Relationships (Part 2)

What do you look for in a romantic relationship? Why are these characteristics important to you?

I want to have someone who is caring, attractive, and commited only to me. These are important because I expect that in a romantic relationship my partner would be faithful as I would be, I also find that a caring and nice person is far more attractive than one who thinks only of themselves or what they want and I fall into the superficial category to an extent because I do care about looks too.


What kind of lover do you consider yourself? (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, Agape)

I don't think any one love would best describe me, but rather a mix-and-match of certain elements. Eros would be one because I look for a physical attraction, but I would say I have a realisitic image of what I expect in the relationship which would bring in Pragma. Theirmight also be some Storge involved because I would view them as my best friend.


What do you look for in a friendship? What kind of a friend do you consider yourself?

I definitely look for someone who is respectful, we dont neccesarily need to have the same opinions, but they should try to keep me and others in mind with their actions. I also need some sort of thing that we can relate to whether it be soccer, video games, or our opinion of Gary Larson's 'Farside' comics. Although this might make me sound a little shallow, but I try to avoid being friends with those who are social pariahs due to the idea of a loss in status due to association. I think of myself as a pretty good friend because I try to treat my friends in the same way I wish to be treated, but at times I can be a little mischievous and pull a prank on a friend, but nothing severe mainly just a joke at their expense or something similar.



Give an example in your life of each of the types of friendships. (Reciprocity, Receptivity, Association)

Reciprocity: A good example of this would be with my friend Henry. We grew up together in the same neighborhood sharing common experiences and in general feeling open to share our thoughts with eachother as well as food, toys, books, etc.

Receptivity: I guess a good example of this would be with my parents since while growing up they supplied me with everything. Clothes, toys, among other things.

Association: I guess the best example of this would be in my classes in school. I generally got along with everyone in my highschool, but by no means was I close friends with everyone. So some of these kids I would talk to in class, but there was never really a friendship that formed from our encounters.

Extra Credit Presentations

Near the beginning of the year, when I joined the computer club, I proposed a club project which involves programming a video game for Microsoft's programming competition Dream.Build.Play. Since then I have taken the role of project leader and each week during our regular club meetings I go up to present upon the current state of our project, what it is we've accomplished in the last week, what needs to be done as well as brainstorming sessions. Generally my presentations take around 10 minutes and include a power point to make them more interesting and more detailed. Here are a couple of slides from my presentations and I am hoping this could be worth 25 XP.

Source Citation

The Designer's Notebook. Ernest Adams. 2011. 6 December 2011. <http://www.designersnotebook.com/Quotes_for_Designers/quotes_for_designers.htm>

Edwards, Ralph. "The Economics of Game Publishing". IGN. 2006. 5 December 2011. <http://games.ign.com/articles/708/708972p[1.html>

Wikipedia. 2011. 3 December 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_game>

Adams, Ernest. "Technology Inspires Creativity: Indie Game Jam Inverts Dogma 2001!". 2002. 5 December 20011 <http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2989/technology_inspires_creativity_.php>

Gnade, Mike. "What Exactly is an Indie Game?". 2010. 5 December 2011. <http://www.indiegamemag.com/what-is-an-indie-game/>

Million Dollar Idea: Background Information

Million Dollar Idea Background Information


I’ve always had a passion for video games. From when I was young playing educational games like Math Blasters or Oregon Trail  to today with games like Skyrim or Call of Duty I’ve always loved the means of escape and the wonderful worlds these games provide. As I grew older, I began to program and as I grew more experienced I began to see games in a whole new light. I started to understand how certain things were accomplished to make the game and could relate to the studios who made the games. I even began considering a job in developing games, but was surprised to learn that a job like that was extremely taxing and not very rewarding. Around this time I also began to notice a concerning trend in video gaming. The market saw many games coming out that were sequels and was being flooded with First Person Shooters like Call of Duty, which is now on its 8th installment in the franchise. Although these games are fun, as would be apparent considering the numerous installments, it is worrisome to see the slow disappearance of other genres and creativity in the game design. This is where the indie game scene comes into play. The term ‘indie’ in this case refers to the studio developing the game as doing so without the financial support of a publisher. Indie games tend to have an artistic flare in their design, trying new things and taking risks with their games. A good example of this and the first indie game i was officially introduced to is the game Braid. Braid introduces the idea of time manipulation, and can get very complex later on. Seeing games like this I started to wonder why games like this were only made by indie developers and not by big budget studios.
For the more popular, big budget studios, or AAA studios as they are commonly referred to as, the projects worked on are determined by their publishers. Publishers, in the gaming industry, our similar to banks giving out ‘loans’ to the game studios. In some cases this process is straight forward, the publisher lends money to the studio making the game and when the product is released into the market, the publisher takes a share of the games earnings. In other cases, however, the publisher will want a contract with the developers. This commonly leads to the publisher taking ownership of the intellectual property of the games created by the studios in exchange for a greater share in the games profits. In addition to no longer owning the intellectual property of their games, studios are also required to work on games assigned to them by the publisher, this is where the real problem arises. Publishers are in the business of making money from the games they publish so it is natural that they would only want to release games that our sure to sell. They don’t want to take risks with new genres or mechanics, but will stick to popular games and genres like first person shooters. This approach leads to a stagnant marketplace with no truly creative titles, but rather rehashes of a successful genre.
Considering my passion for gaming and not wanting to see the creative spark die in it I would spend the million dollars to start a fund to help support indie developers and the innovative ideas they bring to gaming. My vision is for this fund to give indie developers all of the benefits of publishers with none of the downsides. Like publishers, this fun will help supply the game studios with funds to help with resources used in the production of the game, as well as for advertising for the game. The fund will also allow the game studios to develop their intellectual property without the fear of handing it over in exchange for funding. The fund will also be less rigid when determining shares of the profits than most publishers. The way I see the profits is that the developers do all the work and put their heart into the project and the fund takes the financial risks so the the final profits should be split 50/50 so as not to rip off the game studio, but also replenish the fund so it can continue to help further indie developers. Also, all the profits received will go right back into the fund and with any luck the fund will grow in size and be able to fund even more projects.
One important thing that  this fund will need to do is set up requirements for the projects it will fund because I few wrong choices could leave the fund hurting financially. To help ensure a better chance of a return on the investment, studios will need to apply to be funded and will be reviewed by myself to determine whether or not funding seems appropriate. When judging the studios I will be looking for a unique game willing to push the current standards of gaming, a dedicated studio who has their heart set on this project, and a demo of the proposed game or possibly a past game done by the studio to determine the studios capability of creating a game. One thing that is important to due with this fund is to protect the investments it makes, with that being the case I may deem it necessary to take the intellectual property from one studio should they for some reason be unable to complete their game, and give it to another studio to finish the project. By doing this I will avoid unnecessary loses in the fund from studios not fully prepared for the task of developing a game.
With making this fund, I hope to give many struggling indie developers a chance to work on their dreams without the worry of the financial requirements. Hopefully doing this will lead to surge of new games that push the creative envelope of games offering new experiences to the end users. I realize this will not stop the constant stream of formulaic games developed by the AAA studios and published by the big companies, but maybe the success of the indie games might inspire them to take risks in the designing of their games even if it starts off small.

Million Dollar Idea: Speech Outline

Outline For Speech

 

• Introduction

• Dream of building a fund for indie game developers.

• Always been a gamer myself.

• Innovation of Indie games.

• Current games

• Current games dilemma.

• Many sequels.

• Little variety in genres.

• Why the disparity in creativity between indie games and AAA games?

• Publishers

• Definition of Indie Games:

• A game created by an individual or small group without the support of a publisher.

• Definition of Publisher:

• Funds projects of big developers and publish them.

• Roles of a Publisher:

• manufacturing, licensing, marketing, and advertising.

• Problems with Publishers:

• Takes enormous amounts of the profits from the games.

• Takes control of the intellectual property of their games rather than the studios who came up with them.
• Can assign whatever game to developing studios working for them: Imagine being assigned: Barbie and the Diamond Castle.

• The Indie Fund.

• Give Indie developers the benefits of a publisher without the restrictions.

• Fund projects, provide resources, and advertise.

• Developers need not fear losing their intellectual property.

• Unless they should fail to complete their project in which case the project might be given to a different studio to protect the fund’s investments.

• Profits from the game will be split 50/50

• The developers put all the work and love into the game.

• The fund provided all the financial risk.

• Requirements of the fund.

• Indie Studios must apply to the fund.

• Must have unique and creative ideas.

• Must be a studio dedicated to their work and set on making this game.

• Must supply a demo of the game or a past project to get a feel for what the studio is capable of.
• Conclusion.
• Fund will help struggling indie developers.
• Hopefully lead to a surge of new games pushing the creative envelope.
• Lead publishers and big development studios to take risks, even if only small ones.
• Quote from Tim Schafer well known for his games like Psychonauts and the Monkey Island Series, “What game is worth doing that’s not creatively risky?”

$1,000,000 Idea Preparation

Ideas For Million Dollar Speech:

• AI Research
• Donate money to further research in the development of true artificial intelligence
• I’m a CIS Major so the programming involved really piques my interest in the whole field of AI.
• Programming in order for AI to learn.
• Big Dog Robot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww)

• Indie Game Development Fund
• Create a fund freeing indie game developers from the hassle of dealing with publishers.
• Helps fund indie developers who otherwise could not afford the process of developing their game.
• Helps to bring new ideas to an industry that focuses on a limited number of genres proven to make money (First Person Shooters) and not risky innovation.
• I love to program games and love playing them even more. Especially indie games that help to innovate the game industry with no ideas.

• Child’s Play Charity
• As stated before I’m a gamer and Child’s Play is a well known charity amongst us gamers.
• Child’s Play is a charity started in 2003 that supplies kids in hospitals with video games, toys, books, and other fun things.
• It tries to make a fun experience for the kids in what might otherwise be an unpleasant situation.
• In this year alone Child’s Play has raised over $1 million.

TED Videos

The first video I watched was "Keith Barry does brain magic" which is  in essence an illusion show where Keith Barry does some tricks which he says can be done psychological and mind reading effects. Although the tricks were intriguing I focused on the presentation side of the performance comparing it to what we've learned so far in class. In his performance, he makes use of a video (Presentation Aid) which shows him driving a car blindfolded with a frightened passenger he claims to have been using to see the road through her eyes. The spectacle was rather nice with her squeals as he swirved along the counry road. I also took note of the improvisation being done when dealing with people he asked to come to stage to help with tricks. The ease at which he adapted was rather impressive, though there was a few falters. Although there was quite a bit of improvisation, there were quite a few 'scripted' lines or points he wanted to mention and the way he spoke on these points seemed natural and didn't mess with the flow of the speech. I personally enjoyed the video, but I dont think it is the best TED has to offer when looking for proficient speakers.

The second video I watched was "Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks" which features different adaptations of the Nintendo Wii's Controller. Like the first video there were visual aids, but it went beyond simply showing a video, but rather demonstrating the adaptations themselves. He does a good job expressing the usefulness of what he has done and states how this can be used in a beneficial way which helps to make the audience agree with his work. The first scenario he showed was using the wiimote to act as a touch screen whiteboard, the type you might see at a school, for a far cheaper price. Although it doesn't perform all the same funtionalities with further development it very well could. He also showed how using it for motion-tracking you can recreate a 3D illusion on a screen. You could tell he was adamant about his work and the excitement of how it is already being adopted in schools and other areas was visible.