#longpham

So the machinima I wanted to analyze might be stretching the definition of machinima too much.  However, if the Leeroy Jenkins is considered a machinima then why not this one?  It is a video of a death knight entire final instance of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjrjsxggGMc

This machinima ties into the chapter on deviance of play.  Honestly, I didn't really like that chapter because it really doesn't showcase true deviance of play but rather showed ways to not play in World of Warcraft.  In my opinion, this is true deviance of play, that is to take content in which one is supposed to have a raid (10 or 25 people) and clear it as one player.  My main character is a hunter and I was and still am jealous of death knights and all their solo videos.  I still solo from time to time but nothing as "hardcore" as last expansion raids.  There are also videos of death knights killing other bosses like Yogg-Saron.

I love the introducing cinematic in World of Warcraft.  It displays 3 important concepts to a good introduction in games for me.  The first is introducing the world.  In a game with a massive world/playground, the biggest hook for a player is to awe the player with how large and beautiful it is.  The second is to give the player a little background but to NOT overload the player with mindless jargon and important terms.  Lastly, to give an idea of what kind of role the player has.  For some games, it might be "the chosen one" but in WoW, it makes a clear distinction that you are ONE of "insert race here".  I think in mmo's, its an important distinction since many people like to consider themselves the hero in their own story and therefore invincible and it might lead to more "leeroy jenkins".  My qualifications for a good introduction in games might be pretty low but one would be surprised at how many games fail at that and thus, fail to grasp my attention.  For example, despite it being a fantastic game after.... 30 minutes in, Skyrim's introduction leaves much to be desired.  I mean really Bethesda? Of all the places to introduce the character, you pick the blandest area?

So there's a lot I would like to talk about with these chapters that we read.  I am a long time World of Warcraft player and a huge lore nut so I found a few parts a bit jarring.  The first is the how outdated this book is and it's only less than 4 years old.  The second is the discussion on feminism and how the author leaves out, who I believe are, the prominent feminist figures, Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner.  Azshara is currently an unknown godlike entity at this point (also, she was not seduced by Sargaras, she encountered him by chance from trying to change the world to her ideas of perfection ie conform others to be like her; so yea, she was always been corrupted before him), Tyrande has always been in the background until her husband comes into play, Modgud was mostly ignored until the events of Cataclysm and Aegwynn's history is laid out in the book.  Jaina is the sole reason why there is ANY truce at all between the alliance and horde and probably the sole voice of reason on the alliance side.  Sylvanas broke free of "slave-master" of the undead and then went, rallied the undead and called themselves Forsaken, defeated both the demons trying to enslave them again and the human occupation in Lordaeron (northern continent in the Eastern Kingdoms) and took the continent as their new homeland.  Another point is how I believe that every character is so interconnected at this point that it would be pointless to argue that a female character does so and so because of a male character because now, you could say the same if the genders were reversed.

Ooh, I think I wrote too much on that.  In the other chapter, I wanted to talk about perception, mostly 3 questions.  The first starts out with whether or not stereotypes are bad because there seems to be a consensus that it is but we keep on using them.  What if we consider the the races are not being stereotyped?  What if the races simply have attributes to some races, bad and good?  The author remarks on how as the person playing WoW, we would be turned off by the Troll's comments of halitosis.  However if we were truly role-playing, we would not be turned off.  We would accept that trolls like halitosis and since we are trolls therefore we like halitosis.  If we are not role-playing, then we are disconnected from our characters and even though we might be disgusted because we are humans, the trolls we are playing as would not care.  The author insists on judging the races on human standards and so I ask why?  And now I realize that the second half of this paragraph deals with my second question...  Oh and every female race is sexualized compared to their male counterparts (not that I consider this a good or bad thing).  Yes, even female dwarves.

So I read chapters 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 36.  I chose some based on their titles.  Others I chose because I saw the first lines of the chapter when I finished the previous chapters and thought it was interesting enough to finish reading.  I also chose the last chapter because it was the last chapter and I like reading conclusions; it gives me a sense of completeness.  I tried not to judge chapters based on length and boy, do I regret that.

24: The first chapter I chose based on its title and it was arguably the longest chapter in the book.  I tried my best to read it and to "absorb" the contents but around 5 or 6, I think I may have blanked out. 

25: Another chapter I chose because of its name.  I found this chapter to be one of the most interesting in the book because I always believed that human movement could be modeled using computers and there was an algorithm for it.  I also firmly believe that true human movement simulation is the combination of the three classifications they list in the chapter.

26: This chapter was similar to 24 as in it was too long and I blanked out halfway.

29: I chose this chapter because I have a fondness for history and I honestly never knew there was such a connection between rap and the Islamic faith.  Perhaps I have read

30: This was the first chapter I read because I saw the first few lines.  The rap made me think about the difference between a poem (that rhymes) and rap and whether there was any difference at all.  Then I read the second part and although I agree with it (just maybe not as fervently as the writer does), it seems like one big rant.  The third part was pretty cool too. Note: I really hope I don't sound this ranty in my previous blog posts.

31: Another history lesson I enjoyed.  There were a couple meticulous details I could do without though, like the content of the bells.  Also, math and algorithms, woo!  The proposed algorithm does not seem too hard to implement.  Just give me how many bells, what kind of order you'd like to play them in and I could give you the sequence for which day assuming you ring one exact sequence a day without repeating.

32: The other chapter I chose because I liked how the first few lines.  I'm not sure if I was to learn something in this chapter.  I mostly thought about the questions and points the writer states.  It was... enlightening I suppose.

36: I like reading the beginning and end, it gives me a sense of completeness.  It wasn't until I got the chapter when I saw that Lanier had written this chapter.  And well, it seem like the same grumpy ole Lanier who written the manifesto.  I mean I do agree with his thoughts and theories particularly the fifth theory.  It also isn't the music industry that is suffering but also the movie, tv shows, and gaming industry.

So we talked about a what if scenario where the internet would be shut down in maybe a week or two.  Honestly, I can imagine it very easily but it would just be so irresponsible, in my opinion.  I consider it so for two reasons.  The first is that the ease of access to information and how fast it is to acquire it.  Let's say somebody is looking up the Roman empire.  On the internet, one would just have to log onto the internet, and hit up wikipedia or google.  All that is done in 5 minutes (unless you have dial-up then maybe >10 minutes).  If there was no internet, he or she would have to walk to the library, ask the librarian for books on them, and then they would look for it.  It could take 20-30 minute at least and that is if the library is close.  Not everybody is as fortunate though.  Let's say he or she can't find the information that he or she wanted specifically.  A few clicks through wikipedia and a few more searches and he or she would find that information.  In a library, there is no guarantee that the library has the book with the information that you need.