Reading Response 6/4

To the White extreme
Question:
Aren't these games just an accurate representation of the feelings of society on sports and athletes?

Just because something is in a video game it does not mean you as the player have to agree with it. It seems like this author just takes a very broad view on video games and that they give the players the worst views of the sport or location things take place when that is really not the case, it is just the reality of the times. There are assumptions and stereotypes in sports that are not that nice and can be viewed as insulting to some people. Video games do not need to ignore these assumptions and make the perfect world, video games are just a representation of the real world and that should not be a crime. Stereotypes will always be around and you can choose to ignore them or just not get offended by them. But video games should not have to work around these to make their game family friendly or appropriate. The author makes claims that lead me to believe that he is blaming video games for letting this continue. All video games are trying to do is be as realistic as possible so the player can feel like they are there. And if the player gets offended that that is their issue and not the game makers to deal with.

Reading Response 6/3

Women and Games
Question:
Is it really fair to only analyze women gamers? it seemed to me like the categories they put them in could be the same categories for males who play games, from intense gamers to non gamers?

This article was interesting to me and at first i thought their argument was going to focus mostly on the stigma of women gamers and their reactions to being a part of a male dominated hobby. It surprised me that they did not focus on these topics nearly as much as they could have and I think that weakened their argument. Instead of focusing soley on how women feel about playing games with male protagonists and the women being very sexual, they decided to focus on just why women play video games. The angle they took in this article is not an original angle that really gets to the core of women playing video games and why it is interesting. The frequency and reasons women play video games that they found could be the same reasoning for men which made this argument pretty much mean nothing to me as a reader. I was expecting a fresh view on women in gaming, but what i read was an angle and topic that could be addressed about why males play video games just as easily as why women play .

Reading Response 5/31

race gender and sex on the net-semantic
Question:
Is the idea of going on vacation to have sex a form of identity tourism that can be disconnected from your real life? Or do these actions on the internet effect the way a person lives their real life?

This article made me really think of if you can really be one person on the internet and then a whole different kind of person in real life. The ability to go on vacation and receive sexual favors from random women and then go home to your wife and kids like nothing happened seems to not be possible, but when reading this article i started to think that is the stance they were taking. This article focused a lot on the ability to do whatever you want on the internet or vacation and then go home and go on with your regular life. I don't think that is the truth, any action, whether it is on the internet or in real life effect they way a person acts and lives from that point forward. Sex and traveling should not be looked at as a seperate personality or lifestyle on the internet. The actions that people take follow them wherever they go, even if those actions were internet or travel based.

Reading Response 5/29

Question:
Is it fair for companies to use your information in ways they did not directly say they would?

This article brought up a lot of questions in my head of how information is being shared and how easy it is now a days to get taken advantage of. Everything is so fast paced that it is easy to lose track of what you do and what you sign up for. Before you know it your information can be used in ways you never imagined. This article talks about the fact that information like your race and age and gender is being used by agencies to figure out demographics of particular areas. The use of this type of information is not fair to use in order to put them into groups and stereotypes. The fact that information can be used in ways that people did not expect when giving blood or other things like that is not fair and it would seem to me to not be legal either. Just because you can do something does not mean that you should do it. Technology has made a lot of progress but we should not let that progress cloud our judgement as humans and make us do illegal things like use information in questionable ways.

Reading Response 5/28

5/28

Hypes, hopes and actualities

Question:
Will there ever be a time where the hypes and hopes take over? and reality is no longer really real?

This article focused a lot on the hypes and hopes of the internet and what is possible. When you get into this realm it is easy to get carried away and forget about the limitations that reality puts on these possibilities. The hypes and hopes were mostly about the ability for someone to make a different virtual life where they can be any kind of person they want to be. This can be done and some people can get carried away and live in a virtual world but how realistic is all of this? I was pleasantly surprised that at the end of this article the author really brings it back to the here and now and reality and makes sure the reader understands that these ideas are still pretty far fetched. You can be a different person in a virtual world, but the idea that you can then just disconnect that from your real life is not very realistic. This author does a good job of showing you the possibilities if there were not limits and not human effect while still keeping it in perspective that there is a real world that everyone has to live in as well.

Reading Response 5/21

Question:
When you are making a stance on the internet is it more important to just get your words out there or actually be heard?

After reading this article I have more questions about if the internet has helped or hurt people who really want to make a change? This article focused a lot on just having the ability to get your words on a web page and not caring about who is really reading, but I think it should be the opposite. It is the idea of quality over quantity. is it more important to have more views or readers? Or is it more important to have less readers but make a bigger impact on that reader? I think this article ignored the fact that once you get your words out there on the internet it is important to have people take them seriously and learn from them. This article just praised the internet for being an outlet for anyone to use. This is true but it needs to be used correctly and effectively to really make an impact on your readers.

Reading Response 5/30

Question:
Is it fair for the author to make such big assumptions about George Lucas and his intentions when directing star wars when he can't stand up for himself and defend his actions?

It seems like the author of the article about Star Wars and farming introduced the topic in a way in which he would make parallels with George Lucas' life growing up on a farm and how those principles are present in the movie Star Wars. I was surprised when this quickly changed to the author making assumptions about the characters present in Star Wars. While these assumptions can be made in certain settings this article did not introduce the topic very well for my liking. I felt like the author just bashed the stereotypes that were present in the star wars movies and the characters. You can look into anything and find something bad about it and i feel like that is what this author did. He was too critical for my liking and it did not seem like the author respected George Lucas and his artistic freedoms he took in star wars. I don't think George Lucas had these intentions in his characters and they were too critically looked at by the author of this article.