Ohsnapz0rz's Weblog

ohsnapz0rz — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:36:04 +0000

(23) Slide 12/3

(22) Last Post

(21) Photos 11/27

(20) Footage 11/15

(19) Cayce Pollard in the Flesh 11/13

(18) Gitlin 11/1

(17) Media Shift 10/30

(16) Par-tic-i-pation is making us great. 10/24

(15) Wiki Wiki Wow 10/18

(14) Freewrite 10/18

(13) Wiki Wars 10/17

(12) Johnson and Hapland 10/9

(11) The Matinée 10/6

(10) Revision Plan 10/26

(9) Apples and the Fruits of Technology 10/1

(8) Happy Strange Days 9/24

(7) How To Live With Yourself 9/18

(6) Create! Destroy! Create! 9/17

(5) Catch 22 9/11

(4) Hello Friend. 9/6

(3) Fear of a Bot Planet 9/4

(2) VR Addiction = $$$$ 9/2

(1) T3h wILd 8/30

Steveo3256 Wikipedia

jchen927 Wikipedia

jonkruger Blog 16

stevo3256 Blog 15

kellyf89 media influence

balle718 Participation

ohsnapz0rz Hello Friend

jchen927 Virtual Reality

bassgirl243 blog 6

colons763 Blog 15

anna Todd Gitlin

degorel607 Thirteen

degorel607 Media Unlimited

Steveo3256 Final Slideshow

ohsnapz0rz — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:17:43 +0000

Collaboration:

http://digitalgoodlife.wikispaces.com/Convergence+Culture-Intro

Collective Intelligence:

http://digitalgoodlife.wikispaces.com/Spoiling+Survivor

Convergence Culture:

http://digitalgoodlife.wikispaces.com/Convergence+Culture-Intro

“Convergence does not occur through media appliances, however sophisticated they may become. Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others.“(Jenkins 3)

“the intelectual nurishment of reading is so deeply ingrained in our assumptions that its hard to contemplate a different viewpoint.”18

Slide

ohsnapz0rz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:24:47 +0000

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in America. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), obesity has been on a steady increase amogst kids ages 2-19. The harsh reality is that our kids are getting fatter. But what can we do about it? Kids always seem to find a way to do what they do. Continue eating unhealthy. Continue to not exercise. COntinue to sit around and play video games… But a new wave is proving that exercising and videogames can work together. Kids are going to play video games anyway. Why not make them workout at the same time? By using a media, such as video games that has already proven it’s hold over our children, and allowing them to get exercise at the same time video games are proving a viable solution to fight childhooh obesity.

Here it is! The prototypical “gamer”. The couch potatoe if you will. Traditional games, games that do not require movement, have been blamed for aiding in the growth of obese children. And to some end they have. For decades they have been they have been the only kind of games we have known. Only in recent years have concerns about the roles video games play in the lives of children and the problems they cause them come to life. Video games have become a large part in the lives of today’s children. Unforunatly, they have had some role in leading us to a society of lazy fat kids.

But wait! Now presenting the future of gaming. The Wii, Nintendo’s next generation console, makes kids get up and move to play. The motion sensing controllers require the player to move to perform desired actions. The Wii allows kids the oportunity to get up an become a part of the games. Games that would normally be played by pressing buttons such as golf or tennis are now played out by swinging the remote as if it were a golf club or tennis raquet. The benifits and impact are very real. The Mayo Clinic contests that games, such as the wii, that require movement help kids burn 3 times as more calories than traditional games.

Wii’s next step in helping kids get into shape is Wii Fit. This is the balance board with which many games can be played. Wii Fit can teach kids Yoga, the perfect push up, or just allow them to snowboard. Wii Fit will keep track of progress as well. After calculating your BMI (Body Mass Index), your records are kept in a portfolio of your progress. This kind of technology is adressing the concerns of critics about the captivation of children over video games.

Gamercize is also taking it’s stake in the matter. Gamersize marries both the old and new gaming by allowing traditional video games to be played while they exercise. The peripheral comes as a “stairmaster” or bike pedals. As long as the kids continue to exercise the control will work. But, as soon as they slow down or stop the controller cuts out. This allows kids to play ANY game and still remain healthy. Parents who are worried about their children playing video games as apposed to going outside can now take action and ease their fears. With Gamercize, kids can play their games and stay fit too!

XRKade is where exercising and gaming is headed. XRKade is a video gaming gym. Patrons can workout as they play Dance Dance Revolution, Rock climbing simulator, Tae Kwon Do simulator, Kyack simulator and much more. These gyms make it it fun to work out and are a reasonable outlet for exercise. The XRKade in Arizona vouches that the local high school football would exercise at the gaming gym when ever it was too hot outside for practice.

The future is bright for video games and their ability to fight obesity. This shows the versitility and the ability of video games to evolve with the times. Video Games and exercising is showing the world that the video game industry is not only listening to it’s critics but taking it a step further by adressing those problems. The gaming industry is cleaning up after it self and proving to the world that video games are not as evil as the may have first thought.

Last Post

ohsnapz0rz — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:32:00 +0000

My topic is simply obesity and the effects video games have in fighting it. All kids love video games. What better way to help them get fit? Thats the view the gaming industry is taking. A lot of great people have joined the debate. I was surprised to see organizations like the Mayo Clinic, American Psycologists and other influential people siding with games. The success stories are incredible too. I won’t give away too much but the views are changing on video games and all for the better.

Photos

ohsnapz0rz — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:21:19 +0000

I hope to have some photos that just speak for themselves like the kids jumping around playing Wii. It is such a great picture because not only does it show girls up and about playing Wii but it shows excitement for being up and playing Wii not even realizing the “workout” they may be getting. But the other photos I have pretty foreign objects or ideas. I mean who’s heard of XRKade? who’s heard of Gamercize? I think i’ll most likely just be explaining those straight out. My arguement for my paper is that critics are wrong about video games. They are too dangerous to a childs health. They can actually be very helpful towards it. I think the best example in my photos is the two contrasting pictures. The first one is of an overweight kid sitting in a chair playing traditional video games. the next one is of two girls jumping around playing Wii. This shows the evolution of video games and clearly showcases the differences in expenditure of energy between the old and new video games. I really hope that mypoint is made because I had trouble with my theisis and think that maybe the pictures will show that not only are critics, parents and scholars, being proven wrong but that the evolution of video games is very apparent and especially usefully in fighting childhood obesity.

ohsnapz0rz — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:54:31 +0000

“F:F:F is open there, and she flips back and forth between posts, getting a sense of what’s been going on. Not much, aside from ongoing analysis of #135, which is normal, and discussion of this Vatican story from Brazil. Maurice, interestingly, posts to point out that both the story and the alleged papel interest seem to issue from Brazil, and that there has apparently been no independent confirmation from elsewhere” (90).

Cayce is one that interacts directly with the footage. She uses the forum constantly. She is a user and contributor. In this quote, a possible rumor is running on the board. It only has one source from Brazil. However, others can jump in to the discussion to corroborate of dismantle the rumor. This is the kind of participation Cayce is involved in. This is very similar top the Survivor Sucks section on the wikispaces. Through “collective intelligence” and “bits of information” users can build up and hopefully arrive at the truth. This is a very similar connection between Gibsons description of interaction with this media and the wikis.

Cayce Pollard in the flesh.

ohsnapz0rz — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:54:59 +0000

My name is Cayce Pollard. I’m a 30 year old woman and I think I’m a pretty nice person; complicated in how I think and not someone to just skim the surface. I work as a free lancing consultant at an advertising agency to decide whether a logo or product design will work. My job takes me to a lot of places so I have traveled a lot. I’ve been to places such as Japan, Russia and France. I’m a pretty modest person, yet paranoid at times. I like to do Pilates during my free time. I’m really against designer names and labels and I don’t like material objects because I feel it’s what the inside that makes you happy, not what you can buy. I’m looking to lead a less stressful life and stability. Anyone or anything that can help me achieve that goal is welcome. Yes, I’m looking for patters to recognize. I’m also searching for my father that disappeared on September 11^th. It would also be nice to find the person that took the pictures on the footage.

Reference to Kelly’s blog post for additional information.

ohsnapz0rz — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:05:37 +0000

The obvious but hard-to-grasp truth is that living with the media is today one of the main things American and many other human beings do. (Gitlin 5)

What Gitlin is saying, is that the media has penetrated our lives and not only do we live with it but we unknowingly participate in it. This idea relates relatively well to my research topic. My research topic is on obesity and how video games can add to the fight against it. As Gitlin suggests, participating in the media is something we all do. This is comparable to kids participateing in video games. It’s bound to happen. So video game companies are now using this medium to penetrate and influence kids with out them knowing. People are unknowingly influenced by the media and kids can be unknowingly influenced by video games. Although it could be dangerous to be able to have this power of influence over children video games are influencing them for the better. They are begining to create game to help kids exercise and become healthy. Now if only medias influence on society could be this constructive.

ohsnapz0rz — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:06:19 +0000

As media constantly shifts from the old to new, society molds to it. I have been greatly effected by the wave of MP3 players and digital music devices to have spurred recently. I listen to a lot of music. Maintaining an abundance of CD’s on my person at all times with a CD player was quite a feat. Thankfully, the phenomenon of convergence culture has created a social change. Once it was no longer “hip” or “jive” to carry around CD players MP3 players became increasingly more affordable to myself and the majority of current users. Convenience is the major factor in this change. I can now store all 10,000 some odd tracks on my single MP3 player. I guess this also brings up piracy and illegal downloading. With the wave of MP3 players came the MP3 stealing. Sure burning CD’s was popular back in the days of compact disc players but the biggest boom, I think, was with digital players. It kind of makes sense too.

ohsnapz0rz — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:17:16 +0000

(16) Par-tic-i-pation is making us great. 10/24

(15) Wiki Wiki Wow 10/18

(14) Freewrite 10/18

(13) Wiki Wars 10/17

(12) Johnson and Hapland 10/9

(11) The Matinée 10/6

(10) Revision Plan 10/26

(9) Apples and the Fruits of Technology 10/1

(8) Happy Strange Days 9/24

(7) How To Live With Yourself 9/18

(6) Create! Destroy! Create! 9/17

(5) Catch 22 9/11

(4) Hello Friend. 9/6

(3) Fear of a Bot Planet 9/4

(2) VR Addiction = $$$$ 9/2

(1) T3h wILd 8/30

Steveo3256 Wikipedia

jchen927 Wikipedia

jonkruger Blog 16

stevo3256 Blog 15

kellyf89 media influence

balle718 Participation

ohsnapz0rz Hello Friend

jchen927 Virtual Reality

bassgirl243 blog 6

colons763 Blog 15

anna Todd Gitlin

degorel607 Thirteen

degorel607 Media Unlimited

1: “It’s nice to see something I’ve created or been apart of. My favorite part is definitely the editing process. I like to challenge other peoples ideas.” (Freewrite) I think creating and the sense of instant gratification is a big part of the internet. It takes no time at all to share work or thoughts on the web.

2: ” In the Hapland game, there are no rules. It’s not finding what you have to do it it was about thinking how you can make what you need to happen, happen.” This really applies to computers and the internet. It’s really a wild environment. Sure there’s some rules but you can always find your own way of doing this. Almost anything be posted on the web. With open source programing and html editing you can make almost anything happen. It’s just a matter of figuring out what you want to happen.

3: “My slide show isn’t about how horrible it is that children can’t live normal deserved childhoods. It’s about who’s to blame. Why don’t people step up? It’s insane to think that our future leaders are growing up like this.” People don’t really look towards the future anymore or to the past for that matter. I feel like a lot of people feel like it won’t effect them. They think they’ll die before the world gets really bad. You can kind of draw a connection between this social apathy and digital media. Some people are more concerned about celebrities than what we’ll be doing without gas in the coming decades.

4: “Childhood is a natural right. Those government officials, “protectors of the future”, need to just grow some balls and do their job themselves…Children deserve to have their childhood protected.”(How To Live With Yourself) I think the media and adults should be concerned about the future of the world. The future leaders. Yeah it’s getting repetitive now.

5: “I think people can find it in them to fear just about anything. Everyone’s a terrorist nowadays. People fear what they don’t understand and quite frankly, people don’t understand shit.” This is probably my biggest idea. People are afraid of a lot of things and I think the media tries to exploit it. Global waring. Apocalypse. Epidemics.