New Media: The Virtual and the False

CAbeach's blog

Reflections on puppetmastering an ARG

Submitted by CAbeach on Fri, 2009-12-11 11:58

(A long post, I know, but I had so much to say!)

Read more . . .

Interview with the Slackmistress

Submitted by CAbeach on Sat, 2009-11-21 00:48

 

Nina Bargiel, slackmistress and creator of the Valemont ARG, has graciously agreed to answer a few questions for me!
 
Below are her responses. I definitely recommend checking out the video of her on Youtube!
 
1.       How did you get into this line of work with Electric Farm Entertainment?
 
I started my career in 2000 as a TV writer, and got my first gig on “Lizzie McGuire” and then moved on to writing a few different live-action and animated shows (“The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” “Romeo”) and then things slowed down. WAY down.
 
Then one day I got a call from my former “Lizzie McGuire” Executive Producer Stan Rogow who had founded a company that was making Web TV called Electric Farm Entertainment.

Read more . . .

The end of Valemont or “Just the beginning?”

Submitted by CAbeach on Mon, 2009-11-16 02:03

 

 

 **WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS OF VALEMONT. Read at own Risk.

Read more . . .

Valemont Disconnect

Submitted by CAbeach on Sun, 2009-11-08 23:24

*WARNING! Contains spoilers of Valemont episodes and plot lines.

Read more . . .

Beware of the Blair Witch!

Submitted by CAbeach on Mon, 2009-11-02 00:15

Don’t go into the Black Hills of Maryland in search of her or else you’ll disappear like Heather, Josh and Mike! Or at least, that’s what the filmmakers want you to believe.

Read more . . .

TIAG- Valemont University

Submitted by CAbeach on Mon, 2009-10-26 16:00

 

Read more . . .

When I was reading the extract from Dave Szulborski book “This is not a game: A guide to Alternate Reality Gaming,” what stuck out the most in my mind was this quote:
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
Currently I am playing the ARG Valemont University (VU), whose premise is that a student named Eric Gracen disappeared. Weeks later, his body is found in a forest. His estranged sister finds out about this, and with the alias “Sophie Fields,” goes undercover at VU to discover why he was murdered.

Product Placement in Cathy's Book

Submitted by CAbeach on Sat, 2009-10-17 14:34

On Thursday, Dr. Whalen encouraged us to go on Lexis Nexis and find out some of the problems Cathy’s Book faced when it was first published in hardcover. I did, and I found two articles which talked about the product placement in the book. The hardcover edition has specific references to Procter and Gamble's CoverGirl makeup throughout the book.  The reason that many people are upset with the authors and publishers of Cathy’s Book is because this product placement was done so that the book could have ads for it on Beinggirl.com, a website that is also run by Proctor and Gamble. 

Read more . . .

Yay! An assigned book I wanted to (re)read!

Submitted by CAbeach on Mon, 2009-10-12 17:56

 When I was a senior in high school, I checked out Cathy’s Book from the library because it looked like it would be an interesting read. I loved it! I thought it was amazing how they were able to integrate real life with fiction. I also liked how the letters and drawings mentioned in the story were included along with the book. It was like I was Nancy Drew trying to figure out a mystery.

Read more . . .

The portrayal of women in cyberspace and virtual reality is…

Submitted by CAbeach on Fri, 2009-09-25 14:46

awful. In all of the readings we have done so far and in the movies we have seen, the women always have the crappy, supporting roles while the men get to do the cool and heroic stuff.

 Let’s review the books and movies from the semester so far:

Read more . . .

Why I won't be using Second Life

Submitted by CAbeach on Mon, 2009-09-21 15:33

When I created my Second Life (SL) account last week, I didn’t know much about it, except that it was free to join. I downloaded the software for it on my computer and started exploring. I found out I could fly! That was awesome. Without even exploring other worlds or interacting with other people, I decided I wanted to try and build my own world because I thought it might be easier than building a world in Metaplace. To my surprise, I found out I would not only have to pay real money to buy land, but I would also have to do so in order to buy clothes and other miscellaneous objects!

This seemed completely ridiculous to me. I grew up playing the Sims where once you caved in and bought the game for around $50, you could have anything in the  world you wanted. All you had to do was either make your Sim work for his or her money, or get a cheat code in which you could rack up millions of Sim dollars in a matter of minutes. I always used the cheat codes because I wanted to build a huge mega-mansion with everything in it, such as big screen TVs and saunas.

Once I found out that in order to do a lot of really cool things in SL I would have to pay out of my own pocket, the appeal of SL was gone. As a college student with a limited source of funds, paying real money for virtual objects makes no sense to me. I need to spend my real money on groceries and gas, tangible objects that help me live.  This reality of having to pay for a lot of SL features makes me wonder how much money avid SLifers have in real life if they can afford to spend money on Virtual objects and land.  

Read more . . .

Syndicate content