Wired Culture is moving over to WordPress.com
I haven't had much time to post lately but I'll be moving it over to WordPress and you should see more from me in the future.
See you there!
-Erica
Friday, May 20, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
The “Pretty” Side of the Kindle
Earlier this week I wrote my thoughts on the “ugly” side of the Kindle and what I personally didn’t like. As I noted, however, not everything about the Kindle is bad and the more I use the device, the more and more I like it. I find myself looking for books that I already own in paperback to download and I’m actually dismayed when I can’t get them.
Now, keep in mind, I’m still learning my way around this device and I’m learning new things on it all the time. There are features I’ve played with but not used to their fullest extent yet, but can see how they’ll fit in nicely with my reading needs. Just today I purchased a book on a whim of the recommendation from a friend (Thanks Mike!); a Choose Your Own Adventure Zombie book. I wasn’t going to buy it because how in the hell do you flip to page numbers when there are no page numbers? I dreaded electronically flipping page by page trying to figure out where to continue reading. Imagine my delight when I discover that the “where you should go” text was linked and all I needed to do was click it and it took me to the appropriate spot! Genius!
So, with that tangent out of the way, let’s get to what I like about the Kindle.
First, I am truly beginning to love this little portable library. I tend to read more than one book at a time; one for education and one for pleasure. Sometimes I hit up three at a time as I’m reading one for my PhD, one for my work and of course the all-important pleasure reading. There’s something really amazing about sitting at lunch somewhere and switching almost seamlessly between books at the touch of a button especially when all I need to carry is a slim device that fits in my purse. I do a lot of traveling for my PhD research, to give presentation, attend conferences and for other work activities and it’s extremely liberating to be able to take whatever books I want with me and not have to worry about the weight of my carry-on or checked luggage. As a prolific reader, I don’t need to worry about hurrying up to finish a book before I leave so I don’t have to carry that extra weight.
Second, the Kindle has a couple of really cool functions.
First, it has a built in dictionary (2 actually) which is surprisingly handy. I read books and if I don’t know a word I tend to just skip it (bad scholar I know) because let’s be honest, who has time to put down the book to look it up on the internet or grab a dictionary. What if you’re out at a café or driving (being the passenger of course!) and you don’t have access to a dictionary? Reading through Stephen Kind’s “Full Dark, No Stars” I actually used the dictionary for the first time and was fulfilled by how quickly and easily I could add something to my vocabulary.
Second, it has the ability to highlight and add notes. When I’m reading for my PhD I always have carried around a second notebook to take notes and write important pages to go back to. While I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever break the habit (I like the act of hand writing thoughts), it’s a really nice feature to have access to. You can also share these notes and highlights with other Kindle users and via Facebook or Twitter.
Third, you can get some amazing works for very little cost. HOWEVER, not everything is cheaper than its paper counterpart. No one said that eBooks would be cheaper, that was just an assumption on their part. I paid the same for Stephen Kind’s book for the digital addition as I would have for the hardback and I didn’t bat an eye. If there’s something I want to read, I’ll pay what’s asked of me for the author’s work. What I have found though, is that I’m picking up stuff I otherwise might not have read or purchased. The Choose Your Own Adventure book I mentioned earlier was only $2.99 so I was okay with the gamble of paying for it. In contrast, the paperback is $14.95 and I most likely wouldn’t have spent that had I come across it in the store.
Fourth, not only can you get books for very little cost, you can get some classics for free! I had a field day downloading free books, like the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Darwin, The Brothers Grimm, Japanese Fairy Tales, Irish Fairy Tales, and various other works. Now, I don’t know if I’ll honestly ever read these…but it’s nice to have them there and to have the option of picking them up when I want. I tend to buy a ton of books at one time and slowly work my way through them.
Fifth, you get instant gratification. There’s nothing like browsing through book selections, finding something you want and having it to browse through only minutes later. I have the 3G Kindle so I’m connected wherever I go. No more waiting for delivery and having to worry about lost packages.
Finally, a few new items just announced for Kindle. First, they are putting in page numbers. HOORAY! So far there are 10,000 books that have these. I, of course, don’t have one book that supports page numbers so I can’t test this out yet. They aren’t statically displayed so you have to press the Menu key to get the page number. I also read today that you can now loan out certain Kindle books to other Kindle users for 14 days.
Like I said, I’m sure there are many more features that I just haven’t discovered yet. The more I use it the more I like it. I still want my paperbacks though so in general I’ll probably be double buying until publishers get smart and start bundling. Overall, I’m glad I received a Kindle for my birthday. It helped me get over my anxiety about owning one. Now, I just need to somehow make more money to support my reading habit!
Now, keep in mind, I’m still learning my way around this device and I’m learning new things on it all the time. There are features I’ve played with but not used to their fullest extent yet, but can see how they’ll fit in nicely with my reading needs. Just today I purchased a book on a whim of the recommendation from a friend (Thanks Mike!); a Choose Your Own Adventure Zombie book. I wasn’t going to buy it because how in the hell do you flip to page numbers when there are no page numbers? I dreaded electronically flipping page by page trying to figure out where to continue reading. Imagine my delight when I discover that the “where you should go” text was linked and all I needed to do was click it and it took me to the appropriate spot! Genius!
So, with that tangent out of the way, let’s get to what I like about the Kindle.
First, I am truly beginning to love this little portable library. I tend to read more than one book at a time; one for education and one for pleasure. Sometimes I hit up three at a time as I’m reading one for my PhD, one for my work and of course the all-important pleasure reading. There’s something really amazing about sitting at lunch somewhere and switching almost seamlessly between books at the touch of a button especially when all I need to carry is a slim device that fits in my purse. I do a lot of traveling for my PhD research, to give presentation, attend conferences and for other work activities and it’s extremely liberating to be able to take whatever books I want with me and not have to worry about the weight of my carry-on or checked luggage. As a prolific reader, I don’t need to worry about hurrying up to finish a book before I leave so I don’t have to carry that extra weight.
Second, the Kindle has a couple of really cool functions.
First, it has a built in dictionary (2 actually) which is surprisingly handy. I read books and if I don’t know a word I tend to just skip it (bad scholar I know) because let’s be honest, who has time to put down the book to look it up on the internet or grab a dictionary. What if you’re out at a café or driving (being the passenger of course!) and you don’t have access to a dictionary? Reading through Stephen Kind’s “Full Dark, No Stars” I actually used the dictionary for the first time and was fulfilled by how quickly and easily I could add something to my vocabulary.
Second, it has the ability to highlight and add notes. When I’m reading for my PhD I always have carried around a second notebook to take notes and write important pages to go back to. While I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever break the habit (I like the act of hand writing thoughts), it’s a really nice feature to have access to. You can also share these notes and highlights with other Kindle users and via Facebook or Twitter.
Third, you can get some amazing works for very little cost. HOWEVER, not everything is cheaper than its paper counterpart. No one said that eBooks would be cheaper, that was just an assumption on their part. I paid the same for Stephen Kind’s book for the digital addition as I would have for the hardback and I didn’t bat an eye. If there’s something I want to read, I’ll pay what’s asked of me for the author’s work. What I have found though, is that I’m picking up stuff I otherwise might not have read or purchased. The Choose Your Own Adventure book I mentioned earlier was only $2.99 so I was okay with the gamble of paying for it. In contrast, the paperback is $14.95 and I most likely wouldn’t have spent that had I come across it in the store.
Fourth, not only can you get books for very little cost, you can get some classics for free! I had a field day downloading free books, like the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Darwin, The Brothers Grimm, Japanese Fairy Tales, Irish Fairy Tales, and various other works. Now, I don’t know if I’ll honestly ever read these…but it’s nice to have them there and to have the option of picking them up when I want. I tend to buy a ton of books at one time and slowly work my way through them.
Fifth, you get instant gratification. There’s nothing like browsing through book selections, finding something you want and having it to browse through only minutes later. I have the 3G Kindle so I’m connected wherever I go. No more waiting for delivery and having to worry about lost packages.
Finally, a few new items just announced for Kindle. First, they are putting in page numbers. HOORAY! So far there are 10,000 books that have these. I, of course, don’t have one book that supports page numbers so I can’t test this out yet. They aren’t statically displayed so you have to press the Menu key to get the page number. I also read today that you can now loan out certain Kindle books to other Kindle users for 14 days.
Like I said, I’m sure there are many more features that I just haven’t discovered yet. The more I use it the more I like it. I still want my paperbacks though so in general I’ll probably be double buying until publishers get smart and start bundling. Overall, I’m glad I received a Kindle for my birthday. It helped me get over my anxiety about owning one. Now, I just need to somehow make more money to support my reading habit!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The "Ugly" Side of the Kindle
In February my mom purchased me a Kindle for my birthday. Up until that point I was extremely torn on whether or not I could ever take the plunge myself of going from paper media to completely electronic. Her gift was much like winning the lottery since I could try out the Kindle with no real investment on my part. I’ve received plenty of b-day gifts in the past that I never used so I figured if I didn’t like it this would be no different.
I agonized for over two days trying to decide which book would be my first book for my new eReader. The book had to have meaning, it had to be memorable and I wanted it to be good. After two day I settled on Stephen King’s “Full Dark, No Stars” and it didn’t disappoint (read my review in a future post).
Last night I finished that first book for my Kindle. It was a good, yet odd experience. In the interest of ease of reading, I’ve split this into two separate posts. If you’re a Kindle lover, I’ll have my likes coming up within the week. For now, let’s start with my issues.
First, I missed the physical tactile sensation of an actual book. I missed the weight, the texture of paper in my hands and oddly enough I missed the smell. I found myself on more than one occasion trying to flip the case I had it in only to realize it had no actual pages to flip.
I often judge on when I should stop as determined how many pages are left in a chapter. I also make a big push at the end of a book depending on how much is left. Okay, only 50 pages… I’ll stay up and finish this. I don’t get that feeling to push while reading on the Kindle; it’s so easy for me to pick up, read a minute or two and put it down. I would never do that with an actual paperback. My husband and daughter both noted that it took me much longer to read on the Kindle then it seems to normally take and I think they may be right.
Second, I found the lack of (understandable) page numbers disconcerting. The percentage bar at the bottom just doesn’t cut it for me. Okay, I’m 65% of the way through but what does that equate to in actual page numbers?
Third, and this is a biggy; you can’t share or showcase your book. Since being a kid we always passed books back and forth between family members, our own version of a long term book club. At the end of the cycle, the book would go back to its original owner where they would proudly display it among all their other treasure trove of books. I absolutely proud of my book collection. I can't hand over something I just read to my daughter or a friend... because handing it over means handing over my almost 200 dollar Kindle and then I'm out of luck for reading until I get it back. Just not going to happen.
I love being surrounded by books. I love displaying them and much to my husband’s dismay they often end up overrunning certain areas of the living room and bedroom. I have always dreamt that when I finally purchased my own home I would make an amazing and spectacular library; a place with a large overstuffed leather chair that I could sink into, a fireplace and of course a small end table with a light for reading. This is a place I could get lost in whether reading or not and even now I still want to see this dream become reality. However, with the advent of eReaders and my ownership of one, I have to wonder about this future. We already see book stores closing and more and more are reporting that their stores have become browsing warehouses for eReaders.
I find myself purchasing books I already own but haven’t read yet or ordering both the Kindle and physical addition. I need to be able to have that for prosperity… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully go digital. Publishers take note! Start selling bundles; people would pay slightly more for a Kindle and physical copy.
A problem for me, not so much the publisher, is that I find myself spending money on books without really thinking of it. I don't get a physical copy so it somehow doesn't feel like I've spent money (my poor bank account would beg to differ).
Fourth, I find it strange that people can’t see what you’re reading and you can’t see what they are reading. This is absolutely a double edged sword. You can read what you want without embarrassment. However, it’s just disturbing from my side that I can’t see what you’re reading; you can start conversations, ask about book titles but most importantly you can learn something about a person by the books they read.
Finally, while it’s a small and manageable issue, I’ve never had to worry about “losing” all my books (ie. My kindle wipes) and I’ve never had to worry about running out of power while reading a paperback.
Like I said, don’t fret! Look this week for my “likes” about this eReader. As a sneak peek, I’ll let you in on this: I’ve already downloaded 25 books…so all is not lost on this book lover.
I agonized for over two days trying to decide which book would be my first book for my new eReader. The book had to have meaning, it had to be memorable and I wanted it to be good. After two day I settled on Stephen King’s “Full Dark, No Stars” and it didn’t disappoint (read my review in a future post).
Last night I finished that first book for my Kindle. It was a good, yet odd experience. In the interest of ease of reading, I’ve split this into two separate posts. If you’re a Kindle lover, I’ll have my likes coming up within the week. For now, let’s start with my issues.
First, I missed the physical tactile sensation of an actual book. I missed the weight, the texture of paper in my hands and oddly enough I missed the smell. I found myself on more than one occasion trying to flip the case I had it in only to realize it had no actual pages to flip.
I often judge on when I should stop as determined how many pages are left in a chapter. I also make a big push at the end of a book depending on how much is left. Okay, only 50 pages… I’ll stay up and finish this. I don’t get that feeling to push while reading on the Kindle; it’s so easy for me to pick up, read a minute or two and put it down. I would never do that with an actual paperback. My husband and daughter both noted that it took me much longer to read on the Kindle then it seems to normally take and I think they may be right.
Second, I found the lack of (understandable) page numbers disconcerting. The percentage bar at the bottom just doesn’t cut it for me. Okay, I’m 65% of the way through but what does that equate to in actual page numbers?
Third, and this is a biggy; you can’t share or showcase your book. Since being a kid we always passed books back and forth between family members, our own version of a long term book club. At the end of the cycle, the book would go back to its original owner where they would proudly display it among all their other treasure trove of books. I absolutely proud of my book collection. I can't hand over something I just read to my daughter or a friend... because handing it over means handing over my almost 200 dollar Kindle and then I'm out of luck for reading until I get it back. Just not going to happen.
I love being surrounded by books. I love displaying them and much to my husband’s dismay they often end up overrunning certain areas of the living room and bedroom. I have always dreamt that when I finally purchased my own home I would make an amazing and spectacular library; a place with a large overstuffed leather chair that I could sink into, a fireplace and of course a small end table with a light for reading. This is a place I could get lost in whether reading or not and even now I still want to see this dream become reality. However, with the advent of eReaders and my ownership of one, I have to wonder about this future. We already see book stores closing and more and more are reporting that their stores have become browsing warehouses for eReaders.
I find myself purchasing books I already own but haven’t read yet or ordering both the Kindle and physical addition. I need to be able to have that for prosperity… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully go digital. Publishers take note! Start selling bundles; people would pay slightly more for a Kindle and physical copy.
A problem for me, not so much the publisher, is that I find myself spending money on books without really thinking of it. I don't get a physical copy so it somehow doesn't feel like I've spent money (my poor bank account would beg to differ).
Fourth, I find it strange that people can’t see what you’re reading and you can’t see what they are reading. This is absolutely a double edged sword. You can read what you want without embarrassment. However, it’s just disturbing from my side that I can’t see what you’re reading; you can start conversations, ask about book titles but most importantly you can learn something about a person by the books they read.
Finally, while it’s a small and manageable issue, I’ve never had to worry about “losing” all my books (ie. My kindle wipes) and I’ve never had to worry about running out of power while reading a paperback.
Like I said, don’t fret! Look this week for my “likes” about this eReader. As a sneak peek, I’ll let you in on this: I’ve already downloaded 25 books…so all is not lost on this book lover.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Problem with American Horror Films
I am a huge (and huge is an understatement) lover of all thing horror. I eat breath and sleep horror. I turn the TV on and the first thing I go to is to browse what’s “On Demand” in the horror section. My love borders on obsession. Needless to say, I’ve seen thousands of horror movies from across the globe. I search endlessly for a great horror movie and those are so few and far in-between. There are few very good American horror films that are even worth watching.
If someone asks me for horror movie recommendations I always steer them towards Asian or even Spanish horror films. I do know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea though because they don’t follow the “American formula” for makes a horror movie good.
This point was really driven home to me while watching the SyFy series “Faceoff”. On a recent episode they had to create a horror movie villain in which they designed the concept, came up with a title and a tag line. The guest start that week was from Friday the 13th… and he spoke to me exactly what was wrong with American Horror. Horror villains, he said, need to be iconic. They need to have a great weapon and they need to be scary. Scary, is so subjective… and when you try to put a face on scary you fail. The worst part was “you have to have a scary” weapon. Why does scary need a “weapon”? Iconic horror movies from the 80s were great for this but we’re a long way off from the 80s.
Some of the best horror movies never show the face of the villain or what it is that’s haunting/stalking/scaring them. The hints, the glimpses, the sounds in the dark are so much scarier than the in your face CGI that we’ve come to associate with horror movies. So many American horror movies are really just slashers that turn to the grotesque to imitate that gut reaction that makes us turn our heads or moan. We may turn away but it’s not because we’re scared, it’s because we’re grossed out; I hardly need to tell you that these are not the same thing. A great in your face character, when done right is scary not simply for his looks but for what he can do or what he is capable of. One of my all time scary movies is Hellraiser. The original…none of the shitty remakes. That was pretty in your face but you turned it off and you wondered what your own personal hell would be and it scares the shit out of you. To this day I won’t watch any Hellraiser movies, not even the original for fear of tripping my own hell open by puzzling my way through movies.
One of the biggest problems with American horror is that we have to have justice and we have to have an explanation. Many people don’t like Asian horror because no one ever really makes it out alive and there’s usually not an explanation. We want our heroes to win, good to triumph over evil and we want it all packaged up with a neat little bow at the end with all the I’s dotted and all our t’s crossed.
The truth is, life is not nearly as black and white. The scary part of life is not knowing…not having an explanation and knowing that evil does indeed often win over good. That is scary. Remember when we were kids and what scared us was what we “thought” was under the bed or that maybe mom and dad couldn’t save us after all. American horror writers have seem to forgotten what it is that scares us. It’s so much easier to hire someone to do CGI or to do special effects makeup then it is to really play to our fears as humans.
Speaking of being human, I think some of the scariest things made have to deal with us as human beings and what we’re truly capable off. Think of “The Walking Dead”… sure, the zombies are scary but if you’ve read the comic then you know they are nowhere near as scary as we are. The scariest part of the comic is delving into what we, as humans are capable of, when the machines stop turning and you can’t call 911 for help.
Over the next month or so, stay tuned for some looks at specific horror movies and my thoughts. If you have something you’d like to see me talk about, let me know!
If someone asks me for horror movie recommendations I always steer them towards Asian or even Spanish horror films. I do know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea though because they don’t follow the “American formula” for makes a horror movie good.
This point was really driven home to me while watching the SyFy series “Faceoff”. On a recent episode they had to create a horror movie villain in which they designed the concept, came up with a title and a tag line. The guest start that week was from Friday the 13th… and he spoke to me exactly what was wrong with American Horror. Horror villains, he said, need to be iconic. They need to have a great weapon and they need to be scary. Scary, is so subjective… and when you try to put a face on scary you fail. The worst part was “you have to have a scary” weapon. Why does scary need a “weapon”? Iconic horror movies from the 80s were great for this but we’re a long way off from the 80s.
Some of the best horror movies never show the face of the villain or what it is that’s haunting/stalking/scaring them. The hints, the glimpses, the sounds in the dark are so much scarier than the in your face CGI that we’ve come to associate with horror movies. So many American horror movies are really just slashers that turn to the grotesque to imitate that gut reaction that makes us turn our heads or moan. We may turn away but it’s not because we’re scared, it’s because we’re grossed out; I hardly need to tell you that these are not the same thing. A great in your face character, when done right is scary not simply for his looks but for what he can do or what he is capable of. One of my all time scary movies is Hellraiser. The original…none of the shitty remakes. That was pretty in your face but you turned it off and you wondered what your own personal hell would be and it scares the shit out of you. To this day I won’t watch any Hellraiser movies, not even the original for fear of tripping my own hell open by puzzling my way through movies.
One of the biggest problems with American horror is that we have to have justice and we have to have an explanation. Many people don’t like Asian horror because no one ever really makes it out alive and there’s usually not an explanation. We want our heroes to win, good to triumph over evil and we want it all packaged up with a neat little bow at the end with all the I’s dotted and all our t’s crossed.
The truth is, life is not nearly as black and white. The scary part of life is not knowing…not having an explanation and knowing that evil does indeed often win over good. That is scary. Remember when we were kids and what scared us was what we “thought” was under the bed or that maybe mom and dad couldn’t save us after all. American horror writers have seem to forgotten what it is that scares us. It’s so much easier to hire someone to do CGI or to do special effects makeup then it is to really play to our fears as humans.
Speaking of being human, I think some of the scariest things made have to deal with us as human beings and what we’re truly capable off. Think of “The Walking Dead”… sure, the zombies are scary but if you’ve read the comic then you know they are nowhere near as scary as we are. The scariest part of the comic is delving into what we, as humans are capable of, when the machines stop turning and you can’t call 911 for help.
Over the next month or so, stay tuned for some looks at specific horror movies and my thoughts. If you have something you’d like to see me talk about, let me know!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dead Island
I don't need to say a lot here. But whether you're a gamer or a zombie lover or neither this trailer will be, by far, one of the most amazing trailers you're ever seen.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Divine Misfortune - Book Review
Divine Misfortune by A. Lee MartinezMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mortals and Gods meddling in each other's affairs is never a good idea. But when the world has domesticated Gods to the point of needing to advertise via a matching website (think Match.com but instead of matching for love they match for divine favor) you're in for a few bumps along the way.
A. Lee Martinez is easily one of my favorite authors. It's hard for me to possibly like him ore than I already do but the fact that he actually gives a shout out to World of Warcraft: For the Horde! in his defecation makes me practically swoon with geek girl fandom.
I devoured this book in just a few sittings. Martinez's writing style is such a pleasure to read that the story practically jumps off the page into the imagination with no effort on the readers part.
The concept of the book is not entirely new but Martinez spins new life into this godly tale. It's fun, fast paced and funny. Another great read by Martinez.
View all my reviews
Friday, January 21, 2011
Changeless - Book Review
Changeless by Gail CarrigerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The second book in the Parasol Protectorate had so much to offer but only manages to deliver towards the end of the book.
It took me several months to actually get through this book as I would pick it up, read a chapter or two and then set it down again without so much as a thought to actually reading it. The beginning of the book moves slower than snail's pace and is missing all the elements that made the first book so enjoyable; namely the fascinating relationship between Alexia and her husband. It's not until Alexia floats to Scotland dragging behind her sister, best friend, maid, clargiver Tunstell and the mysterious Madame Lefoux that the book begins to pick up. It's then off at a whirlwind pace when she reunites with her husband; it was at this point I couldn't put the book down.
I would consider this book a "filler" episode but it certainly sets up the story for the next book as well as setting expectations high for "Blameless". I imagine, and would hope, that much of what comes from this plot, that's not directly related to Alexia and her relationship, will make it's return in later books.
I forgive the author for the plodding pace of the first half of the book because she managed to make me feel real emotion and a snap of incredulous heartbreak for Alexia. I'm looking forward to the third book and this is a must read for the fans of this series. Choke it down like medicine because you'll feel a whole lot better at the end and be ready to, and looking forward, to the next installment in The Parasol Protectorate.
View all my reviews
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
His Mom Loves This
As a follow up to yesterday's posting on the Dead Space 2 ad campaign, I wanted to post this video of Dino Ignacio's (lead interface designer for the game) mom's reaction to the game.
Now this is a cool mom. Does it mean the game can't be cool anymore? ;)
Now this is a cool mom. Does it mean the game can't be cool anymore? ;)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Your Mom Hates This
EA has decided to throw this "brilliant" marketing for it's newest game release, Dead Space 2. I sure wish you could hear my sarcasm as I say the word, "brilliant". Just replace "brilliant" with "idiotic" and you get my drift.
Thanks EA for bringing the video game back a few steps. Really, thanks. What you did here was neither clever nor funny. AND I take particular offense as a market researcher that you did this entire thing under the guise of market research. This isn't research!
First off, Dead Space 2 is rated M for mature. That means 18+. It gets that rating for a reason. Let's not forget who plays video games, not the younger crowd but the older crowd. Does the 18+ crowd really care anymore if their mom hates this game
Second, you picked conservative America precisely so you could shock these people. You could have showed them images from the latest SyFy movie special and you would have still gotten the same reaction even though we all know how horrible SyFy original movies are.
Deborah Gibson and Tiffany in MegaPython vs. Gatoroid...need I say more? Didn't think so.
Third, who are these women exactly mom to? They all look like they could be grandmothers which means their children are long grown and they're out of the loop of electronic media. I'm a mom. I think the Dead Space games are amazing! I have young children at home but you'd never touch me as a target because I'd completely disprove your theory about "your mom hates this".
In one way, you're right, "this mom does hate this"... but guess what? I hate the ad campaign and whatever jackass thought it would be a good idea. I don't hate the game, just you for this nonsense.
Thanks EA for bringing the video game back a few steps. Really, thanks. What you did here was neither clever nor funny. AND I take particular offense as a market researcher that you did this entire thing under the guise of market research. This isn't research!
First off, Dead Space 2 is rated M for mature. That means 18+. It gets that rating for a reason. Let's not forget who plays video games, not the younger crowd but the older crowd. Does the 18+ crowd really care anymore if their mom hates this game
Second, you picked conservative America precisely so you could shock these people. You could have showed them images from the latest SyFy movie special and you would have still gotten the same reaction even though we all know how horrible SyFy original movies are.
Deborah Gibson and Tiffany in MegaPython vs. Gatoroid...need I say more? Didn't think so.
Third, who are these women exactly mom to? They all look like they could be grandmothers which means their children are long grown and they're out of the loop of electronic media. I'm a mom. I think the Dead Space games are amazing! I have young children at home but you'd never touch me as a target because I'd completely disprove your theory about "your mom hates this".
In one way, you're right, "this mom does hate this"... but guess what? I hate the ad campaign and whatever jackass thought it would be a good idea. I don't hate the game, just you for this nonsense.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Gaming Justice
Riot games, the company behind the amazing RTS like game League of Legends has announced that to help combat the rising issue of jerks on the internet they will begin using crowd sourced gaming justice.
You can read the entire article HERE.
I like the idea in concept. I don’t know how many times I’ve been on and had some jerkface just absolutely ruin my gaming experience. My husband tells me that I need to grow a thicker skin and in many ways he’s absolutely right. The world is filled with jerkfaces and the virtual realm is no exception. I could do an entire different blog post about this (and just might) but for now I want to focus on what LoL is doing to try and rein this problem in.
In WoW I get no satisfaction by simply reporting them to Blizzard and getting the reply that “they’re sorry” and “they’ll investigate” but I should “use the /ignore function”. I’m glad they needed to tell me to use that function, as if I already don’t have a sizable list of people to ignore. The /ignore solves nothing. The offender will move onto another target or they’ll simply pop off, make another character and let the harassment start all over. Although, on a side note, I do wish in real life that I had that capabilities to /ignore people.
What LoL is proposing is interesting and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how it works out. They’re going to allow the players to judge offenses and dole out punishment. We see in communities that players tend to defend their own anyways and keep people in line whenever possible. They’re just taking the concept a step further and actually giving the players the power to do something.
There are problems with their proposed system though. First, they’re allowing only high level characters to be judges. While this means you’re getting people who have put in their time, it doesn’t mean they’ll be the best judges in this situation. So now you’ll have elitist jerks judging jerks. Just because you have a high level character does not make you the best person to pass on judgment.
Second, they’re requiring you spend at least 60 seconds on a case. The thought is that by requiring someone to spend 60 seconds on a case they will actually put some thought behind it and not just use click judgment or botting to make decisions. 60 seconds?! Are you kidding me… 60 seconds isn’t enough time to make sure someone has actually read, thought about and put some effort in making a decision. If you look at the way the system will work, it’s going to take a lot longer than 60 seconds to read through this.
Third, anyone can make a statement about someone else…where is the chance for the offending player to make their case? You can’t actually have a tribunal when you’ve only got ½ of the story. Now granted, they’re passed onto a Riot employee for review but the initial decision is based on a partial story.
Fourth, they plan on keeping the judge’s name hidden from the offending player but not the offending player’s name hidden from the judge. I think it should be anonymous across the board. Just because someone is a high level character and a judge doesn’t mean they can’t hold grudges either.
Finally, it seems to me as if Riot is being a bit lazy here. Why not just do the job yourself? I’m sure they get a flood of complaints but by passing the buck to the players is a double edged sword. On the one hand it does help the players feel a bit more invested in the game. It gives them a feeling of control, no matter how small that control may be. On the other hand it really does feel as if Riot is trying to figure out how to handle the number of issues they are getting without having to increase staff or man hours by passing this on to player volunteers. The more offensive cases are passed onto the Riot employees anyways so this really seems to be that they’re using players as a filter.
All in all I think it’s an interesting experiment to see what can be done about the increasing problem of people acting out online. With a few tweaks I think it will be a great system. However, it’s not truly a crowded sourced judgment as spelled out in the article. It’s about putting the power to judge in the hands of the players. A true crowd-sourced gaming justice system would have the players voting on offenses and appropriate punishments. Crowd-sourcing requires a crowd. Either way, I’ll be watching to see how this works in the long run.
You can read the entire article HERE.
I like the idea in concept. I don’t know how many times I’ve been on and had some jerkface just absolutely ruin my gaming experience. My husband tells me that I need to grow a thicker skin and in many ways he’s absolutely right. The world is filled with jerkfaces and the virtual realm is no exception. I could do an entire different blog post about this (and just might) but for now I want to focus on what LoL is doing to try and rein this problem in.
In WoW I get no satisfaction by simply reporting them to Blizzard and getting the reply that “they’re sorry” and “they’ll investigate” but I should “use the /ignore function”. I’m glad they needed to tell me to use that function, as if I already don’t have a sizable list of people to ignore. The /ignore solves nothing. The offender will move onto another target or they’ll simply pop off, make another character and let the harassment start all over. Although, on a side note, I do wish in real life that I had that capabilities to /ignore people.
What LoL is proposing is interesting and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how it works out. They’re going to allow the players to judge offenses and dole out punishment. We see in communities that players tend to defend their own anyways and keep people in line whenever possible. They’re just taking the concept a step further and actually giving the players the power to do something.
There are problems with their proposed system though. First, they’re allowing only high level characters to be judges. While this means you’re getting people who have put in their time, it doesn’t mean they’ll be the best judges in this situation. So now you’ll have elitist jerks judging jerks. Just because you have a high level character does not make you the best person to pass on judgment.
Second, they’re requiring you spend at least 60 seconds on a case. The thought is that by requiring someone to spend 60 seconds on a case they will actually put some thought behind it and not just use click judgment or botting to make decisions. 60 seconds?! Are you kidding me… 60 seconds isn’t enough time to make sure someone has actually read, thought about and put some effort in making a decision. If you look at the way the system will work, it’s going to take a lot longer than 60 seconds to read through this.
Third, anyone can make a statement about someone else…where is the chance for the offending player to make their case? You can’t actually have a tribunal when you’ve only got ½ of the story. Now granted, they’re passed onto a Riot employee for review but the initial decision is based on a partial story.
Fourth, they plan on keeping the judge’s name hidden from the offending player but not the offending player’s name hidden from the judge. I think it should be anonymous across the board. Just because someone is a high level character and a judge doesn’t mean they can’t hold grudges either.
Finally, it seems to me as if Riot is being a bit lazy here. Why not just do the job yourself? I’m sure they get a flood of complaints but by passing the buck to the players is a double edged sword. On the one hand it does help the players feel a bit more invested in the game. It gives them a feeling of control, no matter how small that control may be. On the other hand it really does feel as if Riot is trying to figure out how to handle the number of issues they are getting without having to increase staff or man hours by passing this on to player volunteers. The more offensive cases are passed onto the Riot employees anyways so this really seems to be that they’re using players as a filter.
All in all I think it’s an interesting experiment to see what can be done about the increasing problem of people acting out online. With a few tweaks I think it will be a great system. However, it’s not truly a crowded sourced judgment as spelled out in the article. It’s about putting the power to judge in the hands of the players. A true crowd-sourced gaming justice system would have the players voting on offenses and appropriate punishments. Crowd-sourcing requires a crowd. Either way, I’ll be watching to see how this works in the long run.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
In my forest of cute...
I came across these fun and amazing items today and wanted to share. I'm absolutely in love with the work that missmonster has posted on DeviantArt and you'll notice that most of what's here is hers. You can check out more of her amazing work here:
http://missmonster.deviantart.com/
If I had the cash on hand I'd buy each and every one of these things. I am a HUGE collector of things that are cute or have some amazing personality to them. All the below classify.
Tentatiger
Werewolf
Yeti Guys
Feed Meh Please
I want to cuddle with these at night!
Cute-thulu
I want to cuddle with these at night!
Brimly the Drofliw
And by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen! My b-day is coming up soon...anyone want to get this amazing rug for me?
http://missmonster.deviantart.com/
If I had the cash on hand I'd buy each and every one of these things. I am a HUGE collector of things that are cute or have some amazing personality to them. All the below classify.
Tentatiger
Werewolf
Yeti Guys
Feed Meh Please
I want to cuddle with these at night!
Cute-thulu
I want to cuddle with these at night!
Brimly the Drofliw
And by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen! My b-day is coming up soon...anyone want to get this amazing rug for me?
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Working at Geek
Lately I’ve felt some guilt about not being “geeky” enough or doing my duty to keep up with the geeky universe. It’s this gnawing feeling that just won’t go away. The more I think about it, the worse it becomes, the more guilty I feel and the more I try to pinpoint exactly where this feeling of guilt is coming from ; especially since being a geek isn’t supposed to be work. Being a geek means being who you are and doing what you love but lately it feels as if we’ve slipped away from that. Lately it feels like we’re in a race to out geek one another and it’s starting to take its toll on me.
Geek used to mean simply doing what you loved and having a passion for it. These were things that weren’t mainstream but rather misunderstood passions that meant something to those who engaged in those activities. I remember hanging out in the basement playing D&D with mounds of snacks and Mountain Dew, enough to keep us going until that damn dungeon was conquered or the GM just smited us to show who was really in power. I went LARPing on the college campus grounds, running around pretending to be a werewolf engaging in heated battles that would peek so furiously we had to drop character before it came to actual fists being thrown. When I moved to Japan I sold my car so I could have enough disposal cash to purchase a Playstation 2 (not yet out in America) and as many games as I could afford; and I did just that, cramming my tiny apartment with every game I could get my hands on including all the collectables and special editions I could ship home. I remember just gathering a group of people together and playing Bass Fishing until the sun came up and we were happy, we were content, we just were geeks.
Recently geek has become so mainstream that I wonder what it really means to be a geek anymore. With social media and information available to use at the touch of a button we can find anything we want and profess to be passionate in areas that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to or even think about. Now, I confess to my fair share of internet trolling for information but I’ve never just picked up a new aspect of “geek” by it.
Money also seems to driving force behind being a geek. I fall victim to this myself. I just recently paid 3x retail for a Monster High doll because I couldn’t find her in the stores and absolutely craved to have her. I have this thing for zombies and she’s so cute that I wanted her for my desk at work. My husband just stared blankly at me when I told him how much I paid for a “fashion doll”. It’s just hard to explain the affinity I feel with her personality… strange but after all, I’m geeky that way.
The thing is, I feel like I just can’t keep up anymore. There’s so much information that comes through my Twitter stream on a daily basis that I feel so small and insignificant in my own capacity to be a geek. I am a geek…I know it. Maybe I’m just too old to keep up with the younger geeks or maybe I’m just feeling the tides of change coming in and I’m having a hard time adjusting to it.
Then again, maybe I’m just old and it’s such an integrated part of my life that I don’t even think about being a geek. As I tell my kids, you need to live your life without worrying about what other people think and live for your passions and what makes you happy and if that falls into the realm of geekhood so be it!
Geek used to mean simply doing what you loved and having a passion for it. These were things that weren’t mainstream but rather misunderstood passions that meant something to those who engaged in those activities. I remember hanging out in the basement playing D&D with mounds of snacks and Mountain Dew, enough to keep us going until that damn dungeon was conquered or the GM just smited us to show who was really in power. I went LARPing on the college campus grounds, running around pretending to be a werewolf engaging in heated battles that would peek so furiously we had to drop character before it came to actual fists being thrown. When I moved to Japan I sold my car so I could have enough disposal cash to purchase a Playstation 2 (not yet out in America) and as many games as I could afford; and I did just that, cramming my tiny apartment with every game I could get my hands on including all the collectables and special editions I could ship home. I remember just gathering a group of people together and playing Bass Fishing until the sun came up and we were happy, we were content, we just were geeks.
Recently geek has become so mainstream that I wonder what it really means to be a geek anymore. With social media and information available to use at the touch of a button we can find anything we want and profess to be passionate in areas that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to or even think about. Now, I confess to my fair share of internet trolling for information but I’ve never just picked up a new aspect of “geek” by it.
Money also seems to driving force behind being a geek. I fall victim to this myself. I just recently paid 3x retail for a Monster High doll because I couldn’t find her in the stores and absolutely craved to have her. I have this thing for zombies and she’s so cute that I wanted her for my desk at work. My husband just stared blankly at me when I told him how much I paid for a “fashion doll”. It’s just hard to explain the affinity I feel with her personality… strange but after all, I’m geeky that way.
The thing is, I feel like I just can’t keep up anymore. There’s so much information that comes through my Twitter stream on a daily basis that I feel so small and insignificant in my own capacity to be a geek. I am a geek…I know it. Maybe I’m just too old to keep up with the younger geeks or maybe I’m just feeling the tides of change coming in and I’m having a hard time adjusting to it.
Then again, maybe I’m just old and it’s such an integrated part of my life that I don’t even think about being a geek. As I tell my kids, you need to live your life without worrying about what other people think and live for your passions and what makes you happy and if that falls into the realm of geekhood so be it!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year!
Happy Holidays and a Fantastic New Year!
Okay...so as it's about to be a brand new year (not quite for me yet) I'm making a resolution to keep up with my blog more. I'm putting it on the top of my priority list and resolve to post more regularly. Now, this really means something.... because I don't normally make ANY resolutions at all but there are a few I'll be making this year and even thought it isn't in the number one spot, my blog is up there:
Resolutions
1. Finish my PhD
2. Get healthy (by exercising more and cooking amazingly healthy dishes for me and my family)
3. Blog more!
4. Keep up with the latest innovations in Market Research, Social Media and Gaming Culture
5. Get my Feral Druid up to 85 and raiding and in the process teach my 11 year old daughter how to be a kickass Warlock
Whew... well, that's a lot and there's more I'd like to do with the new year but I need to focus on the first few up there on my list. Hopefully posting here will keep me on the straight and narrow. Those of you out there in internet land need to make sure these things are happening; a gentle nudge here and there can go a long way!
Anyways... hope your New Year is fantastic! I'll see you on the other side of the new year!
Okay...so as it's about to be a brand new year (not quite for me yet) I'm making a resolution to keep up with my blog more. I'm putting it on the top of my priority list and resolve to post more regularly. Now, this really means something.... because I don't normally make ANY resolutions at all but there are a few I'll be making this year and even thought it isn't in the number one spot, my blog is up there:
Resolutions
1. Finish my PhD
2. Get healthy (by exercising more and cooking amazingly healthy dishes for me and my family)
3. Blog more!
4. Keep up with the latest innovations in Market Research, Social Media and Gaming Culture
5. Get my Feral Druid up to 85 and raiding and in the process teach my 11 year old daughter how to be a kickass Warlock
Whew... well, that's a lot and there's more I'd like to do with the new year but I need to focus on the first few up there on my list. Hopefully posting here will keep me on the straight and narrow. Those of you out there in internet land need to make sure these things are happening; a gentle nudge here and there can go a long way!
Anyways... hope your New Year is fantastic! I'll see you on the other side of the new year!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
On the Road
I've been on the road traveling for nearly the past 3 weeks. It's grueling and extremely rewarding.
For two weeks I've been bouncing across the US staying with World of Warcraft players, spending time with them, talking with them and getting to know them on a personal level you just can't achieve via game interface. This was all wrapped up with an amazing, exciting, sometimes frustrating but extremely enjoyable trip to Blizzcon.
I'm exhausted but really excited and invigorated about my PhD research and video games in general. I think too often we get focused on Theory (yes, the "T" is intentional) and the ideology of what we study that we forget about what makes it so important and interesting; the players. This is especially true for video games. We focus so much on the art, the narrative, the meaning that we often times lose sight of the player - those that makes the game come to life after the designers have birthed it. They have their own personal thoughts and ideas and play style and continue to push the boundaries of the industry forward for us all. Talking with gamers in deep depth about their history and why they play has been extremely enlightening. I think video game companies would benefit substantially if they hired on an ethnographer to just talk with video game players on a deep and personal level. The information you get from people when they aren't talking about video games is just as important and eye-opening as the information you get when they are directly discussing games.
I still owe some thoughts on PAX (extremely late I know), the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (again...really untimely) and of course Blizzcon.
Here's a teaser pic of Blizzcon while you wait for me to get it all down!
For two weeks I've been bouncing across the US staying with World of Warcraft players, spending time with them, talking with them and getting to know them on a personal level you just can't achieve via game interface. This was all wrapped up with an amazing, exciting, sometimes frustrating but extremely enjoyable trip to Blizzcon.
I'm exhausted but really excited and invigorated about my PhD research and video games in general. I think too often we get focused on Theory (yes, the "T" is intentional) and the ideology of what we study that we forget about what makes it so important and interesting; the players. This is especially true for video games. We focus so much on the art, the narrative, the meaning that we often times lose sight of the player - those that makes the game come to life after the designers have birthed it. They have their own personal thoughts and ideas and play style and continue to push the boundaries of the industry forward for us all. Talking with gamers in deep depth about their history and why they play has been extremely enlightening. I think video game companies would benefit substantially if they hired on an ethnographer to just talk with video game players on a deep and personal level. The information you get from people when they aren't talking about video games is just as important and eye-opening as the information you get when they are directly discussing games.
I still owe some thoughts on PAX (extremely late I know), the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (again...really untimely) and of course Blizzcon.
Here's a teaser pic of Blizzcon while you wait for me to get it all down!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
I wish my teachers had been this cool
I have to share a short email exchange that happened today.
My daughter is in the 6th grade and has what sounds like a really cool social sciences/language arts teacher. Last night at the dinner table she was explaining a conversation that occurred in the classroom (explained in the email so I won't reiterate it here) which struck a deep cord of the geek girl in me.
I couldn't help myself and had to email her teacher to correct the imagined (on my part) grievous error in his explanation and understanding of lightsaber technology.
Please note that the teacher does indeed school me. I take it all in stride though; this is what happens when you argue about imaginary science...but hey, isn't that what most physicists do? (kidding...kidding...for the most part...)
Me original email to the teacher -
His AWESOME response -
I did email him back after that to let him know I couldn't wait for my daughter to come to discuss the lesson on Campbell's Hero Cycle.
I think we took it both in stride as I recognize he schooled me and he recognized that in the world of fan fiction he had gotten an important fact wrong. My daughter told me that he talked about the email in class today an discussed the "correct" idea behind the light saber. I guess for this geek mom it was a win-win and lesson learned for both of us.
Only thing is...I wish I had a teacher this cool when I was in middle school!
My daughter is in the 6th grade and has what sounds like a really cool social sciences/language arts teacher. Last night at the dinner table she was explaining a conversation that occurred in the classroom (explained in the email so I won't reiterate it here) which struck a deep cord of the geek girl in me.
I couldn't help myself and had to email her teacher to correct the imagined (on my part) grievous error in his explanation and understanding of lightsaber technology.
Please note that the teacher does indeed school me. I take it all in stride though; this is what happens when you argue about imaginary science...but hey, isn't that what most physicists do? (kidding...kidding...for the most part...)
Me original email to the teacher -
Let me preface this by saying that Fiona was absolutely appalled that I was going to email you because she really enjoys you as a teacher and truly enjoys your classes. I told her I’d email but I do so in a friendly way and not in an angry parent sort of way. I’m almost finished with my PhD in Anthropology in which I focus on popular culture (video games specifically) and just got back from a Popular Culture Conference in Minnesota so teachings of popular culture is very much on the forefront of my mind.
I’m Fiona’s mom and last night she was telling me about a lesson you were teaching on the suspension of disbelief and you used the example of the Star War’s lightsaber. She said that she was told that because they were made of light you couldn’t stop light and therefore had to suspend your disbelieve and just enjoy them for the fiction. (Now it’s possible Fiona got this wrong but I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page).
A light saber isn’t exactly made of light. It’s bound energy that more resembles plasma more than anything else. I took this from a fan site: “The weapon consisted of a blade of pure plasma energy emitted from the hilt and suspended in a force containment field.” As bounded energy or plasma, it CAN be easy contained by the apparatus in which it is housed.
Once unleashed, the power channels through a positively charged continuous energy lens at the center of the handle. The beam then arcs circumferentially back to a negatively charged high energy flux aperture. A superconductor transfers the power from the flux aperture to the power cell. As a result, a lightsaber only expends power when its blade cuts through something. So efficient is the blade, that it does not radiate heat unless it comes into contact with something.
Even if it were light you could contain it by a reflection apparatus on each end causing a refractor loop to contain and harness the light. So while it’s an awesome example of the suspension of disbelieve it was incorrect in the world of popular culture rhetoric and knowledge. :)
My point here in writing is just to say that the lightsaber is NOT made of light as its name would suggest but plasma which is much more easily contained and easily within the realm of possibility. I wanted to let you know that, your lesson spurred a nice long discussion of Star Wars, physics, lightsaber technology and the notion of suspension of disbelief last night during dinner. It’s great to see teachers incorporating popular culture references into their lessons because it really helps the students make a connection with the lesson.
As I said, this isn’t meant as an angry sort of parent letter…more of a “here’s what I’m thinking” sort of thing.
May the Force be with You!!! :)
His AWESOME response -
Touché.
Thank you. I appreciate more than you may be aware your dinner conversation. I am so glad that it was a topic of discussion. I think you will really like our discussions in the future of how we use the Cosmogonic Cycle of Campbell (which we call the Hero Cycle)to map stories and literature. Star Wars is again a perfect example of it.
As for the lightsaber, I did not realize that it was an arc of plasma energy focused by an “energy lens”. It must have been invented in the same research laboratory as the Heisenberg Compensator for Star Trek’s transporter.
May the Force be with you as well,
I did email him back after that to let him know I couldn't wait for my daughter to come to discuss the lesson on Campbell's Hero Cycle.
I think we took it both in stride as I recognize he schooled me and he recognized that in the world of fan fiction he had gotten an important fact wrong. My daughter told me that he talked about the email in class today an discussed the "correct" idea behind the light saber. I guess for this geek mom it was a win-win and lesson learned for both of us.
Only thing is...I wish I had a teacher this cool when I was in middle school!
MPCA 2010 Day 3 - Wrap Up
I was hoping to get this blogged the final day of the conference but the death plague I caught before leaving finally got to me. I pushed myself really hard to make it through the final day and while I'm still paying for it health wise I had an amazing time and absolutely cannot wait until next year's conference in Wisconsin.
For this third and final day I spent the first part of the morning in meetings. I had a great breakfast and got to talk with the other area chairs for the conference and listen to plans for next years conference.
Afterwards, I was planning to attend a session on Religion and Popular Culture but was instead invited to the executive committee's meeting. I'm glad I had the opportunity to stay and hear how much passion, effort, pre-planning and work goes into these meetings. The executive committee is really interested in being able to balance out the financial needs of the organization with the wants and desires of those attending and presenting at the conference. To help them with this I'm going to be pulling a survey together for all conference attendees to take. These results will help the organization figure out how best to handle upcoming conferences and to continually refine and make the conference a fantastic experience for all. If you're an MPCA member please look for that in the coming weeks. We need everyone's feedback so please let your voice be heard!
I'll also be starting a twitter feed, blog and working on a Facebook page for the association and it will house important information, snippets of people's work, interesting news, book reviews and more. If you have any ideas of things you'd like to see, please email me and let me know and I'll make every attempt to make that happen for you.
I was able to attend the last two panels of the conference. The first was on Detective fiction with talks on the work of Dan Brown, the show, The Wired and City of Glass. While I'm not personally into that genre, it was a great discussion of this genre and spurred thoughts and conversations on the understanding of genre in general within literature and other forms of media. Styles of writing are shifting and yet we, for the most part, continue to use the same classifications of genre that we've always used. It's a nice way to be able to find things at your local bookstore but does it truly capture the essence of modern writing? We see this problem in video games as well. Genre is becoming so loose, crossed and fluid that I wonder what the future of it will be. We clearly need to rethink it but we of course can't compartmentalize things to a point where everything is it's own genre. There has to be a happy medium in there somewhere.
The very last panel of the day was about Fandom, fan works and Fanfiction. I personally love theories and work on Fan culture and this discussion was an amazing way to wrap up the conference for me. There was a somewhat heated discussion at the end about copyright issues and the ethics behind fan fiction. I feel divided on the issue myself. On the one hand these fans are boosting the fandom of a particular work by keeping it alive. Think of Twilight. Would Twilight be as popular without the fans to keep the flames alive? We can't tell people, "Be fans but only buy our official products and don't carry it further". What is it they say; "imitation is the best form of flattery" and I think these examples are no exception. But at the same time when you take the author's characters and twist them in such a way that there is little resemblance to the original intent, it feels dirty or sacrilege to the author's work.
There was an art major in the room at the time who was absolutely appalled by people stealing work like that and she felt that it made her career and passion a joke. If it was okay for people to just swoop in and take something already made and twist it for their own what was the point of coming up with something at all. I understand a bit of how she feels. I have gone to college and studied and worked really hard to become an anthropologist and work as an ethnographer. It really grinds me like nothing else when people call themself an ethnographer when they in fact have no theoretical background in it or little to no training. What good is my 15+ years of training when anyone can say they do what I do? I suppose this is the argument against fan fiction. If, I were an author, carefully cultivated a world and populated it with characters of my own making, how would I feel if someone then took that hard work and turned it into their own? For some authors it's awful, for others they love the attention. The bottom line is that fan studies is an amazing realm of work and needs to continue to explore the many facets of fan cultures, authority, authorship, transmedia, and the transformative power and nature of their passion.
All in all, my brain left very full and happy with the weekend events.
For this third and final day I spent the first part of the morning in meetings. I had a great breakfast and got to talk with the other area chairs for the conference and listen to plans for next years conference.
Afterwards, I was planning to attend a session on Religion and Popular Culture but was instead invited to the executive committee's meeting. I'm glad I had the opportunity to stay and hear how much passion, effort, pre-planning and work goes into these meetings. The executive committee is really interested in being able to balance out the financial needs of the organization with the wants and desires of those attending and presenting at the conference. To help them with this I'm going to be pulling a survey together for all conference attendees to take. These results will help the organization figure out how best to handle upcoming conferences and to continually refine and make the conference a fantastic experience for all. If you're an MPCA member please look for that in the coming weeks. We need everyone's feedback so please let your voice be heard!
I'll also be starting a twitter feed, blog and working on a Facebook page for the association and it will house important information, snippets of people's work, interesting news, book reviews and more. If you have any ideas of things you'd like to see, please email me and let me know and I'll make every attempt to make that happen for you.
I was able to attend the last two panels of the conference. The first was on Detective fiction with talks on the work of Dan Brown, the show, The Wired and City of Glass. While I'm not personally into that genre, it was a great discussion of this genre and spurred thoughts and conversations on the understanding of genre in general within literature and other forms of media. Styles of writing are shifting and yet we, for the most part, continue to use the same classifications of genre that we've always used. It's a nice way to be able to find things at your local bookstore but does it truly capture the essence of modern writing? We see this problem in video games as well. Genre is becoming so loose, crossed and fluid that I wonder what the future of it will be. We clearly need to rethink it but we of course can't compartmentalize things to a point where everything is it's own genre. There has to be a happy medium in there somewhere.
The very last panel of the day was about Fandom, fan works and Fanfiction. I personally love theories and work on Fan culture and this discussion was an amazing way to wrap up the conference for me. There was a somewhat heated discussion at the end about copyright issues and the ethics behind fan fiction. I feel divided on the issue myself. On the one hand these fans are boosting the fandom of a particular work by keeping it alive. Think of Twilight. Would Twilight be as popular without the fans to keep the flames alive? We can't tell people, "Be fans but only buy our official products and don't carry it further". What is it they say; "imitation is the best form of flattery" and I think these examples are no exception. But at the same time when you take the author's characters and twist them in such a way that there is little resemblance to the original intent, it feels dirty or sacrilege to the author's work.
There was an art major in the room at the time who was absolutely appalled by people stealing work like that and she felt that it made her career and passion a joke. If it was okay for people to just swoop in and take something already made and twist it for their own what was the point of coming up with something at all. I understand a bit of how she feels. I have gone to college and studied and worked really hard to become an anthropologist and work as an ethnographer. It really grinds me like nothing else when people call themself an ethnographer when they in fact have no theoretical background in it or little to no training. What good is my 15+ years of training when anyone can say they do what I do? I suppose this is the argument against fan fiction. If, I were an author, carefully cultivated a world and populated it with characters of my own making, how would I feel if someone then took that hard work and turned it into their own? For some authors it's awful, for others they love the attention. The bottom line is that fan studies is an amazing realm of work and needs to continue to explore the many facets of fan cultures, authority, authorship, transmedia, and the transformative power and nature of their passion.
All in all, my brain left very full and happy with the weekend events.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
MPCA 2010 Day 2
Today has been just an AMAZING day at the MPCA conference in Minnesota.
I woke up late which caused me to miss breakfast and the first panel I planned to attend. I blame this on the death plague I acquired the night before flying out.
I had planned on attending a Television panel called, "Colorful Characters: People and Profiles". I'm sorry to have missed it. I'll have to see if I can't get the papers or presentations from their respective authors.
By waking up late I did however get a chance to take some leisure time to look at the book vendor tables. It was extremely productive to say the least. I talked with a couple of book publishers and one is a publisher out of the UK that is looking to move more in the US market. They're interested in my work and I plan on submitting some articles to them for publication. I also talked with another couple of publishers who are interested in my dissertation once I finish it up. All in all, I was really happy. PLUS (this is both good and bad....good for my brain, bad for my pocketbook) I found a TON of books that I'll be returning home with. 12 in total. I cannot wait to get reading as it all looks so good. Some of it is for my dissertation and some of it is just because it's of personal interest to me. It gives you a sneak peak into what I might do after the dissertation....
The panels today really blew me away. I was fascinated by the knowledge and eye opening discussions that took place today. I attended two panels on SciFi, Fantasy and Horror and a panel on Text and Textualities of directors in movies.
Check out my Twitter as I tweeted throughout the day on what was going on in each panel as it happened.
As a little recap though, some of the highlights that really excited me were the following:
For starters, I really enjoyed the deep discussion we had in one panel about Zombies and their meanings in Romero's movie and their role within culture. Even more so we discussed what Romero's movies meant and the commentary behind them. It was a really good and deep intellectual discussion. I also heard a few pieces that really change my perspective on popular works such as Stephen King's The Shining and the movies The Grudge as well as District Nine.
Lunch was a great opportunity to network and discuss what other people's interests and studies where. I met a great gal who studies health and popular culture and is recently working on health/disease based communities in cyber space. Her work is completely fascinating and many of the communities she's looking at, while small, have great implications for future studies on health related communities, especially in social media research on things like the patient journey.
One of the things that I've been blown away by is how passionate everyone is about popular culture. Not only are they passionate people but they are friendly and eager to share their knowledge in a huge and diverse array of topics. I definitely want to do more with the organization so I attended their business meeting to look for those opportunities. I'm now on the AV (audio visual) subcommittee, their new social media guru and I'm going to help the executive secretary out with a post conference quantitative survey. I'm extremely happy and pleased to be helping out!
I ended the day attending a film panel. All of the speakers were extremely captivating and I walked away with some great book suggestions to help me in my own research. Beyond being an interesting and enjoyable movie I never thought about Inglorious Basterds to the extent they did. They discussed how the movie really makes us look at the dehumanizing process to make brutality acceptable and about the genius directing of this movie. As one panelist said, "This is a movie that teaches us to watch movies". They pointed out little things I never noticed in the movie like how one of Shosana's dresses had a 1970s zipper on it (completely intentional), how the projector scene was an intentional Romeo and Juliet discourse, the scene prior to Bridget von Hammersmark's death is very much a reverse Cinderalla story and that Quentin Tarantino's hands were the ones used in her death scene, not actor Christoph Waltz's hands. Paul Booth talked about director Richard Kelly's work - Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box. I learned a new respect for this director and the complexity of his films and cinematography.
This conference has made me pine to join the ranks of academia and teach again but I also gained a newfound respect for what I do. It has given me a unique set of skills that I can use in my continuing research. It has given me renewed vigor to know that I'm absolutely in the right field of studies and have the drive and confidence to go forward and finish my PhD. There's absolutely a feeling of belonging and respect.
I'm sad tomorrow is the last day but ready to get home to see my kids and husband. Hopefully the death plague and the push I'm making to get through the conference won't do me in!
I woke up late which caused me to miss breakfast and the first panel I planned to attend. I blame this on the death plague I acquired the night before flying out.
I had planned on attending a Television panel called, "Colorful Characters: People and Profiles". I'm sorry to have missed it. I'll have to see if I can't get the papers or presentations from their respective authors.
By waking up late I did however get a chance to take some leisure time to look at the book vendor tables. It was extremely productive to say the least. I talked with a couple of book publishers and one is a publisher out of the UK that is looking to move more in the US market. They're interested in my work and I plan on submitting some articles to them for publication. I also talked with another couple of publishers who are interested in my dissertation once I finish it up. All in all, I was really happy. PLUS (this is both good and bad....good for my brain, bad for my pocketbook) I found a TON of books that I'll be returning home with. 12 in total. I cannot wait to get reading as it all looks so good. Some of it is for my dissertation and some of it is just because it's of personal interest to me. It gives you a sneak peak into what I might do after the dissertation....
The panels today really blew me away. I was fascinated by the knowledge and eye opening discussions that took place today. I attended two panels on SciFi, Fantasy and Horror and a panel on Text and Textualities of directors in movies.
Check out my Twitter as I tweeted throughout the day on what was going on in each panel as it happened.
As a little recap though, some of the highlights that really excited me were the following:
For starters, I really enjoyed the deep discussion we had in one panel about Zombies and their meanings in Romero's movie and their role within culture. Even more so we discussed what Romero's movies meant and the commentary behind them. It was a really good and deep intellectual discussion. I also heard a few pieces that really change my perspective on popular works such as Stephen King's The Shining and the movies The Grudge as well as District Nine.
Lunch was a great opportunity to network and discuss what other people's interests and studies where. I met a great gal who studies health and popular culture and is recently working on health/disease based communities in cyber space. Her work is completely fascinating and many of the communities she's looking at, while small, have great implications for future studies on health related communities, especially in social media research on things like the patient journey.
One of the things that I've been blown away by is how passionate everyone is about popular culture. Not only are they passionate people but they are friendly and eager to share their knowledge in a huge and diverse array of topics. I definitely want to do more with the organization so I attended their business meeting to look for those opportunities. I'm now on the AV (audio visual) subcommittee, their new social media guru and I'm going to help the executive secretary out with a post conference quantitative survey. I'm extremely happy and pleased to be helping out!
I ended the day attending a film panel. All of the speakers were extremely captivating and I walked away with some great book suggestions to help me in my own research. Beyond being an interesting and enjoyable movie I never thought about Inglorious Basterds to the extent they did. They discussed how the movie really makes us look at the dehumanizing process to make brutality acceptable and about the genius directing of this movie. As one panelist said, "This is a movie that teaches us to watch movies". They pointed out little things I never noticed in the movie like how one of Shosana's dresses had a 1970s zipper on it (completely intentional), how the projector scene was an intentional Romeo and Juliet discourse, the scene prior to Bridget von Hammersmark's death is very much a reverse Cinderalla story and that Quentin Tarantino's hands were the ones used in her death scene, not actor Christoph Waltz's hands. Paul Booth talked about director Richard Kelly's work - Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box. I learned a new respect for this director and the complexity of his films and cinematography.
This conference has made me pine to join the ranks of academia and teach again but I also gained a newfound respect for what I do. It has given me a unique set of skills that I can use in my continuing research. It has given me renewed vigor to know that I'm absolutely in the right field of studies and have the drive and confidence to go forward and finish my PhD. There's absolutely a feeling of belonging and respect.
I'm sad tomorrow is the last day but ready to get home to see my kids and husband. Hopefully the death plague and the push I'm making to get through the conference won't do me in!
Friday, October 1, 2010
MPCA 2010
Greetings from Minnesota!
I'm attending the Midwest Popular Culture Association's annual conference.
So far it has been extremely enlightening and the networking has been fantastic. It has restored my faith in professional studies and understanding of popular culture as well as brought to light some fantastic "food for thought".
So much of what has been discussed also has implications for research in social media. It has been nothing short of amazing.
The first annual video games panel presented today. Despite having acquired the death plague the night before leaving I was able to make it through the entire presentation. It went fantastic (although I wished I'd had gotten the memo from my panelists that purple was the in color to wear).
Will and Jameson were not only great speakers/presenters they also had great, well thought out and discussed topics.
Will discussed historical narrative (or the lack thereof) within Panzer General but make it clear that it extrapolates to many other historical games. "It's history without memory".
Jameson presented on the narrative of the Playstation 2 game "Siren". I found the talk to be of particular interest, looking at how we understand classical narrative and how we can use narrative theory to understand video games.
I presented, using World of Warcraft as an example, on understanding how fun isn't what we typically think and play is work. Virtual and real are blurred distinctions that we need to not think as dichotomous.
I recorded the panel (cut off some of Will...I forgot to turn it on to record...sorry Will!!!). As soon as I get home I'll uploaded this for you to watch which should provide context for my presentation and allow you to see the other two panelists. (You can't see me.... lol...but you can hear me. I promise that's me!)
Here is my presentation. Keep in mind this was designed to be orally presented. I'll try to get some notes on at a later date to make it easier to understand and follow.
For some reason it's cutting off the presentation here on the blog...you can access the presentation directly at: HERE
I'm attending the Midwest Popular Culture Association's annual conference.
So far it has been extremely enlightening and the networking has been fantastic. It has restored my faith in professional studies and understanding of popular culture as well as brought to light some fantastic "food for thought".
So much of what has been discussed also has implications for research in social media. It has been nothing short of amazing.
The first annual video games panel presented today. Despite having acquired the death plague the night before leaving I was able to make it through the entire presentation. It went fantastic (although I wished I'd had gotten the memo from my panelists that purple was the in color to wear).
Will and Jameson were not only great speakers/presenters they also had great, well thought out and discussed topics.
Will discussed historical narrative (or the lack thereof) within Panzer General but make it clear that it extrapolates to many other historical games. "It's history without memory".
Jameson presented on the narrative of the Playstation 2 game "Siren". I found the talk to be of particular interest, looking at how we understand classical narrative and how we can use narrative theory to understand video games.
I presented, using World of Warcraft as an example, on understanding how fun isn't what we typically think and play is work. Virtual and real are blurred distinctions that we need to not think as dichotomous.
I recorded the panel (cut off some of Will...I forgot to turn it on to record...sorry Will!!!). As soon as I get home I'll uploaded this for you to watch which should provide context for my presentation and allow you to see the other two panelists. (You can't see me.... lol...but you can hear me. I promise that's me!)
Here is my presentation. Keep in mind this was designed to be orally presented. I'll try to get some notes on at a later date to make it easier to understand and follow.
For some reason it's cutting off the presentation here on the blog...you can access the presentation directly at: HERE
Sunday, August 22, 2010
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