P2 Video Pod cast

P2 Context

Excessive playing of online game has caused many negative impacts upon the modern generation. Therefore, we have chosen “Game Addiction” as our topic for the vodcast since it is one of the main issues affecting the youths today. According to our research, game addiction often leads to lack of social interaction as well as engagement in outdoor and indoor activities. Online games have provided players virtual identities that allow them to escape from the cruel reality.  Thus, a sense of fantasy world is created where gamers are granted the unique powers and strength to gain recognition. The vodcast consists of several interviews showing how gaming culture affects the society and the differences between gamers and non gamers.  On the other hand, the interviews also show how gamers and non-gamers of different gender spend their time differently.  Towards the end, we can see the influence of game addiction consisting two sides effect. Gamers lose physical social interaction while playing games, but they are able to communicate with others through the virtual world.  The Internet has linked people from all over the world together in a virtual space, while online games have provides players an opportunity to know different people around the world.  Since online games are not likely to be eliminated, it is necessary for us to come up with a solution to cope with the negative effect of the gaming culture. 

Week 6: Project 2 Proposal

The no life gamer project will explore the phenomena of video gaming culture and how it is integrated to the lives of the new generation. The short film we try to create will ridicule and mimic the life of a gamer.

Thesis:
Video games is a form of entertainment that acts as a stress relieve or pass time for the children of the new digital age. Ever since online games (such as warcraft, starcraft, diablo) debuted to the scene of internet, the new trend spread like cross fire across the world as children of all ages slave away day after day to prove their superiority in mastering such games.Online games is a sense of augmented reality which allows its user to embed themselves to a world that even a average person can become a hero. To a certain level, online games provide what Maslow would call the self actualization stage in the hierarchy of human needs, which is the ultimate strive of every human being. Achieving the ultimate hierarchy of human need would undoubtedly leave the person with little to strive for, which could very well explain the unproductive behavior of most online gamers.Regular exercise have become a difficult task to incorporate within the urban culture as the demand for labor employment have decrease drastically over the years. The introduction of online games have further limit the exercise opportunity, and may very well become a major issue of health hazard for the future generation. The life of a game addict is not only unproductive, but also very unhealthy (whether it'd be social life or biological health).The impact of gaming have the potential to ruin lives of people, but only in the sense if one should become addicted to games. If properly balanced, online games can be a great form of stress relieve that acts as self fulfillment as well as venting of anger. Therefore it is important to understand the culture of gaming and prevent the potential hazard that could be caused.

Preliminary Research:
The relevant websites that we used are listed below.

The online game concerns:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/video_games/concerns/excess_play_videogames.cfm http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/futuredev.shtml http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62031991,00.htm
Health problems:
http://www.healthonnet.org/News/HSN/605801.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019174410.htm http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/05/nature.interest.ap/index.html
Online game impacts:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3570224.stm http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_gameaddiction.shtml
http://siliconvalleysleuth.co.uk/2006/12/online_games_an.html
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/18/news_6118921.html
http://zonaeuropa.com/20060304_1.htm
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=31536
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/21/tech/gamecore/main3189020.shtml?source=search_story
Survey:
www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/everquest/study1.pdf
Video:"Katie Couric's Notebook: Kids And Sports"
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3683084n

Treatment:
Our podcast will be split up into three parts. The first part is the introduction that will first show our group’s topic through narration. The narration will continue to introduce the topic, as different clips of video games will be shown with imbedded background music to demonstrate the ideas we’re trying to convey. The background music will mostly consist of the theme sounds from video games that can properly portray the points being made. The clips will stop in the scene of two people playing board game (outdoor/indoor). The volume of the music will decrease when the narrator or actors talk. The introduction part will take around one minute. After the narrator finished the introduction, the scene will move to a room that an addicted gamer playing video in front of the computer. He is always concentrating on his games and constantly ignores his girlfriend. His girlfriend is mad about him and they break up, his grades are getting worse, and essentially he has nothing left in his life. This scene will last around one minute. Then the camera will move to other places, e.g. basketball court, gym room, or library which people are having other activities but not video gaming. The narrator will give a conclusion and showing examples of other healthy activities. The video will lead to proper usage of games that could very well balance existing healthy activities. This may take less than one minute.

Week 5: My Team

Team Name: Game Addicts
Project: No Life Gamers
Group Members:
Chan Wai Kin (Film editor, Camera man)
Cheng Yat Sum Ianthe (Background research)
Cheong Reagan (Director, Coordinator, Narrator)
Lee Ka Ki Jeffrey (Podcast cast, Research)
Project Concept:
The video podcast will deal with the phenomena of video gaming and how it has affected our culture. Online games have taken over the leisure time of most children in the digital age, and have replaced conventional pass time such as board games, and sports. This phenomenon has lead to limitation of physical interactions and may very well become a health hazard for the future generations due to lack of exercise.

Week 4: What makes a good video podcast? A Review of My Fav.

Video podcasting is one of the areas which Web 2.0 is heading. This trend is growing faster and faster than we imagine. One of the exmaple must be, Youtube. From now on, you might find many different kinds of video you want on the web. It has comedy, news and storys. How does it attract audiences keep watching those podcasts everydays? There are many different perspectives of the quality of the video podcast. I would like to introduce one kind of video podcast which is magic video podcasting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScm-eZInBE

From the above video, it is not a great story of a people, it is not an important news of somewhere, it is not a popular comedy, it is just a short magic show. Why do i choose it? First of all, I really love magic which I actually don't know how to play. I think this kind of video podcast must have a silence background music. So that we can hear what the magician is playing on the show. The angle of the video is not really special but that's enough for me. It should be clear and close to the magician and the object he is playing with. The kind of magic video podcast is successful. Why is it successful? It is because when we finish to watch the video, the first time we probably don't know what's going on. And so, we will eventually to replay it again and again, untill we giveup the 'secret' of the magic.

This magic is very simple and the tool is easy to get. So I think most of the audiences are curiously to try it at home. The show actually bring us into it. We will pretend to be the magician and we believe that we can do it and we probably can't. The magic video also brings amny confusion to us that we believe the illusion on the first time we watch. Therefore, I think it is successful to bring me into it.

Week 3: Web 2.0 and Podcasting where is this heading?

Web 2.0 is a huge advancement of Web 1.0. “We began trying to tease out the principles that are demonstrated in one way or another by the success stories of web 1.0 and by the most interesting of the new applications.” (Tim O'Reilly, 2005) People are seeking more than we expect in this century. Web 1.0 was not satisfying to most of the internet users. So how about Web 2.0? What is the Web heading to after Web 2.0?

Web 1.0 is just a read only webpage which can not edit by visitors. For example, “Netscape vs. Google”, Google is the evolution of Netscape. Search engine is one of the features of Web 2.0. You can type the keywords in the search engine and the results will automatic show on the webpage. The other characteristic is the sharing of the information is commonly spread on Web 2.0. Web 2.0 provide a “visitors also can express their thinking on the web”. ‘Forum’ is the example of sharing, that you can see the article on the top and then many comments below the entry. The other features of Web 2.0 are listed below:
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick -->Google AdSense
Ofoto -->Flickr
Akamai -->BitTorrent
mp3.com -->Napster
Britannica Online -->Wikipedia
personal websites -->blogging
evite -->upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation -->search engine optimization
page views -->cost per click
screen scraping -->web services
publishing -->participation
content management systems-->wikis
directories (taxonomy) -->tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness -->syndication
Source, “http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html, 2005”

Web 2.0 is just at the beginning stage from now on. Many features are waiting to invent in the future. I believe that there will be an advance level of Web 2.0 later on, which will be more focus on the interaction between publisher and visitors. Web 2.0 and podcasting will head to a new stage to present the interacting idea to audience instead of just surfing or making comments. I believe that podcast is the technology that will replace typing on the computer. People will use podcast to communicate to others. This will help to improve the flexibility of internet use.

Week 2: Seeking a best

Blog is the trend what we express to public. There are lots of different kinds of blog on the internet. We always see the Podcasting blog like Youtube, personal blog like Xanga and so. But what are the characteristics between each of the different blogs? I am going to introduce a Music blog which is a best blog I have seen before.

Pitchfork is one of the best music blogs that provide the most updates music information. It is a blog about music news with specific comments for each entry. The blog is very organized with three main columns in the middle of the blog and a map on the left side of the webpage. On the top of the blog, it has nice banner with the reviews of the podcasting stuffs and the features of the blog. Pitchfork uses few very contrastable colors with orange, blue and grey to show that music is funny and relaxing. This is important, why? What makes us to browse more or stay longer on the internet? It is the design of the webpage and the attractive information.

The blog is not only talk about the newest music, it also discuss the old music. The most attractive is the ‘forkcasting’ which means podcasting. You can listen the mp3 they have online without download it which is important to save audiences’ time. Also, it has the top 50 albums and top 100 tracks to show that which one is good, which one is top hit recently. I believe you will not outdate if you keep visit this blog every week. Overall, this is a great blog and you will enjoy it.