Classic Video Games

The game I choose to play in lab on Friday is a game I have a strong attachment to, Pokemon.  More specifically I played Pokemon Emerald and while that is by no means the best choice to make a lot of progress in a game but it was still fun nonetheless.  Pokemon is a beloved franchise to many and has a huge following, which honestly is to be expected from nintendo games.  Nintendo is the company that has the most originality when it comes to video games, they have found ways to create situation that are just so zany and original that everyone latches on and adores every project they end up creating.

Pokemon is something that falls under that idea of a beloved video game series.  To me video games are an a look into someone else’s fantasy an idea for a game they had visualized and brought to life for everyone to enjoy.  Pokemon is such an immense world and immense experience of growth and this feeling of progress and such a great accomplishment of an idea.  It was so successful that it spun off into it’s own television program.

Games have an option to be surface level something more like a Pacman, you spawn in and go there are no tutorials no questions no backstory start and go.  Games can also challenge the depth of some novels with immense backstories and huge stories secrets of a world that a developer, writer, or producer  has had in their mind for who knows how long.

Pokemon transports you into a world where there are countless amounts of these Pokemon to collect, battle or train as you get ready to prove that you are the best trainer of all time.  At first throttled by chasing your father and showing to him you are also a worthier trainer you leave home and get companionship with Pokemon you choose to befriend and take with you on your journey.  It puts you in the role of the young protagonists ready to be the best, like no one ever was.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality or VR is a field that has been making massive waves in media in the teens of the 2010’s.  Huge announcements around VR have been a recent development in the tech.  Companies such as Facebook Purchasing Oculus and major companies branching out to their own VR devices, Such as the HTC Vive and Samsung’s Gear VR.  VR had a massive boom and a large following but to me its something that is a fad.  I look at VR similar to how I look at 3D television and movies.  It is something that can gain focus but in itself is a niche.

3D video and 3D movies we call them 3D but we are lying about the technology.  We are not truly presenting a three-dimensional object we are just viewing film recorded differently and wearing glasses that change our perception of the true image we are watching.  VR is something similar to me where we are presenting a Virtual Reality but we are just changing the way we view a film or a game or a story.  Virtual reality is just a headset that allows you to explore more of what they recorded/ programmed, in the sense of games you are just existing in a 360-degree environment but the display might limit you to see 60 degrees at a time.  You are not a part of the reality you are just experiencing it differently.

Augmented reality is something that to me is the real tech superstar out of this area of tech.  AR has had some major developments the largest of which being Hololens and it is no surprise that it is coming from some developed minds.  In this case, it is a product of Microsoft.  There are multiple avenues and pathways that the future of tech might take but I believe that the development is going to be more towards this Hololens demo than the typical Vive or Oculus experience.

Hey Jude, Word Cloud

Na, staring you in the face is by no means the most shocking thing after reading the title of my post if you’re already familiar with the song.  I created this word cloud on https://wordart.com/  in conjunction with https://genius.com/ to get the lyrics.  A few things that stood out to me from the word cloud are how large remember and better are in the word cloud.  I think it is intended because a strong message that presents itself to me when I listen to the song is that life does get better.  Along with this though there are some notable terms on the left referring to pain and skin specifically.  I think it also goes along with the message of the song because it does have a somber tone that the piano portrays beautifully.

 

Word clouds to me are something used to identify trends, I believe they are a fairly weak tool.   They similar to other measures of trend have unreliable results; meaning that a word clouds biggest words are not guaranteed to be entirely relevant or even pertinent to the original piece they are based on.  I think they have some uses but their relevance to me is always on the lower side.

Digital Maps

In lab last Friday I took time to really look at two digital maps. Both of them from StoryMap, the two maps being the review of Arya Stark’s journey (LINK), and Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delight” (LINK). The history of Arya Stark’s journey was something extremely cool to see visualized. As a book reader and show watcher it was extremely nice to have some gaps explained and shown further in depth. I truly appreciated the inclusion of things the show left out and having it presented in that manor allows it to be digested easier. 

 

Visuals help in a lot of cases when its so directed and forces you down a path so whatever message, or information is being portrayed, can be done exactly to the artist’s desires.  Overall I would say the digital map enhanced the experience for me.

 

On the other hand the Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delight” map was a less enjoyable experience.  I felt the map to be less guided and less rigid comparatively and I thought it almost hurt the experience.  To me a digital map is used to facilitate info with a relevant image/ video to go along with it and the forced movement around the piece with blades that cut off the image felt clunky and less optimized than the prior map.

 

What Does “Digital” Mean To ME

As millennials, we are the head of the “digital age”.  Whenever titles are recieved responsibilities come right along with them.  The responsibility we have as head of the digital age is that we are in control of mass media.  We have so much connectivity and so much limitless knowledge with the internet that we have an ability and a lost a requirement to be up to date on all current news as its happening.  This transfer of data, music, messages, news, and more would not be possible without the proper tools to utilize them.  During its inception most people figured computers were the new greatest tech and they were not necessarily wrong I’m sure they just didn’t expect the computers to be so small and so powerful.  They most likely wouldn’t presume that phones and computers would meet and be the most important device of our generation.  Smart phones are the star product and  I think the digital age would not exist without them.  

One device, with a strong enough following and an open enough platform to take itself from a luxury item at the time of its release to become an extension of some peoples arms today.  Smart phones are a must have item for most people, its too versatile in what it offers to the consumer.

It’s gotten to the point where people feel naked and lost without their cell phones. These devices have become crutches that we all rely on to unhealthy amounts.  In my opinion they are something that has only recently become optimized.  Not many remember how absolutely awful the first iPhone was.  It was a clunky, heavy box that barely worked.  I am by no means an iPhone enthusiast incase you could not tell already.

I believe in progress through true progress not progress you want people to believe is happening and I believe Apple is the number one offender of this where they have such a mob mentality buy in to their products that their is such a willingness to overlook the flaws that come along with them.  Time and time again, the newly announced phone sells out their preorders and time and time again grievances come along when the new edition hits the market.  Slow response times, ugly IOS updates, failing apps, all this being said Apple is by no means the only smartphone company who has issues with their devices.  What separates Apple from the rest is how they manage to make people forget their faults, overlook them and stay loyal to the company.

Part of this has to be their understanding of digital.  Apple has managed to constantly push media that pushes the notion that somehow if you have an Apple you are already making the first step to be better than everyone else.  Apple’s 1984 super bowl advertisement is comical to watch now.  (We watched it in class but in case you don’t know what I’m referring to  Click here to watch the ad )  The ad features the idea that  buying an Apple is breaking the mold, changing you as a person creating a free thinker out of you.  Today, watching that advertisement it comes across as extremely ironic, in the fact that today Apple holds that majority, Apple is the hive mind to break away from and become a free thinker.  However at the time that ad pushed and funneled users into the Apple family.  Even though the company was still going to go bankrupt in the future.  They showed they understand the current market.  That still reigns true today as their current ads hold the market captive and their sales keep driving higher and higher.

Their current ads capture the focus of todays generation and are just odd enough to stand out and force you to remember the message to stand apart you need Apple in your life, but if everyone has an Apple device we’d just be standing together.

(Current Apple ad)