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.