I'm back! Sort of!

Hello all!  I know I haven't updated the blog in a while, and I request your forgiveness.  This blog was my posting ground for my New Media class, which ended earlier this year.  Today, I sat in school, reading about the corporate woes of America and decided that I should make a comeback.  Now, this blog will not merely focus on social media (though it may still appear).  And beware: if all goes as planned (as it usually does), then this blog will be updated with the sporadic nature of broken windshield wipers.  I will be back...

Third Avenue Chocolate Shoppe Business Plan Project

Note- this was an assignment for class.

Approximately 6 months prior, the Third Avenue Chocolate Shoppe requested my assistance in designing a plan to create a social media presence for their business.  My plan involved Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Foursquare.  

Here are their current rankings on these social media sites: 

• 30 Yelp reviews
• 20 Likes on Facebook
• 0 Twitter followers, 0 Twitter favorites, 0 Re-Tweets
• 60 Foursquare check-ins.  

The Third Avenue Chocolate Shoppe gladly accepted my ideas and followed them perfectly in regards to Foursquare and Yelp, and far surpassed the goals that I had set.  However, their Facebook and Twitter efforts were not as strong as I had hoped.  Here is what I would do differently- they can still turn this around: 

1. UPDATE YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK!  The Facebook page is rarely updated, and there were virtually no changes made since I submitted my final plan.  
2. Change your cover photos and profile photos on Facebook- show what you are doing to everyone else!  
3. GET A TWITTER ACCOUNT ALREADY!  In my plan, I suggested that the company create a Twitter page- this would make your business so much more popular and recognized.  I really can't do much for your business if you don't listen to my suggestions.  

In summation, I have to say congratulations on your Yelp and Foursquare progress, but if you don't make any other changes, you are never going to have as much success as you could.  That is all.  

Chris and Ailsa Make a Collabo

Hey literate people; this is a collabo-blog coming from my friend Chris in Times New Roman...

...And my associate and good friend Ailsa Thiel in Comic Sans.  Our topic on which we will be conversing is a podcast assignment presented by our classmates, Jake and Evan.

...and we were also discussing what would happen if we became the same person

AILSA!  WE AGREED TO NEVER TALK ABOUT THAT!

You didn’t sign the contract.

WHAT CONTRACT?!

Forget about that, it’s a secret.

-______-

Don’t we have to blog about something?  

I suppose so.  Our class has been recording podcasts regarding books about social media (nonfiction or otherwise).  The most recent involves the book Monkey Wrench by P.J. Tracy.  Since Ailsa HAD to talk about the one involving video games, I will allow her to start.  

Thanks for putting me in the spotlight there. For those of you who weren’t present for the discussion, the book was a fiction novel basically about murders based on a video game. I wasn’t the one who read it, so that’s the best summary you will get from me.

A mentally unstable “individual” (read the book or listen to the podcast) is inspired to kill people based on a video game from their husband’s company.  The book implicates video games as the reason for public shootings- that these people mistake the plots from these games for real life and think that they can do anything they want.

I didn’t get a vibe that the book necessarily blamed video games for the violence from the review, but I do know that a lot of people do blame video games.
Because the idea of violence in entertainment is an entirely new concept invented by the evil video games, and definitely not persistent in human nature in any way.

Not
At
All

I couldn’t sarcastically agree more.  Video games are the only reason that violence is present in our world today.  Nothing bad ever happened in the world before they were created.  Nothing.  

On a slightly less sarcastic note...

I don’t think that video games are the reason for our society’s woes.  There is, however, a little sound reasoning here.  Video games are definitely becoming more and more realistic.  And it is possible that a mentally unstable person could confuse a game with reality.  However, they aren’t going to cause a mentally sound individual to go and blow up a country simply because they are “too violent”.  

Which is the problem. You can’t ban every game just because a few people will react badly to it. The initial solution to this is a rating system, such as the ESRB. However, it often goes ignored; 8-year-olds play Call of Duty, 8 years earlier than the suggested age.  Hopefully the government won’t end up regulating these games like drugs and including warnings from the surgeon general- though they have already been listening into conversations online.  

It’s terrifying how realistic video games have become. Life-like graphics, physics, ballistics, gore and shallow dialogue (Oops, that still needs work.)

For example; Take Desert Bus. It’s disturbing how realistic this game is.

I can practically feel that sand grazing my face.

Desert Bus is a driving simulator. According to Wikipedia; “The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph. The feat requires 8 hours of continuous play to complete, since the game cannot be paused.”

It’s simply oozing reality.
To add to this edgy, raw experience, the trip include an extremely minimal change in scenery. A few rocks and signs, no traffic, and a slowly darkening desert sky. The bus veers just slightly off to the side if you try to leave the game to play itself.  The bus will get stuck in the sand, get towed, and you’ll have to start all over again. (The stakes are high!)
The climax of this game is a shockingly realistic bug that gets squashed on the window approximately 5 hours in.

So why did I bring this up? I have no idea.  Let’s consult Wikipedia again.

“Penn Jillette commented in his radio show that the overly realistic nature of the game was in response to Janet Reno's comments in support of the moral panic about violent video games at the time”Desert Bus may actually be an awful example, because I think I’d go ballistic playing that game much sooner than Grand Theft Auto.

Does a video game being realistic threaten our perception of life?
I admit, sometimes, after watching a particularly realistic documentary on cheetah, I try to run down gazelle in the savannah.

Personally, I just spend the evening sitting on the couch devouring whatever innocent leftovers I find roaming around the refrigerator.  OH I FEEL LIKE SUCH A HEEL!

Middens, by John Clowder. The game gives you a moral choice; You can play through the game as a pacifist, not killing any enemies - or give into the bloodthirst of the protagonist’s talking gun. Also notable for the fact the game is trippier than Salvador Dali on drugs. It’s also one of my absolute favorites.

In all seriousness; the perceived threat is that the role-playing aspect of games, being able control the character and “live out” their situations, can affect someone who doesn’t have as strong as grip on reality. This becomes an argument on mental illness, which isn’t a topic I want to approach while still typing in Comic Sans. But I’ll summarize my point briefly: So why is the fear of someone with a mental illness becoming too engrossed in a video game and threatening the lives of others a video game issue, and not a human one?

This is where the podcast sums it up well: It’s easier to blame it on video games. It’s too difficult to talk about mental illness and treating it, so let’s blame Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed.
Just like we blamed rock music, and Dungeons and Dragons and film.

And forcing video games to be less violent, or banning them, is the worst solution.
I’d argue that it’s censorship, in the same way that banning books and changing words is censorship. As in; awful artistic censorship. And artists hate being censored.
While I do see that games try to sell violence (I was shocked when I found out Borderlands 2 had the option to turn the blood and gore off), games like LISA and Yume Nikki use controversial topics and disturbing imagery to make a point and to make the player feel uncomfortable - in the way the best artists do.
There’s a difference between making sure the game is reaching its intended audience/age group, and preventing everyone from any audience/age group from playing them how they’re meant to be experienced.

Bioshock 1 - if you haven’t played this….go do so right now! Go! Forget this article!

Even Video Games are self-aware, they’re made by people after all. Many games make use of the roleplaying aspect to make players feel responsibility for the events of the game.Bioshock gives players the choice to either save or kill Little Sisters; the result of a morbid experiment. Killing them awards the player with more materials, but in the end, will negatively affect the protagonist character. Videos featuring the crueler option on youtube tend to...garner a lot of upset reactions - so it’s clear that the choice affected many emotionally.

Off, by Mortis Ghost, is an even more extreme example but I won’t spoil it here. Instead I’ll mention that you will feel like a complete jerk by the end.

0_o

Well...I guess that just about sums it up.  *Note: THIS BLOG IS NOT RATED BY THE ESRB- DO NOT VIEW IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY OPINIONATED TEENAGERS*.  Thank you.  

Here is the podcast: Ellipses

You can find more of Ailsa’s thoughtful musings at her blog- www.ailsajet.blogspot.com.  Go follow her blog.  FOLLOW IT!

This message has been approved by Ailsa Thiel and her associates.