JT Update: Chillitary Spending

Early this week, I conducted my interview with Northwestern professor, Johnathon Caverly. He had a lot of interesting points to make, and the interview suprised me a bit. Despite being fairly awkard, I learned quite a lot. I expected him to agree with most of my points, but instead he provided a good part of my Adress the Other Side part. He didn't completely deny my claims, but he took sort of a middle ground on most of the questions, where he leveled with me, but provided a very sophisticated view as well. For example, he didn't agree that the cold war directly led to high military spenidng today, but he did say that a document I'm examing, called NSC 68 represented the philosophy that the United States shouldn't put up with communism. It was very enlightening, and valuable to have someone scholarly who offered opposing views.

JT Update: Thrillitary Spending

After having written a rough draft on my paper, I come to the hard part: editing and refining. My topic is military spending, and my sub-topics are: the cold war, military expenses, Eisenhower's farewell speech, the current Military Industrial complex, the short story "Adams" by George Saunders, and asymmetrical threats. This may sound like jibberish, and it is. The hardest part thus far has been making smooth transitions so the paper flows like a waterfall. That and collecting more statistics and facts, and integrating those in well enough so they actually make sense, and don't seem tacked on. The good news is that I've attained an interview subject, a Northwestern Professor named Jonathon Caverly.

The Future of Games --- And Why We Keep Coming Back For More

I checked out the video that Mr. Bolos wanted to show in class today, Jesse Schell's talk at DICE 2010 on the future of games. He went in depth into the ideas that Bolos previewed to us. He gave many examples of this world that he thought would soon come to be, such as games on the back of your cornflakes, advertisments being beamed into your dreams, pedometers in shoes, a computer to keep track of how many Dr Peppers you drink in one week. I think this is quite an interesting point that Mr. Schell makes, in that many things are being turned into games and you can find games almost anywhere nowadays. Our world may very well be headed in this direction, and I wouldn't necesarily be surprised to see some of these things emerge in the near future.

Now, I'd like to switch gears for a minute. Bolos talked about how certain video games draw people in unique ways, such as Call of Duty: World at War's Nazi Zombie mode, where you essentially board yourselves up in a house, and unload on a literally endless tide of nazi zombies. However, there are a few distinct ways to get a game to sell and draw people in. One is innovation, trying to do something no one has ever done before, think Guitar Hero, Grand Theft Auto, Assasin's Creed, and Rock Band. Another is reputation, basically resting on your laurels, think Halo, Call of Duty, and Mario. Because face it, Bungie could put Halo on a shoebox and it would probably sell like, half a million copies before anyone figured out what was up. Yet another is pretty much copying an idea, and trying to do it better, or at the very least releasing that copy in between sequels of the copied. Think Dante's Inferno and Saint's Row, which are both pretty succesful yet are complete rip offs of God of War and Grand Theft Auto. So I guess my point is, it is pretty easy to figure out the sales tactics and selling points of a game and make an informed decision on whether or not it is worth your hard earned $50 or $60 bucks.

 I also found Sam Gotlieb's Cracked.com article. The article talks about why we are addicted to video games, and one point that stuck out to me went back to today's class about "experience points". It talked about how games dangle prizes in front of you, and make you "pull the lever" in terms of acquiring that prize. Whether it is a shiny new sword, a new cow in Farmville, or looking forward to picking up that weapon you've always wanted in Call of Duty... you will have to play more to get that prize. And to get that prize, in most cases, you will have to pay. Another particularly striking point. This is that companies are moving away from the once simple "here's 50 dollars" "ok heres your game. have fun", but with the onset of online play the game has changed. From games that charge 15 bucks a month, like World of Warcraft, to services like Xbox Live which  also charge you 15 bucks a month- the extra fees for the "complete experience" are everywhere. However, on Xbox Live you pay that 15 bucks you can play any game, from Need for Speed, to Halo, to Lego Indiana Jones online. And this is why Xbox Live is so expensive, Microsoft doesn't care if all of their millions of subscribers are playing just one game, they still get 15 bucks a player in subscription fees. So if you're like me, and only play Modern Warfare 2 online, with the occasional other game, Microsoft is milking us for all we're worth. However, there is another way to make money off of online services, and that is companie selling thier games in pieces, as downloadable content. For example, Bethesda Softwork's Fallout 3 sold very well. However, at first glance it would seem that the company didn't finish the game. This is because they released a total of 5 downloadable pieces, all priced at $10 a pop. Thats a total of $50 for those who downloaded all 5, and if most players downloaded at least 1, maybe more, maybe all 5... that's just a ton of money. So after reading all of that, which I doubt you did, you might think that video game developers and companies are evil... which they're not... mostly. They're just trying to get from paycheck to paycheck, and a genuine few are out to make a quality game that will make their dedicated fans very very happy. Every once in awhile a game will come along that is superb beyond belief... like Modern Warfare 2, and you will want to thank the brilliant minds that engineered that masterpiece.

P.S: So, if you have read this far, I would very much appreciate it if you commented either on the first part... where do you think our world is headed in terms of video games?/ Is Jesse Schell right, or is he criminally insane? Or the second part, what do you think about the experience points concept, subscription services/ downloadable content, video game addiction, or about modern games in general?
P.S.S: (Yes, I'm aware that I kind of sounded like a nerd that whole post... but whatevs)

Tactical Nuke Incoming? Junior Theme 10'

Well, after quite a lot of deliberation, and a bit of luck I've finally decided on a Junior Theme topic. It is on war funding, and the very high price of modern warfare. My question will be something like this: Why is military spending so high today, or why do 50% of our tax dollars go to military? To do this, I will look at where our tax dollars go exactly, and how much money the average American, and Cook County resident has lost due to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. I will look at how much war has cost in the past, and compare it to the prices of vehicles and weapons today. I also plan to look to the future and talk about the experimental technology of today, specifically Predator Drones and the future of U.S nuclear armament capabilities. I will use many sources, from online articles, to war databases, to novels, to New Yorker podcasts, to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech.

The Automaker's Folly

The last time we were in the classroom, we were talking about branding, and Sam brought up an interesting point. This was how certain car companies, create other brands, if they want to take the company in another direction. For example, Toyota released its youth oriented Scion division in 2002. And Nissan came out with its Luxury Infiniti brand about 20 years ago, and finally Honda owns the 'on the rise' Acura brand. Anyway, these automakers had a good enough reason to create a whole new company, but sometimes a car company just wants to release a single car without going through the trouble of coming up with a whole new deal. For example, Sam brought up the Hyundai Genesis in class, which has its own website, and a distinct lack of Hyundai badges. Hyundai wanted to release a luxury car, but didn't have enough reason, or money, or motive to create a new company. If you look at the sedan version, from the front it looks quite like a Mercedes C Class, but is much less expensive. A second example, is Nissan Motor Company. They released their 911 GT3 beater- the GT-R (pictured at top) in 2007. It is an incredibly fast and powerful car, which is unlike the Nissan we all know, makers of the mid range Maxima, Sentra, and Altima. And if you look closely at it, you will be hard pressed to find a Nissan badge on it. There is a small one on the back, but on the wheel and front you will find the sleek red GTR insignia. Yet another example is the Chrysler 300, which looks strikingly like a Bentley Mulsanne. (See if you can tell the difference!) From Mercedes' AMG division, to the Chevrolet Corvette, to the Audi R8, the examples of this trend in car companies are bountiful. What do you think about branding in cars or in general?

Marketing and Advertising Video Games: Is it worth the time?

I stumbled upon a very interesting video today, called The Marketing Machine it was on how and why
publishers put money into advertising certain games, and how they go about doing it. They talked about one game in particular quite extensively. It was the title Dante's Inferno, an action spinoff of Dante Alighieri's poem, The Divine Comedy. Anyway, long story short it was apparently a mediocre game but the producers decided to put out a comercial for it during the Super Bowl. The four industry specialists in the video discussed why this was either a good or bad idea. Allegedly, some think it was a good idea because it obviously reached alot of people, and sold half a million copies in February, making it one of the best sellers of the month. On the flip side, it may have not been a great decision because, how many people who are interested in a game like Dante's Inferno are going to be watching the Super Bowl. You're not really reaching you're target audience, but it may reach so many people that it won't matter. I thought this was an interesting discussion, and it really shows how advertising extends and is important to all types of products. I doubt any of you have any opinions of thoughts on this, but if you do I'd love to hear you share.