Author: Christopher

A variation of the Unit Exercise for the Digital Games chapter.

For this exercise, consider some aspect of your post-quarantine/post-pandemic life that you want to develop. Imagine that you are creating a game app for others to share in this gamification to achieve certain goals. There is an app called Zombie Run which creates imaginary zombies that chase you on a map and with sound effects, so that you maybe run faster or at least make your exercise routine fun. The question you should address for your app is: How will the app use digital gamification to achieve goals?

1. GOAL: Run 9 consecutive miles

2. INCREMENTS: Add one mile every week, eventually leading into 9 weeks for a 9-mile-run.

3. Every Thursday of the week will count as the the formal “level” or rated period where a mile will be added to the previous week’s mile count.

4. If you spent the majority of your weekly goal running instead of walking you will be granted a 2x experience boost. So, during your week 1 rating period you should accumulate .6 miles running out of the 1 mile total. For the week 2 rating period you should run 1.1 miles out of 2 if you want to qualify for the reward. You will not be penalized or granted further experience if you run more than the goal for that week.

5. You will create an avatar, name, and customize it via mobile application. The more mileage you accrue, the more experience your avatar gains and the more customization becomes available to you through a cosmetic shop which is locked behind avatar levels.

6. The interface would work similarly to the Pokemon Go app as far as displaying a real-time projection of your avatar on a map and watching it run the exact same route you choose to run – minus the random Pokemon pop-ups that occur.

7. The challenge is overcoming physical torment via palatable gaming app and eventually being able to overcome a 9 mile run in one session.
You will have the choice of approach and customization for your given avatar. You will not be expected to sprint or even run your miles in their entirety, you can take breaks and pause whenever you like, so long as you still run the majority of your mile instead of walking it.
Your Avatar will grow and appear more to your likeness the more you level it up through mileage.
There is always a chance of failure when putting your body to the test. Will this week be a suitable week to cash in on your 2x experience bonus or will it be a rest week?
You can add friends/avatar via social media connection or anonymously through proximity options. You can compare avatar appearances and accolades based on previous runs.
I think the application will be fun and fulfilling through the social and progression aspects of the game. I think it would be beneficial to the user to see tangible process being made on two fronts – one in the form of your avatar and one in the form of your own endurance being built up from mile 1 all the way up to mile 9.

Digital games (which includes video games, apps and arcade games) emerge quite naturally from digital technology, because computation (keeping score), interactivity (making play choices), narrative (story worlds), social interaction (fun with friends) and random effects (rolling dice) are all quite easy to simulate on a computer. Choose a favorite video game from your childhood and apply a brief game analysis as described in section 7.2 of the Digital Games chapter. What about the technology of the time made the game leave such an impression on you?

I picked up RuneScape (RS) around the age of 12 and never turned back. RS was a semi-pixelated, java scripted, 3-D fantasy MMORPG that took on a life of its own at the time. The game was originally released in 2001 and has since lived through several iterations to-date with a dedicated user base that keeps the RS economy and community thriving today. On its inception, the game was entirely browser based, making it extremely accessible for anyone with an internet connection – no discs, no external downloads, just a loading screen on internet explorer or your browser of choice. As soon as you entered the game you were prompted to create a name for your character, customize their look and then immediately thrown into tutorial island with dozens of other people learning the mechanics of the game just the same as you. The game runs you through a brief introduction of certain skill mechanics such as cooking, fishing, and combat and before you know it, you’re thrown off the deep end into the world where you’re free to interact with who ever you want, whenever you want and explore the RS world as you see fit. This idea of exploration was massive for me at the time, I had never experienced anything like it. It felt like I was making decent headway through tutorials of how to progress my character, only to have my training wheels ripped from me and thrown into an enchanting and equally dangerous world with nothing but a few fundamentals on how the game worked. I was both overwhelmed and completely hooked. There was no handholding, and at the time there was little to no archival data that I could investigate to help me progress through the game, there was only me, the game, and the community who was attempting to dissect and navigate through the exact same world. It was a huge leap from the “point A to point B”, scripted video games that I was so used to playing as a kid on PlayStation or an old Sega Genesis. This was revolutionary to me – I was free to choose whatever path I wanted, complete any quest in any order I chose, skip things I didn’t want to do and interact with a small world of people along the way.

The opportunities and amount of things to do in this game seemed endless. I would find myself playing Castle Wars for hours, which was a castle siege, capture-the-flag style mini game, where you and your team would fight against a team of enemy players on a map disconnected from the proper RS world. You would be rewarded with certain armors, weapons, and other cosmetic items and it was an overall environment where people could come and flex the gear they had acquired from playing and grinding out content out in the RS world. There were dozens of mini games that you could play alone, with friends, or even with small armies that were fun, and were sometimes equally rewarding. It was the epitome of a “choose your path” type of video game for me that stood the test of time, as it is still fully operational today.

Bonus link on “Gamification of the Brain”

Based on the readings (and the videos in the 06 Data & Information chapter) above, do you think that big data and data analytics introduce real threats to human culture or do they promise revolutionary changes that will ultimately benefit human life? What can we do to ensure that our digital technologies work to improve human and nonhuman lives?

I think there is an endless scope of harm that big data and analytics can cause to human culture, if we were to manufacture and allow these means to take place. Douglas Rushkoff eloquently described the doomsday-prep scenario he experienced with a few modern-day tech titans and how this encounter was entirely against how we should be functioning as a society or community of values. He perfectly described that – we should be using the capabilities and technology we have today to propel EVERYONE towards a better future instead of using it to the exploit the many for the profit of the few. In the process of exploitation and attempting to squeeze every cent you can out of the world you live in, comes a price to pay, both on a global and personal scale. These systems effects take exponential effects and dehumanize people as “consumers” or data points and may even have long-term environmental implications. Social media exacerbates this principle through mass data gathering and analytics. It further drives the idea that people are around to be farmed for information to profit from said information. I think the evolution of this practice could eventually lead to an instance of a dystopian future we would typically see in Black Mirror or Blade Runner, where advertisements would be specifically tailored to your person wherever you go , or have a paywall to proceed with your day.

On the opposite end, this same data analysis and big data technology can certainly be used to project the world as we know it to a better place. With certain analytic systems in place that allow you to track how susceptible certain people are to contracting various diseases, how to reverse the effects of pollution and climate change, or even how to more accurately assess where you’re most likely to get a parking ticket and take action on what to do to prevent future occurrences of this from happening. The spectrum of benefits to detriments seems to extend infinitely both ways.

After reading the Social Media chapter, the Rushkoff chapter on Identity and watching the documentary Life 2.0 (above), write a blog post about being in two places at once in the digital age. How has this “virtuality” changed our ideas of self, society and community? How might VR social media impact our embodied relationships? If you were going to design a VR social media platform what would it be like? What concerns and/or hopes do you have about the future of a virtual social life?

Depending on how much time, effort, and resources you put into “being two places” at once I think the effects can be quite disconnecting or leading to a polarization between the “real you” and “virtual you”. I only speak from experience of personal use and online presence when I say that I believe that VR platforms can be used for immense good but can also be a significant fork in the road when it comes to distraction and how we choose to pursue recreation in a healthy way. I think conflict of interests are in order that may drive certain people from real-life obligations and could potentially lead to full-fledged neglect in certain areas of your own life – that is to say that VR has big potential to for escapism of massive proportions that may lead some of us to divide ourselves from our real-life self, society, and community, just to pursue it online or in a VR world. This, factored in with how much more unappealing future Earth could potentially be due to climate change and a myriad of other reasons, would be a prime set up for overindulgence of time and resources towards setting a bigger foothold online for ourselves as opposed to taking care of what we have in the flesh.

The abovementioned ironically plays into how I would build a social media platform if I could. I would look to the example Ready Player One has provided and almost completely replicate the format of this book/movie. A moderately decentralized network or world where people can jump in and do pretty much anything they could imagine in a virtual setting. I feel like this format would be entirely conducive to all the anti-social aspects VR that I previously mentioned, but it’s a fantasy of mine, nonetheless.

As far as embodied relationships are concerned, it seems like a bit of a tricky play when it comes to its tie to VR and how we already carry ourselves online. If you are yourself online, you will make proper decisions with how you conduct yourself because it is your own reputation at stake. Avatars annihilate this idea and enable to act less like themselves or how they want to be perceived with little to no consequences. There is also margin for creating a version of yourself that is nothing like the real you, but if this relationship is for the sake of VR connections with no intent to expand past it then I suppose it would be suitable for people that are in mutual agreement.

Lightning in a Bottle

Digital technology easily remediates the narrative arts of all other media (radio, movies, tv, fiction), but it also introduces new possibilities that may challenge our very notions of narrative – that a story needs a beginning, middle and end, for example. Which of the above digital texts engage you most and why? Discuss how we can approach new digital works that present stories in unfamiliar and challenging ways. What are your thoughts/experiences of how the digital, hyperlinks and the web are changing the art of storytelling.

How to rob a bank was the most engaging narrative for me. Not only was it somewhat relatable but it had the most story development from a mundane position leading to a climatic outcome, in my opinion. I enjoyed seeing the transition of common, day-to-day googling and first-person perspective phone interactions into a deliberate choice to rob a bank. Then, not only was it a firsthand witnessing account of the thought process behind the robbery, but also a crash course on how they did it. That followed by the glorification and “underdog” story on how the robberies were completely justified struck a chord with me. It was an entertaining story arc in a palatable, interactive format through and through.

I believe that digital, hyperlinks and the web are making a shift towards storytelling that sufficiently meets our current-day audience. The world of novels and cinematic storytelling is becoming bloated and even repetitive in some instances. Storytelling from an interactive stance is exactly what some people require to remain engaged and absorb key story elements in a meaningful way, whether it be through relatability, involvement, or just keeping up with the story.

Mosaic Project: Internet Anonymity

Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson were visionary thinkers seeking solutions to the problems of information overload and hierarchical storage systems that seemed to stifle human creativity and associative thought. Now that we have the World Wide Web, in what ways have these visions of Bush and Nelson been realized? What remains unrealized?

Bush and Nelson provided an exceptional forecast for devices that they had zero exposure to at the time of their respective discussions. While they provided key concepts as to what could potentially be expected from certain archetypes and maybe inadvertently brought about the way these tools functioned out of their own fruition, they also hit the nail on the head with the potential adversities we would be facing as technology slowly became more integrated into our daily lives.

Nelson used a great “automobile analogy” to describe a simple, mundane circumstance (which many of us have been forced into), and how incomprehensible that circumstance or string of words may have been to someone living in 1905. He used this as a tie-back to how complicated computers and understanding information systems may seem at first – but that understanding and integrating these systems into our lives is a question of when, not if.

“The real heart of the matter of selection, however, goes deeper than a lag in the adoption of mechanisms by libraries, or a lack of development of devices for their use. Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing. The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory.”

Similarly, Bush made, not so much an analogy, but a prediction towards memory supplementation which he coined as “memex”, that was intended to be a device that would be capable of storing records of all formats. He essentially described what would come to be the modern home PC’s and smart devices we carry around today.

Bush and Nelson effectively described that one of the underlying issues with information systems is that wide-spread publication of these systems would leave more questions unanswered than not. They both agreed that the process would lead to exacerbation and the gradual overloading of information for the average consumer. Both agreed and attested that the more information that was provided, the more that information needed to be explained. One of few things that I don’t recall Bush or Nelson speaking to is how susceptible to distraction these devices would make people. I don’t think either anticipated that the network of the world would run on cat videos and 7 second bits of “snackable” content.

Mechanical reproduction destroys the “aura” or human component of creation towards any specific culture. The best analogy I can think of would pertain to the work of ceramicists and how the context of their labors would materially shift if their work ever became a product of mechanical reproduction. Their work would become less personal, maybe even less nuanced. One piece of pottery would be a carbon copy of the next through mechanical reproduction, with no sense of expression or uniqueness compared to the means of organic, hands-on work from a ceramicist.

I think this same principal applies to digital reproduction in some instances. Over-dilution of some markets can also be a counterpart of digital reproduction, this is to include memes, remixes, outright replication, or modification. While digital reproduction is not always an accurate representation of the product its replicating, it can also be a means for devaluing certain assets depending on the rarity. I do not think this is a particularly negative component of reproduction, because in some instances this can be considered an appropriate market-correction for what and asset is worth.

We see forms of digital reproduction every day – and if they are not carbon copy reproductions, they are reiterations or reimaginations of ideas. Reproduction is a mainstream part of cultural expression today. Music, for example has become a beacon for reproduction and the reimagining of ideas that were thought up years before contemporary producers got their hands on certain works. I am more often surprised when a producer comes along with a 100% original, unsampled track, than a top 100 billboard hit – even if the sample is or reproduction work is virtually unidentifiable. People seem to always be in this cycle of reproduction, and they seem to be doing it well – so well that it becomes a product its own entirely. This idea simultaneously plays into and against Benjamin’s idea of reproduction. There are many instances in which digital reproduction is executed poorly and strips the “aura” of a piece of work – but there are also instances of reproduction that elevate a piece of work into a life of its own.

The multimodal design in “The Medium is the Massage” appropriately acts as a kaleidoscope of ideas and concepts. McLuhan expresses the irrelevance of “old ways” in this new age of technology and explicitly draws visual aids to numerous sayings, to include: “The wheel is an extension of the foot”, and “the book is an extension of the eye…”. He expresses numerous instances of unconventional shifts in societal reasoning and meets those thoughts with equally thought-provoking imagery in a non-linear way. It seems a bit chaotic and unorganized, but I think that’s the point. Readings and visual aids collaborate and appear to be as jarring and overwhelming as the problem-sets being described. It almost appears as if you can pick up the book, shuffle it around, and pick up reading from any point while still gaining key message fragments.

McLuhan accurately depicts the complexities of new electric culture compared to its print cultures predecessor. He insinuates that with greater access, comes greater anxiety – and how a grand overhaul of our lives is inevitable.

To start, Manovich’s 1st principle can be extended into some of McLuhan’s ideas through the concept of programmability. If all new media can truly be represented numerically, it becomes more susceptible to change and drives into McLuhan’s idea of how we consume information and how that same information dictates our decision-making process. Manovich’s 2nd principle of modularity also plays well into McLuhan’s overarching theme in “The Medium is the Massage”, as he ties numerous media elements and fragments together to depict a larger message.

Digital technology has great potential to be beneficial and equally detrimental in the same stroke. Digital technology as we know it has changed many aspects of our every-day lives. It changes how most of us choose to eat, sleep, consume information, and even make impactful or meaningful life choices. The barrier to entry for certain tech has also become progressively less, further exposing people to certain tools, mediums, and capabilities across many demographics and age-groups. While this can be extremely beneficial for overall familiarization and certain forms of task-based learning, it can also act as a hindrance for certain critical-thinking skills or social nuances that may be prove to be useful in our society.

“Resistance is futile, but so is the abandonment of personal experience scaled to the individual human organism. We are not just a hive mind operating on a plane entirely divorced from individual experience. There is a place for humanity — for you and me — in the new cybernetic order.”

As easy as it is to be cynical about all the bad places digital technology can take us, or how accessible it can be as a “crutch” or excuse to not remember information – I still remain relatively optimistic towards the future of what it has to offer and how we, as people, utilize it. I find myself enthused more often than annoyed – smiling more often than frustrated, even if it is over some of the most ridiculous or menial stuff. That’s what’s most important, at least to me. Enjoyment, fulfillment (to some extent), and growth – and these mediums available to use seem to be providing that for a lot of living, breathing people today.

Sure, there are still people out there I can’t force into conversation over dinner because they’d rather glue themselves to their phones instead of speak to me. Why do I care though? I don’t think I’m that interesting either, and what’s the tradeoff? For every person ignoring me on their phone there is probably a kid out in the world learning to program and using that exact same technology in an equally meaningful way. As infuriating as certain things can be for some, I think these are small, necessary steps towards propelling ourselves into the next age of innovation.