The Videogame Industry.

The Videogame Industry.

Video game! The couple of words that make every person crazy, playful and obviously cheerful. It’s one of the most wonderful and popular creation in the development of Media Industry. Video game is an electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or TV screen that involves interaction with user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.

  The current status of Video game has seen lots of dramatic changes and evolution since its invention in the 1950s. There are debates surrounding over the creation of first video game, as scholars consider the OXO/ Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe) invented in 1952 by Alexander S. Douglas as the first Video game in the industry. After 6 years in 1958, William Higinbotham created an interactive video game known as ‘Tennis for Two' from where the concept of Video game has changed with a status of Video game as a key player in the Media Industry.

During that period, several games like Space war, Corndog and Space travel were introduced which were not so effective in the market. After nearly a decade later in the 1970s, the status of video game was completely turnaround with the likes of the first console in the game ‘Pong’ by the Atari in 1972. It was the first arcade video game with huge widespread success all over. The year 1978 is considered as the ‘Golden Age’ as Midway released the Taito developed game 'Space Invaders' in America with an enormous success that still it is famous for causing shortage of 100 Yen coins in Japan.

 It helps to inspire other companies to invest more and enter the huge market of the industry. Atari (the pioneer of the Video game industry) alone worth 2 billion dollars in the year 1982 as it holds 80% of the market at that time. Pacman was a massive hit for Atari during that time but due to the production of too many badly created consoles caused the fall of the North American Industry and the rise of Japanese company like Nintendo with arrival of new hero ‘Mario’. Later in the year 1985, another hit for Nintendo ‘Tetris’ ruled the market especially for its portable system.

With the arrival of Sony in the industry in the late 80s, the industry saw a fierce rivalry and competition that it results a significant advancement with the arrival of 3D graphics networked multiplayer gaming ‘Doom’. From mid 90s to early 00s there was a battle between the likes of Sega, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo with Sony becoming the sole winner with the help of extremely hyped Play station.

The late 2000s saw playful well designed consoles with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony bringing ‘Wii’, ‘Xbox360’ and ‘Play Station 3’ respectively making billion of dollars to their pocket. In the year 2008 there was an approximate 11.7 billion dollars of business in the video game industry. Today the industry is enlarging day to day as the technological advancement further extends its reaches and is just no more a game but a huge commercially globalised industry with a long remarkable history.

References


Wolf Mark J.P. 2005. The Medium of the Video game. Austin: University of Texas Press
http://chud.com/articles/content_images/5/videogame.jpg

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http://www.dmidesigns.com/dmidesigns/Inventions/images/White_Atari_logo_on_black.jpg
http://www.dvdexchange-online.co.uk/Game_News/Consoles/PlayStation_3/PlayStation_3_60GB_console.jpg

Internet as Medium of Narrative Art Creation.

Internet as Medium of Narrative Art Creation.

Internet today is not only the interconnection of worldwide computer networks but has also been a constructive format of fictional or nonfictional events summoned together. As the most powerful medium of this century, internet has created a degree of electronic and optical networking technologies with the theme of art and creation. The establishment of internet back to the 1960s has been one of the most creative inventions of the human civilization.

Internet today has been able to change the theory of marking the language and making its structure. The practice of hypertext and cybertext has made the user to access any information immediately within a couple of seconds. It has not only the group of texts but has different constructive format (pictures, songs, writing, theory, speech, poetry or may be videos) that makes a complete circle of entertainment for the users.

  

More and more, the characteristics of digital fiction in the internet have been changing continuously. All the basics form of Internet to the wonderland of Web 2.0, it is now more interactive, interpretive, multimodal, collective and playful that makes internet as the most effective medium. The narrative art form is evolving and merging in new exciting ways that surrounds us with the art of character perspective, visual and dramatic patterns. The path of reading, analysing and interpreting a text is accompanied by multisensory reading with effective semantic support in multiple modalities.

References:

Landow, George P. 1997. Hypertext 2.0. London: Johns Hopkins University Press

http://www.mtaa.net/images/mtaaRR/internet_0.img_assist_custom.jpg

http://breo.beds.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_106470_1%26url%3d

http://www.cs.sfu.ca/CC/365/mark/material/notes/Chap1/hypertext.gif

Commercialization and the Network:

IPR, Crowd sourcing, Free Labour and the Californian Ideology.

After the introduction of Internet and Web 2.0 in the networking arena, the concept of commercialization has been initiated. Today, due to the globalisation of networks and the common cultural bonding between the users, the concept of the commerce and business has been laid in the networking sector. More and more financial accounts have been running through the networking business nowadays.

 


At the initiation of internet and networking in our society, it was said to be non-commercial because its main aim used to inform the public and helps to share their common values, beliefs and ideas. But after the drastic development in the technology and its modern practices by the users, the importance of information economy, the rise of network enterprise and the application of ‘Network society’ has been created.

The thought of Intellectual Property Rights arrived after the vision of the knowledge based economy that helps both the original creation and the author’s copyright which gives him/her some accounts of transactions. The doctrine of commercial networking has been flourished so rapidly after the 90’s because of the competition and liquidity in the market. The networking business today is now more focused on the theme of e-commerce that open-sourcing and crowd-sourcing has become the main forces of surging the development.

People are now more related and public participation is in high today towards the e-commerce. Crowd-sourcing is more concern towards the public interest with countless users engaging with the networking business. Regardless of that, the subject of free labour arises with the problems of copyright and selection going through it. Due to the effect of globalisation people from India works for the company of America through networking that accounts in billion dollars. The culture of Silicon Valley and the domination of IT industry will be more effective in upcoming days which beholds the truth that today’s networking are more diverted towards commercialization.

References.

Cawsey, Alison and Dewar Rick. 2004. Internet Technology and e-commerce. Basingtoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
http://www.precarn.ca/ProgramsFunding/Projects/imgPYjpHAkTTp.jpg
http://www.netr.nl/wp-content/themes/mimbo2/images//crowdsourcing.jpg
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=free+labour&sa=N&start=21&ndsp=21

Web 2.0: Architectures of Participation:

Web 2.0: Architectures of Participation:

Web 2.0 is a platform of social and cultural interaction in the advanced technologies where users are more interlinked with the internet globally. It is linked with the web applications that feature interactive information sharing, user – centred design, user interface, continuous update, data consumption and the architecture of public participation.

Web applications, social networking sites, video sharing sites, blogs, wikis, portals, web based communities etc are some of the classic examples of Web 2.0. The core concept of Web 2.0 is a whole new generation of ideas and makes internet a platform to mediate the network effect to make up the collective intelligence in an effective manner. The crucial element is the public participation in the management of Web 2.0 whereas; in Web 1.0 the users are connected to the internet but with a limited interaction and engagement with the content.

The word ‘YOU’ has been a vital core here to generate the sense that public are the main instrument in creating market value in the billions. The social networking sites like youtube, facebook, myspace, twitter etc are now worth billions just because by the word ‘YOU’ in it. It is all about customization and socialization that without ‘YOU’ they all are worthless. Today facebook accounts about 100 billion dollars just because of the people’s participation in it. It has been always us that make the value of creating and changing the Web 2.0 from Web 1.0. 

Comments and community are the very big parts of Web 2.0. With these concepts, the issues of crowd sourcing, trust, privacy, prosumers, free labour etc has been raised around us. It’s cool to have Web 2.0 around us with lots of perspectives and the notion of Cyberspace within it. But also due to its flexible nature, there arise a lot of questions which are certainly tough to go through it. 

References:

http://www.billionswithzeroknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/web20people.jpg
http://www.labnol.org/wp/images/2007/06/web-2.0-concept.jpg
http://www.bestfreeicons.com/smimages/a9a1d5317a33ae8cef33961c34144f84-web2_icons.jpg

We the media?: The Emergence of News into the Age of Computers

What is News??????
 

News is something happening new. It denotes the four direction (north,east,west and south) as it reports the recent previously unknown information to the public. It is the report of new information, events or stories that is presented by different medium (print, broadcast, internet etc) and has a public interest in it. Timeliness, impact, proximity, controversy, prominence, war, religion, fashion, sports, business and oddity are some of the main features of News. 

Within the periphery of News, it bounds many more things from a story of an event that is picked up by the professional News correspondent and later broadcasted from various stations around. News has been one of the most prominent and powerful tool of the Media from the medieval age to this digitized century.

Its strength and value has surged tremendously that it has been the key element of our daily life. With the development of technology, the transmission of News also has been changed and been affected. Both the way of transmitting, gathering and the way of manufacturing the News has been changed since and now.

The changing structure, idea and concept of News has been the huge matter of interest to the public as the bond and the interlink with the human is getting stronger day to day that a huge public participation can be seen through.

The practices of Churnalism, Mobile Journalism, Citizen Journalism and Network Journalism are some of the features of public participation and their progressive involvement in making the News possible. Today everyone can report and is reporting from anywhere as the trend is increasing in a high pace. The notion of ‘Global village’ leads to the pervasive journalism that the News is everywhere omnipresent. We all are interconnected today with more common News around us from the deserts of Africa to the Mountains of Himalayas.

The concept of Vortextuality (Whannel, 2009: vol.6, No.1) has been created around us because of the globalization of the Media that creates a ‘vortex’ effect where a single title is centralized and numbers of media institutions just revolve around making the same story. The Iraq war, sudden death of Michael Jackson, 9/11, World Cup Football has been some of the major events of Vortextuality.

Reference:

Garry Whannel, (2009) ‘News, Celebrity and Vortextuality : A study of the media coverage of the Michael Jackson verdict’, UK: vol.6, No.1.
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_04/news24DM2104_468x382.jpg
http://www.garzattrading.pl/images/news.png
http://www.ushanka.us/blog/images/9.11.09.jpg

Information and the Organism: (Cybernetics, Cyborgs, Alife , AI)

Interaction between Human and Machines.

Today the trend has been changed; we the human are signified particularly not only by the systems of our body parts but by different means and the sense of thinking. Now, human becomes human because of his/her ability and the consciousness. Body parts doesn’t makes us human anymore nowadays because we have been interrelated with different phenomena (machines) and has created a cordial relationship between each others.

The feeling of being only ‘ME’ is senseless today because there is only ‘US’ that exists in our surroundings. We are so inter- related with each other these days that the metaphysical and physical attachments have made us the replication of Cyborgs. The innovative creation in science and technology has changed the perception to define the belief of our life.

The successful medical transplantation such as of heart, lungs kidney etc. , the patient of diabetes given the insulin pump or the human fitted with heart pacemaker are considered as the cyborg because of the interaction between human and machines. The concept of artificial life has been stated due to the evolution through the simulations using robots, computer networks, computer models and biochemistry. And the idea of who controls the body or the human system arises periodically at the moment.

Generally, ‘cybernetic organism’ is here used largely by the influence of artificial intelligence. It is more related to the control theory and the system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chance of success. The philosophical issues of the state of mind and its control mechanism have taken a core status in the development of mankind. The way of survival and the relation between blood and the machine has been taken a serious granted because of the question mark in the existence of human relationship.


References.
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Beyond New: Thinking about Media Change.

Beyond New: Thinking about Media Change.

Media has been one of the most integral part since the evolution of human civilization. Media as the medium to communicate the information and message from one to another has always been a primary force in the process of socialization of the human era. The role of Media in every social, political and economical aspect has undermined a huge influence and had accredited a super power in the development of mankind. Media always has been credited to be the ‘Master’ that controls our systems whatever it can be. As being the ‘Voice of Voiceless’ Media has been one of the most powerful tool since and is till today everywhere omnipresent.

Media has seen a drastic development during its formation from the beginning of cave paintings, drawn maps, stone scripting, ancient writings to the digitized computer technology of 21st century where the concept of ‘ Global Village’ is already scripted. Due to this rapid development in the form of Media, the two words ‘New Media’ and ‘Old Media’ has been created for its broad understanding. It has been hard for the scholars to determine the characteristics and place the different forms of Media within it.

 Newspapers, Television, Telephone, Radio etc that has been surviving since its invention and are even becoming stronger day to day, so are they really the old media?

OR

 Computer, Mobile Phones, Internet, Web 2.0 etc those created later, do they really mean the new media?


These questions always strike the mind of everyone because it’s tough to answer it with in a period of time. Regarding the concept of New Media it has been said that the latest developments in media technologies are termed as the ‘New Media’ but it is not always ideal to say because due to the rapid development in digital technology, the media that we used to say ‘New’ will be outdated and turns to ‘Old’ within no time. The growth in digital technology has been so fast and furious and will be more in upcoming days so I feel the ‘ New Media’ never exists permanently and we can define the Old Media in terms of its period of invention but not by its features. It is because Books has been one of the oldest form of Media but till today the power and strength of Books has never been decreased instead it’s production is in high. So, it is here to understand the sense and the way of evaluating the Media in terms of Old and New.

The concept and notion of New Media is totally bound up with the outcome of Internet and the World Wide Web. After the introduction of internet, there has certainly been a profound change in the Media formation and its processes. The ‘Newness’ given by the internet has been a matter of attraction and interest in the human civilization too which causes the formation of the term New Media. Perhaps there can only be a term to distinguish the old and new form of media i.e. the “interactive media”. It refers to the active participation of the user in it. Every New Media is controlled by the user. This distinguishes that in the new media such as mobile phones and computers the user can control its application and use it by their own understandings whereas in the old media like radio and TV, user cannot change its contents as it is already scripted in it.

Within this development of Media in our surroundings we have seen many changes around. The digitization has been as effective in its process as the concept of New Media has come out through it. The another Convergence has been a major changes in the Media industry which have been a topic to be discussed in the recent years. It is because the convergence leads to the extinction of other forms of Media that may results later the imbalance and a one to one monopoly of a particular media. The remediation strategies (Immediacy and Hypermediacy) have also been the major tools in the process of media changes and the establishment of New Media. Its application and its presentation have always make viewer and audience feel the great deal of understanding and has able to claim the attention as pure experience.

References. 
Hasan, Robert and Thomas, Julian. 2006. The New Media Theory Reader, Open University Press:Maidenhead.
http://mitocw.vocw.edu.vn/NR/rdonlyres/F598EB27-0ACB-43ED-8BC4-4B0AB633CE66/0/Course_CMS_image.jpg
http://richardwilsonauthor.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/radio-image.jpg
http://doctor2008.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/newmedia.jpg