The Likelihood of Violence in Real and Immersive Virtual Worlds

In a society loosely run by technology and media, the idea of a completely immersive virtual world is not that distant of an idea. USA Today stated,“ Ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games. That's 99% of boys and 94% of girls, with little difference in the percentages among various racial and ethnic groups and incomes. In fact, 7% of those surveyed said they didn't have a computer at home, but did have a game console, such as Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's Xbox or Nintendo's Wii.” Most households contain at least one form of a video game platform. Whether it is, a Wii, Playstation, XBox or even an IPhone the presence of a platform is found in most American homes. 

 Each device has a stereotypical game that goes along with it. When most think of Wiis, they correlate it with the idea of fitness and moms across America using it. When you think of IPhones you associate it with Flappy Bird and Candy Crush. All of these games seem less than harmful. If you were to ask a child/pre-teen their thoughts on these games, they would more than likely call it “sissy stuff” or something similar. When users begin playing in the big leagues, using platforms such as Playstation, Xbox etc, the games become more intensive and potentially more violent. The Entertainment Software Rating Board has created six categories for every game to fall beneath, yet youth that are not necessarily prepared for what they see in the game, continue to get their hands on copies of the games everyday. 

As stated earlier, technology is continuing to grow, the idea of an immersive virtual reality is closer than many think. With the arrival of this technology comes the arrival of a completely realistic violent world. We are currently unable to keep children away from games that are rated for an age older than them, how are we going to control the use of immersive virtual video games (IVET)? The creation of these games will only desensitize its users and negatively affect the children who use the product.

Research Paper

Convergence

I particularly found Convergence interacting because it focuses on quickly growing technology. A certain passage I found interesting was "They wake up together, work together, eat together and go to bed together even though they live miles apart and may have face-to-face contact only a few times month." This quote is in the context of long distance relationships. Convergence talks about how you are able to interact with people who may in fact live on the other side of the globe. Couples can communicate, parents can tuck their kids in and families can have their Sunday dinners together.

This semester I did a research project on long-distance relationships on college campuses. Throughout my study we learned that many couples felt tensions and strains in their relationships due to the distance. With growing technology and social media platforms communication across the country is not all futuristic. The rapid speed of communication with such things as FaceTime and SnapChat couples and families can see their special someones within seconds. Though this speed is a blessing it can also be very very dangerous. In particular, this can be dangerous for college students and teenagers.

Many students and teens do not realize the speed and or repercussions this can have. Sending a snapchat to a friend on the weekends could seem harmless but this can lead to a much bigger problem. Underage drinking if often found out due to social media. Within minutes pictures of drunk students at a party can be sent to an entire campus with just the click of a button. So though convergence and growing technology can be a blessing, I think it is safe to say that it is the often known "blessing and a curse."

Real World vs. Game World

My reaction to Exitenz is very similar to my reaction to the idea of having technology so advanced that humans can become completely emerged in a gaming world. Though many feel that this phenomenal technological step towards the future is fantastic I feel that it may become a huge problem for our society. As the gaming world becomes more real many users may start blending, without realizing, their real world and gamer world. 

The fine line between violence and repercussions will become more and more blurred. In games currently violence is all fake, you put the controller down and the game is over. As games and simulators become more popular people will have a better “real world” experience of violence because the games are so lifelike. Which I feel poses a problem. I don’t think that Americans are all of a sudden going to justify shooting someone but the more real the game becomes the greater the possibility for humans to have this blurred image between game and reality.  It has been studied that violence in video games has caused the people, mostly children, to be violent in the real world. Today’s controllers only allow users to be looking at a screen or through goggles. With the new immersive software, users are literally immersed into the game. 

Exitenz is a movie about a similar phenomenon happening, immersive video games are created. Throughout the movie it shows characters justifying violence by saying it is only game, some characters even kill other players in the game that are their family in real life.  At the end of the film the users come out of the game to discuss how it was. It is then revealed that 2 characters are actually the “bad guys” and they then kill the game maker and some of his workers. The very last line of the movie is a man sitting on the other side of the barrel of a gun, asking the “bad guys” if they were in fact still playing the game. I found this very impactful. By that man simply asking if they were still in the gamer world completely sums up my argument as to how and why the line of reality will be blurred with the continuous growth in technology for video games. 

Reaction to Week 9

I feel as though some interactive fiction/video games can be considered literature.  Most video games in today’s society involve violence and drugs and are rarely put into nice light. Obesity rates have soared over the past couple of years and a lot of blame has been put on the television, mainly video games. Violence and aggression has risen in children who play video games more than other, as well.  So the idea of video games being considered, “interactive fiction” is a bit of a stretch.  I do feel as though, Zork, one of this week’s readings could be categorized as a video game that involved interactive fiction.

 

As the player/reader starts, they are first tested in the department of patience. Trying to figure out how to successfully play the game is half the game. The user inputs commands for their character to do. Unlike many video games this one does not contain images or pictures to help the user follow, this is strictly reading is logical thinking, which unlike books, stimulates the brain in many ways.  There are different levels as you make your way through the game, different objects to pocket and many Easter eggs to be found.

 

I surprisingly enjoyed Zork, compared to other interactive fiction we have looked at in class. Though I was frustrated more than satisfied throughout the game, I feel as though it was an interesting story, with many different paths to be taken. It is nearly impossible to play the same game twice, which is an advantage over your ordinary book. If more video games were presented in a way that Zork is, I feel that video games wouldn’t be held in the light that they are. Overall, interactive fiction/video games can be resourceful if composed and used the right way.

A Day In The Life Of A UPJ Student

Every student that attends the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown understands the pain and suffering that occurs while standing in line waiting for Subway while Fran is working the middle, condiments, section of the counter.

It’s dinner time, I leave Blackington and head to the Student Union. Which means it is time to make the dreaded decision to eat either in the Cafeteria or in the Tuck shop. As I walk up the stairs my body immediately heads for the Tuck shop. As I walk in I am faced with a few more obstacles, one being, now that I have decided to eat here, what I am going to eat. To my right I see the Pizza Hut sign glowing, which might as well read Freshmen 15 across; I look further and see the Salsa Rico sign. Not a bad choice but I hate playing the game, how much Mexican can you eat in one week? As I continue to move forward I begin to see the line of all lines. I look to my right and contemplate ordering Grill 155, but decide that paying $10 for chicken tenders and fries is a little out of hand. Deciding not to order from Grill 155, I immediately and without even knowing so, I enter the Subway line.

As I subconsciously enter the line, I immediately look down at my watch, it is 5 o’clock on a Wednesday night, which basically means if I get my hoagies before I graduate I’ll be lucky. I’m the 9^th person waiting in line, Fran is working, I won’t be getting anywhere fast. As I stand there I wish I had brought my phone, just something to look at so I’m not standing awkwardly alone looking like the most miserable human on the planet. While I stand and wait I begin to take in the noises, smells and sounds happening around me. It quite apparent that the kid in front of me was at the gym prior to entering the Tuck, he has music blasting in his ears and smells awful. Then again, maybe he wasn't at the gym, I can only hope so. 

As I glance back at the child standing behind me, he has on your typical UPJ t-shirt, a lanyard around his neck and I smile on his face that says “Hi, I’m a freshmen, I have no idea how long this line is actually going to be.” Oh, the naïve bliss of being a freshmen.  We slowly begin to inch up the line.

Standing in any type of line alone at school is a suicide mission. You are bound to see anyone and everyone you know while you stand there awaiting your 12 inches of cheap lunch meat and cheese, it can become quite embarrassing.  As you peer around you spy the girl who threw up in the middle of the party last weekend, the kid who works at the gym and the boy you drunk texted over the weekend. The joys of going to a small school are endless.

With one person standing between me and counter, 20 minutes later, now becomes the time to start making some decisions. As I get to the front of the line, I immediately shout out my order. As I continue through, my sandwich gets put into the toaster which counts down from 10 seconds. I stand patiently waiting and waiting for what seems like an eternity. Finally my sandwich is put into the hands of Fran, the icon of UPJ’s Subway line. Who is Fran and how did she get here, are questions I have weekly.

"One line or two?"
Fran is asking how much dressing I want, option A. never enough or option B. my sandwich becomes a hoagie filled with soup.

Most days I shake my head as I grab my sandwich off her and continue my way out of the tuck after paying. Though the school's Subway system will never be flawless, I ask myself daily why I even have a meal plan, but doesn't everybody?

One of the perks of going to small school is that most people know each other and most of us go through certain UPJ "traditions" or "rituals". Whether it is spending the night at Blackington because you should have majored in Procrastination instead of Engineering, spending the day in Blackington because we are all to lazy to buy a printer of our own, hoping that we don't use all 1,000 sheets of paper the first month of school, waiting for years to receive any kind of food from the tuck or even laughing at the kids riding the Mountain Cat, when you know you did the same exact thing 3 years prior, that is what all unifies us. Going through common traditions is what makes us UPJ students, a campus and the student body. As freshmen we complained, as sophomores we complained, as juniors we complained and now, that we, the four senior authors of this essay, are seniors about to graduate in December and April, it is no longer annoying to us. These traditions and memories, are what have made us ready for the real world. 

Week Seven

I personally did not enjoy any of the readings this week. They all do technically fall under the category of Digital Humanities though. All of the readings, focusing solely on Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, involve a lot of noise and movement, which stimulates the reader in a way that plain text cannot.  The reason I want to focus on Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is because I found it to be the most difficult to read, which made it more interesting. Along with having background sound and flashing words, as the other stories/poems do, it also involved colors. Aesthetics is a huge part of the human brain and the way we perceive things. Children’s’ books involve pictures and colors because the brain favors those things, especially in a child. Plain text rarely involves colors which mean that it is automatically less appealing than something that does. Though, as I stated earlier, I did not really enjoy any of these digital readings, I do feel that future writing can be improved if they follow the footsteps of Young-Hae Chang , solely for the use of flashing colors.

 

The flashing colors were very distracting, which made focusing on the words a challenge, that some probably enjoy. In the future, if the colors weren’t so flashy and obnoxious, I think that they could be used to aesthetically please the reader during their experience. Overall, I found this week’s pieces to be very overwhelming and feel as though they pull away from the art of writing.

Google Map: How Do You Define A Home

How would you define a home? A place you live? Where your family is at? How about, where you feel at peace? Is it where you were born at? Where you spend over half of the year at? The definition changes person to person.  The spring of 2013 through the spring of 2014 was an exceptional 12 months of my life; I did more traveling and exploring than I ever had before. I saw new places and new countries that I had never known existed.  At the end of the year I began to question where I actually consider my home to be.  

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zcLdkJS1egTs.kjTdhVaesLN8

MEMES

ORIGINAL IMAGE,ORIGINAL TEXT

BORROWED IMAGE, BORROWED TEXT

BORROWED TEXT, NEW IMAGE

ORIGINAL IMAGE, BORROWED TEXT

e.e. Cummings 2.0

Many years ago e.e. Cummings wrote dozens of poems that would remain famous and popular for years to come. He incorporated a new design for poetry. He wrote some vertically, while not spelling words normal. He helped invent a new form of poetry. In Alison Clifford’s electronic literature “The Sweet Old Etcetera” she incorporated Cummings original poetry.

As the program starts the user to able to click on words and fallings leaves as the poem continues. It is very interactive and incorporates sounds along with the poetry. The author liked the idea of having the poetry turn into trees and different forms of nature. The poem is built from the soil up. As you continue to click a beautiful landscape appears made from Cummings words.
Cummings not being a traditional poet would probably like the poem if still alive today. He would have enjoyed the idea of reading his poetry through a new medium. One of his most famous pieces is “A leaf Falls”. In this piece he writes a leaf falls inside the word loneliness. “The Sweet Old Etcetera” shows this piece in an interactive way, which allows the user a new insight on how to read the poem.

 This poem shows the opportunity that electronic literature gives to users. You are still able to enjoy the classic poetry while making it more modern.  At the beginning of my Digital Humanities class I was a little skeptical about changing old art and making it modern. I have always enjoyed the idea of just reading poetry out of an old book, but I personally enjoyed this poem.

It was very ascetically pleasing. It allowed me to read, watch and listen to Cummings poetry which has never been available to a person before. I feel if all poetry was transferred to be “played” on a computer more students would not complain about reading poetry because this is a more interactive way to experience it.

Reaction to Week 4 Materials

I felt a personal connection with Week 4’s materials, especially Thursdays. Both Electronic Literature stories dealt with the thoughts and feelings most women deal with on a daily basis. Jackson’s “My body a Wunderkammer” allowed the user to click on different parts of the female body and the author spoke about a time in her life where she learned something she had never known.  It was interesting to see the author’s point of view on many topics that women have obviously thought about. The second article “Pieces of herself” by Davis was a personal favorite.

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

Throughout the “game” users were taken to different scenes and given the opportunity to select different thoughts and objects and then place it on the woman’s body off to the side. Each scene showed you the domestic life of women and how we are “suppose” to act. As I said I felt a personal connection with this story, most girls probably do. As you continued to place different objects on the body different corresponding noises continued to play in the background, quiet enough to be overlooked but loud enough to be irritating. This is the concept I found most interesting.

Every girl knows it and very few admit to it, but by the end of the day we are all exhausted. Not physically, not necessarily mentally, but most definitely emotionally.  Though we may not show it on our faces, though some of us do, we are NEVER just thinking about one thing, ever. Constant thoughts, worries and ideas are running through our brains during daily chores. When we are at class, we are not solely thinking about class. When we are cooking, we are not just thinking about cooking. Our minds are constantly streaming conversations, mistakes and regrets.  Throughout “Pieces of herself” the user hears these irritating noises in the background; I played this story as if those annoying noises are the annoying thoughts that women constantly have in the back of their minds. By the end of the game and by the end of our day, we have headaches and are usually annoyed by those “background noises”.  In conclusion, both of these stories held much deeper meaning for me because I am a woman. I feel that both authors managed to get the idea of a typical womens’ day across to the reader.

Reaction to Public Secrets

Public Secrets is a fantastic example of Electronic Literature.  Public Secrets was written by Sharon Daniel and Erik Loyer, they define public secrets as, “a secret kept in an unacknowledged but public agreement not to know what imprisonment really means to individuals and their communities.” They studied and interviewed female prisoners at Central California Women’s Faculty.

 

The story shows the brutality and lack of attention most individual’s needs. Because this is electronic literature it is not simply a story. As you enter the website you are able to choose your own path or prisoner to focus on. Once you select an interesting quote or woman you are taken to their story and have the option to read or have the female narrate her own story, which adds an interesting twist onto an already interesting approach to imprisonment. Throughout their stories the listener is able to hear the pain in their voice, which is not available to someone who solely reads the articles. Since you are able to hear the pain and regret in their voices, you then are able to connect more to the story. The authors did not take this approach to attempt to gain sympathy for these women but to simply gain understanding of the “public secrets” that take place at prisons. This is one of my favorite pieces so far in the course. I love the approach of adding real women’s voice to their tales. Just reading these stories probably would not have interested me as much as the electronic literature did. This leads me to wonder what type of story reading/listening future generations will be able to gain access to. The personalization of this article makes the entire piece. 

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

Right now society is going through a female imprisonment obsession partly due to the new hit Netflix series “Orange is the New Black”. I feel if this story gained more publicity it would be very popular in current culture.

What is Digital Humanities?

The term Digital Humanities cannot be easily defined. We can start by splitting up the two terms. Digital, can be easily defined as 0s and 1s. It is something that cannot be physically touched. We are currently living in a digital era; most people have a “smart phone” and use social media daily. It is the quickest way for people to communicate with one another. The term, humanities, is often defined by the branches it covers, which are: writing, communications, history, music and art. Now, you put those two words together and it is the fusion of technology with every branch of humanities. The creation of digital humanities is a powerful step in the right direction. Digital Humanities will now allow the sharing of emotions and feelings through technology. We can communicate quicker and share art, music and history to one another, all while sitting behind a computer.  We will be able to use digital media and technological tools to investigate and research the different areas in humanities. It opens huge doors for colleges and even offices.  Many think that by changing text and art into something digital we are destroying the original piece and that digital humanities is the end of humanities.  I feel that digital humanities will further our education in the field. Along with most other technological advancements many people are hesitant at first. Through the use of technology people will easily be able to express themselves and it may in fact help people who are shy to express themselves using technology as a medium. Art will be able to be shared and seen throughout the world without ever having to leave your home. History and writing will be able to be shared to the masses through many different websites. I feel that if people remain open minded, Digital Humanities will be a fantastic tool in the study and education of humanities.