Gamers are a Proud Subculture

Wiley's introduction was very well thought-out, and in my opinion very true in a generalized, categorical way.  However, in terms of defining an entire generation, labeling ours as the 'gamer generation' is a lot like labeling the boomer generation as the 'hippie' generation or the 'free love' generation.  It applies to a group of conspicuously different individuals whose values truly are reflective of an overall change in culture, but who are an extreme example of that change.

Though the boomer generation in general represented a new pattern of thinking in American culture, to say that music, sex, and drug use was a way of life for all boomers would be ultimately wrong.  By the same principle, to say that video games are a 'way of life' for the current generation--the 'information' or 'internet' generation--or to call them 'gamers' because of the video game trend, is something of a misconception.

Gamers are a specific subculture that take great pride in what they are.  Like bikers or rock musicians, there can never be a 'gamer generation'.  Thats like saying people growing up in the fifties were 'the greaser generation', or that anyone with a motorcycle is a 'biker'.

I play video games, as a result of the electronic cultural wave that is a larger cultural change.  Video games, however, are the first thing I habitually cut out of my life, and i rarely have time for them.  I know enough Gamers, and they would laugh at me calling myself a 'Gamer'.  If i started playing games all the time, I would still be a 'noob' for a long time before I would gain any respect from real Gamers.

There are more widely used names for our generation.  A few of them are:

The Information Generation / iGeneration
The Millennials
The Echo Boomers
Generation Next
Generation Y

Internet Privacy

My parents were incredibly distrustful of the internet from the first dialup aol service we tried when I was four years old.  Back then we were worried about getting viruses from floppy discs, which seems silly now, but they were not nearly as searchable and accessible to users as they are today.  I remember my grandfather teaching me the rudiments of navigating MS DOS (which i only used to load games) and how complex it seemed just to navigate file paths and understand the contents of a floppy disc.

People have always understood the dangers of internet use.  Social applications, however, seem to 'trick' people into letting their guard down.  Because these applications are so personal, people seem to assume that they have a sure way of protecting information.  This sort of thinking is a myth in the same vein as 'it must be true or they wouldn't put it on television'.

I've been pretty careful about what goes on my personal pages.  But no one can have control of what others post of them.

I've googled myself before, but this time I found photos of me in the google image results that I never knew existed from a festival I played at years ago.  Its not a problem for me, but candid photos appearing on the internet unannounced can represent a major privacy infringement if the conditions are right.  Once it was only celebrities that had to worry about published widespread slander, but now its all of us.

Internet Privacy

There is a lot of controversy going on regarding internet privacy right now. The real truth of the matter is that even though most websites have statements that they are protecting your privacy, they can't. Unless the site is encrypted, your information is unsafe. Recently, a programmer named Eric Butler created a program called "Firesheep." Its an extension of Firefox that allows any user to acquire login information of anyone on an unencrypted website (i.e. Facebook) using a wireless internet connection. He claims that he did this in an effort to expose just how unsafe your information currently is on the internet.

I would hope that my information wouldn't be sold on the internet, but I know thats not the case. Websites seem to lie all of the time about privacy policies. Even some sites that you would think are trustworthy tend to slip up.

Privacy setting

I googled myself and got some facebook pages. and then i immediately changed the privacy settings right after so that wouldn't happen. I always knew for a fact that what's on the internet is no longer just mine so i never put anything too personal. I never wanted someone to be able to look me up and get my life story. And if i ever wanted to post on some random topic forum or anything i just used an alias. There's no point in ever putting your real information because the internet is about what you say not who you are.

I expect there to be some sort of privacy in certain aspects of the internet. For example online shopping would not exist without privacy. If anyone so much as suspects that the site they want to put their credit card information on isn't very secure, they will go find another site. Online shopping wouldn't exist without a guarantee that peoples information will be safe.

Facebook used to have privacy settings that claimed they own the rights to everything you make public and can use it whatever way they want, but once you delete your Facebook all rights become invalid. Now the privacy settings take off that last part and this made a lot of people unhappy. But in my opinion Facebook is smart. They don't deserve to be sued for peoples stupidity. If there's something on Facebook someone doesn't want shared, they shouldn't have put it there in the first place. And honestly I highly doubt anyones information is even worth looking at. They probably talk about trivial things like parties and people they like. Anything worth much more than that shouldn't even be on Facebook.

Man......I just googled all over myself

So Googleing myself has vastly improved over the last year. Thanks to all of my social media I have a whole page of Google with links to me(except for some random guy that whose middle name matches my last). Its nice to see that my web presence is up since I work mainly online but It does make me a little paranoid that someone may be able to use this information against me.

As far as any kind of expectation of privacy from the internet goes, I really don't have any. The internet is like a big city in that once you step into it its hard to be completely unnoticed. And having a social media page is like having a billboard of yourself for all to see. Ultimately it is you that decides what is on that billboard and as long as you take responsibility for what is up there then you should be ok. I dont expect the internet to protect me from myself.

Privacy

I google'd myself and found exactly what I expected - a LinkedIn profile and a recommendation I wrote for a friends portfolio. I am not surprised about these findings, nor was I nervous to see what was out there. I have no expectations of privacy online as I take the better-safe-than-sorry approach. Just don't put anything compromising in cyberspace and all is good - just be smart about it.

With that said, it does bug me a little that Google uses my information/search history for targeted ads. A smart business model but bugs me nonetheless.

Privacy

After searching my name on Google, Sammi Luu, I’m not surprise to see other as Sammi Luu out there and I notice two of the links are mine. The first link is my Twitter account and the second link is my website, which is under construction. I always keep my online presentation clean and positive because I know employees sometime check your background. But the truth is my personality is like, "what you see is what you get", therefore I don’t worry much.

The Internet is an open source for everyone (advertisements, social networks, corporation, etc). I believe that it is hard to have privacy on the Internet. Whatever social networks you join, you’ll have to follow their term of services such as Facebook who has all the rights to own your photography or artwork. Therefore, I always take precautions of what I post on Facebook or other social networks especially my artwork.

Privacy on the internet

The internet today leaves us with absolutely 0 privacy. If you have ever been on the internet for the most part, uploaded a photo, have a facebook, etc etc, you will be on the internet forever no matter what. Even if you delete all that you can personally get your hands on, it will never actually be gone. Some where far far away your information uploaded will be stored away into a harddrive until the end of time basically. Websites like facebook doesnt make this any better, its creepy to me actually, I dont know why they need absolute control and hold ownership to everything we do, I find it unnecessary.

Apparently I have no internet presence right off the back but that could be because a writer Kenneth Giles is pretty famous and he is taking most of the search query. However Im sure if I kept digging I could find something invovling myself but right off the bat there is nothing of me.

Privacy Terms

Privacy is something hard to come by on the web. Especially considering much of the time spent on the web is on social networking sites. Sites like these encourage those using them to post any and everything about their life. Its part of the experience and fun of having a Facebook or Twitter account. With the increased amount of traffic to these social networking sites it no doubt becomes extremely hard to keep track of everything everyone post. This is most likely why Facebook has now changed its policy to saying that they own and can do anything with the content you post on their site. And while I want privacy just as much as the next person, and I want to keep my personal stuff to myself I can understand why Facebook has made this policy. At the end of the day Facebook is the one creating the site that you want to go on and once you put something on Facebook its like giving a photo to someone of yourself. They have every right to take that photo and do whatever they wish with it. Just like once you post something they have every right to take that photo and do whatever the want to with it. I think its hard to criticize new policy which states that they own everything you post forever. Because they are really looking out for themselves in case some type of legal case is thrown at them. However I do think that people should be careful about posting their own work on Facebook just as a precaution.

Googel Me.....

Since I always use my nickname JuJu I didn't think I'd find as much as I did. I googled my real name Judith Marquez and found only 35 others with the same name as me. The white pages appeared and I began to look through the list to find myself. There I saw my current age and the address to the previous college I attended. Then, there was a link to view more information of myself. There I saw all my relatives listed by both their maiden and married last names. It gave all previous locations where I had lived throughout the years. Lastly, there was a link with a check mark next to my current full address. Once clicked one is able to purchase my full address for a fee. This is extremely scary. I am not comfortable with the fact that just anyone out there and pay a fee of $10 to get my current location. It's not like it just has my address but also lists my entire family and all places in which I had resided at are at anyone's disposal. I could try and unlist myself but I'd have to pay a fee and still that is only to remove my telephone number. A person could even run a background check on me for another fee. Marriage records, divorce records, bankruptcies and much more information can be paid to view by anyone who is willing to pay. Realistically speaking once your information is out there in the web world there is really no way of removing it. I could find every which way to try and delete my complete existence from the web but in the back of my mind I know that this information is stored for life in some database out there. So much for privacy nowadays. After seeing all this information of myself online I realize that privacy is and maybe always was nonexistent. Before computer existed there were still issues of privacy but in today's society they should strip this word from the human vocabulary for this word holds no weight and means nothing to me much anymore.

Google Myself?!?!

I knew I would have some links when I searched myself I did not think as many as I had. When I googled myself I had 8 different links that had me or where about me in some weird way. Out of the 8, 3 were from school, and 1 was my twitter account that I only used for a week to experiment on and see how it worked. I also twisted it around and put in the name I go by on Facebook, Nosilla, to see how many links appear, 44 different links regarding Facebook and my page or the groups/fan pages I have made. My real name appearing on google? Did not scare me because it was to be excepted with what I have been involved in or do. Those 44 different links regarding people that I have interactions with on Facebook? Completely freaks me out.

I know a good portion of the sites I go to tell you when signing up (especially online shopping stores, which majority of the sites I go to are), and I except sites to be respectful of my privacy and what I wish to share is my own damn business and no one else. However recently, as many before have written about and read about Facebook is starting to become a death trap for people to wish to be private on the internet. They have taken what used to be fully protected to slowly taking away any privacy settings they have to know saying that they own the rights tot he things you put on their site. As much as they might say that that is not true, the proof is there in front of us. It comes down to this idea that they pretty much own your identity on the internet; and that should not happen.

to post or not to post?

As everyone else did... I googled myself and was surprised at how many things came up. First is my website, then Linkedin, and Facebook. I am happy about the website showing up, and Linkedin is all professional. I have a Twitter account that I do not use that popped up as well as my Coroflot website and my blog I created over the summer. None of this bothers me, I guess I was just surprised to see it all. I might be a little laid back, but I am not too concerned with anyone stealing my work or anything of that nature. Maybe I either have too much faith in people or am nieve to think no one would steal my work and use it as their own.

Thinking about this more and realizing there might have been some old bats in my closet, i decided to go through my old photos on FB from the college days. Nothing was terrible, but I thought, why not clean it up a bit. There is no need to have a multitude of binge drinking photos of me on the internet. I am not worried, but thought there was no harm in a light cleaning. I did recall once reading that once you upload on Facebook, it is FB property regardless of whether

I guess the way I see it, its life. You post stuff and thats about it. I am not going to throw up crime scene photos of the person I murdered last night, (sarcasm here)... but you get the point. I lead a good life and have nothing to hide. Whatever is already posted isn't going to cost me my life. So as for now, I feel ok... unless something else happens down the way that changes my opinion.

Privacy

I think the best way to look at internet privacy is to assume that there is none. If something goes on the web, there’s a good chance a lot of people will have access to it. When I google myself, most of the content that appears are my athletic achievements from college soccer and races I’ve participated in. Other than this content, there is a link to my LinkedIn profile. I am happy with online google presence and have no worries when it comes to searching for a job.


Facebook is a trickier subject. When it first came out, it was a place where college students swarmed to and posted about their lives, and a lot of times, the content was unedited in the sense that you didn’t think of what was going up at the time could one day not looks so great in a professional sense. I think present day, a lot of people now post with reservation. With all of facebook’s TOS changes and privacy policies, I think you need to expect that once something enters the internet, you won’t have property of it again. I think as long as you take this mindset and you have a certain expectation that everything on the web is fair game and accessible to everyone, you won’t get burned in the end. If you post unflattering content, you should expect that it will surface at one point or the other.

Privacy on the Internet

Personally whenever I create any kind of account on the internet I always personalize the privacy settings. This is not always the case with everyone. It is extremely easy to find information about people on the internet, google and other search engines have made this way to easy. All you need to do is type in the persons name on the search engine and you can find out all different types of information about them. When I googled my own name I did not find any relevant information about myself, I feel like this is because I have all of my privacy settings customized. When I googled one of my friends a lot of their information came up including facebook photos they were tagged in.
The only website that I could find information on was Spokeo, which is a website that tries to compile information on a family household. They tell where you live, how much your income is, how many kids you have, and what type of work each person does in the house. A lot of the information on this website is wrong about my family. But still being able to get this sort of information off hand is kinda crazy, and can become unsafe. This is especially unsafe for younger children.

Privacy on the Internet

Privacy to me is very important when using social media such as Facebook. The idea that Facebook has the right to do whatever they want with my content is straight up bizarre. Why do they need it and what are they doing with it? Personally I am not as much as concerned as others should be. I think privacy starts with the individuals initial concern when creating an account on social networks like Facebook.

With Facebook, I would never post a bunch of pictures of myself doing wild things like some crazy night out in Vegas or that one to many beers picture. It’s that type of content found on Facebook that could possibly come back to haunt you in the future. As for sensitive information like my phone number, e-mail address and all that stuff, I’d never post that information for anyone to see. When it comes to social media, the user has to protect themselves.

Like many other social networks, the terms of service agreement are listed before you create an account, but who reads them anyways. For many of us, we scroll down as quickly as possible and hit the agree button with no hesitation. People always skip over the terms of service agreement. No one wants to read the agreement because it can be over-complicating to understand. Plus the terms can be like 4 pages of super fine print. Typically if everyone else has signed up for it (friends and such) then we sign up with no hesitation.

After Google searching myself I found one million one hundred and sixty thousand results under my name. Such results included the I Hate Josh Thomas Club, The Man In the box written by Josh Thomas, and a video of Josh Thomas singing to his dog. Fortunately for me, none of these search results have anything to do with me. Once I graduate college and start working in the field building a stronger portfolio, I’d obviously want my name to show up at the top of a search. For now, I’m cool with it not being there.

Google Me.. and Steal from Me?

When you google Angel Nelson you see exactly what I want you to see: links to my website, my graphic design portfolio site on coroflot.com and my LinkedIn. Well when I say you see exactly what I want you to see, that’s only halfway true because my website isn’t done, my portfolio contains old work, who knows what is on my LinkedIn. At the very least, when you google me you can find me pretty easily. My initial online presence isn’t extremely embarrassing or damaging. Before coming back to school, I really made an effort to clean up my online presence.

What reasonable expectation do I have for privacy on the web? I have little to no expectation of privacy. I don’t expect my pictures to be used in advertisements, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were. That’s why I don’t upload many pictures of myself online. A month ago I had a privacy-related scare. I was playing Mafia Wars on facebook and noticed that a player was using my photo. I saw my face in the game and it scared me. I tracked down the player, which was kind of hard to do, and realized that it was most likely just a glitch on my end.

At the end of the day, my profile picture being stolen and used in a game isn’t that serious, but what if my digital design work is stolen? And what if it actually got a person a job? I would be mad if the job was better than the job I had lol. But seriously, anyone in the world could use my work as his or her own and I would never know. As digital designers, we need to learn what is legal, what's illegal, and how to protect ourselves. Digital work is easily stolen and manipulated everyday.

internet privacy

Although most all sites that I would subscribe to or create an account on are reputable... I still can't shake the feeling that anything I post on these sites or blogs have no privacy protection (even if they state they do). If one posts a picture on the internet I feel there is always a way for anyone to view that picture and grab it from the internet to use anyway they want too. Same goes for information. And as far as Facebook's new terms of service goes, I think thats bull... so it's a good thing I pretty much stopped using that site seriously months ago.

When Googling myself I found some pretty interesting sites... but nothing pertaining to myself. The first site was the Adams Grayson corporation, an accounting and finance company. The second link was a portal page to a bunch of random sites ranging from search engines to unmentionable sites. The third link was to an Adam Grayson on Facebook... but not me. And the rest of the links follow that model... tons of facebooks and twitters, but none were mine.

Internet Privacy

I don't think you can expect to have any privacy on the internet. Once you post something you need to expect that it's out there and no longer just yours. I've always been very aware of this because when I'm googled, everything that shows up is somehow related to me. This became relevant once I graduated college and started seriously looking for a job. I knew I'd be googled and I knew it wouldn't be hard for people to find me. At this point if I'm googled you will come across my website, and then information from jobs, design organizations I've been a part of and then activities I've participated in. I don't think anyone will be able to find anything too suspicious about me on the internet! Other then Facebook I've kept my personal life off of the internet. I don't believe in posting anything super personal onto Facebook since there is so much controversy about property laws. I've seen design friends of mine post their design projects on Facebook which I believe is a mistake since it is automatically property of Facebook. I don't think there's much privacy on the internet but if you're smart about it you shouldn't have any problems.

Your Own Privacy Rules

There is always a certain extent in which privacy can be granted on the internet. Facebook allows users to post whatever information they want about themselves. There are terms of use and statements that you agree upon when starting a Facebook account. You can set your account to be private and only viewable by your friends which provides some security and privacy but whatever information you put out there, is out there for good.

I feel that users should know exactly what they're doing when they post any pictures, videos, or information about themselves on the internet. Its like writing in ink, not pencil when you do something on the internet. If you wouldn't want someone to judge you on the internet by something that you post, then don't post anything bad. People on Facebook constantly have something to say, whether its what they're doing, thinking, or whats coming up. People get addicted to always wanting to let people know what their doing which allows others to see it and read about it and know a whole lot about someone they've maybe never even hung out with, they just have the same class together. Long story short, Facebook provides some privacy, but the user provides the most privacy to themselves.

Assignment for 11/16: Privacy

Read:
http://consumerist.com/2009/02/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever.html
and
http://mashable.com/2010/04/26/facebook-openness-debate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable/SocialMedia+(Mashable+%C2%BB+Social+Media+Feed)

then
Google yourself and see what you can find out about your public online presence

Write:
What reasonable expectation do you have for privacy on the internet?

can we really accomodate everyone?

When designing for different generations there is much to consider. First, it depends what kind of design... in this case scenario, lets assume interactive/digital design. There are many different generations out there right now and the older generations have a very difficult time understanding and absorbing the new technologies and how to apply them. Also, as we age and become engulfed in our current positions, we forget to "update" ourselves and refresh our minds as to what new applications and technologies are out there the help us improve work flow etc. Now when designing, you want to appeal to as many people as possible and that demographic is always expanding so it is hard to customize everything... It is most definitely something that needs to be considered, but depending on the project. Sometimes you are going to need to customize for specific generations... other times it is going to be designed to meet the latest technology standards - to keep up with the constantly changing and evolving interactive technology.

Designing for Different Generations

There are many things to consider when designing for different generations. One of the most important ones would be the specific age group's understanding of technology. Generally its a downward slope from a young to mid age to older age. I would say my generation and the ones after have a strong understanding, followed by older generations who understand but aren't necessarily fully immersed and the oldest generations who in most cases avoid and dislike technology. So when a designer approaches any generation that is older, they have to make things simple and to the point. Not many people in the older generation understand loading time or fancy websites, so anything that isnt instant and you lose their interest. However it is the opposite for the younger generations. Yes they may understand if you wait for a few seconds the site will load but they dont want to. If they want to play a game it better load quick and be impressive, and if not they move on very quickly.

Another thing to consider when designing for generations is how accustomed they already are to the physical world rather than digital. The other day my professor (who is in the older generation of about 50+) said he has had a watch for years that he never changes the time for on daylight savings. He leaves it at the wrong time. He told us its because he cant figure out the whole digital system and if it were a manual watch he could change the time no problem. This mentality it common for older people but for younger people its the opposite. When faced with a digital watch and a manual watch, and told to change the time, i believe most kids would try the digital watch first. So for a designer these are things to consider. An ebook for someone that is older must practically look and feel like a real book or its likely they wont want to even try to figure it out. As for younger generations if its quick and impressive, they dont care how digitally advanced it is.

Different Generations

The idea for designing for a generation is an interesting idea. However, designing for a specific demographic is something that I feel is too narrow minded. I feel as though a designers goal should be to make a product that is accessible to all. While great products can be made for certain types of people. I feel as though something that can cater to every ones abilities and interest is what a designer should strive for. I do realize that as a designer you are given restrictions and guide lines by clients and you often design for a specific type of person. But having a product or website that can bring other people in to the medium and get them active and interested in it has a much better end result. Especially if you are catering your design towards something that is as broad as a generation. Not only are their a great deal of people from different generations, but not everyone in the same generation is going to have a similar experience. Leading to some people feeling alienated.

Designing For Different Generations

For a business, the end goal will always be the same - to generate revenue. So when it comes time to design cross-generation there are a couple points to keep consistent. Content is king - be concise with the information and make the call-to-action very clear and apparent. Minimalist design - this wouldn't necessarily be the case if your target audience was 16-25 where the creative freedom and technology can run wild. But if you have baby boomers as a large representation of your target then they want to get the facts and move on without having to stifle through all the "cool".

Just be considerate of the needs of all your visitors, readers, etc and focus on what's important for your business - and don't forget the fundamentals while researching the latest trends.

Designing for future Generations

When designing for a different generation/ the futer there is alot to thing about/consider. As humans we can learn from our mistakes, but sometimes mistakes can come back and be the new thing, but learning and reusing itis the key. Things to think about when designing for the future we need to think about alot of things, personas, target audience, demographics, etc. Getting into the shoes of who your designing for/really knowing know this will be appealing to is a HUGE part of the process. Without it you might as well be designing no one because it wont work.

Another factor into designing for the future is to remember what it was like back in the day. Generations have huge gaps in different technology and learning curves. All over the world we have families with different tech knowledges within the same household. Billy can have a xbox and a iphone where he can connect the two so that he can send files to and from between the two, while Mom still needs help opening firefox and printing a document. Trying to teach other generations tech stuff can be like learning another language for them because for us weve had it for so long, so to them its like learning to run before you walk. When we are parents I believe it will be easier for us to adjust to it unlike our parents, but there will be things that will fly over our heads just like it does to us.

Generation to Generation

As designers we need to stay up to date with the latest trends. It can be hard at times because design as we speak chances from day to day. Companies continue to reinvent themselves to continue to appeal to their audience. Playstation and Wii has reinvented their consoles over the years to make consumers feel as though they are changing with the times as well. It has manipulated the audience into thinking that the look of the device has somehow changed the functionality of the device for the better. In reality it's the same technology, just with a different packaging. Design will continue to grow and change as generations go by. All this means is that the audience will have even higher expectations than what they already do now.

Designing For Different Generations

There are a lot of things to consider when designing for different generations. You have to think about the limitations that past generations might have when planning and developing anything for them. A good way to prepare for this is to use personas. Creating a couple personas that target a very specific type of user can help you decide what will work and what will not work while designing.

A couple people have brought up the iPhone and touch screen technologies. I don't think this is a great example of designing for different generations. The iPhone and iPad were designed so "you already know how to use them." There are some instances where babies have been able to use iPads, because there is a common knowledge with these touch screen interfaces that seems to come naturally to the users. This isn't to say that all devices that utilize touch screen interfaces will be easy to use for all generations, but I believe that good design can span multiple generations.

Things to Consider as a Digital Designer

This excerpt from Crossing the Chasm really made me examine the effort it takes to be successful in digital design. The message really hit home for me once I glanced at the charts and took note of where I fall on the “digital age” spectrum. 

The first chart was the “Game & Console Chart” (pg 15) and it displays a history of games from 1972 to 2006. I was familiar with the middle of the spectrum (early 1990s to early 2000s), but I was surprised to see that I had never heard of some gaming systems and games produced in recent years. The chart on the next page, “Levels of Gamers”, places me in the Gamer 3.0 category. I glanced at the “thought processes” of Gamer 4.0s and I am not sure that I want to game at that level. I like simple, puzzle-like gaming, and I really don't like engaging in social gaming. When I played SecondLife last week, I hated how everyone kept talking to me. I wanted to wander the island and listen to the concert in peace. While gaming, I don't want to depend on people. I don't want to know people. I just want to have fun, solve a little puzzle, and then move on.  If I'm playing a social game where I am depending on people, I would feel like the game is too much like ‘real life'. I want to escape all of that while gaming!

Then I thought about my role as a digital designer. Should I keep up with all of this stuff, even though I think it is irritating (social gaming)? And if I choose to keep up with the latest way to game and the gaming systems, to what depth should I keep myself in the loop? Do I purchase every system as soon as it hits the market? Or should I wait until it has proven its viability? Or will technology accelerate so fast that systems will become obsolete within a year?

Digital designers need to be familiar with what the masses are doing because as the article says, these games are changing how people consume knowledge. As digital designer students, we spend a lot of time focusing on the technology and the code, but we have to remember that we are only manipulating the machines to better serve people. In conclusion, if the kids are creating new ways to be effective via digital devices, I guess I better find out what they're doing so I can do a better job communicating to them. And perhaps we can use the new school technology to instill the old school values that are leaving with the baby boomers. 

Considerations

What to consider when designing for different generations? I was taught to follow this concept, and it turns out well for me. I follow these five elements: Desirable and valuable are more internal elements. Findable, accessible, and usable are more external elements. Let make elaborate on these words. Desirable is making people want it or use it. Valuable is determining what we are making, why we are valuable making it and whom it is for (baby boomers, generations X, and millennial generations). Findable and accessible are identifying the features, contents, navigations and components of the interface design, and usable is making it easy to use.

All these things need to be considered, before I can start designing my sitemap, moodboard, design comps, persona, and final work.

Designing for Different Generations

When you are designing a website you definitely have to keep the age generations in mind. If you are trying to create a site that has a rich internet experience but you are trying to engage an older audience that probably wouldn't work as well. Younger generations can take less noticeable hints about how the website works. ex: they will mouse around the page until they see what something does. An older generation might get frustrated trying this and give up.

I know that different generations have big gaps in learning technology. After I got my smartphone my mom was no longer able to use my phone for even making a simple phone call. Trying to teach older generations about technology can be challenging because our generation started at a much younger age using technology. By the time our childrens generation is growing up technology will be incorporated into almost everything they do. I also think that technology will be changed once again when this generation evolves.

Designing for Different Generations

When designing for different generations there is a ton of information to take in. In fact, I recently ran into some problems involving designing for different generations in my classes. In web design I need to design a site for skateboarders, where as in Digital Design I need to design a site for fans of Kurt Vonnegut. Not that im saying Kurt Vonnegut fans can't fit into a variety of ages, but more so that "serious" skateboarders usually tend to be anywhere from 14 - 25. This creates generational gaps.

That being said, the concept of conservative versus contemporary design is a large consideration to take in when designing for different generations. For example, my site for skateboarders uses bolder colors and large interesting fonts, where as my site for KV uses only 2 colors and sticks with commonly sized type and fonts. Because of this one could believe that one site definitely caters to a younger generation, where as the other could be for any generation.

"All Your base Are Belong to Us.

It was interesting reading this article because It was talking about me and my generation. According to this I am a Gamer III. My current boss is definitely from the Boomer generation and I often have difficulty in dealing with him mostly because we have very different ways of doing the same task. He's very anti-distraction,(example: no one can listen music) but exactly like the article described, I am used to working with music blaring, TV on, 5 internet browser tabs open, and if I could I would have dual monitors and have even more open at the same time.
It is true that the generation gap of the boomers and the gamers needs to be bridged but from my experience I think it is in the hands of the gamers to find that bridge. The boomers seem very set in there ways(and like the article mentioned, most are ready to retire) and being the new generation that must take over, it is largely up to us to extract the information from the previous generation and decipher it into a language that is quickly understandable by our peers.

The Difference in Generations

A designer, just like anyone who is in the business to sell goods, needs to look at what is the generation that they want to target whether it be Generation X, Y, Z or Baby Boomers even the Silent Generation as well. An example of this that I see in my own family is computers and internet. My grandparents just got their first computer in the past few years and it was a hand-me-down from my parents. First my grandparents do not have internet, they don't want to pay for it nor have a reason to use it, however they would get it for me if I were to move in with them while I am homeless do to moving. My grandmother mainly uses the computer for Word, Excel and to play games, my Grandfather won't get near it. If they have any problems or need use of the internet they contact either my mother, brother or me.

My mother uses the computer all the time and has become more and more immersed in not just computers but electronics as well. As any other baby boomer she has grown up in a time of affluence, she is very rhetoric and was involved in the advertising world before starting a family. Although she is very much immersed she can separate herself from electronics when she needs too. My father is a different story. He just started to use the computer for more than solitaire. He now has a few sites that he likes to visit, most of them are sport sites.

My brother, sister-in-law and myself are very much immersed in the internet. Neither of us would be able to last long without some type of access to a computer, or the internet.

It is important to know who your target demographic is, what they are into and why they would want or even use the item your trying to sell to them. As a designer it is important to design for the different generations and know what is appealing to them, what they are comfortable with using and how they do certain activities.

Crossing The Chasm (Gadgets, Games and Gizmos)

After reading Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for learning, I feel that Kapp’s perspective on the gaming generation as well as the workforce is possible. I do agree that my generation is heavily impacting the way that the workforce functions. These functions are changes that have been made to the work environment in order to "cater" to the younger generations needs (Gen Y, gamers). For example, I purchased something from the Apple store for the very first time last week. After deciding on my purchase, I looked at the sales person (young kid in his 20’s) and said, “Where is the register located?” The sales associate looked at me like I was from another planet, raised his I-Phone directly in front of my face and said, “Right here.” It took me less than a second to understand the concept of making your purchase through a Smartphone. Why? Because I have been exposed to them and I know how they work. However, if my mom were in my shoes at that particular moment, she would’ve been thrown off guard asking a million questions about using her credit card through the use of the I-Phone. She might even ask if her transaction will be safe. Why would she react like this? Probably because she’s from a much older generation (baby-boomers) who haven’t had much exposure to today’s technology. Some baby-boomers may already understand the concept of touch-screen devices, and many others may not. In my eyes, technology seems to be the “great divide” or “knowledge gap” between the two generations.

The reading mentions that the most difficult part of entering into the workforce for my generation (Gen Y, gamers) will be the transfer of knowledge from an organization. Basically saying that the learning format of training a new employee will be done differently. Baby-boomers are use to structured standard operating procedures where the information is separate from the interface (Gadgets and Gizmos pg 40). Generations Y (Gamers) according to the reading is unstructured were information is the interface, obtaining information in a different format (computers, internet, phones, Skype, etc). I agree and disagree with how both generations learn. The transferring of knowledge can go either way because everyone learns in a different format. However, to completely generalize that the Y generation only learns in that particular format to me is ridiculous.

I do believe that Generation Y will change the way that the workforce is structured. I think that the information that organizations want to teach us will be transferred to us in the same fashion, but with more implementation of technology as a learning tool.

Change in Generations

Digital technology and games have evolved tremendously since the baby boomer generation was the upcoming generation. Usability is changing rapidly and not all generations are keeping up, which makes it seem like technology is only being designed for certain age groups. Young children are quick to pick up new technology and learn new ways, where as older generations are already stuck in their own ways. As a designer you need to be aware of your main audience because different audiences are capable and comfortable with different things. If someone isn't comfortable using a type of technology then they're just not going to use it. The recent touch screen phenomenon was a case where multi generations adapted to the new technology very well. Just by personal observation it is apparent that children and baby boomers adapted quickly to the touch screen, in particular the iPhone. iPhones are all over the place and you see people of all ages using them. The technology is very advanced, but simple enough for just about anyone. The customization also helps because the user is not faced with all these apps that they'll never use. The Droid phones come with apps that are permanent on the interface, making it not as user friendly. It is extremely important to think about your audience when designing technology.

Designing for Different Generations

My example for designing for different generations has to deal with touch screen devices. Everything used to need a physical press down on a button or switch. But with touch screens it's a virtual touch. Touch screen technology has made its way into a lot of different devices ranging from cell phones to car stereos. A majority of the cell phones available on the market today are touch screen with the exception of BlackBerry's which target an older audience.

Touch screen technology has been a big hit with the younger audience. This has altered the way cell phone makers design their phones. They aim them at the majority of cell phone users which are the younger audience, and they like the touch screens. Going from a touch screen phone to a physical keyboard phone makes texting seem like it is a lot more work to accomplish rather than just gliding across the screen with your finger tips.

This also shows a demand from the younger audience to make things easier and easier. Texting and zooming in on web pages on a touch screen cell phone is a lot easier than doing it on one that only has a keyboard and no incorporation of a touch screen.

This week's assignment

Read the link below:

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/42/07879865/0787986542.pdf

Then write about one or more of the following topics:

Considerations when designing for different generations

Kapp's perspective on gaming generations

How the generation of your audience impacts 

Future of Video Games

The future of Video Games is a hard idea to precive. They have come along way from the first video game pong. Now their are eniter communities that live in video games. The most obvious of these communities is World of Warcraft. This game consumes many peoples lives they poor hundreds and hundreds of hours in to the games. Some become so obsessed by the game the forget to function in the real world. I feel this type of community will only grow stronger and stronger as games advance and the gamer audience grows. We now have "pro-gamers" who are literally paid to play video games. It has begun to become so popular that they have even have received sponsorships and receive a tremendous amount of money. Due to the pro gaming community I feel as though the hand held analog controller will be around for quite some time. However with the introduction of the Wii video games have found brand new type of market one that allows anyone to play. Using motion controls creates a fun and intersting expericence but it has not been exploited by to it full potential yet. It does not allow for games to create deep story line which many of the more hardcore gamers thrive on. Video games will become ever more present in entertainment as the industry progresses. The next step is combining the interactivity of motion control and the high powered graphics and deep story line of the current types of games.

Making Money in a virtual world

The gaming genre of MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) typically give you a character or avatar to control in the game you must use to complete missions, explore the game, and earn money(game based currency) whether that be gold in WoW(World of Warcraft), or gil in FFXI(Final Fantasy 11), etc. But in the real world people use these virtual characters to make real world money. How do they do it?

Some of the most common practices for making money in these types of games often rely on how advanced your avatar is. The higher the level of your character the more money you can often make.

One practice is to offer a service that is often known as "Power Leveling." You charge people to level there character for them. You do all the grunt work of taking them to the maximum level and get paid to do so. Payment is usually done via a Paypal transfer or through a Power Leveler's website.

Another way that someone can make money from there avatar is to sell them to other people. Some games allow character transfers between accounts as long as you provide the correct account information or if they do not you will typically sell your entire account that contains the character. Using Wow as an example: depending on your characters items, rank, level, class, and race(some races are more popular and therefore sell at a higher price). you could sell them for anywhere between $200 and $1,000.....Huzzah!This is more often done by people who no longer wish to play the game and want to make some cash on the way out, or at least earn back the money from their subscription costs with some change to spare.

The other most common practice is to sell game currency or rare items for real money. There are websites with offices based often in Asia that are solely dedicated to "Farming" for game currency and items. The term farming is used as a slang term in many games for the act of repeating certain actions(killing monsters, gathering resources, etc) the net a gain in the game's currency. The derogatory term of "Chinese Ebay Farmer" is often used in reference to these individuals. There actions of making rapid amounts of currency often have negative impacts on the in-game economy. raising prices of items and causing inflation. the current value of gold in Wow has ,like real currency, suffered from inflation. The current rate of $3 per 1000g and when the game first released it was about $100 per 1000g.

Big Deal! its only a game right?! for now yes, it is just a game. but if the future holds a world where "second lives" and virtual worlds have a direct impact on our real lives, these may be issues that we may have to face.

Happy Farming!

Gaming and Virtual Worlds

The gaming industry has come a long way. It used to be a little pixilated person running through the jungle jumping over crocodiles (Atari’s Pitfall). Then it was a little Italian person that grew when he ate a mushroom (Nintendo’s Mario). Fast-forward to now and words cannot even describe what games have become. Although I do not play videos games, I do believe that the video gaming industry will grow even larger and progress into more realistic realms of user experience. The video game industry is booming like crazy and it’s just going to keep getting bigger and better.

The whole idea of Virtual Worlds (i.e. Second Life) seem to me a bit strange. I can understand trying it out a few times to say you have done it, but to allow your life to be fully engulfed into “virtual worlds” seems a bit bizarre. What happened to going outside and actually walking around? Or possibly actually hanging out with your friends? Maybe I’m just being a jerk and not fully understanding the concept. I mean obviously it’s working for some people and making a crap ton of money for others. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

I remember watching this movie with Bruce Willis called Surrogates and it blew my mind. I mean, this is as real as it could possibly become right?

Around 00:53 it begins to get more Hollywood, but I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean.



Maybe it won't get to this point, maybe it will. However, the trailer is interesting and the concept is totally creepy.

Virtual worlds

Let me start off by saying that I find it hilarious that people are spending money in things like second life. Marketeers have finally found a way to get people to spend money and receive nothing. That being said, I think that it will be a growing trend. Consumers are getting more and more comfortable spending their money online and through digital shops.

I dont know if in five to ten years we will shop in a virtual mall, but i do think that everything will become more interactive.

As far as videogames are concerned, I think a big focus in the next five to ten years will be building community and interactivity among players. Not everyone wants to have a sims type second reality, but there is a great demand for social networking in everything we do these days. I foresee an interconnectivity between your social media account and your videogames. This is already starting to happen. When I bought the strategy game 'Starcraft 2' like two months ago i was prompted to add contacts to my account who were my friends on Facebook. I didn't even know it but I had 15 friends on Facebook who had also bought the game, and it automatically friend requested them.

The popularity of videogames will continue to grow and it will continue to spred its demographical range.

I cant wait to see what really happens.

Where is There....

I also have never heard of Second Life until now. I am all for the virtual and 3D world becoming a bigger and more popular item in the web world. As one who really has a passion wants to pursue a 3D career, this excites me. But at the same time I wonder how long it will actually take for the popularity to rise. If it is something like a 3D social networking site, maybe it will pick up a bit faster. I went to Secondlife.com and was not too impressed with what I saw. The branding I feel needs some improvement. Like the article said, they have some heavy competition with what Video games are able to produce compared to that of web graphics.

Also, I have doubts on this article. Towards the end they say, “And Makena's Richardson also concedes that eventually there will need to be a shakeout. But he thinks that There.com will be left standing after it takes place.” So I went to go check out There.com and when I got to the website… There.com was closed. So who is to say how accurate this article really is with their predictions…..

Virtual World/Gamings Future

In the years to come gaming and the virtual world will only contuine to evolve. Right now most gaming system is moving into the moving recanition software which is already putting us into the videogames. Most games that will be coming out will make it so you can wave your hand and cast a spell in the game, anything is becoming possibe really.

In the future I can see a virtual world in a virtual world if that makes sense. We will have the ability to control a character who is controling a character in virtual world. A third world if you will. With this kind of software being introduced to all the systems its only a matter of time before one of them take it to the next level.

Second Life

I am the farthest thing from a gamer but I had a relationship with Second Life at one point in my career. When I worked for Reuters, our Science division built it's own island complete with state-of-the art conferencing rooms, training facilities, its very own ride through the pharmaceutical drug development cycle, a bar, monorail, beach and water activities, and of course product promotions galore. It was incredibly sharp. But we made zero money. There were two reasons for this; one, we didn't have the backing from senior management and therefore didn't actively promote it. and two; we realized the island was best suited for customer retention and loyalty campaigns rather than subscription driving efforts.

Virtual reality gaming overall will be successful for a long time to come (until someone greater comes to replace it), but it will entirely depend on what your business model is. Many corporations found success using Second Life, but from my personal experience in the uptight, stuffy Pharma industry - it didn't appear to be the best option to generate revenue.

Gaming and Virtual Worlds

The gaming industry has really taken off over the past decade. The most popular video games make more money than any blockbuster movie. Over the last couple of years, motion gaming systems like the Wii were the future. Now, Sony and Microsoft are catching up with their own motion gaming systems. I believe that the near future of gaming is going to involve 3D gaming. It's obviously a ways off because of the cost of 3D televisions at the moment, but the newest games are already allowing users to play in 3D (see Call of Duty: Black Ops).

I also believe that the virtual gaming worlds that are allowing users to make money will continue. As technology allows more realistic opportunities for gaming, more and more ties to the real world will be made. Some people believe that games are approaching photo-realism. Its both an exciting and scary thought when you consider that games like Grand Theft Auto already allow the user to commit crimes in pretty realistic ways.

Virtual Worlds

I feel that gaming/virtual worlds will still be around way longer than five or ten years. Developers keep coming up with more and more of these virtual worlds, so now more and more people keep joining them. Most people when they join these worlds they get addicted to them and want to play them more than they want to do anything else, plus normally belong to more than one of the communities. I feel like the best example of a virtual world would be the Sims video game. They are making so much money in this game because they sell it in many different game platforms as well as also selling additional packages that go along with these games. They keep coming out with new games as well so I dont see them going anywhere in the near future. But other free online virtual worlds I dont see how they will make it a long distance because the user is not paying for the game. So I feel like these kinda of virtual worlds could disappear or be replaced by other virtual worlds.

Virtual Worlds

I’ve never heard of Second Life until reading this article, but it seems to have a lot of similarities to the Sims. I think games like this can become extremely addicting and it can definitely distract people from the real world. I think in the future, we’ll still have games like this around. They may not be the same games that are here now, but there will definitely still be a market for these type of games. While these games can be extremely addicting, they also get old really fast. Say someone plays for a month straight and that’s all they do. People reach this point where they don’t like the game anymore, for whatever reasons, and they just stop playing just as quickly as they’ve started. But then there’s always a new game right around the corner and that person will jump to the next game.


For now, membership to a community like Second Life is free. It appears they make their money with in-game purchases. I don’t feel this is the best way to keep a company alive. There is no guarantee that people will purchase items from the stores once online. Because you can technically play for free with no need to buy anything. The only way you need to make a purchase is if you want to buy a custom house or new clothes or something similar for your avatar. I think if a company like this really wants to guarantee monetary success, they need to charge a monthly fee. But I know this brings the game to a whole new level if you are charging to play a game.

Virtual world

I find it bizarre when people really do live in a virtual world when we have our real lives to live. I don't think it will become more popular in the next few years but I don't think it's popularity will dwindle either. One aspect of the virtual world that I don't mind is sites offered for kids such as Webkinz and Littlest Pet Shop. To participate in these sites the child needs to first buy an actual stuffed animal that comes with a code. This code registers them on the site allowing the kids to name their pet, feed and play with them. They can 'buy' toys and accessories for the virtual version of their pet as well. If they have friends who are also registered on one of these sites they can interact with them. I think this is a better use of a virtual world because it's just a game for these kids and they have the actual pet to take outside and play with. Kids do get attached to the virtual world but the majority of them are not allowed to sit on the computer hour after hour. Adults who are virtual world users get sucked in for hours and it can begin to replace pieces of their actual life. I know I'm talking about the extreme users, but that's enough to turn me off from virtual worlds. There is a place on the internet for the virtual worlds but I don't think it will become more popular in the next few years and I also don't think it's popularity will dwindle.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are incredibly addicting. It's as if people choose to fall in this trap of having a perfect online virtual world so they can escape from their real life situations. Many are either bored, tired, or just looking for an escape from their current reality. World of War-craft for example is a huge virtual gaming community. People spend extensive amounts of time in front of a computer screen to distract or just entertain themselves. As the virtual gaming world progresses, I believe it is just going to become more chaotic. Paying users for gaming platforms will become more demanding of the quality and graphics. Five to ten years from now virtual worlds will become more expensive. By then there will be many more virtual worlds to choose from. Consumers then will need to spend their money wisely and choose from a mass number of virtual worlds by then. The competition is already growing such as Second Life and Zwinky. I believe the cost to play these games will rise as time goes on. Dealing with companies such as these it may become quantity over quality. These companies are looking to gain revenue and clients quicker than their competitor. In the end, money is what will keep these virtual worlds around. Those willing to pay will end up having to pay for what they believe to be a perfect life, event though it will never exist pass their computer screen.