Wild Card

In the past decade or so there has been a big movie by some game developers to have tried to combine television and video games. It sounds great, but also difficult. From what I have noticed it is much more difficult than you would think.

Look at Defiance. Defiance was both a tv show and an MMORPG " Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are a combination of role-playing video games and massively multiplayer online games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual world.

As in all RPGs, the player assumes the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and takes control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

The world of Defiance is a semi-post-apocalyptic earth where aliens have come to live with humans. It is very much a sci-fi future.

I myself found this to be very interesting and it drew me in to watch and play. I enjoyed it from the start. I had not seen a show take the sort of turns this one did but the acting was not always the best, and the plot fell a little flat towards the end of the first season. I did not really bother to keep up with the second season, but I did try the MMO. The MMO was interesting. It was set in a different city, but despite that, it was supposed to help influence the show just as the show would influence the game as time went on. It was a very interesting idea, The issue is it really was left at just that interesting. I feel this itself may have hurt the tv series.

Whether the television show was actually affected by the game or not there was the notion that it was. This would leave some gamers at least a little salty.Urban Dictionary: salty "Why would they be annoyed?" you may ask. The reason is that in most MMO's you play as different factions with different goals, so for example if you lost a major event that went on to affect the tv show, you might be angry that it was not your decision or goal that got placed within it. This also does not necessarily make for good writing for television. Allowing a game to affect your show means that you have to pick and choose what is going to happen in the show after the fact of what happens in-game instead of having a clear goal and story from the beginning.

Overall I think the idea of Defiance was interesting. The attempts to merge gaming and tv were not only available back in 2013 when Defiance came out but are becoming more prevalent today. WarGames is a new interactive tv show based on the film of the same name. however, it may end up just like Defiance and fade into nothingness. Although interactive tv may sound good, it does not necessarily make for good television.

Classmate Blog Critique

During class when I hear others talk about the work they have done over the past week on their blogs, there are always at least to people to me. Those people are Justice Seymour http://seymourjusticeagain.blogspot.com/ and  Forest Pierce http://fnpierce1989.blogspot.com/. Maybe it is because of their differing views and topics from the rest of the class, maybe I am just secretly longing to know more about Japanese film and the Leftovers, either way, they have two of my favorite blogs to read in class.

Some similarities between my blog and Pierce's own can be seen in the Predictions assignment. Here I talk about Ready Player One and VR http://joshturnersaudirectedstudytwo.blogspot.com/2018/04/predictions.html Pierce also discusses Ready Player One and VR http://fnpierce1989.blogspot.com/2018/04/predictions.html. We both discussed the various headsets as well as the Virtuix Omni treadmill like system some. Here pierce is very articulate and focuses in on some of the problems of VR saying,
 
"One flaw in the idea of virtual reality is, even though the visuals have improved tremendously; we cannot stay in the virtual world long. Actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg (who is also in Ready Player One) mentions in an interview with Stephen Colbert (at the 6:18 mark) that currently, people get sick while playing virtual reality games too long. The reason for this being, if you perceive movement but your body is stationary, the human brain believes it has been poisoned. In Ready Player One, the player uses a treadmill that keeps them in place, while allowing them to run around freely in the virtual world. Today, there are already companies who are developing treadmill systems very similar to the ones seen in Ready Player One. Virtuix Omni is one company that is at the forefront of this kind of technology; you can see a demonstration here and the promotional trailer for the product here.
            In short, the technology in Ready Player One is closer to science reality instead of science fiction. Indeed, much of the technology seen in the film is available today; just in an imperfect form. The question is, how long until this technology becomes standard like televisions and cell phones? Only time will tell."

Pierce also mentioned Sony's Playstation VR which I left out. Overall his writing was great and he discusses relevant topics that some others may not think of. It does help that we both have interest in things such as Japanese movies and Television.

I have always loved Seymour's writing as he has just the right amount of comedy in his criticism. His writing is always well done and he seems grammatically knowledgeable. When it comes to the Predictions, he too talked about VR and Ready Player One, but not without first discussing the future of television. My biggest issue with it is that he discussed current streaming services deals more than where it might be going. http://seymourjusticeagain.blogspot.com/2018/04/8-predictions.html

He then went on to discuss VR and AR and how all of this together could be the future of technology. He dis well overall I think the best thing he said was at the end though, "There have also been discussions about how hard it would be to tie a narrative to VR, but, by attempting to fuse all of these platforms, something pretty neat can be made that will change entertainment forever."

This shows how he recognizes how all this will change entertainment in the future.

Both Pierce and Seymour have a good idea of what is going on in the technology industries and where they are headed. I would keep up with them and consider their opinions in the future if you are looking for someone to work with and help predict news and joutrnalism in the industries.

Predictions

Predictions of VR

Virtual Reality is just getting off the ground. Even the best systems are still having resolution issues and need to have better tracking. I talked about this some in a previous article http://joshturnersaudirectedstudytwo.blogspot.com/2018/02/product-review.html which you should read if you have not. How virtual reality will exist as we go forwards though will change a lot.  Likely any kind of lighthouse base stations will go away, at worst we can expect something similar to that in Ready Player One. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One

"In the year 2044, the world has been gripped by an energy crisis from the depletion of fossil fuels and the consequences of global warming, and overpopulation, causing widespread social problems and economic stagnation. To escape the decline their world is facing, people turn to the OASIS, a virtual reality simulator accessible by players using visors and haptic technology such as gloves. It functions both as an MMORPG and as a virtual society, with its currency being the most stable in the real world. It was created by James Halliday who, when he died, had announced in his will to the public that he had left an Easter egg inside OASIS, and the first person to find it would inherit his entire fortune and the corporation. The story follows the adventures of Wade Watts, starting about five years after the announcement, when he discovers one of the three keys pointing to the treasure."

This is the most likely option for the future. Having movement tracking and tactile feedback. Right now we already have options for omnidirectional unlimited travel tracking. We see this in the Virtuix Omni http://www.virtuix.com/

Individual hand and finger tracking are already becoming a reality. This still isn't the best of virtual reality though.

Full dive virtual reality is the future. Full dive is when you are directly using brain waves to control the virtual experience as well as have the experience playing in your brain In this screen resolutions and the like would not be an issue. It's closer than you think as well https://appreal-vr.com/blog/full-dive-virtual-reality-how-it-works/ The technology could help with many advancements ins science and medical improvements. It would allow for someone who can't walk to use their thoughts to control bionic legs. This could allow the blind to see by directly inputting a camera feed into the brain. It could also allow for virtual experiences like those seen in Sword Art Online 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALCLCvNJ7iY

 Virtual reality is the future of gaming, television, meetings, and many other things. It will allow us "To go where no man has gone before" (Star Trek) and will allow us holodecks like experiences such as those found on Star Trek. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodeck It is the future of entertainment, and no matter where it goes, we as journalists and media consumers need to keep track of it.

Binge Watching

I love binge watching shows. I do it a lot. There are some great sites out there to help you binge watch better and some that make it harder. Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube are all amazing when it comes to binge-watching as they can not only auto-play episodes of shows, but they can also suggest new shows for you to watch. One of the biggest issues I have when watching sites like Netflix is when it asks me if I am still watching. 

One of the shows I consistently binge-watch when the seasons come out is Stranger Things. When both the first and the second seasons came out, I watched them in no more than two sittings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxyRG_tckY

According to the Guardian, these are the most binged shows

1. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
2. Fuller House
3. The Ranch
4. Marvel’s The Defenders
5. The Seven Deadly Sins
6. Trailer Park Boys
7. Santa Clarita Diet
8. F is for Family
9. Orange is the New Black
10. Stranger Things
11. Friends from College
12. Grace and Frankie
13. Wet Hot American Summer
14. Atypical

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15. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
16. House of Cards
17. Master of None
18. Luther
19. GLOW
20. Arrested Development
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/18/which-netflix-shows-are-being-binged-the-fastest 


I myself have binged Seven Deadly Sins 

and Stranger Things. I also love to binge Game of Thrones at home. One thing people forget is you can binge watch shows on disc. I personally watch Game of Thrones on BluRay. I will watch a large number of episodes at a time with my dad. It can be nice binging from BluRay as I don't have to worry about the internet or any problems associated with it. I can get very frustrated and annoyed when I have to deal with buffering or loading issues while binge-watching a show. It can even drive me away from a show or website for a while.

I binge a lot of different things though, and my definition of binging might not be exactly the same as everyone else. Most people think of it as watching a lot of episodes of the same show, I however sometimes binge a lot of the same genre. I do this with anime sometime. For example the other night I watched two episodes of The Ancient Magus' Bride, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCSUxwuqEzQ

Overlord,

and Citrus.

I also really enjoy binging on standup comedy. I love going through comedian after comedian, and learning which one I like and which ones I don't.
One thing is though, it isn't just tv and videos you can binge on. I can go on video game binges as well. One such game I have binged some recently, as well as many other of my friends, is Monster Hunter Worlds. The funny thing to me though is even though it is about the same. Gaming binges are more stigmatized. I find this a little odd as it takes more brain power and hand-eye coordination than videos. You would think it would be the other way around but it isn't. I binge watch a lot though, and I really enjoy it. If you haven't before, try binge-watching a show. Many from the list above are amazing and I would recommend.

Global Trends in Gaming

Over the past ten years, many different games have risen within the same genres. Soe genres growing in number more than others. The main two I have seen are MOBA's and Hero Shooters. Although both have been around for a long time, they have been growing most rapidly as of recently.

"Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS), is a subgenre of strategy video games that originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, in which a player controls a single character in a team who compete versus another team of players. The objective is to destroy the opposing team's main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computer-controlled units that march forward along set paths. Player characters typically have various abilities and advantages that improve over the course of a game and that contribute to a team's overall strategy. MOBA games are a fusion of action games, role-playing games and real-time strategy games, in which players usually do not construct either buildings or units.

The genre largely began with Aeon of Strife (AoS), a custom map for StarCraft where four players each controlling a single powerful unit and aided by weak computer-controlled units were put against a stronger computer. Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a map based on Aeon of Strife for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne, was one of the first major titles of its genre and the first MOBA for which sponsored tournaments have been held. It was followed by the two spiritual successors, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, and eventually a sequel, Dota 2, as well as numerous other games in the genre such as Heroes of the Storm and Smite. By the early 2010s, the genre had become a staple of the emerging eSports scene." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_online_battle_arena 

"Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person arena-based shooters, where players, split among two or more teams, select from pre-designed "hero" characters that each possess unique attributes, skills, weapons, and other activated abilities; players may gain abilities to customize the appearance of these characters, but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the game's balance. Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate the use of hero abilities during a match. Such games are inspired by multiplayer online battle arena games. A popular team-based shooter that is considered one of the first Hero Shooters is Team Fortress 2. Other examples of hero shooters include Overwatch, Gigantic, Paladins and Quake Champions. Hero Shooters are considered to have strong potential as eSports competitive titles." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooter_game#Hero_shooters

Although some people might be at a loss for why these genres have been growing, if you watch the eSports scene, it is very clear why they are. With how competitive professional and collegiate eSports are, and these being some of the main games being played, everyone wants a piece of the pie. You can see this in tournaments like Heroes of the Dorm and Overwatch League, which I previously mentioned in my article on Programming Trends http://joshturnersaudirectedstudytwo.blogspot.com/2018/01/programming-trends.html . You might wonder why these are popular, and part of it may be that they work really well for eSports, this is due to the high paced action that happens very often throughout the game. It makes you both want to keep playing and also makes viewers want to keep watching. https://www.redbull.com/int-en/genetically-engineered-how-mobas-invaded-esports  Although you might not be into eSports and gaming, this is very exciting to many gamers and is seen similarly to how a basketball or football game is seen by sports fans. I recommend having a look at eSports as we need to know about it as journalists and media curators.

Surveillance or Law Enforcement

In the modern day, surveillance is everywhere. You are being recorded at all times. Whether it is an actual surveillance camera or public onlookers, you are being watched and recorded by many people and places. Here at Southern Arkansas University, there are surveillance cameras everywhere. At Penny Arcade Expos, you are being recorded by media, attendees, companies, and so much more. You can't really get away from surveillance.

Interesting things have happened from such surveillance footage. Websites have sprung up from such. You can also find Youtube videos and more from surveillance and other customers at your favorite stores and restaurants. One such website is People of Walmart. 

People of Walmart shows off what should be embarrassing photos of people at Walmart. You can find everything from weird clothing, to vehicles, to pets, to whatever you can think of. The sad part of this is that although most of these pictures should be embarrassing, it seems the people in them were not embarrassed when they were in them.



Moving on to a different topic of surveillance, we need to watch our devices. Back in 2013, there were many issues with the NSA spying on civilians. A whole scandal came out of it after Edward Snowden leaked government secrets. This led to big issues between the customers and the companies who complied with the NSA. This also led to issues with certain products out on the market at the time. One such product that had issues due to this scandal was the Xbox One.

The Xbox One came packaged with the Kinect 2.0. The Kinect 2.0 had a large number of camera and sensors such as a depth sensor, IR sensor, tracking sensing, and could even read your heart rate. As you may understand not very many people liked the idea of this as the NSA scandal had just happened. What made it worse was that Xbox originally announced it as a necessary accessory which had to be plugged in and online at all times. People were worried about Microsoft gathering your information and recording everything you do through your Xbox. They did not want that to happen or for the government to get ahold of information on what you do.

Here in the US we have a right to privacy, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." So it makes sense that people would worry about such issues. The government should not be able to infringe upon your rights. 

I do recommend you do your best to make sure your home devices are not watching you. Covering webcams and turning off smart devices can help with this. Also, however, do not be too worried about this or feel like everything is watching you. You should not be paranoid about it all. Just be careful and intelligent, and remember you are always being watched.

Advertising analysis

When it comes to something like an advertising analysis, it can be hard for me to decide what to talk about. On one hand, I want to talk about things such as the new ways of advertising online, but on the other, I want to discuss things such as the failed advertising campaign of Microsoft's Xbox One. Due to such an issue, I will briefly discuss each. Both of these can be important as a media member.

First I would like to discuss ads. They are annoying. As Americans, as humans we hate ads, but we need them. Ads help make sites free to use. The best way then to have advertisements would be with the correct placement and ad-vironment. You don't want to be showing off denture ads on Crunchyroll, a popular anime streaming website. Most websites understand the placement when it comes down to things such as demographic, however, get things wrong in ad placement. If I am scrolling through news articles, I do not want an ad starting to play at the top of the article interrupting my experience. That kind of ad usually makes me want to switch news sites. Likewise, any kind of pop-up ad that might clutter up my phone screen drives me away. As a website you don't want that because more often than not you are not selling content you are selling ads. Thankfully companies are getting better at the placement of ads and how ads appear. Outstream Video ads are one such solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUiivGevsaQ 

Outstream allows advertisers to place ads within the content of a page but also for the video to know when someone is or is not watching and thus when to keep playing. It is a smart ad made to better engage with those interested and not waste the time of those ads could regularly drive away.

Second I want to discuss Microsoft's Xbox brand and the issues they have had. The main issue is that their advertising has not been strong enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfS5Rp2Lr9I

The Xbox One was mismanaged and mismarketed since the beginning. The issues started with the announcements, then went to ads, and coverage. This is important to note as Xbox just released the Xbox One X, previously known as Project Scorpio. Quite frankly the One X should have stayed Project Scorpio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7lT2eQrNbA

The ads for the One X are OK, but they are not enough to reach past the $100 higher price point over their main competitor Sony's PlayStation and before long both might be outshined by Nintendo's Switch. Xbox has not made a good enough argument for its price point, and it has not offered enough exclusives for people to care to switch over.

You may wonder why this matters when it comes to video and video streaming. The answer to that is that consoles are heavily used to watch many streaming services. I myself watch Hulu and Netflix on my PlayStation 4 Pro.

What should Xbox do to fix this? Well, first they need to drop the price point of the One X to around $350 undercutting PlayStation. After that they need to advertise the hell out of the Xbox One X and why it is better than competitors. They should also offer some free games and Xbox Live time for switching. Finally, they need to get exclusives to help push the brand forward.

Product Review

VR

Virtual Reality has been the talk of the internet ever since the Oculus Rift was announced on Kickstarter. It was one of the most funded Kisckstarters ever. The Kickstarter itself can be found here. 

Oculus has already had multiple iterations and multiple price points. It got large enough that Facebook bought them. Oculus has been exploring not only virtual reality for gaming but also for medical and teaching purposes. 

They aren't the only companies to get into this field, however. HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, and many other technology companies have started to try their hand at virtual reality. HTC has arguably been in the actual virtual reality field for longer than these other companies. The release of the HTC Vive was a huge thing. It has arguably been considered better than the Oculus Rift. 

Microsoft started off in augmented reality with the Microsoft Hololens.

Currently, they are getting into virtual reality, having designed a form of virtual reality headset with controllers. These are being made by companies like Acer, Dell, HP, and more. They are all labeled as Windows Mixed Reality headsets. "Mixed reality" however is not what these mostly do, although they may in the future. Mixed reality is between augmented reality and virtual reality. These are also some of the cheapest options for entering into virtual reality. 

Samsung has their Gear VR powered by Oculus and a Windows Mixed Reality Headset. They have been in the market but only through other companies, though I would expect to see them in the market on their own soon.

I chose to review the HP Mixed Reality headset. Part of this decision had to do with the price point and the other part had to so with the reviews on Amazon. It has overall been well received and some people have claimed the Windows headsets, which are virtually all the same except the Samsung one, are better in their opinion than the Oculus and the Vive.

Personally, I have really enjoyed my headset. The inside-out tracking works great, except for sometimes when you have your arms outside of sight of the headset. The resolution is good, and I don't really notice the screen door effect most of the time. WMR has some great apps and it has been a lot of fun. the controllers track well and control well. Most things are very intuitive and work well. If you are interested in VR I highly recommend it to you, especially if you are on a budget.

Programming Trends

Media and the consumption of media are changing. Over the past few years, a different competitive scene has arisen. This is the field of competitive eSports. eSports (Electronic Sports) encompasses competitive gaming, generally video games. As it has increased in popularity it has seen different avenues and windows by which it is broadcast. Some obvious sources are that of Twitch and Youtube but other traditional sportscasting channels have also work with eSports specifically ESPN. Reception of eSports has been interesting, to say the least. One ESPN announcer even threatened to quit because of it.  Despite the issue, however, eSports are growing and bringing revenue in for colleges and high schools.

Tespa is one organization that helps make this happen. The Texas Esports Association(Tespa) holds competitive tournaments for partnered games. The prizes are generally tuition money for the winning teams. Our own Gaming Guild here on campus is partnered with Tespa and is entered into some of this semesters competitions.

One of the games that are getting great coverage for its eSports scene is Overwatch.

This is both due to Tespa and the new Overwatch League.

Tespa currently has the Overwatch Collegiate Championship going on. This championship has been going since last Fall semester. The semi-finals and finals are going to be held in Tempe Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl. The matches will occur between UC Berkley, University of Toronto, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. This will happen on February 17th. The match will be streamed on Twitch and MLG, as well Tickets are currently for sale.

This is exciting for me as I am trying to get more eSports going on campus and this will be a big game to show and study. I think we can really learn from it and hopefully compete ourselves next year.  I think it could really help the college and students here. I also think it can help us set up for how to do our own eSports programming.

Along with this Overwatch League has become a big deal in the eSports community.

Overwatch League is like the NFL of Overwatch. Overwatch being a competitive objective-based team FPS by Blizzard.

Overwatch League currently has 12 teams spread throughout the US, UK, China, and Korea. They all have in-game skins which are designed by the Overwatch developers to look similar to the teams' logos and jerseys. These skins are purchasable by gamers and fans. The league can be followed on both their website and the Overwatch League app. You can also by merchandise from your favorite team and the league in general. So far it is squaring up to be a great contender in the eSports world for professional leagues and the norm for rules and setup.

Although there are many other eSports leagues, games, etc. that could be discussed I wanted to focus on this since it is current. I expect to see much more from eSports in the coming years and the current leagues and competitions will likely be shaping its programming and rules for the years to come.

Personal Viewing Habits

When it comes to watching television, I do not normally watch live television anymore. On occasion, I will watch something from Food Network when I am home during break, but for the most part, I watch my TV through online sources. This includes not only normal television shows but also Youtube channels.

Two TV channels I watch online, are SYFY and TNT/TBS







This is due to them playing some of my favorite TV shows that have current seasons running. on SYFY I watch The Magicians. The great fantasy drama always has me wanting more. On TNT I watch the Librarians.

Both of these channels use the same interesting subscription path for you to watch online. Instead of having their own subscription fee to watch them online you have to sign in using your cable/satellite TV subscription. I personally sign in using my families DirectTV account. When watching this I still have to watch commercials as you would with live television. Other than having to watch the commercials, I have little issue with the service. I understand, however, their reasoning for it.

I consume a lot of my media as well through Netflix, as I enjoy their originals and catalogs of older shows a lot. I have highly enjoyed shows like Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Stranger Things. I will easily binge-watch an entire show on a weekend or a day off. I finished almost all the aforementioned shows in a few days. Along with those, I will re-watch Older shows such as Futurama, which is currently being moved to another service. Netflix is also great for feeding my stand-up comedy craving I get every once in a while, as they have many comedy specials.

Hulu also helps when it comes to both current TV shows and catalogs of past episodes of shows. While there I currently watch shows like South Park. I don't have a lot of currently ongoing shows I am watching so I have not been using it as much.

I use Youtube a lot. There I will watch shows like Film Theory and Game Theory.

 I also like to watch different shows about philosophy and logic. Occasionally I will use it to look at game trailers and other such videos, I am not as big on Let's Plays, Markiplier Game Grumps and the like myself.

When it comes to gaming I get a large number of my games from HumbleBundle and Steam. Both of these websites have large libraries and great deals. I am currently subscribed to Humble Monthly which gets my multiple great games for just $12 a month. This allows me to have a good amount of high-quality AAA games to keep me occupied throughout the month.

Between all of these, I consume a lot of media. There are so many outlets out there that it isn't surprising. This helps with boredom that you can get over time.