Massively Multiplayer Online Globe

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games(mmorpg), have become a part of our world. Most people you talk to will know or at least heard of one MMORPG, in most cases, this would be World of Warcraft (WoW) which boasts 11 million players. These games provide a persistent fantasy world where you create an avatar of yourself with a unique set of skills and abilities, and then sends you off on a adventure with thousands of other players, who you are free to communicate or fight with.

Though WoW is the most popular and well known of the MMORPG sphere, there are dozens of other MMORPG's out there. Whether they are free or subscription based, there is a huge global market for these communities, there is an estimated 75 million MMORPG players worldwide. While questing within these worlds it is easy to forget that every single person you see running around is another person behind a computer screen just like yourself.

Elizabeth Erkenbrack,  author of the 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis, states that "An MMORPG is a type interactive social media. Ethnographic treatment of this type of media deserves balanced consideration to ensure that it is recognized as  both cultural artifact as well as an actual site of culture and cultural formation (Hine: 2000, 2005)" . This means within globalization, not only do we have our planet to think of in terms of cultural significance, now we have dozens of other worlds.

References:

 Changyou. "The Globalization of MMORPGs - MMORPG.com Blogs."Online MMO and MMORPG Gamelist, News, Reviews and Community at MMORPG.com. Version -. -, 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/changyou/032010/5872_The-Globalization-of-MMORPGs>.

Erkenbrack, Elizabeth. "a thesis in Anthropology." 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis -.- (2011): 6. Print.http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1559&context=edissertations

Video Game localization

When It comes to video game culture, it comes from two geographical location. There is east and West. East meaning Japan, as their video games market is huge and innovative, and west, meaning America. You can tell where a game is from just by looking at it. You can see the cultural influences instantly

Japanese games are usually filled to the brim with color and hilarious characters, whichis considered culturally jarring to western gamers.

On the other hand, western video game aesthetics are usually brown, grey and a dreary feeling, going for a post apocalyptic setting. see (gears of wars, fall out, ect.).

How this geographic taste in games differs relates to video game localization. This is the reason we have games come out at a later date in certain areas (primarily Australia).

As a result some areas in the world will never see certain games due to localization issues.

Heather Chandler, the author of the game localization handbook in an interview with Bytelevel.com "From a technical standpoint, ant language that uses a non-western alphabet, such as japanese or hebew, presents some challenges there are issues with UI design and character displat that need to be considered when localizing games for these languages."

While game localization is an issue with avid gamers, it is something that has become less of an issue in recent times, with japanese games being released in the west a mere 3-6 months after their local releases.

References:

Chandler, Heather. "Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook." Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook. Http://www.bytelevel.com, 2012. Web. 06 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bytelevel.com/global/game_globalization.html>.

Images: 

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/downloads/wallpapers/fallout-wp7-1600x1200.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060607105035/egamia/images/thumb/b/bf/Katamari-box.jpg/150px-Katamari-box.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwhFH75OCDs

Hackers of the World

How can we trust what we read, hear and see when one corporation owns a majority of media outlets? Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation are what we refer to as 'news', hell news  is in their name. As a hypothetical, they could publish a story which is completely false, and publish the same story in all of their news outlets and everyone would think it is true, because we as humans have a inbuilt system of "Majority Rules".

When tabloids know what we fear and what we want, they have power over us. They extort our fear for their profit. That is what was so terrifying about the News of the World phone hacking scandal back in 2011. Information is the most valuable resource in the world, people pay millions of dollars to know what type of shampoo people are using, or what telephone provider you are signed with. How valuable is the information about you on your phone. News Corporation aren't the only people who are spying on you, they were just doing it without your consent. When Face book, Google and ITunes are selling your information and tracking your every step in order to sell you items.

So where does one draw the line when it comes to privacy, just because I pressed some button at the end of the huge wall of text does that mean you have right to know everything about me? is that just as unjust as listening in on my phone calls?

References:

Chandrasekhar, Indu, Murray Wardrop, and Andy Trotman. "Phone hacking: timeline of the scandal."Telegraph UK. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. <www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html>.

Blockade of Progression: Part 2

Continuing on from last time. I want to talk about humans and how we develop ideas. The way humans discover and invent things, is that we see something and adapt it. How was the wheel made? someone would have seen a log and noticed how it rolled and improved the design. Well we still do that, with everything. Now if you are noticing a trend between the start of this post and the last, and the title, here it is. Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas.  As we put gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress. This is why, the copyright laws are harmful.

Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, he just improved it. Bob Dylans first Album was cover songs. This is why we as a species need copying, we learn from it. No one can start from the ground up. It doesn't work like that.

When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose what is most important to begin with. Progression. which is the main goal of our civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization.

so this is why I consider Copy right, and copyright wrong. (see what i did there?)

I urge you all to check out the most eye opening documentary by Kirby Ferguson, it is called 'Everything is a Remix'. and you can watch it for free on his website. Watch it here

Blockade of Progression part 1

this is the first of a two part blog post about the copyright law.

'Happy Birthday to you
happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear readers
happy birthday to you'

You would be shocked if I told you that if I were to sing this song in a public space I would owe Warner Music Group $700 dollars of royalties. The song which was adapted from the original "good Morning to all" which was composed by Patty and Mildred hill in 1893 was used to greet kindergarten students in the morning. The song whilst composed in the 1900's is still considered under copy right due to the fickle nature of the copy right industry.

The music industry, the legal iron giant fights against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share and download the copied material for free. As a majority of these anti-piracy laws come from America and are only applicable to United States land. A majority of internet pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay are the most notable of the Pirating Websites, and by there name, they do not dispute this at all. You can read all the legal emails and their responses on their website http://thepiratebay.se/legal/

The music industry is too bloated to keep functioning as it does. With the introduction of social media and the MP3, buying a physical copy of a CD has become redundant, but we are still expected to pay irrational prices for Media. Luckily there have been some pioneers in a the music industry to move it forward. Spotify which is a free (with optional premium service) which allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free.

Reference:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1310251047.shtml Masnick, M.2008, Tech dirt

"We paid $700 to say happy birthday. You got to pay for the song." during an episode of her show, "Transcript of 5 Feb 2010 episode of 'The Wendy Williams Show. 5 Feb 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2011.

Definition of Globalization

#ALC215

Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of different parts of the world, a process which gives rise to complex forms of interaction and interdependency. (Thompson, 1995: 149, Theorizing Media and Globalization, pg 7.)

I feel that Thompsons quote on globalisation is all too negative. The words like Interdependency shine a bad light on what globalisation could achieve on a world wide spectrum. I personally see Globalisation as a symbiotic relationship between cultures and people.

Globalisation moves past a national level of interaction and sees the combination of cultures, economies and people. It is a pull and push effect on everyone, not a dependence on one another. Dependence which Thompson uses in his definition is a word that would be seen as weak. That you can’t stand on your own two feet.

As global media consumer and a globalisation and media student, I feel that globalisation synergetic energy that is rapidly evolving idea that boomed during the times of airline travel and most importantly the internet. The internet as allowed us to communicated to nearly anyone in the world at any time, with the simple click of a button. It is a revolutionary application of communication that will inevitably bring cultures together with shared ideas. And a growing international trade of being able to buy things online.

I feel hat Thompsons definition of globalisation is too cold and misleading to what it is and can be. If I were to describe it, I would say that: Globalisation is the growing synergy across the globe, a process which would develop international symbiosis between cultures and economies. 

Extra information on the internet and globalization 

Media and Globalization

#ALC215

As an Australian and Canadian hybrid who grew up in a predominately Asian area of Melbourne, my cultural identity is all sorts of convoluted. I enjoy American television, Chinese films, Japanese cartoons and Polish video-games.  My entertainment is provided to me from across the world,  as a consumer, I would consider myself a global citizen'.

This idea of  being a globalized consumer is becoming more and more commonplace in our society. As a late Generation-Y child, I spent my childhood during the boom of the internet. So in my life the idea of talking to someone anywhere in the world at anytime seems very common place to me. With the way that the Generation Z is going, this global culture is going to be even more ingrained in their life in the future.

My problem with this system of Globalized media is the outdated means in which we use it in. Television and region locks are a thing of the past, and only exist to fuel piracy. For example "“If we look at the top countries where Game of Thrones is downloaded, Australia comes out on top with 10.1% of all downloads (based on one episode),” TorrentFreak wrote on its blog. (article here). As an Australian I understand why this is so, as the show first aired a entire season's difference in time. Whilst the second season aired 4 weeks after America. So the Global citizens of us in Australia need a more accessible and legal way to remain Global media users.

Game of Thrones problems

The good and bad of media globalisation.

Good:

• Steam
• Netflix 
• The Internet
• Spottify
• Louis C.K.

Bad:

• Television
• Netflix (not a global service)
• Cinemas