Utilization of social media in mobile game on iOS and Andriod

Ever downloaded a game on your iOS or Andriod device only to be hit with a login screen asking f

or your Facebook or Twitter credentials? More and more games on mobile platforms like android and iOS are asking its users to link their game profiles with their Social Networking accounts. Some games need an established network of friends who you can play with and thus, these links to your profile are deemed necessary. They are essential for the game to function well, such is the case of titles like “Words with Friends” and “Draw something”. Although they can function independently, the inherent ties to people that you know in real life are at the core part of its game-play. In the former, you are asked to guess a word based on a few sketches by your peer. In this case, the social element is integral to the game. The game cannot function well without another player at hand.

                In other games, “friends” are utilized to gain access to certain levels or provide “aid” to your journey or game. They are not essential for you to complete or play the game but it is optimal if you have them. In this case, Social linkages are seen as a means to “make life easier” and provide you with an extra boost than what is normally allotted. To put it simply, your Facebook friends are merely there as additional tools or resources that you can use.

                How does this benefit the Game publishers? When these game publishers ask for your credentials, they gain a little bit of information of who its users are. They can leverage this to tailor products that would cater its user-base and thus drive profit. Furthermore, whenever you “post an achievement” on your wall, that is effectively free advertising. They didn't even have to pay you to spread the word regarding their game.

                Facebook has already tightened its rules on “auto posting” on your behalf; it was possible for videogame publishers to write posts on your wall the minute you agree to their terms of service by clicking on accept, now it requires you only to share the minutest data and prompts you every time it attempts to post to your timeline. It is hard to see the mobile gaming platform moving away from that practice any time soon. People are valuable assets, and your friend’s list is a treasure-trove waiting to be exploited.

Source:

https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/06/26/growing-mobile-games-and-apps-with-facebook/

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/games/mobile/bestpractice

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Brendon Martin Borgonia

The effect of online gaming on future generations.

The kids that are playing all these online games today are going to grow up tomorrow and become the next generation that overtakes us. And we can say that they will be highly affected by the kind of games they will play. According to raisesmartkid the following positive behavior's are seen in the kids playing online games, they are as follows ability to follow instructions, problem solving logic, hand-eye coordination, planning and resource management,  multi tasking, quick thinking, accuracy, strategy and anticipation, situational awareness, developing reading and math skills, perseverance, pattern recognition, estimating skills, inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. mapping, memory, concentration, improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information, reasoned judgments, taking risk (which is both good and bad), management, simulation and real world skills.

Now we will discuss the negative affects caused on the children, according to raisesmartkid again the following affects can be seen, Children playing violent games are seen to show violent behavior, playing too much online games makes a child socially isolated, Some video games teach kids wrong values (such as violent behavior, aggression are rewarded, Women are portrayed as weaker characters and etc ), many games confuse reality and fantasy,  when interacting with other players online a child can pick up bad behavior or language from them (other players).

As we can say after going through the content stated in the previous paragraphs that children today are highly affected by the games they play. These games kind of define the kind of person they will become tomorrow. We shouldn't forget that the kids in front of us will grow up and eventually become the next generation. What do we want for a better tomorrow? A person who has proper values or a person who is completely white washed in a negative way by the games he/she plays. It has been scientifically proven that children learn very quickly from their surroundings and hence parents should always check the kind of games their child is playing. A parent should encourage their child to play nice informative games instead of letting them play violent and blood thirsty games. Moreover Government should also enforce more strict rules that bans games for being too violent (which is done only in few countries such as united states which banned grand theft auto san andreas  for violence and sexual content in 2005). Proper measures should be taken by everyone to make sure that a child gets whats best for his growth and future after all we are talking about our future generation.















References
-http://nanobitwallpaper.com/future-video-game-consoles/
-http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas

Streaming for a Living

Streaming of tournaments as has been previously discussed in another blogpost is a growing trend among competitive games like Starcraft, League of Legends, Defense of the Ancients to name a few. As an extension of this, Professional Gamers have started to stream their casual non-tournament games for public viewing to their legions of fans. Picture this, Lebron James playing a few hoops with friends being broadcasted live, or Tiger Woods playing at a local golf course, all for the private enjoyment of their fans. Now imagine the fans having a direct interaction with the athlete and can even send messages for a special request. That has all been made possible for Professional E-sports gamers courtesy of Twitch.tv.

                Twitch is a streaming service tailored specifically for the purpose of broadcasting games live to a myriad of spectators. A number of E-sports tournament organizations utilize the company’s technology to do just that as has been discussed in another blog post. Remarkably though, a lot of Professional Gamers and even some non-professional ones, are utilizing the exact same service to reach out to their respective fan base. It provides an avenue for interaction, the pros can give out tips and tricks or just showcase their mechanical game prowess.

                So how do streamers earn money? Advertising. Similar to how google places ads all over its products. Twitch allows streamers to air ads. Then payment is calculated based on the number of unique active viewers and the revenue is split between the hosting site i.e Twitch.tv and the streamer. These are targeted advertisements and the type of ads shown depends on geolocation and targeted demographic. In League of Legends, one of the popular Pro-players from Team Dignitas earned $8,000 in streaming alone. Team SoloMid’s Dyrus is estimated to earn $100,000/year majority of which comes from streaming; the same goes for TSM TheOddOne who rakes in an estimate of $80,000 annually.

                There is much speculation on the actual calculations on the earnings and the topic is extensively discussed on the Reddit Thread :

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/

                It does however take a lot of effort especially for players who are not professional gamers to gain a loyal following that will watch them stream. It takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of creativity to differentiate yourself from thousands upon thousands of other streamers who are just like you. The unpredictability and volatile nature of earning from streaming games can be a deterrent to some and it remains to be seen if this is a sustainable career path that many can live off of.  

Sources:
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/play-video-games-for-a-living-twitchtv-is-making-it-happen/
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path


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Brendon Martin Borgonia

The interaction between game developers and players

For the future, no one can predict, especially in this era of rapidly changing. "The people who knows consumer most is customer” I remember someone said this. The reference to the game can change by “The people who knows game most is the player. Players think highly of many details, such as picture quality, level design,controls and so on. And game developers focus on audiences, design difficulty, hardware requirements. So, there are gaps between players and developers. This is caused by the identity of both sides.

Currently, players do not design games. They are either not able to design or do not have the time to design games. Most of game developers are too busy to play games, especially other developers’ games. Because he has spent a lot of time spent on the design his own game. Therefore, this kind of contradiction makes players cannot find their perfect games or perfect game experience. Meanwhile, developers are hard to create a suitable game for a group of people or a certain player. Now, like the role definition games, we set our own color of skin, hair and height in a game. This is a big change for games and social media. From the age that developers dominate everything to players redefine the rules of the game.

I personally think by 2020, there will be no special difference between developers and players. Players design games, game developers play the game which created by players. Players came up with an idea and tell developers, then developers for a player, or a group of players to create a framework of the game. Then players improve this game in order to make this game become their private game. Like Lego bricks, blocks are the same, but how to create depends on yourself. The premise is that need to be a simple operation mode, lets everybody can learn quickly. This will be a new problem or challenge for developers, how to create a flexible and changeable game and give a game its own personality.

--Hanyu Wu



References:

http://www.gamesforchange.org/2013/07/from-interaction-to-impact-3-games-that-engage-players-in-3-different-ways/

http://www.sploder.com/

http://kotaku.com/5979539/a-beginners-guide-to-making-your-first-video-game

Do online games whitewash people?

"People who play video games are less able to control impulsive aggressive behavior, reveals a new study " (The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10221432/People-who-play-video-games-are-less-able-to-control-impulsive-aggressive-behaviour-reveals-a-new-study..html). People are changing there is an evident change in people who play aggressive online games. "Teenagers who play violent video games over a number of years become more aggressive towards other people as a result, according to a new long-term study. Researchers said the study was the first to show a clear link between a sustained period of playing violent games and subsequent increases in hostile behaviour.
Girls who play violent computer games during their school years were found to be affected just as much as boys." (dailymail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214346/Violent-video-games-make-teens-aggressive-girls-affected-boys.html). It has been scientifically proven that playing outdoor games helps a person to be calm and peaceful and also physically fit. We all agree that playing online games all the time make a person secluded and that person ends up have no friends or someone close to him/her and this ends up making that person socially awkward who later find's out that he has trouble socializing.
As we can see today that a person's behavior is highly manipulated by the kind of games he play. We can assume a person playing highly violent games end up having violent and aggressive and violent behavior. ""Early last year, seventy French university students sat down in a room. A group of scientists told the students they would be participating in a study to measure the effects of video game brightness on visual perception, and that they would each be paid 10 euros a day for their efforts.
The students split up into two groups of 35, and each group was randomly assigned to play a violent or non-violent game 20 minutes a day for three days. The violent games: Condemned 2, Call of Duty 4, and The Club. The non-violent games: S3K Superbike, Dirt 2, and Pure.
After each gaming session, the students were asked to write an ending to one of a few randomized stories. In one of the stories, for example, a driver crashes into the main character's car, causing a bunch of damage, and then the main character gets out of his car and approaches the other driver. Students had to fill in what would happen next.
After each gaming session, the students were asked to write an ending to one of a few randomized stories.
Then, each student was told that they would compete in a computer game in which they had to respond to a visual cue faster than an opponent of the same gender. The loser, the students were told, would receive a heinous noise blast that sounded like a combination of fingernails scratching a chalkboard, dentist drills, and ambulance sirens. Each student could determine the intensity and duration of the noise that their opponent would have to suffer through.
The results of this experiment—conducted by Ohio State University professor Brad Bushman not to measure brightness, as they had told the students, but to examine the connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior—were conclusive, the researchers said. The people who played violent video games were more likely to write more aggressive stories and dish out higher, more unpleasant noise. Violent video games, Bushman and his colleagues concluded, have a direct causal effect on aggression.
In other words, playing Call of Duty makes you want to fight."" (http://kotaku.com/5976733/do-video-games-make-you-violent-an-in-depth-look-at-everything-we-know-today)

The above study proves my point that today a person's behaviour is not his/her own but manipulated by kind of games he play. They are being whitewashed by the games they are playing. They do what they do in the online games they play. many teenagers who play violent games like GTA (Grand Theft Auto) believe that if they rob or kill someone they might just get away it like they do in the games they play. According to me if we need to solve this problem then we need to put more emphasis on the outdoor activities as they create a peaceful state of mind and also parents should watch the kind of games a child is playing because it will be really better if this problem is checked at a young age.



Reference
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10221432/People-who-play-video-games-are-less-able-to-control-impulsive-aggressive-behaviour-reveals-a-new-study..html
-https://townipproject09.wikispaces.com/Video+Games+Affect+on+Americans
-http://kotaku.com/5976733/do-video-games-make-you-violent-an-in-depth-look-at-everything-we-know-today
-http://www.goodgamebro.com/category/shooters/battlefield/

Games promote the development of Social media

Have no idea since when, the game gradually became barriers for people to improve their social skills. In fact, I think this point of view is not quite correct. When we are talking about games we have to mention a group of typical people. Geeks, what people think of above all is an image of no social life with scruffy hair. But indeed, they are not. Geeks are not nerds. The biggest differences between them are communication skills and social skills. Geeks now are more likely to use games to meet new friends, as not only using the traditional, face to face method. Facebook is a good place to meet new people as well, research has shown that one in eight of American couples met together through social networks. What's more, there are many small games on Facebook  Now please let me explain why games promote the development of social media.

The game is a type of hobby. It can reduce the distance of each other. Having same hobbies is much more likely to become good friends. If people are good friends already, they will have more time to get along with. For instance, I call my friends come to my house to play PS3, then surely we will be more intimate. And through games, I have a chance to meet my friend's friends.

Secondly, online games are no limitations of distance, you can use a game to make friends cross cities or even the people of other countries. Games can let you no longer owe yourself to a narrow circle, through games,you can meet a lot of friends over a long distance.The game is for relaxing. The person may be the most authentic self when playing games. During the day, most of us are placed in a world of hypocrisy. But when sitting in front of computers, we see a screen instead of faces. We can go back to the true self, so the friends from games may be the most sincere.
Games offer a new and excellent way to make friends. In 2020, games will dominate social media. The stand or fall of it needs time to prove. However, now it seems that the game is an important flavoring for social media.

--Hanyu Wu

References:

http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2442364/Are-geek-nerd-Scientist-creates-graph-explains-difference--tells-YOU-scale.html

Do future games restrain people's sociability

Do future games restrain people’s sociability? The answer is hard to say. Because in some situations the game is a way to improve our social skills. For some team games, for example, when I was a captain as the role of commander in chief., I need to be responsible for the whole team’s collaboration. When I was an ordinary soldier, I needed to know when to obey orders, when to make suggestions. In the game, people can gain experience that cannot get in the real world. And this part of the experience may be applied to actual life.

By contrast, there are more people being heroes sitting in front of screens, speaking out freely. Although they have the ability that most people do not have, when it comes to the real life, they are afraid to say anything. I think it should be caused by the lack of self-confidence. Because they have a crush on the virtual feeling. This is a huge problem. Because modern society is still dominated by the reality. We can through the network to know others, but finally they always return to the authentic life.

Nature Video

To see the video please click HERE

In 2020, with the advent of new game equipment. Lifelike degree of games will be neck and neck with the reality. At that time, we will be able to use the power that we have in games. Part of the training in the game, is equivalent to the actual training. If we can get good grades in the game, you can also do it in the actual life. In 2020, the game is the reality, the reality is the game. Because the game has already been involved in our brain. Games will cooperate with the brain. Just like a dream, in a dream, we don't know we are dreaming. But the game is different between the dream because dreams are always being less, but the game is able to synchronize with the real world. When virtual is not virtual, then there is no game will restrain the social media. This life style will let a person full of imaginations, but there are also many concerns, since fiction can bring us so much vivid experience, what the meaning for the realistic is? This will be a mystery, but the only certainty is that tomorrow of social media will be very different from today’s.

--Hanyu Wu


References:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/11/26/video-games-help-boost-social-memory-cognitive-skills/62537.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/computer-game-playing-shown-improve-multitasking-skills/