Kyle_L

Hello, my name is Kyle Long, I recently graduated from Montgomery College in 09 with a Associates of Arts degree, my major was gaming and simulation. I transferred to Simulation and Digital Entertainment program in University of Baltimore so I can get my bachelor's degree. Many people tend to pick favorite games that recently been out within a decade but I prefer the games made in the 90s, I don't have one specific game but a selection of them. They would be Warcraft 2, Red Alert, and Return to Krondor. These games have influenced me so much because these games required strategical thinking in order to win the game. RTS games made today don't involve much strategy but who can mass the most units. The game Return to Krondor was an excellent RPG for its time.This made me become judgmental on storytelling, if someone was to make a video game, they should include a respectable storyline. My career goal is graduate UB with a bachelor's degree and become a successful game designer and become well-known in the gaming market and hopefully return to school to get a Master's Degree.

whyBlog
Blogging as expanded tremendously throughout the internet, not many people remember but it popped into my mind that blogging is how Sarah Palin was chosen to run as vice president for the republican party, sadly but true because McCain heard the word of some Republican blogger. I remember clearly watching CNN interviewing a young man, he was a blogger who apparently was involved with some small time religious organization. The power of blogging has even gone to a political level where opinions are written to slander against competitors. As to some of the authors above me, internet giants such as Myspace, Facebook, and even twitter have impacted the internet and its use by a ton. The gaming company Blizzard Entertainment has leaped forward to interact more with audience in Facebook so they keep their video games in the minds of customers as a marketing strategy. Also Twitter has grown beyond the time that it took for Facebook and Myspace to gain popularity on the internet. I was in the movie theaters not too long ago and during the movie previews, ending of trailers would occasionally have advertisement to the internet links such as Twitter. I was never a fan of blogging mainly because the amount of ads that are spammed on blog hosted sites and the potential risk of getting viruses from blog sites. Xanga was difficult to use because links never were guaranteed to work properly from its creator. After reading Andrew Sullivan's chapter, "Why I Blog," I saw the passion and the metaphors he took into account for his article, that he did not see blogs just as battlegrounds to have verbal wars with those who disagreed. The reading really caught my attention with his creative examples to persuade the reader to go on reading like his example with journalism being limited by consequences as in blogging was an extreme sport. The media has focused on the internet more often where blogs can be used now to tarnish the reputation of the blogger. Consequences are expected to grow along side the blogs continue to expand in our everyday lives.

virtualSociopaths
After reading the essay by Julian Dibbell, I feel a sense of guilt because I have to admit that I too was a jerk on a many occasions online. I have to accept what people choose to do with their lives. When I see people acting in role playing, I have an urge to make fun of them or degrade them just for the "lulz" as Rich Kyanka does. As John mentioned Xbox Live, the trash talking that takes place over multiplayer is atrocious. I have never heard so much racism, or foul language from kids that are a mere age of 13 and below. I have experienced most of the crude behavior that comes from the internet and its usually the people that are younger than 17. The internet is becoming much more serious and I have to say that the internet is serious business mainly because it's become a part of our lives. When the author mention about the attacks on Second Life and the hackers said that it was just a joke made me outraged due to the fact that hackers need to do something more productive with their lives rather than make other people have a miserably time playing a game they enjoy and that just want to escape from their reality.

When Sean mentioned the WoW funeral, I always had two opinions on that event. My first opinion was that these people take the game way too serious, having an in-game funeral for a player that died. It is heartbreaking to hear about someone you talk to on a daily basis on Warcraft passed away but I'm not going to have a gathering of people who I've never met in real life in a PVP contested area. World of Warcraft has grown more serious in terms of players contacting each other in real life with phone calls and text messages. I believe the hackers not only to do it to be jerks but to keep in mind to the people they aggravate that this shouldn't be taken seriously.

http://gamesandsims.wikispaces.com/Everquest
 * MMOHistory**

EpicOne Contribution

Beauty was the key to unlock its secrets, no shiny weapons, no valorous heroism, I alone was astonished on the clever thinking that can take you to many places. "And do you remember giving me this pendant?" Generosity shall be repaid in full.

Darkness swept through out the lands, the city guards were placed on high alert, rumors of the evil approaching the city walls. Sorceress Kaldrin faints to the ground, visions of destruction lay before her memories, the royal guards rush to her aid, “Milady, are you alright.” She replies, “I’ll be fine, a foul darkness is coming.” One of the guards, with a surge of adrenaline rushes towards the bell tower to sound the city alarms. The clatter of bells in the night strikes fear into the city buildings.

The forest darkens as if the moon’s beauty had vanished out of site over the forest canopy. Dark Elves march in columns with the dark armor clattering, strangling the harmony of the forest’s singing voice. Allies of goblins and knolls follow in formation behind the brutish dark warriors striking imitating visions. The grass begins to shroud and discolor as the monstrosity catapults plunder the forest grounds with their towering size. In the distance, fear stains the air as the armies of darkness approach the human kingdom.

EpicThree Contribution

The narrow crevices grow larger and darker. The light appears that if it died, paranoid behaviors grip my eyes. Yellow eyes grow in strength the further I traveled into the caverns. I echo in the dark, “LIGHT GUIDE ME WITH YOUR BEAUTY AND STRENGTH.” My blade hinders from the satchel and as I peer into the blade, hope engulfs my spirits lighting up the path unseen by all. I whisper to myself, "My praises great divine one, your holy presences gives me hope, without you, all would be lost.

Giving it Away/Contributions

After reading the article, “Giving it Away” Doctorow made a success with the big risk he took into publishing his novels for free online because his plans could have backfired. In today’s market society, it has become extremely challenging to legitimately give something free away without disagreements from a third party. Publishing companies strive to profit in some way with eBooks. I highly agree with the fact that Doctorow wants encourage his readers to look at his novels regardless if they decide to purchase a book or not. He clearly stated that he would not be losing sales but winning an audience. The eBook was mentioned in the article that it was a social object and that it’s spread among others through many means whether it’s a friend or something else. Doctorow related to a past experience that he encountered in an old job. Audiences spread the word on eBooks that intrigue them and is the main reason why Doctorow has become so successful. His free novels online have granted him a fan database and in return, became profitable for Doctorow.

I also have to agree with Wendy that the biggest obstacle is marketing mainly because so many people try to come up with new innovations to help promote product marketing. It’s become a Hit or Strikeout chance in the world when someone is trying to make it in the industries.

Doctorow’s approach was unique but bizarre in terms of someone who was not looking for profit from their work but was rewarded later on with profit.

Halting State Concept

When I was finishing up a chapter, the novel was mentioning finances and the millions of dollars can put a complexion on a situation. I then came across a term called KPI matrix on page 18. I searched the web for the definition on the concept and it came up as “key performance indicator” ([|KPI]). The term stands for a measure of performance which is commonly used to assist an organization that define and evaluate how successful it is. It allows the organizations to promote long term organizational goals towards progression. The book uses the term as a scale for the money being demanded by Hackman and that even a robbery wouldn’t make the performance meter of the KPI matrix but the amount of money desired would have to the probability of being political.

Fandom http://gamesandsims.wikispaces.com/FanFiction

secondLifeTravels I’ve always heard about Second Life almost everywhere whether the internet or for a gaming class. I went to try it out and I literally despised the game from the very start where you register your character. The registration of second life could have been easier but the amount of unless steps you needed to create character, and afterwards, they would give your login information a day later which I find pointless and irritating. I eventually downloaded the game after registering, I logged into the game and I created my character, and the map of second life was so confusing. I random start off somewhere in second life with some gibberish name and around me was a few buildings with some signs, but no one was around so I didn’t know where to go. I chose a woman avatar with business clothes to look like a secretary or something. The experience with this game drove me crazy. The interface was a mess and I could find out what menu was needed and what wasn’t necessary.

The graphics were much downgraded; felt like second life was created years ago as if was emerging the same year EverQuest was made. I couldn’t around the map without some annoying menu popping up bringing into a bunch of options with no explanation. For a virtual world, I was truly disappointed because I was alone and had no clue how to understand the game. I zoomed out of the map to find different spots to visits so I randomly selected an area where I teleported to. When I arrived to the spot, it was an empty land like a tiny island and the land kept telling me to buy this land but I refused to spend any sort of income no matter what because I hated this game so much by the time. My only experience with another person was some male avatar ported into the spam but didn’t say anything or even move for like four minutes. I immediately exited out of the game with hate for second life. My experience with Second Life was not a happy one.

strossFuture

I think Stross was aiming towards existing reality today and experimenting with its future such as high oil prices, interactive eyewear, and the several other topics. He basically was narrating a grimy vision today’s society. The world in Stross’s vision does not seem impossible because if you compared technology over leaps of two decades, it’s quite impressive how far society advances in the field of technology. He mentioned about CopSpace, real-time virtual reality in the novel and the digital tech becoming widespread. Blizzard Entertainment not too long ago recently released for purchase a pair of eyewear headpiece that literally has a mini TV screen inside the goggles so players could get a virtual world feel rather than sit down on a chair and stare at screen from a distance. All these ideas for technological advances are not far off in terms of being possible but there pops up an issue for the disadvantages and advantages of the digital technology.

Wendy brings up a good point about the VR being right on the tips of our fingers. We have come far enough where this is possible but the problems in the gaming industry and such that these advances are usually put on hold mainly because technology is constantly underfire by political figures. I can’t imagine the amount of hostility games would get if first person shooters became almost physically real to players through means of virtual reality.

Sam tackles an interesting topic about autopilot; Halting State had vehicles that were on automatic controls. Many science fiction movies such as I-Robot and Minority Report had autopilot where in today’s society many airplanes have autopilot to plainly fly the plane for the human pilots that monitor it.