Semester in Review

Self-directed Learning / Personal Blog Posts

Personally, I loved the self directed learning aspect of this class. I loved being able to chose what I studied and follow my interests in whatever direction I chose. I often spent more time on these small "assignments" than I normally would simply because I enjoyed the topic I was learning about. I chose to focus mostly on Video Games and the issues surrounding openness. I also did some work on remix for the group project. Generally my method of research was just finding articles, starting with a Google Search and branching out from there to see what the internet thought about my chosen topics.

Blog Posts:

Book Review of All Your Base are Belong to Us

Some Reflections about Video Gaming

Categories of Remix

Machinima

The Horror of Transformation

Frankenstein and Remix

Reading:

All Your Base are Belong to Us

Gaming Can Do Good

(Related to Openness) Net Neutrality

Windows 8 and Openness

Gaming in the Real World

Gaming is Good for You?

Google + Posts

The above is by no means all the work I did, but it's a good sampling.

Collaboration

One of the most important things that I did for my group was give it a kick in the pants. When we had failed to agree on what to do by midterm, I started working. I figured that my group would either love what I was doing an jump on board or hate it and come up with something else. The second happened, which I was totally fine with. Here is what I came up with in the meantime:

Proposal

Video Mock Up

A Blog on my Successful Failed Coup

I also helped with prototyping, story boarding, coming up with the story line for our flash video. I also drew several pieces of concept art for Curtis' roommate to work from. I helped to present to the copyright office and I also contributed several sections to the blog.

I'll be honest, I wasn't all that helpful to the other groups. I offered my assistance to the Little Big Planet Group, but I never heard back from them and so I never moved forward with that. I also talked with Katie on several occasions to express my interest in her group's project, hoping to validate further what she was doing. I put out a call to my writer friends when the Novel group needed writers (though none responded) and a call to my artist friends when one of the groups was looking for some crowd sourced art for something (I don't remember what-the Novel group again maybe). But that's about it.

To the class in general-I think that I made good, relevant comments and asked useful questions.I also put together a post on Machinima and briefly described the topic for the class. Also, I was the class' Minecraft expert and a semi-expert on video games!

Other's Assistance 

Tara really generated some interest for me, mainly with the topics that she brought up on Google +. The Badges group has inspired me to continue my learning through the internet, perhaps even with badges. I was also really excited by what the Little Big Planet Group was doing.

Digital Literacy

Consume-I've become a much smarter consumer. I've learned that there are other sources out there than just CNN and Wikipedia. I've learned how to search blogs and use Twitter as a search engine. I even tried an RSS feed, but it wasn't pretty enough for me =) Basically I learned how to learn better and more effectively.

Create-I've become much more aware of my ability to contribute useful things to the internet world. Particularly with blogging. Before this class I saw blogging as so much shouting into the void. In some ways, it is. But it has also allowed me to have a voice in a way that I haven't before. I can express my ideas clearly and concisely (or not) without being interrupted or (initially) argued with, but I can still be informal. I intend to continue blogging after this class, though I will avoid the dreaded Mommy Blog.

Connect-This is the category that I still struggle with. I just plain have a hard time putting myself out there. I'm afraid of being shot down or laughed at. I'm still working up the courage to Tweet someone about something consequential. What if they answer and I have to engage in a conversation that I am not prepared for? But I'm moving forward. I'm maintaining my Twitter account and remaining linked to the issues that I see as important so that, when I get brave, I can join the conversation in a meaningful way.

All boiled down? Great class and I learned a lot!

I Feel Cool.

I guess this is kind of like my pre self-evaluation blog post. Less academic than my real one will be.

I'm feeling pretty cool right now. Why? I figured out how to embed a Prezi on a Google site. Granted, it wasn't all that hard to figure out. All I had to do was Google "How to embed a Prezi," and select the appropriate video. But, before this class, I didn't even know how to create a link on a blog, much less embed something. I don't remember learning it specifically, but I doubt that I even knew what "embed" meant, at least in the context of a website.

After doing this I realized that I really can teach myself almost anything I want by using the internet. Before this class I knew that it was theoretically possible for a person to teach themselves a professional skill via digital media, but now I can see that it is possible for me, Gwendolyn Hammer, to do it. Not only is it possible, but I've already taught myself some small things! I dove it without really realizing what I was doing.

So I'm setting a goal for myself: to continue my New Media related self-directed learning after the semester ends. This way I can learn things that would otherwise require me to do things like talk to people. Ew. So, I would like to:

1. Learn some coding! I plan on doing this through Minecraft, since that will be an interesting way to get started. I will use websites such as this one and videos such as this.

2. Learn how to get going on family history research! I've taken the advice to start with myself and record everything I know, but I'm so scared of doing something wrong that I haven't gone any further.

Who knows? Maybe I'll even keep up this blog =].

Final Questions

Objective

1.What is Machinima? (Question type 2)
a. A website related to Threadless.
b. Markus Persson's (coder for Minecraft) avatar on Twitter.
c. An issue related to Identity Tourism.
d. The use of video game engines to create movies.

Answer: Here and here.

2. How is copyright law different now than it was 20 years ago? (Question type 5)
a. It's not; the law basically covers the same things and addresses the same issues
b. If a material is on the internet (especially on Usenet) then it's in the public domain and you
can't be prosecuted for using it (Look here, number 3).
c. Copyright used to be enacted only on corporations, but today lawsuits are enacted against individuals more frequently.
d. Most of what is done on the internet is done under fair use (here again, but number 4)

Answer:

Remix on Prezi

What is the value of prototyping?
a. It allows you sound more professional
b. It allows you to get your ideas moving; it's like sloppy copy or a rough draft: rough edged ideas
c. It allows you to demonstrate an product or goal to an intended audience or buyer and make adjustments based on social feedback.
d. All of the above!

Related posts and sites:
A Failed Coup
RERO

Subjective

1. Although the internet allows us to access endless information, it does not mean that we can sit back and relax. We have to actively engage in the issues that are  important to us, and we have to go beyond the first few search results on Google.

Related Posts
He-Man
Update to He-Man
The Internet and Politics

2.The Internet has a way of democratizing everything, but there are always people who will fight for control. It is important to keep the internet as free and unrestricted as possible.

Related Links
Highbrow Lowbrow
Open Content
Can an Apple Addict be an Advocate for Openness?
(Look under Copyright/Fair Use)

How the Digital Age Helped Fascilitate My Thanksgiving.

My husband and I are in our first year of being married. Even though we live only one city away from both sets of parents, we decided to do holidays on our own this year. We want to establish ourselves as a separate, new family with our own traditions, and we felt that one way to do this was to spend the holidays away from our families. I think both my Mom and my mother-in-law were slightly disappointed, but they were both really good sports about it.

Last week was our first big holiday alone together: Thanksgiving. The week before last we made a list of things that we had to have or it wouldn't be Thanksgiving, and pretty much left it at that. I'm not the greatest at planning ahead for meals, and my husband and I both had big assignments and projects due right before the break, so we didn't think about shopping or gathering recipes until about Tuesday night. By then it was crunch time, as we wanted to brine the turkey for at least 12 hours before cooking it. In a panic, we called our mothers and asked them to email us recipes and methods. 

Now, we could have simply done a Google or Pinterest search for what we needed, but we wanted to have the specific recipes that we loved, so we started with asking the experts. Then, when we were unclear on what to do beyond our mothers' instructions, we turned to the internet. We did end up doing several Google searches to supplement the turkey advice that we got, as well as finding a sweet potato recipe.

On the day of, we both called our moms several times for tips and tricks and then again to report on the overall success of the endeavor (in case you're wondering, my stuffing came out slightly soggy and we didn't have any rolls because the turkey cooked an hour faster than anticipated, but otherwise we succeeded fully! )

I realize that emails, Google, and cellphones are no longer considered to be revolutionary technology and the ways that they helped us were relatively minor, but I am still grateful for them. If our first Thanksgiving had been as late as 15 years ago, all we would have been able to do short notice would be to call our moms on a land-line, making it much harder to have the Thanksgiving that we wanted.

I'm looking forward to the way that the Digital Age will bring my family together on Christmas: a Skype call from my missionary brother.

An Update: We Have the Power (?)

Last week I saw this article about one aspect of Twitter reaction to the election. Specifically people saying things like "Obama won! We get to keep our foodstamps!" I've been think about it and trying to find a way to talk it ever since then.

But then I realized! This is one small way that I already resolved the dilemma that I raised in my last post: The possibility of using the internet to inform ourselves despite the biased media. 

When I read the article, I realized that this was coming from a biased source (everyone is biased in one way or another, ammirite?) and was worried about taking what I saw at face value. So, I read the comments. I got a lot of agreement with what was being said, some disagreement and points raised that disputed what I had seen in the article (for example: were these people being sarcastic?); basically what you'd expect. But that wasn't good enough for me. So I did my own search on Twitter: I searched for #foodstamps. I saw for myself what people were saying about foodstamps. I saw the "raw data" as it were, and was able to draw my own conclusions.

The point it that the "raw" information was out there for me to examine, I just had to find a way to find it. In this case it wasn't all that hard, but I'm feeling encouraged that it's possible to draw our own conclusions. 

Are We He-Man or Not?

This relates somewhat to my last post.

So, I know next to nothing about He-Man. I think his nemesis is called Skeletor. But one thing that I know for sure is that he yells "I HAVE THE POWER!" periodically, though I don't know why.

In general, I kind of feel this way about the internet. I can learn about ANYTHING. If I want to know about iterative and incremental development, Goolge and Wikipedia can tell me. And, even if Google or Wikipedia doesn't have any direct results on what I am looking for, the knowledge can probably be found on the internet somewhere, somehow. When I find something that I'm looking for, I feel like He-Man:

But then I read this article by Orson Scott Card. In it he berates the media for covering up one of Obama's serious mistakes (crimes) until it couldn't affect the vote anymore. He goes on to describe the way that the media is biased towards Obama and so on and so forth; stuff that we've all heard but maybe not as eloquently as Card puts it.

But it made me wonder: are we, despite the internet, still dependent on the biased (in either direction; I'm looking at you, Fox News) media? I think most people acknowledge that we are heavily influenced by the media, but how much are they stunting or unfairly influencing us in important ways? How can we know if/when they are withholding information? How do we combat it? Does it just come down to comparing two or more different sources of differing opinions and weighing them against each other?

The problem with that is that I feel like I'm still not getting the whole picture. It may be that information about Obama's mistake was available through the internet before the general media let it out, but if that's the case how would I have found it? How would I have known to look?

Do we, as internet users, truly have the power to get at all the information that we need?

The Success of a Failed Coup

Our group started out with some fabulous ideas. But then we struggled a little bit. When it came to be mid semester and we didn't have a concrete idea of what our "thing" was going to be,  I was getting worried. So, I decided to hijack the group project and start working. My hope was that my group would love what I was doing and jump on board, or that they would hate it and come up with a creative alternative. Guess what! It worked. They came up with something far more creative and less ho-hum than what I was working on (I say this in all sincerity- my feelings are not hurt in the least).

So, here is what I came up with.

This was the first step.

Then Curtis sent me the relevant videos, and this is as far as we got before the project was reborn in a more beautiful form:

The Internet and Politics

These thoughts are a little late in coming, seeing as the election was last week, but I've been thinking about them anyway.

I hate talking politics with people. I'm usually insecure about my views and don't like having them shot down, even kindly and legitimately. In addition, I find that politics brings things out in people that I don't care to see. Politics are a little like the internet in that way. People say things and think in ways that may not be totally in character in any other circumstance. So, when my husband, or especially my mom, brings up something political, I nod a lot and then change the subject as quickly as I can.

So how do I even come up with an opinion? It comes down to what we were talking in class about a few weeks ago: how asking a person for information can be more useful than Googling it because with a person you get specific experience and opinions. You can also ask more specific questions. In this case, the opposite is useful for me. When I Google something like "Obama vs Romney," I do get A LOT of opinions, but I can also find something like this site: something that at least on the surface, is just raw facts rather facts torn askew and bloated with opinion.

And, when I do come across opinions, I can interpret those biases without the discomfort of passing judgement on someone that I actually know.

So, to sum up I guess, I'm grateful for the ability that the internet gives me to form my own opinion.

Frankenstein/Remix Thoughts

(Because if it has a pretty picture, you'll read it, right? Also because this is what my brain is currently doing with Frankenstein and Remix)

In the spirit of RERO I am going to record my thoughts on Frankenstein as I have them and hopefully glean something coherent from them in a later draft or post. So this is less of a post and more of a research log I guess. I put my most coherent thought at the top.

One thing that we do when we study literature is make connections between texts. We highlight how they are similar, how they are different, and how they matter. Remix is one way of drawing connections between digital "texts." A visual (or auditory) demonstration of connections.

This thought was inspire by this video, titled "Inception-FRANKENSTEIN: Mashup trailer 2011"

When I saw the description I was interested in watching it because I wondered how the creators were going to connect these two stories. As it turns out it was just the Inception music laid over the famous creation scene, but it got me thinking.

A Frankenstein Rap: 

Really not my thing. But, from the little that I was able to listen to without sticking sharp objects in my ears, it is clear that this guy read the book and isn't just rapping about the pop culture version. I don't much like it, but this guy has remixed the story in a way this is (apparently) fun and meaningful for him.

So, what? The usefulness of remix doesn't just have to lie with the end user. It can be useful for the creator, who can explore a topic in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than just dry or forced academia which might not be useful or interesting to them.

Remix supports Web 2.0: " In a Read Only culture, a small professional group produces all the culture that is then consumed by the masses. The public can only absorb and take in the culture, but it leaves no room to interact with the culture. " (Wikipedia). So, remix allows us to engage in the conversation rather than just viewing boring, non dynamic Web. 1.0 pages, as it were.

Other Assorted Thoughts

The  R. Walton (the explorer guy) goes looking for one thing in the arctic, but finds quite another. Similarly, sometimes we go into the digital world looking for one thing and find another.

"...I shall certainly find no friend on the wide  ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen.  Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms," (5).

"One man's life or death were but a small

price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for

the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of

our race.  As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener's

countenance.  At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his

emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and

failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a

groan burst from his heaving breast.  I paused; at length he spoke, in

broken accents:  "Unhappy man!  Do you share my madness?  Have you

drunk also of the intoxicating draught?" (13)

-Two views on the sanctity of life


"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my

thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever

fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of

little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.  "I agree with you,"

replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,

if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought to

be--do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,"  (13)

-Walton had expressed earlier his desire and inability to find a friend on his voyage. By travelling into this Brave New World, he finds one-just like the long tail (right way to describe it?) of social groups


Frankensteinia-a blog dedicated to Frankenstein

Looking into some Frankenstein Remixes:

 I, Frankenstein.

A new Frankenstein movie (with some pretty big names) Imdb's description reads thus: "Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans." I'm wondering why it is useful to have the creature as the one getting caught up in the war as opposed to someone else.

Thoughts:

All of the pop culture versions seem to portray Dr. Frankenstein as the quintessential  mad scientist type. However, he does not seem to be a mad scientist in the book. He's tormented certainly, but not mad. Why the differences?

The Horror of Transformation: Remix

Quick side note: our group has been working under the assumption that there are people out there who don't like remix. I've yet to search for or find these people, but this post is working under that assumption.

Today in my 495 class we discussed The Island of Dr. Moreau. In the book, a man is shipwrecked and ends up on an island with strange, beast-like men. It turns out that Dr. Moreau, who owns and lives on the island, takes animals and operates on them in an attempt to make them human. Totally gross out worthy and horrific. I highly recommend the book.

At one point in the discussion, Professor Horrocks asked us what exactly was so horrifying for us about what Dr. Moreau was doing. Was it the ethics of the thing? The subsequent degeneration of the animals back into their animistic natures? The lack of anesthetic and the screams of the animals being vivisected?

For me it was the transformation of something from its natural state to something tortured and unnatural. I've always been squeamish about human transformation. The first time I saw the movie Willow, I had to leave the room when they all got turned into pigs. It was unnatural. They were in pain. It honestly made me sick to my stomach. During the werewolf transformation scenes in Van Helsing I still have to close my eyes and plug my ears. I can barely watch Bruce Banner's first transformation in the Avengers. What really bothers me about these transformations is how painful they seem. It just plain freaks me out.

I think the same sort of principal works for our horror at what is going on in stories like these:


The Wolfman/Werewolves
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dracula
Frankenstein

i.e., something natural turning unwillingly and perhaps painfully into something unnatural.

Does this apply to remix? Might some people not like it because they see something they like and are comfortable with (read: natural) twisted into something new and uncomfortable (read: unnatural)? That the original way something is is its natural and correct state and that should not be tampered with?

Thoughts on Literature Remix

I remembered an experience today while trying to consider Frankenstein in the light of remix. Y'all remember how I HATE Charles Dickens? Well, a remix (in a sense) almost persuaded me to give him another try a few years ago.

Two or three Christmases ago, a friend persuaded me to go with him to see the Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol. I remember not being overly excited, as the movie's trailer made it seem like just another goofy Jim Carrey movie with hijinks but not much substance. In addition, I knew the basic story (who doesn't? It's kind of like Jekyll and Hyde or Frankenstein; part of the culture even if you've never read it) and wasn't interested in learning more.

I was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of just a goofy kids movie, it was an adaptation that (I think) really tried to stay true to the spirit of the book; including the much darker parts. What delighted me most was the dialogue. I  loved how things were said in this movie, and I could tell that they were using Dicken's own writing (because no one write prose that amazing). One line in particular stood out to me as being just brilliant:

""You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you[!]" (emphasis added)

The dialogue (MUCH more than the story itself) got me interested in giving Dickens another try, specifically in this book. I wanted to hear/read more of his brilliant and witty prose. So, I downloaded the free audiobook and gave it a try.

So I guess the value of this "remix" for me was rediscovering a well known story in a new (for me)
way.

Low Tech Re-route!

One glance at this online copy of Frankenstein and I knew that I would
have a headache within minutes. So I turned this

Into this

It's not that much better, admittedly, but I might get a few chapters in before screaming and attacking inanimate objects. Anyone know how to get Word to ignore grammar and spelling for an entire document?

Video 1 Partial Mockup

I don't have any video editing equipment on this machine, but here's a sort of mock up of part of the first video. There are a ton of problems to be worked out here. Number one on my concern list is how to work in the Frankenstein metaphor smoothly. But, here's what I have:

Video 1: The Monster

Maybe start in with the Numa Numa guy video playing, cuz it's awesome. Keep the audio in the background as we move on to other examples, giving the video a light and silly feel at first, then do some serious music when we move into "ultimately they are all time wasters"

(Show examples with each, videos when applicable) Spoken: Viral Videos. Silly Cats. Memes. Parodies. Remixes. Machinimas. We all love them, but in the end, what are they? Entertainment and a chance to laugh, but ultimately they are all Time Wasters. Ladies and gentlemen, we have something monstrous on our hands.

Viral Videos.

Silly Cat Videos 

Memes.

Parodies.
(This is from A Very Potter Musical-I think we should have a better example of a parody here, something literary perhaps? Something recognizable by a sizable amount of people as well)

Remixes.

(Is this a good one to use here?)

Machinima.

We all love them, but in the end, what are they? (Visually, what can we show here?) 

Entertainment and a chance to laugh, but ultimately they are all Time Wasters. (Ditto?) 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have something monstrous on our hands. (This is a non pop culture pic of Frankenstein. Somehow. Would something more recognizable be better here?)

Update: turns out I actually DO have a video editing program on this computer! Updates upcoming. Thanks to Katie Wilkie for helping me!

My Vision: 3 Videos and a Challenge

So this is the vision I had for our project yesterday (Click to enlarge):

And this is a more refined version:

So, like webisodes. I see it as being similar to this site, with all three videos embedded on one web page. If we get ambitious we can include more information on the site that doesn't fit easily into our "narrative," perhaps links to blogs or more information or whatever.

I think it's important that we end with something like "Look, we redeemed remix. What will YOU redeem?"

Midterm Self-Evaluation

Non-Fiction Book: All Your Base are Belong to Us

As I said in my original blog post, I was slightly disappointed with the book I chose. The content was actually really interesting, but did not discuss what I had hoped. I talk about it a little in my original post.I realized today that I have another question: How have video games changed the way we interact with one another in terms of culture, and especially pop culture? What topics are colored or coded differently in our conversations because of video games or the stories/characters they embody?

On positive thing that it did for me was fix my view of how video games came into being. I had never really thought about the rise of the video game before, but if I had I might have thought that video games just came from start up companies determined to take advantage of computers in a fun way. In some cases that is correct, but not all. Nintendo, for example, existed as a game company for many, many years before it got into the video game business.

Fiction: Jekyll+Hyde

I initially made the connection between J+H and Digital Culture in terms of the concept of split worlds/personalities. In the book, Mr. Hyde acts in ways that Dr. Jekyll would never consider. In a similar way, we sometimes act differently on the internet than we normally would. We represent ourselves slightly different than reality, and some people behave badly or rudely when they would not do so in "real life."

Video games can act as a sort of Hyde-inducing elixir for us. Much of the act of playing a video game includes the act of stepping into someone else's shoes and acting in ways that we would not in real life. My husband and I would probably not shoot bandits in real life, but we do in our game. Video games allow us to step into our "Hyde" selves, though it should be noted that in a game the Hyde version of ourselves might not be evil. Games encourage us to act like someone else for a time.


Self Directed Learning:

I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to direct my own learning in this class. I set a goal to use the internet in new ways that I was not necessarily familiar with or comfortable with. One way I decided to do this was reactivate my Twitter account and follow a group of people related to my interests. My biggest success has been following Markus Persson (notch), who is one of the creators of Minecraft. He tweets about things that I find interesting and often go learn more about. Today's example: Notch re-tweeted this:

Which led me to this article which concerns the closed nature of Windows 8 (see the section on Other Interests).

Something that I would like to do the rest of the semester is expand my usual resources. I'd like to move away from simply Googling a topic and only looking at what comes up on the first page. Rather I'd like to be able to find interesting things in more diverse places. At this point I'm not entirely sure what that entails, but I have in mind a sort of journey down the long tail: Perhaps starting with a Google search, but finding links and topics from the items I find there instead of then just returning to Google.

Other Students:

I've really enjoyed connecting with classmates on Google Plus. I feel that it has helped me specifically in my self-directed learning. I enjoy seeing the topics that interest people in the class and discover that I share those interests. One important thing that I learned is that while RERO is great, you should probably reread and revise at least once before release to make sure you are saying what you really want to say.

I found it very encouraging when I would post something on Google+ and get lots of feedback from my classmates. I wish I could have gotten more feedback on my few blog posts, but I suppose in order for that to happen I would need to write on topics that are more relevant to people's interests.

Other Interests:

One of the things that really interests me (besides video games) is the idea of openness on the internet and technology. What originally got me interested was the series Everything's a Remix. I was especially interested in the opinion that the notions of "intellectual property" and copyrighting were originally useful but are now outdated. I'm intrigued by the idea of open source content. But how do we reconcile the great idea of free material and ideas with the fact that people have to make a living?

Prototyping

A bitty Castle Frankenstein. Not accurate to the book, but a proof of concept maybe?

Informative: Machinima for the Uninitiated

Today I set out to learn a little bit more on the subject of Machinima and then to blog about it before class tomorrow, at Dr. Burton's request. This knowledge is coming in bits and pieces; hopefully this post is at least somewhat intelligible.

Machinima is the use of video game engines to create movies. Using an existing game engine means that the movie can be rendered in the original game's environment(s) and characters. The term is derived from Machine and Cinema.
(see also Machinima.com, "the next generation video entertainment network for video gamers")

Originally I was under the impression that you could only make Machinima from PC games, but the second video on this webpage taught me differently. He's actually choosing to focus on only console games and excluding PC games completely. Note: If you decide to watch the video, don't listen to or watch any advertisement preceding it-I liberally apply the adjectives "crass", "crude", and "monumentally stupid" to the one I was unfortunate enough not to mute. The language of the video itself is also NSFW. But the video is is informative!

It turns out that some games that have a history of Machinima (such as Halo: Reach) have what is called "Theater Mode" so you can act out and record stories. If the game you are using does not have a theater mode, you have to film in real time, using a program such as Bandicam.

Here follow a few (hopefully) instructive examples.

The following video is NOT an example of Machinima because it is simply video of game play. Whoever posted the video just recorded the game being played, they did not make their own story out of it.

Instead, Machinima includes a change to the original game. In the following example, the makers of the Machinima, using the game Lord of the Rings: Conquest of Middle Earth and their own dubbed in voices, created a sort of fanfic for Lord of the Rings. Warning! These are not professional voice actors! Unintentional cheesiness ensues!

Here is another example, and a fairly popular one (if you can judge by the number of views: just under 1.5 million). Warning! Some of the language is NSFW:

Up until this point in my search I was not much seeing the point or getting any enjoyment from watching these or any others that I found. I can see how it would be fun to make one, but that's about it. But then I found this next one. And you know what? I smiled. And I laughed.

I would be interested to know how this was done. According to The Keyhole (a wiki for Kingdom Hearts), a theater mode can be unlocked in a few versions after beating the game, but it doesn't sound like a normal theater mode. According to the wiki, "It allows the player to re-watch all voiced cut scenes in the game after beating it at any time via the main menu." But even if there is a record function, how did they make them dance?? Still much to learn.

Project Proposal: Mods as Remix

Here is my proposal! The project would be to create either a mod in Minecraft or a Machinima using a work of fiction. There is a bit of clarification on what we would actually do at the end of this post. We would be working with the idea of remix in video games. I am going to focus on the mod for this post.

Here follows some information about both mods and Minecraft.

First of all, what is Minecraft? In a word, Legos. Ok not really. But it's like virtual Legos for adults.

Minecraft is a indie PC game that has become extremely popular in the last few years. In the game you have 1m x1m blocks of materials (such as wood, stone, and dirt) to build with. There are two ways to play: adventure mode, where you collect your materials and at night monsters come out to try to kill you. I thought it looked kind of dumb until my husband had me play it; then I was (mildly) addicted. Look! I made a castle in my adventure mode game:

Then there's creative mode, where you have unlimited resources and no monsters (unless you choose to spawn them or other mobs). People do some crazy stuff with creative mode, such as this:

and this:

That's right. Someone built Minas freaking Tirith. And a to scale Starship Enterprise. Now, it's my understanding that they didn't actually have to place every single individual building block, but I don't know how that works yet. Another person build an honest to goodness working computer (a rudimentary one), and another guy built a computer that plays Pong.

So can we all agree that Minecraft is cool? Good. So what's a mod? Wikipedia gives us this definition:

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games (PC games), especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run...Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs are called unofficial patches.

In other words, when a gamer wants to create his own level, his own characters, his own weapons, or even his own game, he can create a mod. It is my understanding that this cannot be done with all games, only games where the developers allow this and mainly on PC games (vs games played on consoles such as PlayStation or Xbox).

I may or may not have spent a good hour today looking at Minecraft mods. I found some pretty cool ones, including 2D Minecraft and a mod where you can play a version of the Hunger Games. But this one was my favorite:

My actual proposal: to create a small mod or mods (because the examples I gave are a HUGE amount of work) in Minecraft that is taken from one of our fiction books. For example, we could create our own potion, that, when drunk, turns your character into a Mr. Hyde version of himself. I'm not sure if that is too small a scale to be considered remix, but we will run with it for now.

The only potential problem is that I don't know how much experience in programming we would need to have to do this. This may have to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time that I should have been using to research this subject just looking at the hundreds of cool things to do in Minecraft. I know that people use Java to mod Minecraft, and that's about all. If this turns out to be unfeasible then we can always do a project with Machinima (stay tuned for class Tuesday and another blog post).

Categories of Remix

Awhile back, Dr. Burton mentioned in class that too many remixes were just spoofs. Then, today someone asked a question about whether literature to film adaptation counted as remix culture. Dr. Burton said he didn't think so, but I disagree on both points. I think that both spoofs and film adaptations are simply different levels or categories of remix. With that in mind, I came up with a few classifications of remix. I am choosing to call them "classifications" rather than "levels" since the latter has connotations of varying, er, levels of value. I think that each of these classifications have both a place and value in the digital world. My categories are spoof, homage, borrowing, and adaptation.

Spoof

Rough Definition: A production that makes fun of or has fun with the original work. 

Quick Example: Warning: Both videos have dance moves that are somewhat NSFW, but only mildy. Both are kind of ridiculous, but Grant Imahara spoofs this video (the original)

with his own work here (the spoof):

Grant does not really add anything new, just does pretty much the same thing in a different environment.

Homage

Rough Definition: A reference to another work, large or small, embedded in something new.

Quick Example: Borderlands 2 pays homage to Minecraft. For those not into gaming, Borderlands is a popular FPS whose sequel was released today. Minecraft is an indie game that gained a large following and is hugely popular in the gaming world.

Borrowing

Rough Definition: Taking elements of one work and incorporating them into another but no so much that the new work could be called a straight adaptation.

Quick Example: Alfred Hitchcock seems to have borrowed elements from Hamlet when making his Movie North by Northwest, such as the idea of a play within a play. However, no one is going to argue that North by Northwest is a straight up adaptation of Hamlet; there is too much missing. According to Professor Dennis Perry, North By Northwest then went on to  inspire many elements in other films, becoming a borrowed from source itself.

Adaptation

Rough Definition: Taking an original work and adapting it to a different audience. This could be taking a book and making it for a film audience to taking a story written for a 19th century audience and changing it with a 21st century audience in mind.

Quick Example: Turning J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit into a three movies. Not only is Peter Jackson adapting this story for a film audience, he is adapting it for an audience who has become accustomed to epic movies with giant budgets and massive amounts of CGI. On top of that, he is adapting it for an audience that is becoming used to having their books adapted into multiple movies (see Harry Potter 7 parts One and Two, as well as Breaking Dawn parts 1 and 2).


These are just four categories that I came up with (quickly) off the top of my head. I'd love it if someone or several someones would critique these, suggest others, provide more diverse examples, etc.