Games & Escapism

                This article is a study about how digital games are a means of escapism for many people. It discusses how many people find solace in entering a virtual reality set completely apart from their own reality, where they are able to do as they please and spend much of their time.
                This entire study very much relates to the uses and gratifications theory of communication technology. With an active audience that is fully engaged in each game that they play, the player basically is able to control what he or she sees, hears, or even the emotions that they can experience. The article states, “Games are seen as being escapist because they make it so easy to lose track of time,

so easy to ignore other things that could be done or should be done instead.” As a gamer myself, I find this to be almost entirely true. Games are engaging to me personally because I am able to forget things that are troubling or stressful in my life. I am able to put those things aside and become immersed in an entirely different and sometimes ever-changing world far different from our own. I can create an avatar that is completely different from how I am in real life. I can say things I would not normally say, and do things I would not normally do if these things at all appealed to me at the time.
                Some games are great mood management as well, another gratification of game play. If a person cannot seem to gain control of their own lives, they are able to play a game such as the Sims or Second Life and enter a virtual reality, where they have almost complete control of “someone else’s world,” therefore possibly gaining the satisfaction they could not achieve in their own real lives.          
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are games that have high amounts of social immersion with the fact that a player is able to communicate and team up with other real life players, rather than computer generated characters. This allows for higher competitiveness and even makes game play more challenging. It makes each player try a little harder to win, which can often  involve strategizing and learning outside of the virtual world.

Calleja, G. (2010). Digital games & escapism. Games & Culture, 5(4), 335-353. Retrieved from http://journals.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Calleja_Gordon.pdf?issn=15554120&issue=v05i0004&article=335_dgae

Google To Do Away With Several More Of Their Failed Products & Projects

In this news article, it is stated that Google has recently decided to do away with several of their failed products in order to focus on their more popular and successful ones. The failed products include one of Google's larger projects, Google Wave: Google’s attempt to do away with “snail e-mail” and make messaging and email a more collaborative and instant phenomenon; Google Gears: a web app development tool; Google Friend Connect: allows developers to add social features on their sites; among others.
          Some of these products will be turned off completely in the near future, while some of the products will be implimented as “features” in other more successful Google products. This is to try to accommodate users who still enjoy and make use of these products regularly, but now it will be on a much smaller scale so that these old products are not as “demanding” for the folks at Google.
          Google and their hundreds of different programs and products are a great example of the theory of the Long Tail in communication technology because with Google and its many different products, we now have access to more diverse media options. This appeals to those interested in more obscure things. Before, to many, Google was just a search engine. Now they are making a name for themselves in thousands of ways and accomodating users like never before. Google is a company much like Apple, in that they develop their products by thinking outside of the box. They make products in many different areas and categories to appeal to just about everyone, whether you are a grandmother who only wants to check emails for pictures of the grandkids, or a major web developer hoping to design the next big craze in social media. Google is a company that follows the beaten path, but is never afraid to branch off into the forest alone, only to emerge with new and exciting information to share with everyone.
          I bet many of those reading this post did not know that this very site, Blogger.com, is a product of Google! Of course, it is one of their more successful products, so it more than likely will be around for a while. However, if you browse around the site, you are able to see some of Google’s other products that are implemented in hopes that more people will connect and share each of these products and make them even MORE popular amongst users. These features are constantly being changed and developed, so if you are interested in things such as email, social media, web development, and blogging, keep your eye on Google**!

**Google has even made their own picture saving format, WebP, which is said to rival the commonly used JPG, GIF, and PNG formats by being 28% smaller than PNG files, making web browsing much faster.



Smith, Catherine. (2011, November 22).Google to kill wave, gears, friend connect and more products in third round of 'spring cleaning'. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/google-kills-wave-gears-friend-connect_n_1108852.html?ref=technology

Tech Diary Day

These days, most of us cannot live without technology. It infiltrates almost every single aspect of our lives. Technology has its benefits, but often times with those benefits come many negative outcomes. However, society tends to overlook most of the negative aspects and remains transfixed with technology and the ways in which it makes life easier, more efficient, and more convenient.
I chronicled a day in my "tech life" and have realized that although I spend a good amount of time with technology throughout my day, it truly has made my life much easier and more exciting, especially with the newest edition to my tech family: the iPhone 4s. As far as the diffusion of innovation goes with Apple products for me, I am a bit on the Late Majority side. My first Apple product was the 3rd Generation iPod Touch and I'm just now hopping on the iPhone bandwagon this week. I was on the wait list for the iPhone and knew that it would be arriving to me soon, so I waited to document my tech day until I had the iPhone to hopefully make it a little more exciting.

Tech Diary:
-iPhone alarm woke me up in time for work; rolled over to shut it off; checked my email and text messages immediately afterward
-had a text from my cousin Alex - opened my messaging app and texted her back for a few minutes
-listened to the radio on my way to work; heard mainly commercials since I live about 5 minutes from my place of employment
-used the Foursquare app on my phone to check in to work
-used the time clock to clock in (4 different times throughout the day: clock in, break out, break in, clock out)
-used the telephone to page someone to the front of the store numerous times
-checked my iPhone for messages and emails numerous times throughout the day, especially at break time. facebook, twitter, etc.
-after work I used the camera on my phone to take a daily picture for my Project 365 (take a picture every day for a year)
-played a few Facebook games on my computer and used the chat feature to talk to a few friends before heading to my babysitting job
-back in the car with my iphone for music this time (longer car ride)
-the kids I babysit live way out on roads that wind and turn and don't have signs so I had to use my phone's GPS feature to make sure I was able to get there
-we watched some of their favorite shows in their DVR list as the kids played with their toys before bed time
-as I put the baby to sleep, I turned on the baby monitor in order to hear if he was crying at all (this thing is still one of the coolest inventions, to me)
-used my netbook in order to study some slides for my classes
-sent texts to my cousin and my boyfriend all throughout the night
-each of the parents called on the telephone at their house to check on the kids and I
-watched The Walking Dead on Netflix the rest of the night on my iPhone until the mother came home
-used my iPhone again for GPS and music in order to get home
-paid my credit card bill online on my computer before I went to sleep


I would say that I suffer from technophilia as I spend a lot of time with technology (even more so on my days off when television and LOTS of video games are added into my tech time) and I always try to stay up with the latest technology. With the recent advancements in modern technology it seems that the time technologies save us in the long run tends to make up for the time we spend with technology, which I believe is what keeps me coming back for more. Checking and sending emails is as easy as sending a text message, without the hassle of trying to get to a computer. If I need to find a GetGo on the way out of town to save that extra 50cents a gallon, I can ask Siri (the newest integrated iPhone help service) where the closest one is and she will give me a map and a navigation route, and sometimes even the price of gas at that particular station. As you can see, technophilia is within me because I like to see the positives that technologies provide.

Because I love the Siri feature of the newest iPhone model so much, here is a link to just some of the things she can do and answer; it’s truly astounding.

Music Review - Aqueous Transmission by Incubus

Music is a vital part of many of our lives and has been for centuries, not just in our own culture but in most every culture of the world. Music has a way of transforming us with its lyrics. When we hear the lyrics, they often times allow us to see our world in a different light, through someone else’s eyes, or possibly in a way we wish we had seen it all along. Other times the lyrics are just lyrics that plant themselves in our heads with a catchy tune. However, many people fail to notice that lyrics are not everything there is to a song, although they may have a function in it. If one truly listens to a song, their favorite song even, they will more than likely receive an amazing new perspective on how they actually hear this song and consider the technologies and instruments that make the song what it is.

One of my favorite songs came along after some experimentation with a Chinese stringed instrument known as a pipa which was lent to the lead guitarist of Incubus, Mike Einziger, by Steve Vai. The first thing I thought when I heard this piece for the first time was, "This is one of the most beautiful songs ever written." It captivated me with the first five notes of its continuous 17-note progression and continued to pull me in with its relaxing aura and peaceful sound. An instrument that sounds kind of like sitar, in this case, the plucked Chinese pipa, begins the song with an ostinato. The line ascends melodically, pauses, and then descends. The ostinato is consistent throughout the piece up until the beginning of the last minute. The strings enter with a sliding gesture known as a glissando, which reminds me of something one may hear in an Asian culture song. A breathy, nasal timbred wood flute enters with a freely flowing solo that utilizes a large range of the instrument. Bells begin to keep the rhythm, as in Native American dance. A basic scratch on turntables (a more modern way of mixing Western style into this seemingly Eastern styled song) usher in a drum beat that gives a slow simple rhythm, also reminiscent of the Native American traditional music. The beat is simple and heartbeat-like, which to me, serves a purpose of reminding the listener of their own heartbeat to add to the relaxation aspect of the piece. The flute solo is very lyrical and ornamental, telling a story about beautiful and natural things and emotions, while making birds fly freely behind my eyelids. The strings fade in with harmonics, creating an atmosphere that resembles the serenity of untouched nature.

The flute and strings drop out and a single male voice (lead singer Brandon Boyd) comes in over the ostinato and drum beat. His voice is very easy and soft. The first words are, "I'm floating down a river” and this phrase is repeated many more times throughout the 7 minutes and 47 seconds of the song. The first verse ends with "I marvel at the stars and feel my heart overflow." After "overflow" is sung, the strings come in, starting in unison and then gradually some of the strings glissando up to build dissonance. The dissonance creates an emotional rush that leads into the first chorus. The chorus consists of the phrase, "Further down the river" repeated four times. This phrase is also a story of its own, and fits perfectly with the rhythm, especially the way Brandon’s voice emulates the motion of a wave on the second and fourth repetitions.  In the second verse, Brandon sings "I'm in this boat alone," a simple call, which is followed by a short solo flute response, suggesting that the flute symbolizes the man. Later in this verse, Brandon refers back to the river, singing, "floating down a river named Emotion," suggesting that emotion, like a river, is winding, constantly in motion, and alternates between being predictable and unpredictable. The verse ends with, "Will I make it back to shore or drift into the unknown?" which is followed by a break in the ostinato where a cello enters with a pedal tone and we hear birds call (the ones from behind my eyelids!). The last verse begins with "I'm building an antenna," and sounds of indecipherable words, like a transmission, can be heard in the background amongst the natural atmospheric sounds created by the high string harmonics, the low string pedal tones, the ostinato, and the drum beat. The last phrase of the verse is, "Maybe we can meet again further down the river to see what we both discovered and revel in the view." After "revel in the view," plucked strings in octaves and unisons take over the ostinato, which produces an even stronger emotional rush that leads into the final chorus.

After the chorus, the phrase "I'm floating down a river" reappears, echoing the first line of the song. This phrase is repeated a number of times and eventually fades out as the strings overlap with increasingly more layers and then seamlessly replace the vocals. The string layers interact with one another like ripples and waves and bends in the river. On top of this rippling string texture, one flute comes in with a melody in the same simple and free-flowing style as the previous flute solos, then a second flute joins in with the same style, like the two are "meeting again further down the river." The two flutes play off of one another in a call-and-response form and add to the full texture of the strings, ostinato, drum, and bells. This full texture lasts briefly, and then the many “voices” gradually drop out. The string voices drop out one-by-one, revealing less and less complicated phrases. Eventually all of the strings drop out, and finally the ostinato drops out. We are left with the two flutes weaving in and out of each other over the drum beat and bells. Then the two flutes become one flute, the bells drop out, the drum beat stops, and the flute makes a last small gesture that ends with a relax in pitch as the sound of many frogs chirping fades in. The frog chirping lasts for a full minute and then fades out, leaving me with a smile on my face and the urge to hit “play” again.

Aqueous Transmission by Incubus, off of their album Morning View, can be heard here.

Testing Post

This blog is for Communications 240 and this is a test post!