Computer Applications - Week 05
You don't
know your market - Game Art
Design
Industry
stops rapid growth, market changes in unexpected directions
- Childhood
pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - to play videogames
Increasingly, kids prefer spending time
indoors playing video games to unsupervised free play outside. What does this
mean for issues like obesity? In addition, if kids never experience the real
world, will they care about the environment as they grow older?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/childhoodpastimesareincreasinglymovingindoors
- Hillary Clinton joins joins Lieberman in
call for Federal regulation of videogames
“...I have developed legislation that will empower parents by making
sure their kids can’t walk into a store and buy a video game that has graphic,
violent and pornographic content,” said Senator Clinton..."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051130-5651.html
- City of Los Angeles sues Rockstar over Grand
Theft Auto
Hey! I thought "they" were "liberal"
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/01/27/gta_sa_makers_sued_again/
- Take Two shareholders burned (50% stock
drop) by "Hot Coffee"
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060216-6193.html
- New Xbox will censor kid's games
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24787
- Christian videogames rising
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24907
- Korean youngster drops dead after computer
game marathon
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25279
- South Korean Internet (online gaming) addicts
http://www.forbes.com/global/2003/0721/058.html
- Game-based training to become the dominant
teaching tool (what GAD students will really do with their careers)
http://www.computeruser.com/articles/2302,1,2,1,0201,04.html
-
Smaller Game developers under pressure
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4409905&pageNumber=0
- Game software sales fall 11% in Feb 2006 as industry
heads into chaos
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145516.html
- PC game software sales fall 14% in 2005 (they fell
7% in 2004)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=9952
- What it's like
to work for Electronic Arts (one story)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/
- Game industry "unions" begin to form
"...The gaming industry has, for nearly three
decades now, been primarily a domain of eager young men, willing to work
long hours for the chance to be behind the scenes at their favorite
hobby...Companies such as EA can get away with treating their workforce
badly because there is a never-ending supply of eager young replacements who
are willing to fill the positions of any malcontents..."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060213-6171.html
-
Virtual stunt-bots put stuntpeople (and
later computer animators) out of work
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/stuntbots.html
- But rising options working for the
military...Di-Guy - game technology military scenario
simulator
"...DI-Guy includes models and
behavior for approximately 100 characters, including eight kinds of soldiers
and an array of specialists- such as landing signal officers, plane
captains, first responders equipped with gas masks and MOPP gear- and male
and female civilians...DI-Guy's expressive faces option uses advanced
morphing to show a range of emotional expressions, move the mouth in
synchrony with speech, and move the eyes for gaze. This capability adds to
DI-Guy's effectiveness in training systems that include an emotional and
psychological dimension, such as use-of-force training for law enforcement
and peacekeeping..."
http://www.bdi.com/content/sec.php?section=diguy
Boston Dynamics - http://www.bdi.com/index.php
- Sex workers union denounces sexual
violence in GTA
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29704
- IGN reports on the real (though not huge)
link between videogames and violent behavior
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/692/692846p1.html
- Electronic Arts seeks to stifle
competition, Microsoft-style
http://news.com.com/Electronic+Arts+plays+hardball/2100-1047_3-5537175.html?tag=nefd.lede
- Study demonstrates physical link between
videogames and violence
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8449&feedId=online-news_rss20
- Gamer buys $100,000 in virtual land
inside online game
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27235
Digital Rights
Management (DRM) and Intellectual Property
The Internet is slowly destroying the music and film industry
"...The old-fashioned rock star has gone the way of the dodo and the
dinosaur. Never again will we have another crazy-as-all-getout Axl Rose, another
Jim Morrison who mistakes himself for a poet and has the hypnotic ability to
convince a substantial audience it is so, or another Bob Dylan who changes the
way a generation sees itself and the world.
Today's music industry is either moribund or dead, depending on whom you
ask. Downloading has destroyed it, and no one in the business is smart enough to
figure out how to fix it
...:
Today there is far more excitement at the introduction
of a new Apple product -- look at how people flocked to get their iPhones! --
than over anything artistic.
click here for link to
article
The end of television as we know it -
on-demand media kills advertising
"...In a recent report called "The End of Television as
We Know It," International Business Machines Corp.'s business consulting group
predicted billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue as recorded video
becomes the norm. Another study showed that interest in portable television is
much more intense among the rising generation of consumers; 48 percent of those
ages 13 to 17 said they are interested in watching a feature-length film on
their cell phones, compared with 23 percent among those 55 and older, according
to a survey by research firm Parks Associates..."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11300876
How much does it cost to watch TV?
http://www.gigaom.com/2005/01/12/a-small-exploding-tv-reality-check
Latest intellectual property crime:
refilling you printer ink cartridges
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/2005/09/02/the_latest_ip_crime_boxwrap_patent_infringement.php
Fraud, Plagiarism, and Identity
Theft
Identity theft fraudsters plunge UK tax system into chaos
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1991229,00.html
Credit card only works when spoken to
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994900
"Phishing" replaces computer viruses as
major form of malware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/29/blackspider_malware_report/
70% of people will reveal their password
for a bar of chocolate
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3639679.stm
LifeLock - subscription service for identity theft protection
http://welcome.lifelock.com/index.php
More Than Half of Students Surveyed Say
It's Okay to Share Digital Copyrighted Works on the Job
(it's not - but it is a good way to get sued...)
http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/More-Than-Half-of-Students-Surveyed-Say-Its-Okay-to-Share-Digital-Copyrighted-Works-on-the-Job.cfm
Plagiarism detection software on a roll,
trolls Internet for copyright violations
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62906,00.html
Turnitin checks student's papers for
plagiarism - we got you!
http://www.turnitin.com
Business Software Alliance offers free
software audit ("big brother") tool for detecting illegal software copies
http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/BSA-Offers-Free-Software-Audit-Tool.cfm
iParadigm checks the web for stolen newspaper articles
(e.g. ipeople who directly copy/paste online newws into their weblogs)
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25939
