Presentation Content - The Ethics of Videogames (Medal of Honour)

Introduction of the game

l            A series of first-person shooter games set in World-War II

l            Fight for United States of America in most editions

l            Enjoy stepping into the dangerous battlefields in the boots of warriors with diversified weaponry in order to achieve missions

Positive Ethical Influence

l            America army embraces this type of game

Ø            “Today's U.S. military recruits enjoy an arsenal of simulators and video games that sharpen their fighting skills and may even protect them from the mental stresses of combat.” (Jeremy Hsu, 2010)

l            Facilitate patriotism among American players

Negative Ethical Influence

l            Official Website: “They (the soliders) are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence.”

l            Extremely realistic figures and surroundings to imitate the war

Ø            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-dpxmnUqs

Ø            “World War II first-person shooters reduce war to an uncomplicated exercise of killing the enemy and celebrating victory. Dead comrades are not mourned…” (Schulzke, 2010)

l            “The message of World War II games is that violence is heroic.” (Schulzke, 2010)

Ø            “…the enemies are always tough killing machines that seem to represent pure evil. One of the greatest offenders in this regard is Medal of Honor: Airborne, which even abandons the typical German uniforms and weapons in order to create a more menacing enemy. The games reinforce the sense of using justified violence through various techniques ranging from patriotic musical scores to cut scenes depicting enemy atrocities.” (The Context of Violence in Video Games by Marcus Schulzke, 2010)

Irony

l            A new edition released this year changes to fight for Taliban of Afghanistan to kill America’s soldiers

l            Aroused ban of worldwide militaries and huge amount of critics

Ø            Ruin the patriotic image of the game

Ø            Johnny Minkley, a journalist with video gaming website Eurogamer, told BBC News that he thought EA’s decision to allow users to play as the Taliban was a marketing ploy. (Emery, 2010)

Reference

Emery, D. (2010, 14 October). Medal of Honor game goes on sale amid controversy. BBC News. Retrieved 21 November 2010, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11545028

Hsu, J. (2010, 19 August). For the U.S. Military, Video Games Get Serious. Live Science. Retrieved 21 November 2010, from http://www.livescience.com/culture/war-video-games-military-reality-100819.html100819.html

Medal of Honour. (2010). http://www.medalofhonor.com/

Schulzke, M. (2010). The Context of Violence in Video Games. Scan, Vol. 7, No. 1. Retrieved from 20 November 2010, from http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=147

Mouchette / My online identity / Just playing? - the ethics of videogames

Mouchette

The first question is that the website is obviously skillful in terms of web-design and, more importantly, conveying a sophisticated manner about art. It is impossible to imagine that a thriteen-year-old girl could have such quality. Normally a girl should not tell of her misery in such a subtle, weird and intangible way that nobody could sympathize with her! There must be an underlying purpose behind.

The website feels very disturbing because it uses a lot of unpleasant pictures, music, flash and so on. The artist endeavours to form a degenerate image of that girl. In virtue of such image the artist express his/her innermost unscrupulous immoral thoughts. The request of the visitors writing their names and emails seems to be a means to arouse their innermost bad thoughts.

My online identities

I have not many online identities.

The first one is facebook. It is the closest to my real identity. I used to liaise with my friends and get news from one another. And I would share pictures, short films and websites via facebook.

The second one is xanga. I like writing. Once it was my online diary. Now I would write some entries in which I share some of my thoughts or film or book reviews.  There is not much  information about myself.  But people would rather know me more if they read them.

The third one is this blog. Here I only tell the stuff related to the classwork. There is almost
nothing to do with my own personal life.

I have several email accounts. They are mostly for business used. They are just used according to their functions for different business. Meanwhile they act as spare accounts for one another.

Just playing? - the ethics of videogames


(a) Key Quotes

–“Today's U.S. military recruits enjoy an arsenal of simulators and video games that sharpen their fighting skills and may even protect them from the mental stresses of combat.” (Jeremy Hsu, 2010)

“World War II first-person shooters reduce war to an uncomplicated exercise of killing the enemy and celebrating victory. Dead comrades are not mourned…” (Schulzke, 2010)

•“The message of World War II games is that violence is heroic.” (Schulzke, 2010)

–“…the enemies are always tough killing machines that seem to represent pure evil. One of the greatest offenders in this regard is Medal of Honor: Airborne, which even abandons the typical German uniforms and weapons in order to create a more menacing enemy. The games reinforce the sense of using justified violence through various techniques ranging from patriotic musical scores to cut scenes depicting enemy atrocities.” (The Context of Violence in Video Games by Marcus Schulzke, 2010)

(b) Key Links

•Emery, D. (2010, 14 October). Medal of Honor game goes on sale amid controversy. BBC News. Retrieved 21 November 2010, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11545028

•

• 

Hsu, J. (2010, 19 August). For the U.S. Military, Video Games Get Serious. Live Science. Retrieved 21 November 2010, from http://www.livescience.com/culture/war-video-games-military-reality-100819.html

•

• 

Medal of Honour. (2010). http://www.medalofhonor.com/

•

• 

Schulzke, M. (2010). The Context of Violence in Video Games. Scan, Vol. 7, No. 1. Retrieved from 20 November 2010, from http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=147

Digital games - But are they art?

•

 a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?

Adams defines art in its philosophical, historical and formal aspects. Adams said that art is of its artistic value in different ages and should last and be discussed throughout the genereation. He mentioned that art is of several characteristics including conveying a certain message, having content and aesthetic quality, containing ideas, making people feel things and not formulaic. He added that these characteristics are not absolute for discrimination. But the more the characteristics is, the higher artistic value.  

I think Adams' definition is a comprehensive one. But he is more like out of a formalist tone. He emphasizes more on what art can do, what quality that art possesses. He is talking quite in a practical way how videogame changes to be an art . I think he is correct. Becasue this is the fastest and the most convenience way. If he approaches his definition in more philosophical and aesthetic way, it would seem to be very difficult to make videogame become art.

•b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?

Adam said videogames should be more like other art forms which people think they are art. And the direction is that videogame should not only focus on fun, but also has aesthetic quality by exploring its independent medium and becoming a new break ground prior to the old design.

Also, there should have been some external factors. Adams thought that videogames should experience what artwork experiences after it is put forth. For example, videogame should receive some decent critics on its "artistic" value, and even some decent awards to celebrate it. Last but not least, videogame require an artist who can be regarded as the author of it.

The ethics of digital games

a) At the beginning of the film, it introduced some Koreans who take playing videogames to be their jobs. They make money in virtue of taking part in videogames competition and winning the prize. Actually, this satisfies those having such apparently useless interest develop their corresponding careers. It is at least a benefit that they are doing a job that they love to do. However, it is very difficult to make such career. Those who do not succeed are just wasting their time. Indulging in playing videogames distracts people from their real lives.

In the aspect of the society, many organizations utilize videogame as a tool for promotion. The most vivid example is the American army. As the recruitment of soldier became harder and harder, the army thought of making a videogame about the army to attract the young people by involving them in a simulated shooting game, "American Army". The best advantage of videogame is providing a virtual world that people can easily approach it and know how it operates. Nevertheless, such a virtual world is not a healthy way after all. There is still a critical difference between simulation and reality. Those who too indulge and are unconscious of that are potentially forming a distorted ideology in the society.

b) The child in the film contracting leukemia could know more about his illness and the corresponding remedy by playing the game "Remission". The child could thus put himself together and feel more powerful to face it. On the contrary, that the film talks about a boy who shot eight people, five in head-shots, revealed that he performed what is interesting to him in videogame but prohibited in reality. He was obviously encouraged by the videogame to do such anti-social action in daily life. Some experts like doctors put forth that there is a connection between the videogame and aggressive brain activity. What I think is that the examples in life make it more convincing.

c) I think the government should not have the right to ban it. Even there is no videogames, crime, violence, mental problems and so on still cannot be avoided. I would say those violence incidents raised are individual cases. Videogame does not appear to universally and seriously jeopadize people. On the other hand, videogames can actually be used as an interesting educational tool like those questioning machines in museums. Videogame still has its advantages. I think the more important thing is education and self-discipline. It is actually a moral problem. We cannot solve the problem by simply banning it in law.

Most Interesting Technologized Bodies

I would like to choose Inter Dis-Communication Machine.

The two candidates wearing this machine exchange their visual perspectives, so that one can see what the other see. The equipment includes a heard-mounted display covering eyes and ears and a backpack with angel wings. Each HMD has two monitors and a video camera. The backpack is associated with a battery, a TV tuner and a transmitter. A TV antenna is installed inside the wings. The feather is a communication system for transmitting and receiving sensual experiences.

In appearance, the machine looks beautiful. It is intentionally designed to make the wearing person look like an angel. I think this is to increase the fancy feeling. Because, guess what, when we see in an absolutely different vision, we are attempting a stuff that human kind cannot do that! It's like going to a fatasyland! Not only the wearing person is joyful, but also those spectator beside are all entertained. The designer thought of this point. So such an appearnce can really facilitate the interest to try the machine.

The disigner claims that the purpose of the machine is to create a "double identity" or a "mutual identiity" for individuals. This interesting idea provides a preliminary trial to feel and think "where is myself". To my imaginaiton, the person wearing the machine may think himself an invisible man and feel like stealing the other's vision. However, his body is seen in the other place. The identity of "myself" is obscure. This may arouse the individual's curiosity to commit something generally prohibited in daily lives. This, I think, would be many people's dream. Fortunately, this machine is just forming an identity in vision only. The action would be still done by their own.

The two-way identity exchage aims at creating an identity to deal with "myself". He has to adapt himself to coordinate two identities. Videos shows that people trying the macine do not get used to it. That means to establish an actual double identity at the same time is quite a difficult thing. How on earth this idea could be developed to getting along with people and "myself" by exchange identiies? There must be a lot of interesting evaluation to be resulted through the amusing action of the people wearing the machine.

Look at Youtube (Take "Bus Uncle" as example)

1. How many viewers are estimated to have watched the youtube video?

According to Wikipedia, "Bus Uncle" had been edited for fifty odd versions and all of them was uploaded to youtube, totally over seven million people had watched the video in one month. The most popular version is the billingual one which received 2,613,498 views till now.

2. How would you rate the video?

•(a) Is it of high quality in technical terms? Is it interesting aesthetically eg camera angles, use of light, the narrative, and so on?

•

The video is of hardly no technial consideration. It was just merely shot by a mobile phone in candid way. The camera angle just came from the seat of the camera man so as to capture the two quarreled guys. No aesthetic concept was used then. The content was just the improvised conversation of the guys. No narration or any storytelling technique was implemented. The appearance of the video had obviously not been processed. It was a raw video. All in all, there is no aesthetic approach to make this video.


(b) Does it raise interesting socio-cultural issues? 

Yes, it does. Bus Uncle dominated the conversation. He told his dissatisfaction thoroughly in virtue of retorting the young man who annoyed him. Also, he demanded a proper solution so that he pestered the young man for such a long time. In some way he demonstrated the complaint of Hong Kong people living under pressure and demanding justice. This is the social issue concerning the video. Besides, Bus Uncle told in a serious manner with an amusing tone. Sometimes he used foul language which people might think interesting in scolding people. In other words, Uncle Bus was performing the popular speaking culture which people find interesting. So this is the reason that the video became so popular. Meanwhile it also reflected the socio-cultural problem which is the easily-provoked hostility of interaction among people due to their suppressed mental lives.

3. Do you think it deserved the attention that it received from the internet community?


I think it deserved. The video shows the naked reality in the society. We are indifferent to recall the potential contradiction within inter-personal relationship and our stressful living style in our daily lives. The video is to recall these stuffs. Besides, the internet is the most casual media to access so that such low-quality video is okay to be placed in here. The audience of the internet are all ordinary people, so that they, of course, identified with Bus Uncle.

4. Do video_sharing sites such as Youtube enhance or worsen creative culture? Comment.


I would like to say video sharing sites enhance creative culture. Because these sites provide a free and convenient platform to people to show their talents. Although most of them may not be professional or just for fun, there are actually a lot of amazing performances on these sites. In order to draw attention they strive to make independent selling points for their films. To some extent, competition is effected to encourage creativity. Not only the academic or professional innovation is favorable, but also the vulgar one. 

Discussion on "Mission to Earth"

1) Using “Mission to Earth” as an example, note what is new or different about digital cinema compared totraditional filmmaking? Consider the story and appearance of the film.

The story of the traditional films is always generalized by the script. Actors perform and speak dialogues, which means both the visual and verbal elements coherently contribute to show the story. However, digital cinema broke this rule. In "Mission to Earth", there are no dialogues. The story is told by the narrator using voice over while the actor is doing what the narrator tells. This indicates that the visual and the verbal elements can be presented in different way independently. Even they have nothing to do with each other at the very moment when the narrator diverge his talking on the actor. Thus, more possibilities in emotional expression and structural organization of the story are available to filmmakers.

Besides, the footage changes at an instant, interrupted by a conspicuous pause of the motion.We can experience an operation of randomly drawing the footage that the film appears to change its chapter and content. It resembles the format of DVDs. This implies that digital cinema is more like classified footage extracting from a database and constituting a film.

The appearance of the film is also affected. As "Mission to Earth" shown, graphics are applied on the film. According to Lev Manovich, mentioned in his writing "What is Digital Cinema?",  multi-media like 3D animation, scanned pictures, processed images etc can be shown via the same medium because different visual elements are eventually transformed into "pixel" by use of various softwares. Traditional cinema cannot do that. 

The film constantly presents composite shot where different screens showing different content are seen simultaneously. The screens are distributed freely in different positions and sizes. Digital technology provides such medium that the temporal and spatial sensation are manipulated to give fresh new feeling of films.

2) What other art forms (eg film, digital art, painting, websites etc) does this film remind you of? Explain the similarity. 
The film reminds me of experimental films. Actually these films manipulate the form of the films and try to present the content in a different and subtle way apart from the main stream. This film also manipulates the form and directly shows how digital technology differs from traditional filmmaking.

Technology of Photography

1) What are some photographic effects that can be achieved using digital or analog (darkroom, film, light etc) technology?

Both digital and analog technology can change the colour, texture, luminosity and image size. They can also change the content of the photo like the shape of the object.


2) What are some photographic techniques that can only be done using digital technology?

(a) Analog technology cannot provide a immediate accomodation for photo effects. Photographers can only assume the effects in virtue of their professional and experience. The result is always seen when the image processing is finished. Digital technology allows an immediate preview and delete in order to anticipate and achieve the most delightful effects.

(b) Certain amendment of analog technology on the photo cannot be restored while digital can.


3) What is the difference between analog photography and digital photography?

(a) The limitation of alteration of the two technology is different. Analog technology can just alter on a primary level. For instance, it can partly or totally change the colour or the texture in a very rough manner. It cannot go deep into minute amendment. The individual using digital technology can arbitrarily fuse parts of the images together, add abundant effects onto the photo, and therefore generailize a fresh new image.

(b) Various equipments and tools are necessary to implement analog technology. However, digital technology just needs a digital camera, a computer and a proper software to make photographic effects.

The power of Photoshop

I took this photo on my last day of internship in Hong Kong Art Centre. This was my working desk. I was not that busy, huh.

                                         Orginial photo:

                                         Modified by Photoshop:



The original photo is a realistic one that looks boring and ordinary. The modified one feels more emotional and artistic.

Wiki or Britannica?

I choose Wikipedia. People might think that wikipedia collaborating a huge amount of information from various sources would result in a larger possibility of false information. I would say such incredible amount of audience can yet contribute to supervise the truth of the information. I believe that the power of public excels that of an expert.

As a matter of fact the reliability of most information can hardly be gauranteed by only one party. Open amendment of the information let correction possible. Even if the information appears to be unlikely to prove true, there are at least two arguments juxtapose in the database. Audience can justify themselves anyway. This further enhance the objectivity of the information because it is not dominant by just one party.
Wikipedia also gives the advantage of richness for the database. Every one has a unique frame of reference of their knowledge. Their collective reference can give rise to plenty of information to the most extent, which a proprietary source can never do.

Elson on Modern Times

Chaplin was experiencing a tense life in the movie. He had to work fast in order to catch up the speed of the machine. That gave him a great pressure that he couldn't help stop himself working. He addicted inevitably to repeat his working gesture, screwing, while seeing anything resembling a screw. Chaplin playing a joke on this was an irony to the new technology which gave rise to mental problems to people. That's why he was messing up in the factory eventually.

Such problem extends to the social aspect. Disputes raised among Chaplin and people in his working environment, including not only the fellows of Chaplin, but also innocent passer-by happening to rush into Chaplin. Machines involving in lives seem to be obstacles within interpersonal relationship. Much coordination has to be drawn to get along with one another.

Chaplin told the problem in the sense of humour. The reality is our lives are affected by new technology in a subtle way. I would like to share that I always flow into a rage when I can't manipulate the computer properly.  Digital environment forms a rushing lifestyle. People get used to it and are prone to be impulsive and sensitive to efficiency. And I am one of the victims.

Hi there!

Hi folks, this is Elson. My major is Visual Studies. Good to see you guys.