing up with physical books was very important because you actually had to keep track of the book and keep it from getting damaged. Personally, I prefer having a physical book rather than an e-book because it reminded me to read rather than trying to remember it having it in e-book form.

Sincerely,

Greg

Blog #5: A Better Pencil

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After reading A Better Pencil, I have found that the book just reconfirms my bias against everything turning digital because personally there are some things, such as books, that I will always prefer to be in print format. I am usually ok with most things turning digital, such as writing and music and such, but I would prefer certain things to always be in physical format. Concerning the issue of technology use in classrooms, I have found these new technologies, like smart boards and the integrated projector/smart board things they use around WSU is very successful and are much better to use than the physical form. The integrated projector/smart board helps show online documents to the entire class and eliminates the effort needed like when overhead projectors were major in schools and everything had to be written on the plastic slide with those thin sharpie pens. The smartboards allow for a clean erase and don't need to be washed like the plastic slides used to be. In addition, the use of technology makes it easier for students to keep up with their school work and complete it faster because it is far more efficient than hand-writing everything. On the other hand, mostly every assignment being online makes it so the student could possibly procrastinate more and put off assignments until literally the last minute because assignments are uploaded to the Internet which is accessible almost anywhere. I always try to attend classes, even if attendance isn't necessary as I feel not getting that face to face interaction throws off my rhythm for the class. I use writing more for transmission as a majority of my assignments are online or supposed to be typed up.

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Blog #4: Freestyle

After reading the articles I noticed many similarities between them. The first article, Game Theory 101, went into detail about how a good story arc makes a good game. While the article doesn't introduce anything new, it interests me at how the author's perception seems to be that games need to have somehow have a good story to keep the player interested. I find this to not be true many times such as the Mario series or the Zelda series where the premise of the game has been the same ever since its inception. Although successful, games like The Elder Scrolls don't even come close to the sales of the Mario franchise even though the Elder Scrolls has the "open-ended" type style of gameplay. I'm a little confused as to what theme actually is, but I feel as though theme is not as important as just getting players as involved as possible. I notice the board game design source had emphasis on the outcomes as well as the other sources. Even though the "free will" in the game might give players more of a reason to replay the game, I feel that it is not necessary for a good game. The Elder Scrolls games, relates back to Hardin discussing Federation & Empire where he states how despite the game in actuality just being a set of data on a map, it's theme is so powerful that it gives the player the sense they are actually living in a different universe complete with its own currency, racial groups, religion and social issues that emulate the real world.

Blog #3: 2/12 Blog Post

A video game that works in favor with McLuhan's argument is The Elder Scrolls Skyrim. This game is very open ended and has a lot of lore, or history behind the series. The player starts off the game able to decide on race, gender, and other body features. They are then set off into the world with a main overall quest to be completed, there are also other side-quests that the player can complete. The game does not force the player to complete the main quest first, or at all and it is up to the player what they feel like doing. In addition to these things, throughout the player's journey, they can run into many different people and they can do favors for them or just talk to them and there rarely is the same conversation twice. All the lore in the Elder Scrolls history also ties into every new game released including this one. I find it interesting how developers even come up with the idea to build games as in depth and with as much freedom as the Elder Scrolls.

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Blog #2: 2/3 Money Spending

When it comes to the difference in how a professor spends money versus a student, a professor is able to spend a lot more money whereas the student is usually on a budget. When the student goes to a store they would most likely only go out to Wal-Mart or somewhere cheap and buy essential groceries. A professor might go to the same store and buy essential groceries along with some extra luxuries because they can afford it. When it comes to saving money, a professor might save up money for like a vacation or something fancy like that whereas a student would most likely save up for groceries or a concert on campus. A professor might dine in at a nice restaurant whereas a student would go to something cheap like McDonald's or something not as nice because they can't afford as much as the professor.

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