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.