Tag Archives: key term

Key Term: Game Mechanics

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Game mechanics are a distinct set of rules or methods that design the outcome of interactions within the game, thus providing gameplay. There is an input, a process and an output. Game mechanics also involves the the users response to collections of these mechanics.

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“The term ‘game mechanic’ doesn’t appear in the piece but it underlies the argument throughout, explaining how points that a player can spend on advantages like ‘talent,’ ‘wealth,’ ‘charisma,’ and ‘intelligence’ are distributed by ‘the computer,’ and that players must ‘deal with them,’ just like they must in real life. This argument makes racism and sexism seem socially neutral, mechanical, structural, and not a personal act of aggression or oppression perpetrated upon one peron by another.” -Lisa Nakamura

  • Game mechanics allows gamers to understand the gaming world as constructed
  • Nothing should be taken personally
  • Many male gamers cannot tolerate the feeling of being blamed for their privilege
  • Game mechanics allows them to not view themselves as privileged, and therefore blameless

“Explaining race and gender as a structural advantage, an aspect of a made environment that was designed to reward some types and punish others, lets white male readers hold themselves blameless for their own advantages.”

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Key Term: Nichetube

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The term nichetube is introduced by Alexandra Juhasz in “Learning the Five Lessons of YouTube” and can be defined as:

  • A video that falls off the radar, undeserved and unobserved by YouTube’s system of rankings

“Niche” – a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing; a distinct segment of a market
                         (to find one’s niche…)

YouTube is so large and vast that it is easy for unique, less-popular videos to be lost in the depths of it’s content. The way it’s ranking system is set up is comparable to high school popularity rankings. The more popular videos, that may  be lacking in substantial or original content, push aside the less-favored underliers into the “weird cliques” and might as well be lost.

In order to find videos within “nichetube,” users must know exactly what they are searching for. Popular videos about certain topics reflect and reinforce the standard views of society. The most radical, ideological videos are flagged, reported, and typically removed from the site.

  • With YouTube being one of the most visited archives of videos, the idea of “nichetube” brings up the question of democracy, and how democratic is it of the site’s algorithms to favor mainstream content
  • Not a an equal forum for discussion or expression of opinion

 

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Key Term: Sponsorship

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A sponsor is “a person, firm, organization, etc., that finances and buys the time to broadcast a radio or television program so as to advertise a product, a political party, etc.”

Although some YouTube channels go without sponsorship, there are many channels that have made deals with sponsors. These deals are settled outside of YouTube and just between the sponsor and the sponsee.

Some examples of sponsored YouTube channels include:

  • Carmilla-Kotex
  • Grumpy Cat-Friskies Cat Food
  • Dude Perfect- Bubble Wrap

Recently, YouTube (Google) is speaking out against brand-sponsored videos (see article here). Their argument is based on the fact that Google should receive compensation for the companies advertising as sponsors for videos. “Video overlays of sponsor logos and product branding are no longer allowed — unless the sponsor pays Google to advertise on that channel.”

The site has changed their policies to deter advertisements such as the one in the image above unless the company buys a media package through Google. This will likely be difficult to enforce due to the plethora of videos uploading each day and the amount of existing sponsors. YouTube will mostly rely on users to flag the videos that violate this new rule.

Key Term: Web Series

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A web series is “a series of scripted videos, generally in episodic form, released on the internet, or also by mobile/cellular phone”

  • part of a the newly emerging medium called web television
  • a single instance of a web series program is called an episode or (more cleverly named) a webisode

Many producers of web series use platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo in hopes of attracting as many viewers as possible and look for potential partnerships or sponsorships to make a profit from their creative product.

Producing and distributing a web series is a generally cheap way to reach a global audience.

  •  Jenna Marbles: began as a writer for StoolLaLa, the female counterpart to Barstool Sports, later created vlog-style  videos and became an almost-instant YouTube success

There is a wide spectrum of what is considered a web series, from amateur productions to bigger media conglomerates. For example, there are smaller shows (still with a pretty significant following) such as “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,” but also much larger companies diving into this new media form.

  • Netflix, for example, creates series released only online for its subscribers
    • i.e. “Orange is the New Black” or “House of Cards”
    • However, these are typically released one season at a time, rather than one episode at a time

 

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Culture of Disposability

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From the Burns reading entitled “From Memes to Mashups: Creating Content from Content.”

“In fact, in a culture of disposability, the genre of the mash–up might well have benefited from its underground status, which adds to its subversive cache. The music is effectively contraband and is only permitted to exist to the extent that it remains below a commercial radar.” p. 77

Definition:

  • the notion that products can simply be thrown away, indicating a lack of responsibility for the resources one consumes
  • tiring quickly of clothes, cars, electrical goods, music, etc > throw away > replace
  • disposing of things when they break or fall out of fashion
  • promotes a cycle of consumption
  • causes a person’s relationship with things/items/people to be transient and artificial

The term “culture of disposability” can help to explain the popularity, relevance, success, and dying out of memes and mashups.

Integration

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The level to which female gamers are able to reconcile gaming with the rest of their lives.   The level of integration can be seen in terms of the ability of the gamer to accept the hostility towards women within games or gaming culture.  “Power gamers” have a tendency to integrate technology and their gender better than “moderate gamers”, for whom there must be a more careful negotiation.  Non-gamers reject gaming technology completely and assert themselves in ways that are more traditionally feminine.

 

Damsel in Distress

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“Damsel in Distress” comes from the French saying “Demoiselle en detresse” where demoiselle means “young lady” and “en detresse” means anxiety and despair which is caused by abandonment and danger. The “Damsel in Distress” trope has been around for hundreds of years, traced back to the story Perseus rescuing his princess Andromeda. Since then it has been perpetuated through books, movies, and most recently video games. Beginning with the creator of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto who also created the game Donkey Kong which eventually lead to the creation of the Mario franchise. In these games Princess Peach is the stereotypical “Damsel in Distress” who gets kidnapped in 13 of the 14 main games. To be a “Damsel in Distress” a character does not necessarily have to be weak of powerless but but must be reduced to helplessness and needs to be rescued by the main protagonist for the benefit of his story arch. This is objectifying because the woman is being acted upon used as a prop in the hero and villian’s battle. There is also the disempowerment of the female which leads to the empowerment of the male main character. When the damsel gets kidnapped she is unable to rescue herself; whereas if the hero gets kidnapped he escapes to showcase his own abilities. Also the damsel’s imprisonment is seen as a trial for the hero to overcome. She might not be a “Damsel in Distress” from start to finish. She may be a helpful damsel who sometimes offers hints or assistance.

 

Source: Feminist Frequency Damsel in Distress Part 1

Key Concept- Google’s privacy policy

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Although Google claims to be protecting our information in its privacy policy, they still retain the right to share that information with law enforcement or government agencies as they see fit.  They can change their privacy policy any time by changing the terms of agreement, which are pages long, and very few people actually read them.  You could agree to sharing your private information without even realizing it just by clicking yes to new terms of agreement.  Also, if Google were ever to sell to a less reliable company, although users would be informed, there is no telling if you would be able to get your private information off of Google’s system before the new company could see it.  Personally identifiable information is supposed to only be stored for 18 months, and then the IP address is anonymized, but this is not stated in the privacy policy, only in a video produced by Google.  Even if the information is anonymized, the identity of the user can still be figured out based on their online habits and cookies.

Another problem with Google’s privacy policy is that to opt out of their data storing, which they use to target ads to you that are specific to your interests and browsing history, you have to go through a multi-step process, and service is not always as reliant if you do opt out.  If you want to be taken off of Google street view, you must send a request to Google after the image of your property is posted online.  If it is a license plate or face, they will only blur it out, but you could still be identified by the environment around you.  Overall, the idea of what is private on the internet is still debated, and therefore it is difficult to protect what you want to be private from Google’s database.