rbm001's blog

After reading the article that says the internet is bad for us, I don’t agree with the guy but I agree more with Jane Mcgonical.  Many people are addicted to the internet but there are also a lot who aren’t.  I don’t necessarily think that the internet has made my life easier in any except for maybe schoolwork.  However, Facebook and Twitter are pretty big distractions while you’re on the internet for school so it’s not all good.  I think the internet makes most people more socialble through Facebook and other social networking sites.  Some people do get addicted to online games, I was once one of them but it’s not all bad.  You make some online friends that you have nothing in common with except for the game.  Once this game is over then you never talk to them anymore. Some quiet people actually become sociable from this and can benefit greatly.  The internet can be bad for gambling addiction.  Someone that can’t gamble because the casino is closed can come home and gamble their life away on the internet.

I went to the presentation about how pre-workout drinks have an effect on how well you workout.  The presentation was very good and there as an amazing amount of data that they collected.  The presenter tested 3 different liquids that they tried, water, red bull, and a standard pre-workout mix that you would buy at GNC or Complete Nutrition.  The pre-workout mix is graded out as the best and there was a sharp decline in the red bull when you took it.  All in all it was a good presentation and I felt like I learned alot in this presentation.

My idea for my 3rd paper is going to be solving world poverty.  The countries that have the most poverty are generally in Africa, Asia, and South America.  One thing that we can do as a first world country is to convince our government to give money to the poor of those countries.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be the government either.  It could be the billionaires of the country such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.  Another thing is giving food to the poor countries as well which some some corporations such as Red Cross and other non-profit groups do.  An encouraging thing is that poorer countries are starting to pull themselves out of poverty which needs to be done to help with world hunger and war among other issues.

First, we need to abolish the poverty in our own country.  This can be done by having our government create more jobs and new businesses starting up.  Shareholders and the public have brought up during our tough economical time that many top level managers are still making multi-millions of dollars while a majority of us are struggling to make enough money to support our families.  That is something that should be looked into if we are to abolish poverty in our country and others around the world.  There are, however, more urgent needs in the world than those of poverty, such as the many acts of violence that are taking place in the world.  A big thing that needs to change is terrorism and once that stops we can live in a much more peaceful world and start making money for the poorer people.

I recently played the game Alpha Protocol and I thought it was a great idea for a game but it was poorly executed.  The game is basically a espionage RPG with an emphasis on sneaking around, however, you can go in guns blazing.  The story starts off as a plane gets shot down over the Middle East and you must go out and find it and why it was shot down.  Sent with you is a PDA and you also have a safehouse in each location to buy weapons and armor.  Also, you can buy different attachments for your guns and upgrade bullets.  The gameplay is pretty decent but it can be glitchy and hard to get around the maps.  The sneaking system in the game is pretty spotty because it seems like the AI can never see you no matter what, however, sometimes they see you while their back is turned to you which is confusing.

The weapon system in the game is also terrible.  Aiming can be really difficult if you don’t lock on to your enemy and their is really no reason to have a different weapon other than a assault rifle because it is so overpowered.  There is the ability to take down an enemy as well but once again there really is no reason to use it when you can just shoot them.  The RPG element takes place when you have conversations with other characters.  Every conversation can change the game and every decision will have consequences later in the game.

All in all this game is decent but there is literally no replay value in this game because once time you beat it, it is over.  I did not feel the need to play again because it felt like I did everything on the first playthrough.  All in all, I would recommend i to people that like to sneak around in games but no one else.

I decided to buy a new game called Assassins Creed.  I’ve actually had this game for a few months but never really played it until now.  It is a fun game that you have to sneak around and kill people in.  You can also get a horse so you can ride around much faster and you can also listen to people’s conversations to get new information.  It is a fun game and the fact that it is in a series is really cool and I like to play different series.  You can get different weapons as you go along in the game which is really cool because you get them taken away at the beginning because you betray the empire.

I enjoy this game because of the stealth factor in it and because it has a good storyline.  You have to assassinate different people in the game and that is what keeps it going.

I thought chapters 5 and 6 in the book Reality is Broken were pertty good.  I especially liked chapter 6 when it talked about Halo.  I myself like to play Halo alot and may have counted for this 10 billion kills.  I also think Halo is an epic game because the music is so good.  Music can make any average game turn into a really good game.  Music can add so much depth to a game it’s unbelievable.  Try going through a dramatic scene with music that isn’t dramatic or no music at all.  It really dampens the game and makes it less enjoyable.

I also agree with Jane McGonigal that it is very beneficial that people are getting together to kill the covenent.  Players can collectively get together, and even though they don’t play with each other, they are on the same team.  It helps that Bungie markets killing the covenant because that also helps players feel like they are part of something much better.

My favorite game is currently NBA 2K12 and it has not made me any less social at all.  In fact, I usually play against a real life friend, and depending on the end result of the game, it can make me feel either really good or really mad.  These games against each other are often really heated and whoever loses is going to be mad because we want to win so bad. I usually have to go cool down after a game if I had lost to get my composure back.  Also, our controllers get thrown a lot because of this game and because we are normally so angry.  However, it is my favorite game because it gives you a great feeling when you win, and because you can create your own player and go through the NBA with him.  This is fun because you would never get to do this in real life and it is fun to live in an alternate reality NBA world.

Our guest speaker came in today and talked about how he does experiments with video games.  There were a couple examples that were pretty  cool and he explained them well.  One of them was for the game Bioshock and the participants had to either kill a little girl to make the game easier or let her live to make it harder.  I thought this was a very interesting experiment.  These experiments were very neat and I wouldn’t mind doing them myself.  Some of the results of the studies that he showed were surprising, however some of them were what I would expected.  I thought that he was a very good guest speaker.

I am doing my compare and contrast paper over addictive vs casual gaming and I found an article over why online gaming is so addictive.  This article was written by Kimberly Young and the title of it is Understanding Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment Issues for Adolescents.  One of the main ideas of this article is how gaming impacts the family life of those that around the addicted.  It also shows warning signs of being addicted and why the youth are now getting addicted to Massively Multiplayer Online games.

According to the article, approximately fifteen percent of all American youths are addicted to online gaming.  The most addicted tend to be younger youths who have emotional problems or low self worth according to the study.  The saddest part of the article is when a 28 year old South Korean man died from playing Starcraft for over 50 hours straight at a cafe.  Gamers tend to forego food, water, and other basic necessities just to play the game and that is because they are constantly being stimulated by the game itself.  An interesting part of the study was that gamers normally would build a strong relationship with other players in the game while neglecting those in the their family or other outside friends.

I thought this was a good article that really explained the addictions to online gaming.  I now know more about why gamers become addicted and how hard it is on their body.  I believe there is a fine line between playing a lot and getting addicted and some people clearly cross that.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&hid=106&sid=672e2ee2-e59a-4cc3-b305-d7730234c2db%40sessionmgr112

I interviewed my roommate for this interview and he doesn’t game too much unless it’s sports games.  He enjoys gaming because of the joy it brings when all of our friends come to our room and play NBA 2K12.  Needless to say, there is a lot of trash talking that goes on when we play.  There is no better feeling than when you beat your friend on a last second shot or just plain dominate him.  My roommate said that he enjoys playing video games way more than doing any school work.

We  both agree that gaming gives us a good break from our real life.  It is not near as stressful to play a game as it is to do homework or go to a job.