Video Games: 1980 - Present

Video games have been around for decades. They have brought countless hours of entertainment to many people. They have even doubled as an inexpensive babysitter for parents. However, video games have seen a number of changes since the 1980s.

The video games from the 1980s were very simple. They were all 2D games, and each was very basic in nature. A racing game, for example, might have a few tracks and that would be it. Platform or puzzle games would feature fairly simplistic designs, because let's face it: there isn't a whole lot that can be done in 2D. This was also back in a time when developers and publishers weren't hugely concerned with the bottom line. They were interested in producing a good video game, regardless if it sold extremely well or not. This inadvertently resulted in the video game crash of 1983, due to so many awful games being released. It wasn't until Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) that the video game industry would rebound for good.

The 1990s ushered in the 3D era. Although initially starting out with 2D games in the early 1990s, the mid-1990s brought in new game consoles that were capable of 3D games. The graphics were awful by today's standards, but back then they were considered revolutionary. 3D worlds opened up so many new possibilities for virtually every video game genre. The 1990s also saw an increase in the portable gaming market, as Nintendo released new versions of its popular Game Boy, while other companies released their own portable gaming system to combat the Game Boy.

Finally, we arrive to the time period of the 2000s - Present. Several new game consoles were released that pushed graphics to be even more realistic, while also coming up with new peripherals -- such as the Playstation Eye, and the Xbox Kinect -- to further enhance gaming. Portable gaming systems had also drastically increased in popularity, as smartphones became mainstream and more people wanted to have everything all-in-one. This is a trend that will continue into the future, perhaps to the point of portable gaming systems becoming the new thing.

Nevertheless, video games had very much became mainstream, and as such, the quality of the games started to suffer. Because of such a wide audience, developers had to ensure that their customer base would not only enjoy the game, but also be able to complete it. Thus, games started to become a bit more neophyte-friendly, as puzzles were simplified, and several hints and alerts were built into games to help gamers out.

The reason for games becoming dumbed down, so to speak, is due to one major thing: developers and publishers now pay greater attention to their bottom line. As video games became more advanced in the graphics department, and also became mainstream, more money had to be devoted to the development of the game, and also to advertising the game as well. Developers and publishers soon saw that, as long as people enjoyed the actual game, consumers did not seem to care that sequels to a game had the same graphics, a short new single player campaign, and reused textures on multiplayer maps. As such, video game sequels to a successful game became a yearly thing -- Call of Duty and Guitar Hero come to mind -- rather than something that took years to come out.

Today, the video game industry is seen as a business. Sure, it has always been a business, even back in the 1980s. However, it is now seen as a very viable way to make money, and developers do not see much need in dumping in thousands of hours of time and effort in designing an entirely new game, when only a few things need to be tweaked. Will this trend continue? Perhaps. But this might end up leading to another video game industry crash, like the one in 1983. Only time will tell.

Written Analysis 5

Over the last several weeks, I have analyzed YouTube and its impact on society by applying several pop culture theories to it. Due to how much YouTube has grown in popularity, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that many pop culture theories apply to it. Most notably, the theories of heroes, celebrities, popular beliefs, rituals, and icons are the ones that best relate to YouTube.

People have become heroes, and several people have become celebrities as a result of posting videos on YouTube. What may have once just been an outlet for creativity, ended up turning into a career for several YouTube users. Through hugely successful music videos, and various videos that soared in popularity because of a cute cat, or a heroic act, YouTube became an icon. This has led to the popular belief that not only can you become a celebrity via YouTube, but that it is also easy to become one. After all, posting videos on the internet is not hard, right? Nevertheless, despite the success of a number of people, it is still unlikely that people will become a celebrity through YouTube. That does not seem to stop people from trying, though. In doing my research for these analyses over the last several weeks, I found it shocking just how well these pop culture theories relate to YouTube and its impact on society. By applying them to my topic, it was almost as if you could see the very fabric of society, as I read the many things that have occurred thanks to YouTube.

After all of these analyses, I have a much greater respect and appreciation for YouTube. It has done so much good for so many people. That being said, one must be wary of YouTube, as the success of a few might be driving thousands to post videos of themselves on the site in the vain hope that they, too, might become famous. Not only that, but as YouTube continues to grow, more and more people will be watching videos on the site. While watching YouTube videos is becoming a ritual, people need to be careful as that ritual could end up killing their productivity at work or school.

Journal Article: White and Nerdy

"'White and Nerdy': Computers, Race, and the Nerd Stereotype" by Lori Kendall primarily discusses the nerd stereotype. Kendall examines three main things in her article that highlight various aspects of nerd culture: the Geek Squad, the "White and Nerdy" song by Weird Al Yankovic, and the hip-hop sub-genre of nerdcore.

The Geek Squad is a subsidiary of Best Buy. Its purpose is to troubleshoot, and even install, computers and other forms of technology. The Geek Squad plays up the nerd stereotype in many ways, while also trying to downplay other aspects of the stereotype (Kendall, 2011). In particular, it plays up the attire aspect of the nerd stereotype. The stereotypical nerd attire is a short collared shirt, with a skinny black tie, black plants, and black shoes. In addition, nerds are often stereotyped as having a strong grasp on technology, so the Geek Squad plays this up in the hope that people will trust them more.

In other areas, the Geek Squad tries to downplay stereotypes. The most notable way it does this is through diversity. Nerds are commonly thought to be white males, and are even depicted as such in the media and entertainment industries. For obvious reasons, the Geek Squad's website tries to show off that they are a diverse company, as they don't want people thinking they have racist or sexist hiring practices. Unfortunately, most of the Geek Squad's employees happen to be white males.

The next item that Kendall examines is the parody song, "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic. It parodies rapper Chamillionaire's song "Ridin' Dirty," which raps about the conflict between young black men and police, and how the police want to catch them with illegal drugs and weapons. By contrast, "White and Nerdy" primarily focuses on many nerd stereotypes, like buying comic books, knowing programming languages, and debates about Star Trek characters. Despite this, it actually mainly focuses on the white male aspect of the nerd stereotype. While "Ridin' Dirty" is predominantly about the struggles of the young black man, "White and Nerdy" takes place in boring white suburbia, and features many things -- most notably, hairstyles -- that are stereotypically white and nerdy (Kendall, 2011).

Finally, Kendall touches briefly on the hip-hop subgenre of nerdcore. Nerdcore artists identify themselves as nerds -- who are mostly white males -- and sing or rap about nerd interests or activities. Essentially, nerdcore is an ironic juxtaposition of traditional black hip-hop (Kendall, 2011). In hip-hop or rap, the artists are often portrayed as being cool and confident, as this air of confidence is there because they are black. With nerdcore, however, white nerdiness is interjected, which is often believed to be the antithesis of being cool.

In the end, this article is not unimportant, nor is it important. The article was simply made to analyze the nerd stereotypes in the media. Ultimately, I would have to agree with the author's points. As irritating as the stereotyping is, it honestly seems to be accurate still when looking at the IT industry. However, I personally believe that the media and entertainment industries are partially to blame for this. By constantly playing up the same exact stereotypes, people end up having their views influenced, and start believing that black or female nerds cannot possibly exist, as only dorky white guys can be nerds. If people want the stereotypes to come to an end, then the media and entertainment industry has to be one of the first to lead the way.

References 

Kendall, L. (2011). “White and Nerdy”: Computers, Race, and the Nerd Stereotype. The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(3), 505-524. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00846.x

Written Analysis 4

As has been discussed ad nauseam, YouTube is a phenomenon that has taken society by storm. It incorporates everything that pop culture has to offer. Not only that, but it is even challenging a few pop culture topics, like stereotypes. YouTube is also home to another pop culture topic: formulas.

Formulas are everywhere. Not only do we see them in math, but we even see them in entertainment. These formulas are designed so that anyone making anything -- a film, TV show, video game -- has the bedrock of what to go off of when they start planning out what is going to happen and how the events are going to happen. On YouTube, we are able to see many user-created videos that exhibit these very formulas, such as high school plays. Some of these follow the formula to a T, while others try to spice things up and give their own spin on the subject.

In doing this, users are contributing forth their own ideas for how genre formulas can change. Or, at the very least, the videos serve as a fresh idea for a specific formula. For instance, a few years ago, a YouTube clip called "Panic Attack!" attracted a huge amount of interest from Hollywood studios, despite only being made on a budget of $300 (Rauhala, 2009). Even though the film uses a formula -- monster invasion -- that has been done hundreds of times, Hollywood studios obviously felt that it was a fresh take on the formula.

This further reinforces the reason why many people upload videos to YouTube. Perhaps one day, their video will be selected by a Hollywood studio, as it could redefine a genre's formula, or even just be a fresh take on an already existing formula. Whatever the case might be, I continue to be surprised -- even though I should not be, at this point -- at just how much creativity there is in the world. Some people have taken decades-old formulas and given them a fresh spin. One would think that Hollywood studios would be able to come up with these same ideas, but more and more seem to be taking to YouTube to find the next million dollar idea. That is what I have taken away from this analysis on formulas.

                                                              References

Rauhala, E. (2009, December 19). YouTube clip wins movie deal. Newser. Retrieved June 22, 2013 from http://www.newser.com/story/76467/youtube-clip-wins-movie-deal.html.

Heroes and the Cult of Celebrity

Since its inception, YouTube has become a phenomenon. In such a short amount of time, spending time on YouTube has become ingrained in our society. The amount of time that we, as society, spend on YouTube continues to increase as the days go by. As one could imagine then, YouTube has become a pop culture hotspot. Nearly everything related to pop culture -- including concepts such as myths, stereotypes, rituals, etc. -- can be found in some way on YouTube. Due to numerous people becoming celebrities via YouTube, and our society's obsession with all things involving celebrities, it should not come as a shock that it has become a part of the cult of celebrity, as celebrities and even heroes are starting to emerge.

While YouTube is starting to become a place where society can find personal heroes, it has not quite reached the point yet where it is commonplace. If anything, YouTube might be contributing to the devaluing of the word hero, as many teenagers see something cool and immediately say something to the effect of "that guy is my hero!" when all the person did was perform a neat trick in a video game.

However, one can definitely find evidence of the cult of celebrity when it comes to YouTube.  Our society is always looking for the next celebrity to gossip about, and YouTube is now providing a steady stream of self-made celebrities. As more YouTube users become celebrities, more people strive to be like them. They might have thoughts that making YouTube video is easy, and that it is easy to entertain people, so why shouldn't they start making videos on YouTube? In actuality, it is pretty difficult to become a celebrity on YouTube, due to the sheer volume of users uploading videos these days.

Regardless, this has not stopped people from trying their best to be like the celebrities they see from YouTube. When I really think about it, I would not be surprised if many of the people on YouTube that regularly post videos are trying to become a celebrity. Certainly, they could just be doing it because it is a hobby, but somewhere in the back of their mind, there has to be that thought that they will become famous for posting these videos.