Research Blog 15

I enjoyed to online blogging portion of this class.  The Research Blog was very helpful in supporting my paper and helped show what you were looking for in an evaluation of my site.   I feel that the research blog should be talked about in class for each assignment and maybe even pick a few good ones to show the class what you are looking for.  In addition it would be helpful to emphasize to the class that if they write the research blogs completely and correctly that it will be easier to use them in the final paper, even copying some of the paragraphs from the research blog to the final essay if they fit.

The book in this course was not a pleasure to go through, however the reading blogs did help me understand the content a little easier.  Again i feel more time should be spent in class looking at these blogs and discussing them as a class.  This is very similar to what we did with he in class assignments.  Blogger was a decent service, but maybe there is a better blogging site that will let you split up the research and reading blogs easier,  or one that might be easier for you to track students posts.  This will help eliminate using class time to find out who did what on who's blog.

Works Cited

Jacobs, Melinda. Multiculturalism and Cultural Issues in Online Gaming Communities. Journal for Cultural Research; Oct2008, Vol. 12 Issue 4, p317-334. Web.

Kale, Sudhir H. Designing Culturally Compatible Internet Gaming Sites. UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal; 2006, Vol. 10 Issue 1, p41-50. Web.

LeagueCraft. Editor. Date and/or Version Number. Name of Sponsoring Institution. 2010 <http://leaguecraft.com/>. Web.

Miller, Corinne L. The Video Game Industry and Video Game Culture Dichotomy: Reconciling Gaming Culture Norms With the Anti-Circumvention Measures of the DMCA. Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal; Spring2008, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p453-481. Web.

O'Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: A User's Guide.  Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd, 2010. Print.

MISSING INFO- I could not find the information for the website Leaguecraft  but i e-mailed them to have it by the time my paper is due

Commented on.......

CJ's Blog   and    Roy's Blog

Reading Blog 10

Tourists - Young people, Families with disposable Income, Businessmen, RV'ers, game show winners

Vagabonds - Hurricane Katrina survivors, Homeless, Illegal immigrants,

I do believe that both Tourists and Vagabonds can exist in both first and third world.  This is because it does not require that you be wealthy or of high status to travel,  in third would countries you can still travel to other locations without the need for money, by your own will or want to experience these places it is dependent on the persons want to see the world.  Vagabonds are present in America as well, people who were displaced from their homes by hurricane Katrina, and people who live in debt or on a fixed budget would find it hard to travel at all.  O'Brien talks about this clearly stating "For the vast majority of people in the world, however, mobility is greatly limited and, when movement does become a necessity, it is usually due to terrible economic, natural or political circumstances that have generated refugee crises around the world." (O'Brien 338)

Responses

i commented on CJ's Blog  and Roy's Blog

Research Blog 13

Miller, Corinne L. "The Video Game Industry and Video Game Culture Dichotomy: Reconciling Gaming Culture Norms With the Anti-Circumvention Measures of the DMCA" Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, Spring2008, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p453-481, 29p


used academic search to find   


The parts of this article that i wanna use talks a lot about culture and online gaming.  Especially how gaming culture is partly crated by the gaming companies, and how they try to control and guide it while keeping it new, safe, and fun.  It also talks about the gamers side of the culture and how they react to new game rules and constraints.  It shows how games can share information (Including hints, cheats, strategies, secrets, etc.) on the game using the internet and how the gaming industry must account and control for this sharing of sometimes harmful information concerning their games. 

I commented on Eric's Blog  and Andrew's Blog

Reading Blog #8

The diffrence between Subcultures and countercultures  is that subcultures are not nessicarily trying to opposse another cultures beliefs and try to snuff it out of pop culture, where as a counterculture explicitly tries to do this.  Subcultures are just a meeting of people with similiar likes, that are not within the mainstream culture.

 The image above is representing Counterculture because it is trying to oppose something that is mainstream

This is an image of a subculture because it is a variant of skateboarding that enthusiasts partake in, but they are not trying to oppose or refute skateboarding in any way.

Research Blog #12

I think the site i am looking at from my research paper is genuinely a Subculture.  I say this because the game is not a widely known one, and it is nothing close to the Blockbusters like Halo or World of Warcraft.  This game is an extension of the DOTA subculture.  I say the DOTA genre is a sub culture because it was not originally created as a game type by any corporation, in fact it was created by a person playing with the Warcraft III map creator, and its popularity was then fueled by player of Warcraft III, once he uploaded it online.  This site is for the stand-alone game League of Legends,  which is a DOTA  and actually was created by the guy who first made the map in Warcraft III.  This game is also free-to-play so anyone can join in and play if they like it.  Furthermore my site is a fan site for this game, and is a place for player to share their gaming experiences and to hammer out new strategies for each one of the multiple characters you can choose within the game.

Commented on ...

Eric's Blog and Andrew's Blog

Reading Blog #7

The movie Bamboozled had many different aspects of forming and representing Identity. The one that caught my attention the most was of the relationship between the main character and his boss.  In the movie there are several references made by the boss (white male) on how he is blacker than the main character (Black male), and that the main character acts like a white guy.  The boss backs his claims with examples of him growing up in the hood, the way talks and walks, and even references several pictures on his wall of popular African male figures that the media has glorified (and has identified the race as).  He tries to fill the African stereotype's shoes as a white male.  In contrast he also attacks the main characters identity by calling him out on acting like a white guy.  He makes these claims again using a stereotypes of a white male being politically correct, trying to break away from the stereotype by proposing a normal black family TV show,  or by his up-tightness about racial slurs and actions.  It is interesting to see how Spike Lee saw the media's version of the black male and the white male, and then reversed the roles of the stereotypes to people who would not normally fit them.

Research Blog #9

The site Leaguecraft.com  does not pressure anyone to join them and does not have many postings to entice or lure people into wanting to join.  The ability to post comments and strategy guide about the different aspects of the game is what a membership to this site is needed for.  It is not only if you want to post your own thoughts, but if you have questions about the game or about a certain persons posting you will need to be a member of this site.  Otherwise the site's advertisements are the only thing standing out that are trying to get you to join their site, even when not affiliated with Leaguecraft.  The administrators of this site seem to not interact with it's members though the discussion board too often,  however when they do they seem very polite and helpful to any member.  I enjoy the fact that i do not have to sign up to this site to read the content of it. I do not care to post or write anything on this site so i prefer not to be a member, and they allow me to do so with ease.

Reading Blog #6

I feel that most of the education i have received has been just the facts and information i need to know to do the job,  but not so much in preparing my for what the real workforce environment might be like.  I feel most classes are like this, where the teacher is in front and is the leader of the class and has everything laid out for you to do assignments.  The real world for most people will not be like this, there are many jobs in which you will need to make you own assumptions of how to do the job and it may never be laid out nice and easy for you to complete.  However, the classroom environment does teach the fact of respecting the person of authority and how to interact with them politely and professionally.  Having scheduled time for students to have classes should help students with time management and being on time to their job, but I feel in most cases there is very little consequences to being late or not showing up at all for a class, so this defeats the structure of good attendance.

I commented on Cory Vail's blog  http://generalewok.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-blog-5-labeled.html?zx=d4eb5d0da49ea7e5

Research Blog 8

This website www.LeagueCraft.com  has changed since the last time i had visited, interestingly enough the site has added more advertisements to its page, as well as made the interface different.  These advertisements are mainly for insurance companies like Allstate and StateFarm, but there are also a lot more advertisements for new Free-2-Play games.  The website itself does not seem to be corporate run and is more of a fan maintained site, as there are no products to buy or links to other corporate sites, or any means of spending money at this site.  I think the advertisement for the other Free-2-Play games are used to entice gamers to keep playing these F2P games and visiting their fan sites which have the ads for insurance and other types of products.  This setup is a little more busy due to theses ads, and i think there is too much going on on the screen now that users might get annoyed.

Apple Logo - Represented by an sillouette of a real object,an apple.  This logo is mainly seen on computer hardware/software.  I see it on PC computers and laptops, on phones, on MP3 Players, on and in software packages, and even sometimes on shirts.  I believe these logos are placed on computers and music devices , as these are the companies main choice of buissness, and when you see someone with one of these products people will recognize this logo with that stylish product.  The logo has not become to fashionable, as most people recognize the device (IPOD, IPAD, IPhone)  way before they see the logo on the device.

Firefox Logo -  This logo looks like a fox wrapped around the globe. The logo represents how firefox spans the globe.  I see this logo on the web browser itself, at computer conventions, and even on t-shirts. This logo is not seen much outside of internet browser related items and is pretty specific to computer community.

Adidas Logo – This logo is more abstract in form.  This logo accually includes the name “Adidas” as well.  This logo I can see in many different places, I see it on shoes, shirts, keychains, track pants, car decals, and at sporting events.  This logo is very prominent in sporting activities and events, and is an identifier for people to show that they are athletic.  It has become fashionable in the sporting community and the creators try to keep it heavly ingrained within sporting goods and events.

Research Blog #7

www.LeagueCraft.com seems to be run mostly by the users who are member to the site.  A good portion of the site is member submitted ideas and strategies.  The administraitors of the site seem to only provide news on new champion additions, game changes, and free champion rotation updates.  That and setting up the intial stucture of the site.  There is even a place in the site for customer made skins to be uploaded and shared amongst the community.  These skins seem to be unregulated for the most part, as some of them could be considered copyright infringement (Creating skins to make champions look like World of Warcraft characters, or Star Wars characters).  The forums seem to be loosely monitored too.  I have seen the use of some minor profanities such as "ass" and "bitch".  So language rules are not too strict.  I am not sure on how i could be banned from the site, nor have i seen/heard of anyone getting banned form this site.  I feel that this site is mainly run by it's members with very minimal administrator interruption, so i would say that the power belongs to the users on the content of the site.

Reading Blog #4 Member Response

I commented on Cory's blog  http://generalewok.blogspot.com/2010/09/consumer-in-me.html

Research Blog VI

Upon visiting the website www.leaugecraft.com  the initial feel of the site represents a knowledge base or information source.  The front page of the site really broadcasts this by having links to other parts of the site that contain the different type of information about the game.  These links include, recent patch information,  playable champions on rotation, game news links, masteries builder ( in game talents), recent skins, and 2 sections for recent guides.  Most of these topics on the front page have the most recent information pertaining to this topic just below the title of the topic.  The picture in the upper left corner is one of a armored hand pointing to the word Leaguecraft, with a black cauldron in the background containing a red mist.  The League Of Legend Logo is seen floating in the cauldron.  I think this gives us the image that this site is a melting pot of information from many different users about this game.

This page uses a lot of symbols and images right from the League Of Legends game itself.  This will defiantly catch the eye of players and makes the site feel authentic to people who know and play the game.  It is also litters with images of some of the most popular champions of the game.  The site does not have to much to grab the attention of people who stumble across the site or newcomers who have never heard of the game.  Most of the page displays information in a way that only players of the game would understand what it means and how it fits into the game.

Research Blog #5

This first thing i notice when visiting the site is the page title displayed by Mozilla, which reads "Leaguecraft :: Bite my glorious golden ass".  This phrase I immediately recognize as a parody of a quote from a show called Futurama, by a robot character named Bender.  I know from playing this game they are referencing a hero contained within it  known as Blitzcrank, a golden robot warrior.  The page's background it all a dark gray color (maybe signifying the darkness of battle and war) with bright yellow text (maybe signifying sunlight or brightness to the dark) drawing your attention to the recent news and changes made to the game.

For each topic choice they add an icon next to it.  For the most part each icon is an accual icon used within the game.  The "champions on rotation"  field has an image of a purple card with a question mark on it,  this is a good representation of the randomness of the champions they choose each week.  Any of the Guide or Forum fields are represented by the image of ancient looking books.  The "Masteries Builder" field has an image of a muscular male body in a fiery silhouette,  this is a good symbol of how the masteries make your character stronger.

Reading Blog Response

I commented on Jake's blog http://jakespopcultureblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-on-chapter-3-jake-burchell.html

and on  Andy's blog  http://apoland33.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-on-chapter-3.html

Blog on Chapter 3

Shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" over play the conservative view on the news.  They do it to a point of extremity that it just come off as ridiculous.  During the Bush administration, even though the general public had low approval ratings of George Bush, they would make comment about how he was right and how everything he did was good for America.  They would say these things with a smug look on their faces and would over use the "This is America, We do what we want" motto.  This in reality strengthens the "us" against the "Them" (Elite Media or conservative media) by showing how ridiculous their views could be.

Blizzard (Research Blog #4)

I have chosen the Blizzard community for my research project, and will be using their own website www.Blizzard.com .  The first thing I notice when i visit their site is the banner across the top of the page.  This banner has the Blizzard logo in the top left corner, then to the right of the logo are drop down link to almost every page within their website, including the community sites for each or the games they produce.  These community sites, to the best of my knowledge, is the main source of communication between gamers, and between gamers and Blizzard employees.  The next thing I notice is the colorful and vivid, animated images displayed across the center of the page, they cycle every few seconds also displaying news on each of the games they are working on.  The layout of the site is pretty dark, with varying shades of blue for the framing of each part of the website.  They also have links for Jobs they are hiring for, and one for a free trials to their most popular game, World of Warcraft.  The bottom right corner of the Homepage holds a logo/link for Battle.net.  Battle.Net is Blizzard's Online matchmaking gaming site, users log into Battle.Net to find and play with people all around the world.  Overall the layout is pretty simple, and each of their linked sites are easily accessible from the homepage.


I am going to narrow my scope down drastically and focus on a game type that became popular with Warcraft 3.  It was a custom map called DotA.  It stands for Defense of the Ancients,  since the map was created, several clones has popped up.  The original creator of the map ended up making his own DotA game called "League of Legends" (www.leagueoflegends.com).  However i will be using the fan site www.Leaguecraft.com for my research.

Dancing Sony Robots

Comments Made to Reading Blogs

JLong Pop Culture : Hegemony 3  http://jlongpop.blogspot.com/2010/08/hegemony-3.html

  and

Andrew Poland :  Hegemony #2  http://apoland33.blogspot.com/2010/08/hegemony-2.html

Reading Blog Homework for 8/31/2010 Hegemony

This picture represents Religion.  Religion is a great representation of hegemony, because it is a small, but powerful, group which can influence the masses.  Religion can even have great power over politics and governments, which in turn control the people who are ruled by them.  A great example of this is the USA, where we have never had a president who was not a christian.

 

This Picture represents the power of television.  The media companies that control and make the shows that people enjoy have influence over those who watch them.  This can be done by advertisements that air in between the shows , or by the ideals and mannerisms that they portray within the show itself.  They can induce trends, fads, and even political views on almost anything in today's society.

                                    

This image represents censorship.  Censorship is a way for small groups to control the masses.  The news media does this to project their views and opinions into the public by only feeding them the information that supports their cause.  Governments also use this tactic for political control.  The worst part is that the people being affected may never know that the information being fed to them is censored and may never know the facts about things they form opinions on.

Research Final Choice (Research)

I will be researching the Blizzard community for my paper.  I will use their site www.blizzard.com because they have their own community site for each of their games and have discussion boards/Forums for each.  This seems to be the website that most of the community uses to post ideas and keep up on current game events.

Sub Culture Research Choice (Research)

                   I decided to go with the sub culture of the gaming company Blizzard.  They are becoming very popular in today's culture with easily over 10 million followers/customers.  I am one of those people, and have been a huge fan of Blizzard for almost 15 years.  As a gaming company they only have 3 franchise titles they work with,  but each one has become intensely popular in today's culture.  This popularity is worldwide and is actually more popular in some countries than it's popularity in the USA.  A few have even dedicates TV channels to their games and hols huge gaming contests with cash prizes.

             Blizzard as a company if very considerate to the community they have created.  They offer all kinds of prizes, both in real life and in-game, for contests they hold for fan art, fan videos, and user made game maps.  They have also started an event they hold in Anaheim, California called Blizzcon.  Blizzcon is their annual event that celebrates the 3 game titles they are famous for, and also inform people of new things to come in there games.  Blizzcon has become very popular amongst the community ans ticket are usually sold out the day they become available.

      I expect to learn a little more about how this culture goes about in other countries and why it has become even more popular over there than it has here.  It would also be good to learn how much their games have changes the way games fit into today's society,  and how much they have affected some of the real world consumerism.

Sub Cultures (Research)

• Star Wars Community
• Trekkies
• Moders
• DotA Community
• Gleeks
• Blizzard Community (gaming company)
• Hookahville
• Furries
• Halo Community
• Twihards
• Deadheads
• DAG (Medieval War games with foam weapons)

Pop Culture Homework 2

This image represents Binary Opposition to me.  It shows an image of a woman (in our culture a sign of frailty, gentleness, and tenderness ) On the contrary she is shown as being tough, rugged and firm (A stern look on her face, Flexing her muscles, and wearing clothing that looks to be a work uniform).  This opposes the general idea of how women are perceived in today's society.

Pop Culture Homework

This is a picture that represents a mix of mass culture.  It is using characters from a popular 80's video game (Super Mario Brothers) that the video game culture can relate to (The Princesses from the game, and the one-up (or extra life) item), But is using it to make reference to a very controversial, however popular, vulgar pornographic clip that was an internet sensation. (Two girls, One Cup)