I pick the game “World of Warcraft” because I am currently paying monthly subscription. I have been playing the Horde side all the time, so I make a character in the Alliance side. I decide to pick Night Elf. The reason is that out of the Alliance side, I think Night elf seems to have an intimidated look more than other races, and that seems important since the game is based on battling against the Horde side which they have huge appearances such as Tauren and Orc. Night elf is a tall guy which is closely assembles to my personality because I am tall, but not very tall. I create this character as a male because I am a man. I wouldn’t imagine myself playing female as my character in any game. It’s not like I don’t like a female character but it doesn’t represent me and it might seem strange for me because this game you have to interact with others and other players can perceive me as a girl. It’s just so confused thinking about it. Even though there are many people playing different gender than their own, but when I can choose to pick a gender, I would definitely pick a male character.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t play the characters like Gnome or Dwarf because they are small. Gnome looks a bit funny because their faces are smiling all the time. I don’t like their appearances, especially their height. They are so small like children. Somehow I don’t feel like Gnome can be an avatar that represents me. Dwarf looks better than Gnome in terms of looks and intimidation. Dwarf is slightly taller than Gnome, but I still consider a short-people race which I don’t like. I have nothing against short people, but when I play the game like fighting or role playing game, I want to be as much overpower than any other characters in the game. We all want to be the best in the game. Back to Dwarf, I think they have better facial expression than Gnome because they have a fierce face with long beard and mustache. Bad thing about them is also that they are fat. That’s another negative point for Dwarf. Dwarf has a big belly like a Santa Clause, so I feel like it’s another funny character in the game.
The impression of me picking this Night elf as my avatar is that this character must be strong due to his height. I create the name of this Night elf “Nakedsnake”. The name comes from my favorite game “Metal Gear Solid 4”. Naked indicates the level difficulty in the game MGS 4. Snake is the main character name of the game. I always want to create with the name from my favorite thing whether it’s from my favorite game characters, movie characters or anime characters. I like to put different name which indicates personality from other game into my character, so I would feel like I’m character from another game invading World of Warcraft.
For the skin color, I make sure that I don’t pick too funky color like bright blue or purple, but I always stick with darker skin. For the face, I always pick the clean face with no winkle because I am not that old. For the hair style, I always love to pick long hair rather than short hair. Even though my real life hair is short, but I would like to have a long hair also because it looks cool like an old school professional wrestlers. I pick hair color to be dark blue since it’s my favorite color.
The introductory sequence has shown the environment of the Night elf which all trees and building covering with pink, blue and purple color. At the starter of the level 1, there’re not many skills that I have. I have to gain experience point by killing about-the-same-level creature or complete the quest. The journal for my avatar can take can be any places in this virtual world(of Warcraft), but it’s limited that the place that I can go can only be the place with the enemies level of those location is not exceeding orange color at enemies’ thumbnail level indication because if you go there and find characters with orange, red or skull level, I could get killed. Other than that, my character can freely go anywhere in this virtual world. Each NPC will talk to you when you click on them. The more frequent you click on them, the more that NPC will get annoyed and ask you to go away. The interface that controls this avatar can control by mouse clicking on the small square icons that represents the skill of the character. I can control my character to walk by an arrow key. I do not have many abilities to do every motion of skills, but I will have more control of my skill as the game progress through levels and stages.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Cyberpunk timeline
1995 – Movies – The Net, Hackers, Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, Tank Girl, The Fifth Element, 12 Monkeys, Ghost in the Shell, Toy Story (first computer animated movie), Judge Dredd
Book – Diamond Age published, Cyberpunk handbook published
Technology – MP3 files began to spread on internet, Napster created, Viaweb(first online store)
Games – Sega Saturn
1996 – Movie - Escape from LA, Eraser
Books –
Technology – Dolly the sheep cloned, Tamagachi, Fossil bacteria found in meteorite on mars,
Games – Nintendo 64, new controller style
Other – Netrunner collectable card game
1997 – Movies – Fifth Element, Gattaca
Books –
Technology – dvd became the standard format for media, Path Finder lands on Mars
Games – Blade Runner CG, Final Fantasy VII, Fallout
1998 – Movies – Dark City
Books – Julian Dibbell writes “A Rape in Cyberspace”
Technology – US department creates vaccination, Identity theft became federal offense,
Other – Firby created
Game – Fallout 2, Metal Gear Solid
1999- Movies – The Matrix,
Books – Cryptonomicon published by Neal Sphenson, Ender’s Shadow CSI by Orson Scott Card
Technology – Millenium Bug, MIR space station abandoned, Mellisa worm attacks internet, MAC OS 9
Games – Dreamcast, DDR
Book – Diamond Age published, Cyberpunk handbook published
Technology – MP3 files began to spread on internet, Napster created, Viaweb(first online store)
Games – Sega Saturn
1996 – Movie - Escape from LA, Eraser
Books –
Technology – Dolly the sheep cloned, Tamagachi, Fossil bacteria found in meteorite on mars,
Games – Nintendo 64, new controller style
Other – Netrunner collectable card game
1997 – Movies – Fifth Element, Gattaca
Books –
Technology – dvd became the standard format for media, Path Finder lands on Mars
Games – Blade Runner CG, Final Fantasy VII, Fallout
1998 – Movies – Dark City
Books – Julian Dibbell writes “A Rape in Cyberspace”
Technology – US department creates vaccination, Identity theft became federal offense,
Other – Firby created
Game – Fallout 2, Metal Gear Solid
1999- Movies – The Matrix,
Books – Cryptonomicon published by Neal Sphenson, Ender’s Shadow CSI by Orson Scott Card
Technology – Millenium Bug, MIR space station abandoned, Mellisa worm attacks internet, MAC OS 9
Games – Dreamcast, DDR
Blade Runner differences between text & film
There are so many differences between the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and the film version in Blade Runner. The text include the topics from humanity, relationships, technology and religion to environment, and animal extinction, but the film version focuses primarily on artificiality, romance, relationships and mortality.
The opening scene from the text starts with Rick Deckard and his relationship of having a real, living animal where in the film there is no mentioning about his electric sheep whatsoever. Even though they mention a little bit about the fake owl when Rick goes inside Tyrell Corporation, it doesn’t play the important theme later on in the film. In the novel, Deckard owns the fake sheep and he wants to own a real animal so bad. Later in the story, Rick purchases a goat and this goat represents an important status symbol of his elevation of electric animal owner. The goat also represents something for Rick to redeem himself for killing androids. Because Rick buys an expensive animal, he has to keep killing androids in order to pay for it.
Another difference between the film and text version is that the film relates to humanity and mortality. For example, we can see that the relationships between Deckard and Rachael in the novel are portrayed differently than in the film. In the Film, their relationship between Rick and Rachael has no ill intentions toward each other. Deckard is being rough at first when he tells Rachael that she is an android and her memories are implanted, so nothing that she thinks is real. When Rick sees her tears, he feels empathy toward Rachael and offers to bring her a drink. She leaves without accepting it, taking her grief with her. Deckard feels slightly depressed in her absence. On the other hand, in the novel, Rachael does not care about Rick. Instead, Rachael feels empathy toward the other androids. Rachael seems very upset about Rick’s plan to kill the other androids. She even tries to delay him by promising to kill other android for him. When Rick shows his humanity by sparing Rachael’s like, she turns back into an android. where in the film doesn’t mention that at all. For the film version, I think they are trying to add romance into the story which gives the audience to feel empathy toward this android, so there is a play of emotion part in the movie.
Finally, there is no religious theme in the film. The text mentions about empathy box which is an electrical energy device that uses to stimulate feelings in its user. We also learn about Mercerism. Mercer is a man named in the empathy box that allows user to feel every sensation that Mercer does. Mercerism also plays important part in making religious decision. Rick also uses the empathy box. Mercer’s word aids Rick to force him to kill the androids.
The opening scene from the text starts with Rick Deckard and his relationship of having a real, living animal where in the film there is no mentioning about his electric sheep whatsoever. Even though they mention a little bit about the fake owl when Rick goes inside Tyrell Corporation, it doesn’t play the important theme later on in the film. In the novel, Deckard owns the fake sheep and he wants to own a real animal so bad. Later in the story, Rick purchases a goat and this goat represents an important status symbol of his elevation of electric animal owner. The goat also represents something for Rick to redeem himself for killing androids. Because Rick buys an expensive animal, he has to keep killing androids in order to pay for it.
Another difference between the film and text version is that the film relates to humanity and mortality. For example, we can see that the relationships between Deckard and Rachael in the novel are portrayed differently than in the film. In the Film, their relationship between Rick and Rachael has no ill intentions toward each other. Deckard is being rough at first when he tells Rachael that she is an android and her memories are implanted, so nothing that she thinks is real. When Rick sees her tears, he feels empathy toward Rachael and offers to bring her a drink. She leaves without accepting it, taking her grief with her. Deckard feels slightly depressed in her absence. On the other hand, in the novel, Rachael does not care about Rick. Instead, Rachael feels empathy toward the other androids. Rachael seems very upset about Rick’s plan to kill the other androids. She even tries to delay him by promising to kill other android for him. When Rick shows his humanity by sparing Rachael’s like, she turns back into an android. where in the film doesn’t mention that at all. For the film version, I think they are trying to add romance into the story which gives the audience to feel empathy toward this android, so there is a play of emotion part in the movie.
Finally, there is no religious theme in the film. The text mentions about empathy box which is an electrical energy device that uses to stimulate feelings in its user. We also learn about Mercerism. Mercer is a man named in the empathy box that allows user to feel every sensation that Mercer does. Mercerism also plays important part in making religious decision. Rick also uses the empathy box. Mercer’s word aids Rick to force him to kill the androids.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Cyberpunk
The definition of cyberpunk from has something to do with the future technology where it impacts the life of the people in that future era. Because of the rapid technological change, it causes the social effects in different ways. Most of the stories that relate to Cyberpunk often happened when the earth is severely damaged. It often expresses a sense of rebellion, corruption in governments, and alienation. Most of cyberpunk stories happen in the near future and have negative impact of technology on humanity.
In addition, most of times when we see cyberpunk, there often have some type of fusion between men and machine. It’s not as same as cyborgs because cyborgs are purely made by machine to imitate human characteristic, but the fusion is different. For the fusion, the machine affects the control of the human perception, usually involves with some virtual reality environment images either taking place in the real world or in cyber world. Much like what we saw in Johnny Mnemonic where he went into virtual world via internet. We consider that men fusions with the machine are still humans.
Hackers are also important for cyberpunk genre. Hackers always have the big role to break into another organization or corporation’s computer security system to steal important information from them. They act like the Robin Hood or dark society side either to help or destroy one another.
Also the styles of cyberpunk visual are dirty and hyper-realistic “lived in”. We saw that when the character interact with computer scene visually and at the same time physically. Be able to move data or hack the program just a bare hand while maybe wearing high technology equipment. From many cyberpunk movies, we see patterns of dark motifs contrasted with shocking neon color schemes when characters work with the computer.
My reaction to cyberpunk is that idea behind cyberpunk is that because of fast development of technology, human society can’t adapt to the new technology and lost the control of the pace of change, so it caused many smart people or corporations using those technologies in the bad way to cause social problem in many ways such as increasing crime rate, poverty, disease, rebellion and pollution. I try to be optimistic about the future that it will not go as bad as many cyberpunk movies. If people are well informed of the possibility of cause and effect of the new technology, I don’t think we will have to go though a dystopian society. However, there are still many concerns about future including global warming and peak oil which could strike us in the near future. They could interfere with the vision of cyberpunk and it may change the direction. Of course, most of the cyberpunk stories were created during eighties which back in the old day, but we didn’t put the current global problem into account. The source of energy could be changing from oil consuming to other new resource of energy, so the vision of cyberpunk might change to something better or worst.
In addition, most of times when we see cyberpunk, there often have some type of fusion between men and machine. It’s not as same as cyborgs because cyborgs are purely made by machine to imitate human characteristic, but the fusion is different. For the fusion, the machine affects the control of the human perception, usually involves with some virtual reality environment images either taking place in the real world or in cyber world. Much like what we saw in Johnny Mnemonic where he went into virtual world via internet. We consider that men fusions with the machine are still humans.
Hackers are also important for cyberpunk genre. Hackers always have the big role to break into another organization or corporation’s computer security system to steal important information from them. They act like the Robin Hood or dark society side either to help or destroy one another.
Also the styles of cyberpunk visual are dirty and hyper-realistic “lived in”. We saw that when the character interact with computer scene visually and at the same time physically. Be able to move data or hack the program just a bare hand while maybe wearing high technology equipment. From many cyberpunk movies, we see patterns of dark motifs contrasted with shocking neon color schemes when characters work with the computer.
My reaction to cyberpunk is that idea behind cyberpunk is that because of fast development of technology, human society can’t adapt to the new technology and lost the control of the pace of change, so it caused many smart people or corporations using those technologies in the bad way to cause social problem in many ways such as increasing crime rate, poverty, disease, rebellion and pollution. I try to be optimistic about the future that it will not go as bad as many cyberpunk movies. If people are well informed of the possibility of cause and effect of the new technology, I don’t think we will have to go though a dystopian society. However, there are still many concerns about future including global warming and peak oil which could strike us in the near future. They could interfere with the vision of cyberpunk and it may change the direction. Of course, most of the cyberpunk stories were created during eighties which back in the old day, but we didn’t put the current global problem into account. The source of energy could be changing from oil consuming to other new resource of energy, so the vision of cyberpunk might change to something better or worst.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
What is Cyborg?
According to Wikipedia, a cyborg is a cybernetic organism. This organism has both artificial and natural systems which mean that a cyborg is not total machine like a robot, but it also has some biological system that might be as same as humans or other living nature. From what I have seen from TV or other media, most of cyborgs are human like, and inside the body, it could have some complex mechanism that enhance their biological capabilities such as faster running or incredibly strong.
In my opinion, I feel that between cyborgs and androids are a bit different. I always thought that an android is made by advance technology where physical body looks like human being, but inside is a robot. An android might have superior capability than a normal robot such as capable of expressing emotion or thinking. On the other hand, a cyborg is less advance technology than the android. For example, a cyborg is incapable of expressing feeling and emotion. It may look like human on the outside, but it may also have some piece of non-human organs such as metal object on its physical appearance which can be indicated whether it is robot or not. However, androids are something that is difficult to determined whether it is robot or not. For example, in the movie “Blade Runner” Rick Deckard has to ask a series of questions to the android to determine if it is a human.
Actually I don’t feel threatened by them if Cyborgs would exist in the future, but I might not be so exciting about it either. Just thinking about some new computer technology being used to replace human would give a lot of trouble to us. For example, labor work could be replaced by cyborgs which could cause human to lose their jobs. If there are in fact cyborgs living in this world and being used in a war, it would be like the movie “The Terminator” where they use robots to kill humans. I still don’t see why we need cyborgs to replace human beings. It’s not like I want to see humans going to a war, but if we create something like cyborgs or androids to a war, it’s the same as creating a new kind of weapon, and we all know what damage is already done by guns.
Anyway, I think I believe that if cyborgs exist in this world, they could also be useful to humans for many reasons. We can use them to do some certain tasks such as being a house keeper, doing some extremely dangerous jobs or so many other things. If cyborgs will be used in the right way, that would be a good thing, but if not, it could destroy us too.
We never know whether we will have cyborgs or androids in the future. From many movies that I have seen, they have shown some bad consequences from having cyborgs or androids in this world like the movie “Terminator”, “I, Robot”, “Blade Runner”, or “Universal Soldier”, so I feel like it might not be a good idea for cyborgs to exist. However, I think that we won’t have cyborgs in our world in twenty or thirty years from now because we still have so many existing problems that need to be solved such as global warming or bad economic. We are not ready cyborgs for that yet. Maybe 40-50 years from now, it could happen.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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