Graphics

Source: onlineducation.net

Graphic Data

Headline: Highest Rated Games as of November 2010

Chatter: Older, classic games appear to still be loved by gamers.

Info:

1. Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998) - Publisher: Nintendo, Genre: Action/Adventure
2. Soulcalibur (Dreamcast, 1999) - Publisher: Namco, Genre: Fighting
3. The Orange Box (PC, 2007) - Publisher: Electronic Arts, Genre: Action
4. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, 2005) - Publisher: Capcom, Genre: Action/Adventure
5. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Limited Edition) (PS3, 2008) - Publisher: Konami, Genre: Action
6. Metal Gear Solid (PSOne, 1998) - Publisher: Konami, Genre: Action/Adventure
7. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007) - Publisher: Nintendo, Genre: Platformer
8. Goldeneye 007 (N64, 1997) - Publisher: Nintendo, Genre: Shooter
9. Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition (XBox 360, 2008) - Publisher: Rockstar Games, Genre: Action
10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, 2009) - Publisher: Sony, Genre: Action/Adventure

Source: gamestats.com

Photo Examples

Documentary picture -- The suicide nets put up at FoxConn (Image from Business Week)
FoxConn is the company that assembles our iPhones and video game systems for us, and the poor treatment of the workers there has been brought to light by the several suicides that have occurred there during recent months. The company has always had an unreasonably high amount of suicides, but there have been seven or more in a row who have chosen to jump from the company buildings. As a result, FoxConn put up suicide nets to show that they "care" about their workers. I feel like this picture in particular shows the cold nature of the company; just seeing the suicide nets there with people walking underneath them like it's business as usual makes for a powerful image.

Portrait picture -- Gordon Freeman of Half-Life 2 fame (Image from Kotaku)
Of course this isn't an actual person, but it is relevant to my beat, and qualifies as a portrait picture as far as video games are concerned. Kotaku took the image of a protagonist from a sci-fi shooter and changed his armor plating to pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A person who is unfamiliar with the game may be lead to believe that this is his normal armor, or perhaps until they see the symbol on his chest. Kotaku wanted to show that gamers support the cause and took a very popular character that everybody in the gaming community is familiar with to showcase the cause. If he were a real person, he looks like he's posing for the picture and supports the cause as well. This is a clever editing job.

Sun-Times vs. Trib: Use of Color

Both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune primarily use white and blue on their websites, but they both use the colors in different ways.

The background of the Sun-Times is completely blue with a white overlay while the Trib completely maintains a white background. Although both newspapers' links and headers are blue, the Trib also makes use of green and orange colors on the front page to make certain areas pop out. The only other color that the Sun-Times uses on its front page is the red that surrounds the Sun-Times logo.

Although their color usage is very similar, the Sun-Times does make more use out of the darker blue color. When you click an article on the Times, there is a gray box on the side that has separate sections highlighted in that dark blue. The Trib, on the other hand, only has this option above the articles; when clicking the lighter blue sections, a darker blue drop down menu appears with more options.

 I think both newspapers want to maintain the fact that they're both from Chicago, but need to use the same colors in different ways to separate themselves for each other.

McSweeney's use of fonts

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

I wish that I could snidely talk about fonts and their different features like all my graphic designer friends, but I can't. I don't know the names of most fonts, and I don't know why they look good for certain publications other than the fact that they "just look good." I have a hatred of Comic Sans MS, but aside from that abhorrent font, I'm no expert.

I like the look of McSweeney's because it's not obnoxious. There are a lot of colorful articles to read on the website, but the font doesn't reflect that -- and that's what I like about it. A font shouldn't distract a reader from content (unless it's supposed to). Fonts can take authority away from an article, and McSweeney's does not do that.

Most of the text appears to be in your typical Times New Roman. I'm not sure which font is used for the titles and headers, but I like the fact that the letters are spaced far apart. It gives the site a slightly "old-timey" look and reminds me of ice cream parlors. I like that all of the text is black because there's nothing worse than reading a bright color against a white background.

In a way, the simplicity of the fonts gives way to a little irony. Though everything is simplistic and clean-cut, there's currently an article on the front page about a 24-year-old female software writer who is secretly an escort. Her article is well-written and hilarious.

I like that the site looks like it's designed for pompous writers but is actually the complete opposite.

Story Links

http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

http://jesscolabufo.tumblr.com/post/587152697/gazing-at-princess-peach#disqus_thread

http://jesscolabufo.tumblr.com/post/367271117/are-the-computers-programming-us#disqus_thread

http://jesscolabufo.tumblr.com/post/367265390/are-women-vending-machines#disqus_thread

http://jesscolabufo.tumblr.com/post/367263734/morality-in-bioshock#disqus_thread

http://kotaku.com/5571850/intern-deathmatch-hey-baby (Mark's review)

JT

Mission Statement

Magazine name: ID.T (short for “Identity Tourist”)


It was difficult for me to come up with a short magazine name for what I want to cover, so I abbreviated it instead. The main focus of my magazine is about the culture of games; more specifically (for my beat), I want to focus on gender roles and how men and women are portrayed. Playing video games and reading a magazine can both be escapist in nature, so I thought about the idea of identity tourism and living in a world where people multi-task in so many different “windows” to the point of splintering their identities. Although people try to escape from their everyday lives, game designers unwittingly reinforce stereotypical discourses for players. I want to go beyond game reviews and write about aspects of games that nobody typically considers. As a whole, the magazine would hypothetically be about more than just gender, but that’s what I plan to focus on for my beat.

Media Ethnography

The website that I probably visit the most on a daily basis is Kotaku. I think that Kotaku’s audience is more general than specific since they do a decent job at appealing to casual gamers and “hardcore” gamers. They even cover indie games that most of the other video game websites don’t, so they have that part of their audience covered as well. Most of the people who visit Kotaku also like anime too, which I’m assuming has a little something to do with the title of their blog. But I feel like Kotaku isn’t just a blog because it has such a large following. Yes, people are critical of it like people are critical of anything, but Kotaku has to be successful in at least one or two ways if they have such a large audience, which is important to look at.
Whatever interests the editors and the writers is what gets published at Kotaku; everything is informal. This might sound like a bad thing, but it leaves room for a more casual atmosphere and a more casual read. The site feels friendly and I feel like I’m having a conversation with the writers. I don’t mind that the articles are usually opinionated because I’m not looking for “hard news” when it comes to video games anyway. By imposing their opinion on their audience, they encourage a dialogue. Not only does the audience get a chance to read about what’s happening in the industry, but they also get to know the authors a little better too. Some audience members are critical of the way that Kotaku is run and say that it lacks journalistic integrity, but I think that these people forget that Kotaku isn’t some news giant that’s supposed to try to be objective. It is a blog, and arguably one of the better ones out there.
Kotaku’s posts are random and aren’t limited to specific content. Most of it is video game related, but this isn’t necessarily a must. Many of their posts are videos from YouTube, usually something comical having to do with video games, such as a mod. There are also video game reviews and videos from big game events like E3. I like when they take apart controllers or video game systems so people can see how they’re built. A lot of their posts are reposts from other tech websites, but they always attribute the source and provide a link to look at the content from its original place. Kotaku occasionally gets criticized for doing this instead of reporting things themselves, but I think that this is perfectly acceptable in an online atmosphere where information is shared everywhere. If Kotaku wasn’t posting content from other websites, I wouldn’t even know that those other websites exist. They even repost people’s blogs if they think that somebody had an interesting thought. I don’t see this as a negative so much as I see it as Kotaku moving along with changing media.
I think the main thing that Kotaku is trying to accomplish is a laid-back dialogue between its writers and its readers. They don’t take themselves too seriously and revel in all things comical. Although there is a lot of funny content on the site, it is also an intelligent forum where gamers can go to talk about things like Ayn Rand’s philosophy being used in Bioshock. They treat gaming more like a subculture than a hobby unlike many other news organizations.

Beat Report

I have chosen technology as my beat for this class. More specifically, I want to write about video games—whether it’s a review of a game or the cultural implications of a game. I wanted to pick something that would be the most interesting to me so I would actually feel like writing; there’s nothing worse than writing about something you’re completely disinterested in.
I’m currently attending Columbia as a magazine journalism major, and I’m also a cultural studies minor. On top of that, I’m taking classes in the interactive arts and media department since technology and video games are what I would like to write about for a living. My angle is usually about the culture of video games and what they have to say about the culture that plays them. By choosing this as my beat, I’m hoping to have more of an opportunity to write about video games since I’m usually too busy with other classes to make the time to write about what interests me the most. I also think it’s important to learn the ways in which articles such as mine would be laid out in a magazine, or even on the web.
I think one website that’s devoted to video games and already does this well is Kotaku. The layout doesn’t take away from the articles, and there’s usually one giant picture to go along with each article to catch the audience’s attention. Their news is always up to date, and I find that they usually have the latest news about video games and technology before any of the other gawker websites too. Now more than ever it is important to report the news fast because the web has enabled us to do so, and Kotaku achieves this well. I only wish that they had more people on their staff who were as interested in the cultural implications of video games and technology like I am. People typically don’t take me seriously when I try to tell them what I like to write about, and my aim is to change that.
Covering stories like these are important to me because I feel like people don’t really take into account all of the technology that they use and consume on a daily basis. The fact that video games are on the more interactive side possibly means that messages are being translated through these media even more so than movies. Instead of blaming video games and technology for the “way we are,” I take a different approach. I argue that video games are violent because our culture is already violent. I argue that video games are hypersexualized because our culture is already hypersexualized. Video games can continue to reinforce norms, or developers can take a closer look at what they’re creating and figure out how to do things like make games for girls and women that aren’t incredibly stereotypical and condescending. I like to point these issues out.