On location at the Panera bread here in Charlottesville, VA. Random place for me to be sitting by myself and blogging, but everyone knows that sitting in a Panera makes you a better writer, so I hope you all find this entry eloquentish. First of all, I realized I had to turn off my YouTube playlist in order to write this, because I am just awful at doing anything thoughtful while music is playing.
Anyway, to the point. A few sites online define "stereotype" in a similar fashion, so I'll just borrow from Google: "A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing." The key here, in my mind, is "widely held"; as much as we avoid it, we all experience instances where we generalize a concept or idea, but the difference is that when we generalize, it is inherently our own personal opinion. The "popularity", for lack of a better term, of a stereotype is often what makes them so feared and antagonized. Notice, as well, that stereotypes are not defined as necessarily "negative", though "oversimplified" does imply that idea a little bit.
That last point is why most stereotypes don't bother me. I don't care if people think I'm smarter than white people. I don't care if people think I play a lot of video games (because I do). I care a little when people assume I have an accent or that my name is pronounced in an odd fashion, even when my name is spelled "Jon", but for the most part, racial stereotypes don't bother me. Today, a stereotype that hits closer to home was embodied very clearly in a recent commercial for KFC:
Seems mostly harmless, right? I think that's part of the problem I have here, and I also have a problem that somebody reading this might think "Oh, Jon just needs to grow up."
I am bothered by the stereotype that video games embody immaturity.
I know: there's more to this commercial than just that message. The younger man clearly lives in his parents' basement, which has held a long negative stigma over time. His living space seems a bit unclean and unruly, and rather than sitting in a real chair, he's just using the stool to his drum set. Yes, the commercial seems to want to point out that it's the food that's "immature" here, and that the new KFC bites are a mature kind of chicken nugget, but the commercial is carefully crafted around that idea to push that this younger man is clearly an immature character here, and the video games are clearly an embodiment of that idea.
I've recently become a huge fan of an internet series called Extra Credits, where a group of workers in the game industry get together each week to present very intelligent and thoughtful lectures on video games. They explore topics that both analyze the content of the games themselves, as well as presenting very mature connections that video games have to our culture. The presentations are well-written and presented in an engrossing and entertaining manner. Here are a few links to some of my favorite presentations. I highly suggest watching at least one of them, particularly if you're gonna continue with me through the rest of this entry.
On the way that games can help us consider a new way of thought:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/enriching-lives
On the ways that games can help us learn more:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/tangential-learning
On propaganda in games:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/propaganda-games
I'll make my point short here, as Extra Credits does a much better job of reinforcing these points through video than I ever could in writing, and I'd rather you spent your time watching them anyway. As we grow, the things that are considered "grown up" in culture tend to evolve. Some things remain the same: table manners and classical music, just as a few examples. Games have evolved, massively, since they first became a mainstream product roughly twenty years ago. We have video games that tell grand stories, games that put you into extremely realistic worlds, and games that can challenge your mind and your ability to reason. Just as these games have evolved, we have to evolve our perception of them. Long ago, they may have been made and marketed for children, but with the flux of top-level "Mature" rated games, that has certainly changed. On the other side, games aren't just about sitting and shutting your mind off, shooting every terrorist you see. If you don't believe me, go play Portal 2. Braid. Heck, even Bejeweled.
Video games should not embody immaturity anymore. We should not give up on games and shrug them off, supposing that they are somehow beneath us. The industry has come too far for us to take so much credit away from what they've done. I'm aware that as someone who plays a lot of video games, I could very easily be biased here, and in no way am I implying that video games can't have a negative effect on our lives, but movies, music, and books all carry that same power, that same level of art and blood and sweat and tears, but we don't shrug them off as inherently "immature".
My hope is that if you carry these stereotypes about video games that you would start to work on breaking them down and giving them their fair due, just as I hope you'd do the same for anything else.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
What the heck, man?: "Back in Time"
Let's keep this one fairly short and sweet because it's Monday, and we have worse things to do than read the most entertaining blog ever. I'll even throw out the standard format for time's sake.
I originally didn't want to write this entry, because including a link to something so hideous in my blog almost requires me to yell "what the heck, man?" at myself. However, there is a positive side to this entry.
If you had asked me six months ago about my feelings about the status of music, I would've told you that today's music is trash. However, I would be lying if I said I felt the same way now. I've been impressed by what I've been hearing on the radio as of late. Perhaps I've just been conditioned to appreciate bad music now, but I believe that my brain-ear combo has maintained most of its recognition abilities, and I am liking what I hear. The emerging bands and artists have really brought a nice new variety, including Gotye, One Direction, Fun., Carly Rae Jepsen, Demi Lovato, and the "veteran" of this small bunch, Katy Perry. I'm certainly leaving out some others, but I'm going to move on, because that's not what this entry is about.
It seems that with every trend, there are samples within the group that act as exceptions. With all of the good music I've been hearing lately, there is one song getting a lot of play recently that makes my ears bleed (literally... almost) every time I hear it: "Back in Time" by Pitbull.
(I had considered embedding the video here, but I don't want to lose all of my readers, so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIDwgpBh0Aw)
Now, I guess it wouldn't be fair for me to criticize the lyrics, because I have no idea what he's saying. And I suppose that I shouldn't diss on the repetitive background music, because there is at least a little wub-wub later in the song. But any good I try to salvage out of this rotten egg only reminds me of how yummy all of the other eggs are right now. Hey, at least that's one less egg on my cholesterol numbers.
Is it music? Of course it is, particularly because he sampled from an older tune to make his beat. However, calling it "good" is not a stretch: it's a lie. The sooner that this song goes away, the better, in my book. Then again, maybe we need this anomaly to make everything else look better.
If you followed the link and listened to the song, I give you my deepest apologies, and offer that you listen to something better on YouTube. So, anything.
Pitbull.. seriously. What the heck, man?
I originally didn't want to write this entry, because including a link to something so hideous in my blog almost requires me to yell "what the heck, man?" at myself. However, there is a positive side to this entry.
If you had asked me six months ago about my feelings about the status of music, I would've told you that today's music is trash. However, I would be lying if I said I felt the same way now. I've been impressed by what I've been hearing on the radio as of late. Perhaps I've just been conditioned to appreciate bad music now, but I believe that my brain-ear combo has maintained most of its recognition abilities, and I am liking what I hear. The emerging bands and artists have really brought a nice new variety, including Gotye, One Direction, Fun., Carly Rae Jepsen, Demi Lovato, and the "veteran" of this small bunch, Katy Perry. I'm certainly leaving out some others, but I'm going to move on, because that's not what this entry is about.
It seems that with every trend, there are samples within the group that act as exceptions. With all of the good music I've been hearing lately, there is one song getting a lot of play recently that makes my ears bleed (literally... almost) every time I hear it: "Back in Time" by Pitbull.
 |
| I wasn't sure which one was the musician, so I put both pictures here, just in case. |
 |
| I would guess that the first one is better at singing. |
Now, I guess it wouldn't be fair for me to criticize the lyrics, because I have no idea what he's saying. And I suppose that I shouldn't diss on the repetitive background music, because there is at least a little wub-wub later in the song. But any good I try to salvage out of this rotten egg only reminds me of how yummy all of the other eggs are right now. Hey, at least that's one less egg on my cholesterol numbers.
Is it music? Of course it is, particularly because he sampled from an older tune to make his beat. However, calling it "good" is not a stretch: it's a lie. The sooner that this song goes away, the better, in my book. Then again, maybe we need this anomaly to make everything else look better.
If you followed the link and listened to the song, I give you my deepest apologies, and offer that you listen to something better on YouTube. So, anything.
Pitbull.. seriously. What the heck, man?
Monday, July 9, 2012
Five Things I Learned From Derecho 2012
Well, it's been quite a while since I've last written, but I've survived Virginia's Derecho 2012 and have made my way back to the blogosphere. I was one of the wimps and ran to places where I had power during the week, so I certainly didn't suffer nearly as much as some others. Can you believe there are still people without power? I couldn't have imagined anything like this occurring. Nonetheless, even though Derecho 2012 left some places with some power, I experienced a vast slowdown of life during that week. It gave me a lot of time to think, and so here are five things I learned from Derecho 2012, almost all of which are not weather-related.
1) I learned the word "derecho" and what it means. Incidentally, my nerd side has realized that "Derecho" or some form of it would be a sweet screen name to use online in a game.
2) World of Warcraft would be lame without people. I downloaded the starter edition (basically, free to play until you get to level 20, which seems to occur really quickly) and tried it out. Thought it'd be cool if I could group up with the girlfriend and some others and work some quests together but alas, the starter edition disables grouping. Thus, "collect 7 of these" and "kill 10 of those" can only appeal for so long on your own. Massively multiplayer gaming should equal social gaming, which is the best kind of gaming.
3) You can never count out Roger Federer. Federer beat Andy Murray in the finals to win his 7th career Wimbledon title, tied for the most all time. If there was any debate before, this win cements Roger's place as the greatest player of all time. Even at the age of 30 (which is near retirement age in tennis), Fed captured his 17th career major title, adding to his record total. He has overcome the two other giants of the game, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, to earn the world's #1 ranking again. This is an incredible era in men's tennis where we get to witness four (I'm counting Murray, who hasn't won a major simply because he has to deal with the big three) of the best players of all time fight for every major championship.
4) There are some incredible male singers out there right now. This is certainly not an all-inclusive list, but I've been impressed recently by some of the talent out there, including Gotye, Nate Ruess (Fun.), Chris Daughtry, Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic), Darren Criss (from Glee), and Danny O'Donoghue (The Script).
5) Ticket To Ride is an excellent board game. I bought it in early May, and I've yet to get tired of playing it, regardless of how many players I'm playing with, and what style we choose. I know the day will come when I get sick of it, but until then, I'll keep enjoying my Europe board game and my US software game. Yep, I've got the board game AND the computer game. Love it.
I don't know if this entry will get me back on a regular post pattern, but I ought to be back soon. I mean, won't be long before something makes me go "What the heck, man?", right?
2) World of Warcraft would be lame without people. I downloaded the starter edition (basically, free to play until you get to level 20, which seems to occur really quickly) and tried it out. Thought it'd be cool if I could group up with the girlfriend and some others and work some quests together but alas, the starter edition disables grouping. Thus, "collect 7 of these" and "kill 10 of those" can only appeal for so long on your own. Massively multiplayer gaming should equal social gaming, which is the best kind of gaming.
3) You can never count out Roger Federer. Federer beat Andy Murray in the finals to win his 7th career Wimbledon title, tied for the most all time. If there was any debate before, this win cements Roger's place as the greatest player of all time. Even at the age of 30 (which is near retirement age in tennis), Fed captured his 17th career major title, adding to his record total. He has overcome the two other giants of the game, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, to earn the world's #1 ranking again. This is an incredible era in men's tennis where we get to witness four (I'm counting Murray, who hasn't won a major simply because he has to deal with the big three) of the best players of all time fight for every major championship.
5) Ticket To Ride is an excellent board game. I bought it in early May, and I've yet to get tired of playing it, regardless of how many players I'm playing with, and what style we choose. I know the day will come when I get sick of it, but until then, I'll keep enjoying my Europe board game and my US software game. Yep, I've got the board game AND the computer game. Love it.
I don't know if this entry will get me back on a regular post pattern, but I ought to be back soon. I mean, won't be long before something makes me go "What the heck, man?", right?
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