Army using videogames...

For a while now I have been hooked on first person shooters. I mean the thing I like about them is that there are fun to play with people online, test how fast your reaction time is, and are sometimes very realistic. However, I was unaware until I read these articles that shooters are been used by the army in order to help recruit people and “train them”. On the article “Military is just a game”, it talks about how the army including the CIA have spent millions on creating video games that help train the recruits and help recruit people. The game that the army has used a lot for the recruiting is America’s Army, which is a first person shooter. I mean to me this is a surprise since I never thought a game could be used to actually train for something in as dangerous as war. Yes it does give the player an opportunity to see how the terrain and battles are without actually been there. Yet, to me this is a bad way to let recruits find out how war really is. We don’t want them to think that war is just shoot the bad guy and game over. Although this wouldn’t really affect the adults, but more of the younger kids which another article talks about this. In the article US Military Recruits Children: "America's Army" Video Game Violates International Law by Michael B. Reagan it states that the army is manipulating the youth gamers by using video games and promoting violence. The author also says that using this to recruit children is immoral and wrong since this will make them want to join based on the game and not on their liking. I must say that I disagree with this author. I mean its just a game. I'm sorry, but get over it. Its not like every kid that plays this game would actually want to join the army. Most likely they are playing it because it is fun. Besides they cant even join the army until they are 18 so whats the big deal? This author need to take a chill pill and realize that it is just a video game! Anyways now that I got into the topic into of realism there was this website promoting a movie of people who pretend they are in Iraq. I think this is a great video since it show ordinary people how the war in Iraq is brutal and how soldier/citizens face danger every day. To conclude I think the army should keep on doing video games to help recruits. After all that thumb to thumb action might help them someday into the real world combat.

From Gold diggers to glitching

When I think of MMORPG’s, I think of the quests, characters , and adventures one has on these types of games. However, after reading some of the articles for this week it changed my perspective on how I view this games. For example In the article "'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games," by Richard Heeks , it talks about how people use games such as World of Worldcraft and other MMORPG’s to make profits. At first when I read this I was not only surprised but also amazed on how people can even make such profit off selling “game money” and other items in the game. For me this takes the fun out in even playing that game. I mean why would you want to play a game and actually waste your hard earned money on 5 million gold or that amazing lightning blade that is so rare. This only proves to me that some gamers out there are so desperate to get the best armor or have the richest character that they are willing to fund “Gold Farming” people to continue promoting cheating. Yes, whether some of you may disagree, I believe this just increases more gamers to be more cheaters. Although Gold Farming can be seen as a positive since in a way its helping underclass people make a little money, its still does not make it ok for them to ruin fun of the game. I mean think of it this way; we have gamers that actually go through each quest and go defeat monsters or what not and earn their gold or levels the fair way. Then we have the other type of gamers who just don’t bother to go through the quests and buy their way into the game in order to advance. To me this is just another way of using outside sources to cheat in a game. Speaking of cheating, there was another article that talked about a different form of cheating: Glitching. In the article Cheaters: A Special Report by Gamer Informer Staff, it states how in games such as COD4 glitching is often used by gamers to win matches. I personally have experienced this playing call of duty 4. For example while playing a map online, some of the other gamers where off the map killing other players. This not only helped them rank up, but they pissed off a lot of players that were actually playing fair. Although most systems have warnings stating that glitching will result in been banned of Xbox Live, most people that do glitch never end up been banned. AHHH! When will this ever get controlled!?..Anyways there was another article(Computer Game Modding, Intermediality and Participatory Culture by Olli Sotamaa) that actually approved gamers of using their own modds to add to the games( examples of this are counter strike). I mean this is ironic since modds often create a better chance for the creator to cheat on his on mod. However, Most of these type of players state that this is not their intention. That they only want to create new and creative maps to their favorite games. I mean I up totally up for the mod since it adds variety to the game. The only thing that I would ask is if they don’t use it to cheat in anyway. To conclude, I find that some gamers would do anything to win or be better in a game. Whether it be from purchasing from Gold Farming people or glitching your way into a game, we must realize that people who do this in the virtual life could possibly do this in real life. Which raised the question, Should we be concerned how cheating in games could affect gamers especially young ones, in real life? I believe the only way to answer this is to monitor this more closely and hopefully spread the word around to help stop cheating in video games.

Games having civics..week 6

For some of this weeks reading, I was somewhat confused on what some of the articles said. However there were two that stood out and were pretty much easy to understand. For example in the article “Young Adults and Virtual Public Spheres: Building a New Political Culture”, by Alan Rycroft, it basically stated that most of the “younger generation” use the internet to get their daily source of news and get involved with other stuff. I mean for me it is not a surprise that most of the people are using the internet to get the news. I mean online you can pretty much do anything. One can posts comments on other people’s ideas(such as blogger). Also thousands and thousands of news articles can be found in just seconds. Its no wonder that people are switching to online instead of watching Komo 4 news. I mean now that I think about it, its no wonder many of the top news companies are switching to online(Such as the Seattle P.I) because of the new trend that is happening. With this in mind younger people(such as myself) have better chance to connect with the rest of the world with using only one click of the mouse. The other article that kind of made sense to me was The Civic Potential of Video Games. In this article it had a lot of neat statistical information about teens that play video games having “parallel aspects to civic life” while another acknowledged that “parents can increase their children’s exposure to civic gaming experiences by first learning more about what constitutes civic gaming experiences, which games include these experiences, and which contain explicit civic content.” It also mentions how instructors can make their classes more intriguing by including video games. For this statement I am 100% up for it since it will actually make students want to sit and learn if they have something to actually explore. For example the game Bioshock would be a perfect game to be in an English class because of its great story and can relate on how students can create their own creative stories. As I read more into the article I noticed how the mention games like halo actually help gamers help out other gamers. This is interesting to me since I always thought halo was more on the competitive side than on the cooperative. Regardless of this, This article helped me see how video games can help shape the minds of youth by helping them perform civic duties. Its is fascinating to see how much video games as well as the internet have helped structure the minds of the “New generation” by helping them connect and open up their minds to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, I wait on what new things come out in the future to further revolutionize our way of living and communicating.

Week 5 race

After reading all the articles, it all came clear that all of them had one thing in common..and that is that they are against stereotyping against other races(obviously). For example in “Why I Didn't buy GTA: Chinatown Wars by Jaime Kuroiwa“, it talks about how video games as well as movies have identical stereotypes for each race. “Race and Video Games’ is pretty much the same thing except the stereotypes are different depending on what game you play. In the article Opinion: Resident Evil 5- How Does This Make You Feel,” by Tom Cross writes about how a game can cross the line on what its trying to show. As I thought about each article, I noticed something in particular about GTA. Almost in every GTA game I have played, the main character has been a minority(for the most part). Taking this into factor I wonder to myself why would they put a minority as the protagonist? Well for one, most of the races that get associated with trouble are usually Hispanic or Black(Ex gangs in Los Angeles Chicago etc). So Rockstar maybe took this into consideration and said “Well since most are in gangs and they are known for their violent ways so why not put them in like that?”. I mean this is wrong since it is stereotyping that Hispanics and Blacks are troublemakers and are linked to crime. With this I can clearly see why most people are against the GTA series. As with the game Resident evil 5..I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean yes the zombies are dark colored and are infected. Yet it makes sense why the game producers made it like that. I mean first of all it is in Africa..where the majority of people are dark skinned..what did the author want them to be? White? Second of all in the story its not so much that they are degrading the people..after all they are infected and cant function very well( they are zombies after all). I mean yes it’s a poor CONTINENT overall( Africa is not a country..cant tell you how many people get that mixed up) but you cant blame a game for having a story that is good and showing people that are actually native in Africa. So I don’t agree on the fact that there is stereotypes in the game. To conclude, it is obvious that many games such as GTA stereotype on races but unlike from movies where they show it for entertainment, in video games it is a way to attract and make a storyline more interesting. Lets face it…without stereotyping many games and movies would just not be as fun and appealing. I admit stereotypes in games are bad only if they are mean to abuse people. Yet if they are used for amusement purposes( it is used in comedy a lot), than to some extent it is okay. Yet like everything else it need some regulations in order for it not to go out of place or over the line( leading to racism and such).