Research Post Unit 3 Simon Chun

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/208514_how-illegal-downloading-harms-the-industry

Argument: The Introduction of the Internet has brought upon many opportunities to access items illegally and causes many detriments to society

Grounds: The Internet gives users no thought of how it harms the industry

Warrant 1: Pirating affects the new and incoming careers of music artists.

Warrant 2: The pirating of music also affects subsidiary jobs revolving around music artists such as recording.

Backing: Nearly 95% of all music downloaded are pirated.

The logic of this article is trying to prove how the industry is greatly affected by the pirating of music and how it shows through how much illegal downloading of music is done. I believe the audience is those who pirate music and those who are about to pirate music. It might also try to gain sympathy from those who lose jobs and such.

March 28, 2011 | Categories: Assignments | 6 Comments

Research Blog Post – John Groves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-close/mental-illness-the-stigma_b_328591.html

Alright, my research is an article from the Huffington post (OMG LIBRAL) which basically explains that people are unwilling to actually talk about mental disorders. The article explains that scientists project that mental illness will be the leading cause of death by the year 2020, so apparently we better start talkin’ about it now!

Anyway, to the analysis!

Claim – Mental Illness is stigmatized to a point where no one is willing to talk about it.

Grounds- “Whether it is Norman Bates in Psycho, Jack Torrance in The Shining, or Kathy Bates’ portrayal of Annie Wilkes in Misery, scriptwriters invariably tell us that the mentally ill are dangerous threats who must be contained, if not destroyed. It makes for thrilling entertainment.”

Warrant 1– a stereotype on mental illness in the media adversely affects real-world discourse (or, more simply, Fictional media representations affect real-world discourses)

Warrant 2– People don’t like to talk about things they are afraid of.

Now that that is out of the way, evaluation time!

Okay, lets be honest, Mr. Close is writing for the Huffington Post, so we all know his audience is probably very accepting of what he is saying. But for the sake of conversation, lets say he is actively trying to reach people who don’t agree with him. This makes the warrants much more difficult to accept. Initially, why it is easy to see how fictional or entertainment media can affect peoples views (for example : see this Glenn Beck Comment with his level of attendance at a rally ). It is a well-known idea that, even in the light of contrary evidence, people will shape and skew the information that receive according to their ideology and attitude. Therefore, the audience that Close is trying to reach, an audience that stigmatizes mental illness, may not be receptive to change.And obviously, since there is still an actual problem concerning the lack of actual discourse on mental disorders, I would say that this is an accurate assessment.

March 27, 2011 | Categories: Assignments | 2 Comments

Unit 2 – Bioshock – Simon Chun

Bioshock is a culmination of various ideas that are packaged in a video game. The game is set in an underwater metropolis gone wrong called Rapture. Inside, the citizens are exposed to “freedom”. This freedom creates many advances in technological scientific innovation. One of such is called Plasmids. Plasmids allow you to splice your DNA so the player can use special abilities. This brings up the question of genetic engineering. A highly controversial subject in the world today, Bioshock tries to engage the player that while scientific advancement is great, the repercussions that might come afterwards is very heavy. The users of such a technology become insane and deranged.  The game helps to increase awareness of the what might possibly happen if genetic engineering goes wrong.

Another advancement is a project called Adam. Little Sisters are cute little girls that have been horribly altered by science. Inside they possess Adam, a certain type stem cells from slugs found in the sea. These Little Sister come your way many times throughout the games and the players have the ability to set them free from their miserable fate or destroy them to steal all the Adam you can extract. It’s quite an emotionally taxing thing to do and really brings up the question of morality.

The idea of freedom itself is a very complex idea itself. The game sets a certain perspective on what freedom is and what the citizens of Rapture are able to do. The fact that ideas and creation can roam free was an enticing thing. Maybe the world idea that Andrew Ryan wanted isn’t so bad…

What is it that mankind is trying to achieve and is it proper is something that the player faces as he journeys the many sectors of Rapture. The freedom that Andrew Ryan dreamed of and the freedom that he wished to achieve was due to the restrictions that the world had set. There were people that wanted to limit and create rules prohibiting certain actions. The utopia that Andrew Ryan wished for was the opposite of all of this. Sadly the utopia quickly turned into a dystopia with havoc, insanity, madness, and destruction ruling it. The so-called freedom that Ryan and others called for consumed them and turned them into savages that were left with nothing but the extremes that those who created rules wished to prevent. The question of morality is a big question in Bioshock and creates an upset that impacts Rapture. The real question is, how does this impact our world?

February 28, 2011 | Categories: Assignments | 2 Comments

Commercial Games- John Groves – That one game that everybody and their mom has played

The video game I chose is Final Fantasy VII. If you think this is shitty, please tell me!

Well! Now that we got that outta the way, let’s take a look at why I chose this critically-acclaimed, super obvious video game. If you have never played FF7, the main character Cloud Strife is first presented as a member of the terrorist group Avalanche, which is hell-bent on bringing down the Shin-Ra corporation. Shin-Ra has created a monopoly on the main power-source of the Planet, called mako energy. The power they control in distributing this energy has essentially made them the ruling Government of the entire world. While heavy handed, the game does indeed present an anti-corporatist message through the representation of Shin-Ra and the actions your characters take in the very beginning of the game.

Thus, I will use my essay to examine the anti-corporatist ideology that FF7 presents, and then discuss the real world application of an ideology during our current political climate. That is a pretty quick explanation, so I’ll try and go into more detail. For example, Public Relations innovator Edward Bernays utilized media messages during the 1950’s to engineer a war in Guatemala, as the new democratic government was not providing profitable for the United Fruit Company. I will attempt to find current instances of corporate activity being used to influence political activity, and then try and compare the implications of that with the dystopian society presented in FF7. If this sounds stupid, tell me! I’ll also try to keep it unbiased, but that probably won’t work out.

OTHER OPTIONS: A game called Boktai utilizes a game mechanic that forces players to go outside to play the game due to a photon sensor in the back of the cartridge. This is a response to parental concerns over the inactivity of video games. It’s pretty obvious, so tell me what you think.

February 28, 2011 | Categories: Assignments | 2 Comments

Commercial Game Yezi

The game I choose for unit 2 assignment is The Prince of Persia. I believe lots of people are quite familiar with this name. I actually watched the film first, and then when I saw this game is on the list, I decided to chose this one.

When I was looking for the download link on the Internet, this picture caught my eyes.

Although the scenes and characters are not as perfect as the picture shows, the game still does a good job in its visual effects.

What’s special about this 2009 version is it has a new open world structure. And the player will have the freedom to determine how the game develops in this non-linear adventure, and by choosing their path in the open-ended world the players can also decide how they unfold the storyline. The game is set in ancient Persia, and the journey starts in the desert. The nameless leading role met a woman named Elika after a sandstorm, which diverted him from his route and send him to a mysterious land. Elika is the princess of Ahura, but now she is escaping from a bunch of soldiers. While the two running away from those soldiers, Elika finds her magic power of light. The two then started a journey to find a corrupted world outside. In order to restore the world and get rid of the corruption, they must heal all the Fertile Grounds in the kingdom. During their journey restoring the Fertile Grounds, they encountered the Warrior, the Hunter, the Concubine and the Alchemist, and they are the four corrupted leaders of the world. And the game is basically about their difficult and risky journey. And like all the other adventure games, the Prince of Persia is a good v.s. evil game, you need to do whatever you can to stop the corruption.

And here is a video of someone playing the game,

February 27, 2011 | Categories: Assignments | 2 Comments