I’ve been playing video games since I was very young, mainly because I have an older brother. Super Nintendo games like Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island and Mario Kart made me realize just how fun gaming could be, and also made me realize just how big of a gap there was in gaming between boys’ games and girls’. While my brother got all the fun games like Yoshi’s Safari with real working scope gun, I got some dumb Barbie game with four levels where she trips on her roller skates over flying pizzas. Because, really, what else does Barbie have to worry about but flying pizzas?

While my parents and brother never minded me playing his games, it became more and more apparent to me that the gaming that I got into (especially when the Nintendo 64 came out and I found myself completely addicted to Zelda: Ocarina of Time) was essentially a boys’ world, something I’d forever be an outsider in. More and more, gaming companies are realizing this gap between boy games and girl ones and trying to close it with more mainstream titles, but this movement is fairly recent and being a girl gamer still makes me something of an oddity. I get Xbox friend requests daily from people I’ve never talked to who just see that I’m a girl who plays games and thus want to add me. Is being a girl who plays video games really that unusual?

But then again, maybe it is. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the main reason I love gaming so much is that the men in my life have shown me how to do it and shown me how fun it can be. From my brother with his Nintendo consoles to the ex-boyfriend who showed me how to use an Xbox controller, I’ve always needed a translator into this world of male-dominated shoot-em-up action. Why is that? It’s not that men are smarter or more adept, because there are plenty of talented female gamers out there. I think it’s just more that these games are more geared towards men, and we as women naturally feel excluded. And if you feel excluded to start with, it seems like that learning curve feels even more insurmountable because nobody wants you playing with them in the first place. So it’s understandable how when a woman does decide the learning curve is worth it and begins to play games (especially first person shooters, a very male-dominated genre), it causes some excitement—and way too many friend requests.

Though I get friend requests all the time, I don’t often accept them. However, when I do, I have met some really good friends on there. As previously mentioned on my blog, my Xbox Live friend Phurion has taught me how gaming can actually be the jumping-off point for something creative and new. Phurion plays the Halo game series, essentially an Xbox-exclusive first person shooter game, and he’s quite good at it. But what really makes him notable is the fact that he takes the clips that one can re-watch from a past game in Theater mode, and then he uses those clips to create really interesting and well-done montages, which he posts to YouTube.

I’ve been a fan of his montages for quite some time, but when I found him on Twitter we actually started talking and playing together. My Halo skills have gotten somewhat better with his help, and recently we’ve started playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 together. COD, another first person shooter, is really fun and evens the playing field somewhat between me and Phurion. While he’s still better, at least it’s not by an insane amount.

Anyways, as I see what Phurion has accomplished with new media and the way he has used something traditionally consumer-based, like gaming, and turned it into something productive like his montages, I wonder why there is not more of a link between gaming and productive media. While Phurion has found a way to link the two (and in a way far better than most game-related YouTube videos), it feels like many other industries could capitalize on the possibility of consumer-based gaming turning into something more productive, and one industry in particular: education.

There has long been a gap between educational software from the learning industry and fun games, which usually belong completely to the gaming industry. While there are some semi-educational puzzle-based console and PC titles, usually the games that advertise their educational basis are, simply put, not fun whatsoever. Can’t there be a bridge here? Why do console games have to remain just fun? Why can’t someone play a console game and simultaneously be learning something, therefore being productive as well as entertained? The problem I have is the same that I’m sure the learning and gaming industries are facing—how to bridge the gap. Is there logically a way to create a first person shooter that teaches people something at the same time? To a certain degree, the Call of Duty series does teach players some historical information regarding past wars, etc, but there still does not exist a game which bridges education and entertainment admirably.

Though there are not currently any titles adding education to the entertainment, I still greatly enjoy my Xbox, both for the hours of entertainment I experience and the community environment and thus the friends I’ve acquired. Though I feel like the Xbox could stand to have more educationally-friendly titles and definitely a more female-friendly design and marketing system, I would not trade being a girl gamer for the world. There is something truly defining about knowing that I no longer need a translator to tell me what button to push or how to operate in the male world of gaming– indeed, I’ve gotten to the point where I can sit back and enjoy the game, occasionally smiling to myself when the other team realizes they got “beat by a girl.” Why, yes, yes you did.

Phurion and I have been playing on Xbox together for the past few weeks now, and we play and talk pretty much everyday. Recently, a new game got released- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I’ve never been big on the COD series (probably just because of how complicated the gameplay seems), but my boyfriend bought it, so I figured– why not? Phurion got it as well, so we’ve been playing that together over the past couple days, which has been pretty fun.

It still never fails to amaze me that I’ve gone from randomly watching Phurion’s montages occasionally at the beginning of the semester to talking to him everyday and even giving song suggestions for his new videos (the new video I’ll post of his has one of my fav songs on it).

Even though the friendship I have with Phurion has just about nothing to do with the more academic possibilities of gaming, it’s still a good reminder of the communities that are built around games and the important social role those games can play. Phurion himself is also an interesting example of new media ownership and mastery.

While nobody is a more enthusiastic advocate of media and gaming than myself, I’m not sure that there is enough of a bridge currently between gaming and education. While I’ve argued in my scouting report for the educational possibilities of the Xbox, there currently aren’t many ties between education and gaming, at least as many as there could be.

I feel like to tie education and gaming more directly, directions could be taken like that in my scouting report, ones that capitalize on the already social nature of the gaming world. Games could be created with a literary or historical base, and study groups could be created founded on the social principles of gaming.

Maybe it’s because my programs are free. Maybe it’s because I have a VERY technologically-savvy boyfriend who has explained to me what I should reasonably expect from my computer, my OS, my game console, everything. Knowing what programs, modifications and options are available has made me view what these companies are doing to their users as little more than theft. These users have rightfully purchased software that, quite frankly, is damned overpriced to begin with. To purchase or create a computer with no loaded operating system is a fairly cheap venture, purely because of how much of a computer price at, say, Best Buy is made up of software costs, but buying a computer loaded with Windows or Mac jacks up the price of a motherboard inside a hard casing quite considerably.

Many people are unaware of this, and happily shell out the money. Fine. But my issue really arises when these people make an improvement to software or the system, and circulate that improvement on the web for free. Great But then the software owners step in, create a new version of the software that’s generally incompatible with anything old, incorporate all the user-produced modifications without paying the user who created those mods, and charge MORE for the new edition.

What in the world is wrong with this picture?

You’re already paying for it–in my opinion, you should be able to modify it as much as you want, but the people at Windows and Mac should be paying their employees to think of modifications ON THEIR OWN.   Unless those companies start employing user consultants to create these modifications, how is what these companies are doing anything different than free labor?  Than theft?

I think more consumers need to be made aware of the other OS and consumer-created software options out there– did you know that Gimp Image Editor for Linux has just as many little buttons that I’m unaware of the use for as Adobe Photoshop? (same purpose, same product, but free) What about OpenOffice? OpenOffice may have a learning curve, but it’s created in much the same way as Microsoft Word and has the option to save your file as any document type, just in case your reader is still paying an exorbitant amount to write a document in Microsoft Word.

How about this–did you know that with Windows 7, Microsoft is aiming its marketing ploy at Linux? Seriously. NOT Mac. You know why? With user-friendly Ubuntu (which, yes, even has little icons like Windows.  I have a cute baby fox as my Firefox icon–it’s adorable, lol), Linux is starting to become a serious threat.  Users are switching. People are realizing in this terrible economy just how much it sucks to pay for an OS that generally doesn’t deliver the level of customization as one that can be gotten for free, and it’s about time, too.

I could go on ad nauseum on this topic (and perhaps I have), but coming from the perspective of a broke college student who has never been happier with her OS, I can’t help but sing the praises of consumer-driven free software from the rooftops and scowl in disgust at the already-rich companies who are making money in free labor off the consumers they’re already ripping off.

Maybe it’s time that the consumer of the consumer-driven Web 2.0 started to take a more active role in his/her web use, starting with finding out exactly what options are available.

Xbox Live comes with many features, from the aforementioned video chat to party chat (a useful feature that allows up to 8 gamers with Gold accounts to chat at the same time, regardless of whether they are playing different games altogether), and private chat (a chat of two people, which nobody can see occurring or interrupt). Windows Live Messenger is also accessible from the Xbox Live dashboard, complete with your normal friends list.

While Xbox may sound like a dubious tool to use educationally, the article we read recently about changing learning into games to encourage student participation (Jenkins) jump-started my thoughts on the subject. Math via video chat may be one thing, but discussing literature or writing over this medium? How likely is that?

Surprisingly so. While many may not realize they are discussing literacy, I hear plenty of people who are in classes together (often high school students, some college level) discussing their homework– whether the other one had done it, what they thought of it, etc. Is it really so much of a leap to transition from that conversation to a study group party chat? Perhaps not. And the real beauty of the idea is the prevalence of the Xbox 360 gaming system and its online community, Xbox Live. The Xbox system is widely available, and thanks to a new price drop on its systems, fairly affordable. While I do not expect every family to own a console, for the purposes that I’m thinking of, every family does not need one. Xbox Live, meanwhile, is the clear leader in online gaming communities. Neither the PlayStation 3 nor the Wii have anything resembling its resources for friends to assemble, play games, and just have a good time.

I believe that, if implemented, Xbox 360 used educationally would be much more for private educational gains outside the classroom and group learning than actual enforced classroom activity. I doubt there will come a day when children are ordered to go home and get on their video game consoles as homework (although that would be a pretty enjoyable assignment). Mainly, I think that the Xbox will be useful in getting students to see their homework in a more enjoyable and approachable light. Perhaps, like the Illinois math tutor, they can employ the wonders of video chat for going over homework questions or tutoring, or maybe they’ll think of entirely new methods not mentioned here. The point is that studying will be seen as less cumbersome, and material as something they don’t have to go out of their way to access. If a student can do their homework while they’re having fun blowing up aliens in Halo 3, logically, they’re more likely to do said homework.

The voice chat on Xbox Live, both private and party, will help the students achieve this homework goal. I remember when I was younger and would talk to my friends for hours on the phone, first about boys, then a little bit about homework and checking each other’s answers, then back to boys. Those were the days, no? But I also distinctly recall my mother screeching for me to stop tying up the phone line because she had to use it. These days many students have their own cell phones, so this is not so much an issue, but it can’t hurt that once you buy the yearly membership, those voice conversations on Xbox Live are unlimited, can it? Plus, I happen to find the headset much more comfortable to wear for long amounts of time than a phone pressed against my ear or an invasive Bluetooth pulsing against my eardrum. These headsets and the accompanying voice chats would be used much the same as I used to use my family phone for—fact-checking mixed with life-checking. Studying can’t be all work, and if nothing else, that is what my Xbox method advocates. Having fun takes the stressful edge off the work these students are doing, something which is known as reducing the affective filter—this breaks down a popular barrier to learning, so sometimes having fun can even be a good thing, indeed, it can facilitate the educational process.

Having fun while learning in this new system could be shown by the example of two students from the same class using the private chat feature. For the sake of the example, let’s say they have a paper due the next day, and it’s still the afternoon. Perhaps they’ve been working on drafts in class and already have most of it written, just a few sentences left to tweak. They could read what they had to each other. Or perhaps if reading a whole paper is an odd concept, even just reading words or phrases that sound off would help the student to recognize awkward wording or lack of transitions, forcing them to take a more active role in revising their own work. These simple steps can be what change a mediocre paper into a great one, and these steps can be accomplished through peer revision. Specifically, these steps can be accomplished through a type of revision which barely interrupts a student’s normal leisure activity, and doesn’t cost anything beyond the initial start-up costs—gaming. The students can use the text feature, which has many available symbols for different languages, if they need to spell anything out to each other, and the Windows Messenger option will allow both students the opportunity to reach out to other classmates who don’t have the Xbox console.

The essential idea I’m proposing here is that studying and learning, both when related to literature and writing and otherwise, do not have to be painful. These activities can be integrated into something that the student enjoys, making their work outside the classroom both more accessible and more entertaining, and making the student more likely to accomplish said work. Specifically, learning can be integrated into Xbox Live, giving students endless possibilities for party chats, private chats, video chats, Windows Live Messenger conversations, and much more, and the ability to integrate studying into their day without ever having to power down their console—in fact, with my system, studying works much better with that green light blinking on.

In the past week, I have played once with Phurion on Live, which was an interesting experience.  He’s really every bit as good as his videos make him out to be, which was only a little intimidating to play with, lol.  Now we’re friends on AIM too, so this growing friendship has made me think about what a funny thing new media really is.  I found out about him on YouTube, which moved to Twitter, which moved to Xbox Live and now to AIM.   It’s like there are different levels of new media for different intimacies.

That really leads me into my topic for this week’s blog–intimacy in new media, and how it’s being affected by the technology out there.  The Facebook YouTube videos in this week’s reading list were certainly hilarious, but down deep, they both had points.  The “Facebook Manners” video showcased a couple that was breaking up and all the crazy stages they went through in the process because they didn’t follow “Facebook manners.”  Is there ever really a good way to break up with someone, though?  I mean, I guess there are some ways that are less painful and more respectful than others, but when it comes down to it, someone always gets hurt.  There are certain protocols that are more respectful to follow, however, and some of the Facebook rules are pretty legitimate.  I’ve seen people get very (understandably) upset because their significant other changed their relationship status without consulting the other person.   I’ve seen embarrassing pics posted and tagged of people and the pain that causes everybody involved.  Social networking, while a useful tool, opens many doors for revenge and nasty behavior.

So are relationships bettered by social networking and new media?  I’m inclined to say no, though many people on Xbox Live who have met their spouses in the odd game of Halo would disagree.  There are certain benefits and certain drawbacks, to be sure.  As the “Facebook Mashup Relationships” video showed, social networking allows people to get back in touch with many people.  It allows them to meet people they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, and the technology allows them to search out people with their interests quickly, something which gives those two people commonalities and a quick groundwork for a relationship and “the perfect mate.”  Or something like that.  The problem with all this is that many of those meetings happen when the person is still in a relationship with someone else.  This causes all sorts of drama.

However, as indicated above, there is a good side to new media and relationships, which, ironically, is almost exactly like one of the downfalls–people can meet people they wouldn’t meet otherwise.  Back, far before cars, people married their first cousins in what would have been considered completely socially acceptable unions, but that was because they didn’t have the technology to go out and meet people.  Now, it seems, many of us simply do not have the time to go out and meet people, and in bars or clubs, the people you’re meeting are dubious at best.  Sometimes we just need a change of scene or the comfort and eased pressure of anonymity.  Whatever the reasons, many many people have found their mates online.

From match.com to online gaming, people are finding other people they have interests in common with who they never would have met otherwise.  New media has allowed and facilitated these connections.  Without technology, so many people wouldn’t have found their perfect person.

However, I feel there is a downside to new media that needs to be addressed– the “open door.”  Because so many people have met their spouses and mates online, I can’t help but wonder if their relationships feel transient.  Not so much that their relationship will end at any moment, but perhaps a doubt lingers in their mind that their spouse could meet someone else the same way they met that person.  It’s not an impossibility, is it?  Transience?

There are clear upsides and downsides to new media and relationships, some of the upsides being meeting people you wouldn’t otherwise, anonymity and eased pressure, and downsides meeting people when you shouldn’t be meeting anyone, and the “open door” possibly transient nature of relationships founded in technology.

Click! Added.
The next day, I got an email saying that he was following me on Twitter, too. Turns out, he’s actually a very down-to-earth guy from Seattle who just happens to be really good at gaming (so he’s already using the new media interface with the gaming element). He used his talent and channeled it into creating YouTube videos (also new media, but now, like this study, we’re confronting the problem of ownership online because the montages are created from his gameplay), and then finally got a Twitter.
The odd thing is, because of his amazing talent, he’s something of a celebrity online and on Xbox Live, something which has seriously taken away from his privacy (see the article). He gets queries daily as to how to make montages like his and challenges from people who want to play him in one on one matches, etc.
Long story a bit shorter, I posted a tweet last night after a rather depressing experience on Halo 3 (my kill/death spread hovered around 0 and, on my worse games, -2. This is really bad because you want this number to be positive, so you will be helping your team rather than being a hindrance). This morning I checked my Twitter to find a message from Phurion asking for my gamertag so we could be friends on Live.
Hopefully he’ll make me better at Halo. I could definitely use the pointers. If nothing else, I have a feeling that my teams will lose less with him on them.
New media is a funny thing. In a few months, I’d gone from never having heard of Phurion to revering his videos and awesome skill to having him as one of my friends on Xbox. I suppose the reason I felt like sharing this story is that online celebrity is such an odd and fickle thing. New media shapes people into these personalities online that really aren’t who they are, or are maybe only a portion of who they are. If it weren’t for Phurion’s complete mastery of new media, he certainly wouldn’t have that complete other online personality– maybe his friendships would be different. Maybe he’d only have a select few on his Xbox Live friends list, instead of having to delete someone in order to add me.
Maybe.

This quote by Rheingold is an interesting end to an even more interesting interview.  Though rather short, I thought this interview showed tremendous foresight on the part of Rheingold into the technological possibilities the future could hold for the world.  The quote above almost reminds me of Spiderman–”With great power comes great responsibility,” or something to that effect.

I agree with Rheingold that if technology is going to be putting more power into the hands of the average consumer (which it does), then those consumers need to be educated about the technology they’re starting to control.  Most of the computer things I’ve learned over the years have been learned quite independently of the school system–whether it be my boyfriend showing me how to code HTML and use a Linux operating system because my old laptop was so craptacular it could not longer handle the memory required for Windows, or my friends teaching me how to use social networking sites and which ones were “cool,” or even Youtube videos just now teaching me how to use Diigo and Google Reader (which, by the way, both look freakin awesome and I’m very excited to start using them).  Anyways, my main, long, rambling point was that the school system hasn’t really taught me much about using a computer.

Sure, my computer classes have taught me the more “educational” sides of computer literacy, i.e. using Powerpoint and Excel.  But I learned Word all on my own, and a fat load of good that high school computer class was when I was trying to figure out how to save pictures from Photoshop or Flickr (apparently my teacher didn’t think we need to know the right-click “Save Picture As” feature) to use on a slide show.  Actually, Internet browsing was discouraged at my high school altogether, now that I think about it, so that’s probably why he didn’t teach us.  Now, I ask you, how useful is Powerpoint or Excel if you are limited to the ClipArt because nobody taught you to access the billions of Internet images available?  Useless, right?  I agree.

This blog has been more rambling than usual, but the point is very true– if you are going to give consumers the power and technology of the Internet and computers (and good luck taking that technology back now,  since it’s already out there), TEACH them what they’re getting into.   Schools should really think not only about what students will be needing the computer for in everyday academica (Word, Powerpoint, Excel), but in their everyday lives. Really, though.  Why not spend a day going over a cool application like Diigo or Google Reader?  Why should Youtube be banned entirely from schools when perhaps it just needs to be used in a supervised environment?  There are amazing class lectures on there, as well as very educational videos on new and interesting applications and uses for the internet.

There is great power out there technologically, what with the Internet and mass computer usage, and it’s time for computer curriculum and schools (and parents, for that matter) to step up to the plate and take on some of that responsibility.

“You even wrote in a question at the end, and you got that wrong, too.”  LOL