#fifthpost

Wow, “Crowdsourcing” and “Crowdfunding”? What a BIG word to me! Let’s explore more on what does these two big words mean and is there any difference between them?

What does crowdsourcing and crowdfunding mean?

Crowdsourcing is the process that involves obtaining opinions or information from a huge group of people in an online setting, such as social media, the internet and via mobile apps (Hargrave 2019). According to Goodrich (2013), crowdsourcing required a big group of people with diverse skills, ideas and participation to generate content or assist in the product or campaign’s creation. In other words, crowdsourcing is the distribution of problem solving. As an illustration, a company that needs funds for a marketing advertisement, upcoming campaign, project, or research for an innovated product, it can acquire high amount of money, content and information from the crowd (Goodrich 2013).

Crowdfunding involves crowd to donate or contribute small amounts of capital to finance and support a new business project (Smith 2019). Based on Smith (2019), crowdfunding website or social media page helps connect huge networks of people such as investors and entrepreneurs together to bring a new project to life. Crowdfunding occurs when it comprises voluntary donation-based effort (Neiss et al. 2016).

What is the difference between crowdsourcing and crowdfunding?

So, crowdsourcing is basically the process where crowd search information together, whereas, crowdfunding involves crowd to contribute money on a voluntary basis to support start-up corporations, charities or even individuals (Harvard 2019).

Let’s discover the example of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding!

McDonalds’s! Yes, who doesn’t like McDonald’s? One of the example of crowdsourcing is ‘McDonald’s Burger Builder’.

This crowdsourcing campaign gave McDonald’s customers the sovereignty to submit ideas for the desired types of burgers they would like to see in store and even purchase it (Kearns 2018). Once the perfect burger is created online, the voters from all over the world can vote for the best ones and the winners along with their photo and brief bio will be listed as McDonald’s released the burgers weekly (Kearns 2018).

(Source: https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers)

Everyone has their own dreams, isn’t it? And these dreams can’t be fulfilled when there’s lack of capital. No worries, we’ve got crowdfunding! Kickstarter is one of the example of crowdfunding.

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website that allows inventors, entrepreneurs or even individuals to raise millions of dollars to fund development and production of an idea or a project (Thrope 2018). Thrope (2018) asserted that the successful projects include the ‘Pebble Watch’, ‘Coolest Cooler’ and ‘Potato Salad’. For the idea on making ‘Potato Salad’, the inventor, Zach Danger Brown had notoriously raised $55,492 where it has exceed the initial goal of $10 only.

(Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/)

Conclusion

Can crowdsourcing be beneficial to the communities?

In my opinion, yes, because crowdsourcing allows individual to source for big group of people from different field with different talent in a shorter period of time and it works more efficiently compared to traditional advertisement. Additionally, with the digital platform nowadays, users can utilize hashtags to find relevant source as well.

Can crowdfunding actually replace traditional funding mechanisms for the creative productions?

I think it can, because with the social networking website nowadays, it is easier for designers, content creators or musicians to seek help from people, provided the people like their contents and ideas, they will definitely achieve the targeted funding.

References

Goodrich, R 2013, ‘What is crowdsourcing?’, Business News Daily, 26 February, viewed 16 November 2019, <https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4025-what-is-crowdsourcing.html>.

Hargrave, M 2019, Crowdsourcing, Investopedia, 8 July, viewed 16 November 2019, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp>.

Kearns, K 2018, 9 great examples of crowdsourcing in the age of empowered consumers, Tweak Your Biz, viewed 17 November 2019, <https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers>.

Smith, T 2019, Crowdfunding, Investopedia, 26 June, viewed 17 November 2019, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp>.

5 billets !

My own language

Nobody can understand

My own language

The language I speak

Should I change?

INTRODUCTION

With the help of digital communities, the gaming communities have expanded into expansive central hubs for players worldwide to connect, collaborate and compete within games (Goncalves et al. 2023). However, it can be seen in recent years that there has been a shift within the gaming community. The gaming community's emphasis on play and camaraderie has started to become overshadowed by the growing trend of monetization of games. This change poses intriguing questions about the further development of the gaming community along with the impact of commercial interests.

In the beginning, Goncalves et al. (2023) state that the main role of gaming communities is for players to enjoy games together for entertainment purposes. From online forums to interactive game sessions, players are able to experience fictional worlds, complete missions in games and even forge friendships with each other. The rise of monetization in games, however, has created a new trend within the communities, disrupting the usual dynamics where players come together for the pure reason of enjoying games together.

THE EFFECTS OF MONETIZED GAMES

One of the prominent reasons for the shift in social gaming is the popularity of microtransactions and in-game purchases that can be made. Gaming communities are becoming increasingly interconnected with the economic structure of the games. Various virtual currencies, cosmetic skins, and premium items that are being monetized have created a world where the act of playing and gaming is now tied to the act of making financial transactions using real money. According to Markopoulos (2018), the game Clash of Clans uses four types of in-game currencies Gold, Elixir, Dark and Gems, where Gems are the most valuable but can only be purchased with real money. As some players wish to progress faster in the game and level up, they purchase Gems with their real-world money (Markopoulos 2018). As a result, these monetized features have created a dichotomy within the gaming communities, with some players embracing these microtransaction features while other believe that it disrupts the play of the game.

Competitive gaming, better known as e-sports, has also played a part in the monetization of games. Although e-sports has provided a platform for players to showcase their skills and talents in the game and even garner a huge following, the commercialization of these competitions have added a business aspect of it to gaming communities. According to Steinkuehler (2020), sponsorships, advertising deals and prize pools that can cost up to millions have turned e-sports into a profitable industry for businessmen and investors. However, this business model has now blurred the lines between passionate play and profit-driven motives for players and gaming companies alike. Sun (2017) states that the game League of Legends holds the World Championship, one of the biggest e-sports competitions, where the top 16 teams around the world will compete for the massive and enticing prize pool. In 2016, the prize pool for the Worlds Championship was a grand total of $5, 070, 000 (Sun 2017). Due to these changes, there have been debates in the gaming community on the authenticity and purity of e-sports due to commercial influences.

Furthermore, live streaming has also reshaped the dynamics of the gaming communities. According to Johnson (2019), Twitch, a streaming platform, has given rise to content creators who monetize their gameplay through donations, subscriptions and sponsorships. This has allowed players to turn their passion into a substantial profession, it has also changed the communal nature of gaming. The reason for this is that the simple joy of playing games may no longer be the sole reason for players to game, as the aspect of needing to entertain an audience in order to generate revenue now comes into play (Johnson 2019). This then turns the act of playing and gaming into a test of good performance rather than personal enjoyment of the game.

THE POSITIVES OF MONETIZED GAMES

Although monetization has brought new changes and challenges to the gaming communities, it is also essential to recognize that it has brought some positive changes to gaming communities. The financial success of the gaming industry has allowed for higher investments in game development (Ten Pixel Studio 2022). This results in improved quality of games, allowing players to immerse themselves better in games. Moreover, the rising popularity of e-sports has elevated gaming into mainstream entertainment. According to Ponda (2019), e-sports has aided the gaming community in gaining recognition and massive revenue.

In conclusion, the monetization of games has undeniably changed the gaming community, bringing about both positive and negative ones. Thus, striking a balance must be done to ensure that gaming communities can continue to thrive while being able to develop into greater entertainment.

REFERENCES

Goncalves, D, Pais, P, Gerling, K, Guerreiro, T & Rodrigues, A 2023, ‘Social gaming: A systematic review’, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 147, viewed 25 November 2023, <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563223002029>.

Markopoulos, P 2018, ‘The effect of monetization in the gaming industry. BA (Honours) in Games Thesis. Panagiotis Markopoulos’, University of the Art London: London College of Communication, viewed 25 November 2023, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340983180_The_effect_of_monetization_in_the_gaming_industry_BA_Honours_in_Games_THESIS_Panagiotis_Markopoulos>.

Steinkuehler, C 2020, ‘Esports research: Critical, empirical, and historical studies of competitive videogame play’, Sage Journals, vol. 15, no. 1, viewed 25 November 2023, <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1555412019836855>.

Sun, Y 2017, ‘Motivation to play esports: Case of League of Legends’, Scholar Commons, viewed 26 November 2023, <https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5119&context=etd>.

Johnson, MR, Woodcock, J 2019, ‘“And today’s top donator is”: How live streamers on twitch.tv monetize and gamify their broadcasts’, Social Media + Society, viewed 26 November 2023, <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305119881694>.

Ten Pixel Studio 2022, ‘Why game monetization is an important aspect for developers?’, Linkedin, 14 October, viewed 26 November 2023, <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-game-monetization-important-aspect-developers-ten-pixel-studio>.

Drawing Complex Figures and Shapes with Illustrator

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This week in Fundamentals we learnt how to create a ‘penguin’ in Illustrator, this exercise of course had potential for customisation, so I took the opportunity to create a seagull instead.

This was a very fun exercise as I got to create something unique and funny, as well as see my friends do the same thing with their ‘penguins’.

We also learnt about layering and using fill to create coloured shapes, e.g. the beak and the feet. This was very helpful to learn because before then we’d only learnt about drawing shapes and lines without any colour. 

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New Illustrator Shortcuts Learnt :

⌘ + j = connect two points

⌘ + g = group

[shift] + ⌘ + g = ungroup

⌘ + y = wireframe

o = reflect tool

hold alt/option when dragging shape = copy shape

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Current Software Skill Rating:

Windows : 10

MacOS : 8 (increase from 6 last week)

Photoshop : 7 (increase from 5 last week, this was due to what we learnt in animation)

Illustrator : 8 (increase from 6 last week)

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My professor gave us a bunch of assignments today about human psychology and philosophy. I had planned to go to the museum today or perhaps peek at an art gallery, but instead, it looks like I'll be doing this assignment in different kinds of libraries. I mean, I don't get the fact that our universities have a library, but none of the books there are beneficial to our studies.

"Might as well go to a public library," I mumbled to myself while groaning in frustration, scratching my head as I anticipatedly wait for the discussion to end. Mr. Coryback is an excellent teacher, but giving an assignment for the answers to be located in different types of libraries is a little bit tiring and bothersome.