Life in the information age- entertainment

Life in the information age- entertainment

This week I am going to discuss how the entertainment sector has been affected by us living in the information age.

Some of the topics that I am going to discuss during this post are: Games and Music.

Introduction to entertainment

The entertainment industry has been affected largely by the information age. Many people will see the benefits that the information age has brought to the entertainment industry while others will look for the social and cultural impacts on society brought on through the information age. In addition to that we can clearly see that there is certainly new ways of enjoying entertainment because they are outdating their predecessors. In relation to the topics that I am going to be discussing this week there are now new ways to play games and make the games themselves through technological advances brought on by us living in the information age. Conventional controllers are now starting to be outdated through the introduction of the critically acclaimed Kinect and Playstation move system. In addition to MP3 players are being made obsolete by the more powerful and better storage system in Apples I pods. All these technological advances have made entertainment more ubiquitous than ever, regular conversation starters are to do with technology.

Introduction to gaming

One of the biggest changes to entertainment is the gaming industry. Every consecutive year we will see a new console better than its predecessor, also through this I will be discussing the changes that the gaming industry has seen from the perspective of gamers.

History of Gaming

The first generation console was called the Magnavox odyssey; it was first released in 1972 and required 2 players to play on. This console allowed the playing of 12 games and could be considered as the starting point for most modern day consoles and gaming.

One of the biggest advances in technology in 1976 was the release of the first cartridge based games console. The console was called the Fairchild channel f; it was the first console to have a processor and 64 bytes of RAM. In fact this console was so successful that cartridge based consoles were used right up to 1994 when Playstation released their games on CD discs.

1985 saw the biggest ever puzzle game released. Tetris is still now a very huge arcade game with over 70 million versions of the game being sold worldwide. Games like this were beginning to make the gaming industry huge as many people played the game.

1988 saw the first CD Rom unit for a console. This kick started the CD disc gaming that still exists today. This was released for the PC engine as an add on pack.

1989 Saw Atari releasing the first games console to have colour. It was called the Atari Lynx and it was the console that the Nintendo DS and PSP were born from.

1993 Saw the first arcade game to use polygons in the form of hardware 3D. The game was called virtua fighter and took advantage of real world fighting techniques.

2000 was a real revelation in console gaming. PS2 had a DVD players contained within in becoming the cheapest DVD player on the market and had huge sales in Japan. The PS2 could be regarded as the biggest console of its time until the Xbox came in the market and changed gaming forever.

2001 saw the Xbox arriving. Microsoft had developed a console that would soon change the world in its next console. However on the topic of this console its best feature offered was it had a hard drive for game storage. It was a revelation for gaming because we have had to use memory card that offered little storage available.

2005 Saw the Xbox 360 being released. It is probably now the market dominator for gamer despite PS3 still being on the market. The Xbox Elite was probably the best Xbox 360 with 120GB worth of storage, that amount could store around 800 games!

2011 Kinect is released for Xbox 360. This was a major step towards virtual gaming because it required no controller and only required the player to use their hands and feet. This seemed to make Wii obsolete.

Advantages brought to gaming

Better entertainment- It is widely argued that since the release of the Magnavox Odyssey gaming has been one of the biggest entertainment in the world. We can play with multiple people every since the first console allowing us to play with friends and family over multiple games. I personally believe being gamer, gaming offers something else to entertainment; you can play gaming for hours I feel than sitting in front of a T.V.

Cartridge gaming- Ever since the release of the fairplay channel f cartridge gaming has dominated the market. It could be regarded as the start for the loading of games into consoles, I personally have had cartridge based consoles and personally believe that they are as good as CD discs, in fact they are probably better because CD’s can get scratch while the cartridge does not.

CD discs- Being in the information age we now have access to playing games on discs. This has been the case ever since Playstation released games on to its console in the form of discs. Because of this advance in 1994 games released on the new consoles PS3 and Xbox 360 will take the form of CD discs. CD discs have been a revelation for gaming because multiple content could be placed on these discs unlike the cartridge. I personally believe that CD discs have allowed the multiple adding of content which is good because game designers aren’t limited on what they can put in the games.

HD gaming- HD gaming has been apparent ever since the release of the PS3 and the Xbox 360. What this offers gamers is crisper colour and sound to make gaming more realistic than ever. Landscapes in particular games such as fallout have been made to seem real; and the level of detail that the gamer can see makes gaming seem more real than ever. I personally believe being a gamer that HD gaming has made available better graphics to games and designers can focus on landscapes to make gaming seem, more real for the player.

Playstaion move and Kinect- One of the biggest revelations for gamers in the information age is the access to no ‘controllers gaming’. This type of gaming I thought was very early for this stage, however being in the information age w consoles and gadgets arte made readily available every 6 months or so. However what these gadgets offer us is a new and exciting type of gaming never seen before and could shape the future in which we play games. I personally have Kinect and believe that even though it might take a while for people to get used to it, it will soon become the start of the new generation of gaming because it is very futuristic.

Disadvantages of gaming in the information age

It is of my opinion that the information age has brought more positives than it has negatives. There are a few disadvantages that the information age has brought to gaming.

Addictiveness- Many of the games that are released today are very addictive. It is bad for people that actually need to get on with work or school work and prevents growth in education. I personally believe that gaming is a distraction from work if left uncontrolled and being a gamer it is very tempting to leave the work you have to do to play on a games console.

Keeping up- It is very difficult to keep up with every single console, game and gadget that is made. It can become very annoying when you purchase one console and in the next 2 months another console comes around because you have to buy new games for that console and get used to what it offers.

Expense- Games in the information have seem to get more expense especially every Christmas when they release the best and most anticipated games of the year. I personally believe that although this is good for the companies that make these games it is not good for consumers when making a choice on what to buy.

My experience of gaming in the information age- The first console I ever had was the Nintendo 64; this used cartridge games which I thought were pretty good. In terms of what the Wii offers I feel that Nintendo have felled short of they have previously offered gamers. The N64 was a very good console compared to the Wii because it offered very good graphics and an enjoyable experience that you don’t seem to get with the Wii. In terms of the Xbox 360 and Ps3 war Xbox have done very well to fend of PS3 because it seemed that PS3 would dominate the market with its blue ray player. Gaming in the information is certainly bigger than it has ever been and this is evident through the amount of content that is released for the consoles.

Music

Ever since the introduction of the MP3 player in 1997 is widely regarded a first mass produced system capable of listening to personal music. The system was created by Saehan Information Systems with a flash drive capable of storing 32MB of content which is about 6 songs. Listening to personal music has become quite a big trend. Many people will listen to personal music in public, you will probably see a person listening to personal music every single day on the streets giving you an idea of how big it has become through the information age.

Advantages of the music industry through the information age

Better hardware- The Apple I pod could be considered as the market dominator for personal music. It in recent years has made MP3 players obsolete despite them being cheaper than I pods. The IPod is actually an MP3 player but it has a much better storage system than a conventional Sony MP3 player for example. An IPod classic can store up 160GB worth on content while the earlier MP3 players could store 64MB worth of song. I personally believe that if you take it from the view that earlier MP3 players could store about 6 songs compared to now where 1000s of songs could be stored it gives you an idea of what the information age has offered the music industry.

Vast amount of selection- Many  would argue that through the information age  a vast amount of music could be selected through stores such as ITunes and Sonic stage for Sony MP3 players. I personally believe that this vast amount of selection is an advantage because new music can be explored by people to the point at which less well known artists become better known.

Portable- being in the information age has developed music players that are portable. As they are portable we have the ability to take them any where we like and listen to personal music via the music player wherever we are. I personally believe that this is a huge advantage for the music industry because we often wish to work somewhere relaxing; having these portable music players enables us to have that relaxing environment in which we can work without background noise for people talking for example.

Battery- Although battery life in music players is pretty low Apple released a docking station to allow people to charge their IPod anywhere where electricity is available. It is similar to Phone hubs in appearance allowing people to recharge their IPod to listen again. The best feature about it is that you don’t need an official apple docking station; you can by a simple cheap docking station so long as it is compatible with the IPod that you own.

Disadvantage of Music in the information age-

Loud music- many people that own an IPod/MP3 player will have their music very loud. It can be very annoying for someone trying to work because you can the music be played and secondly having loud music can contribute to early deafness. I think to address this problem the sound needs to be made to be at a constant volume because early deafness is quite a big problem that can be stopped so easily.

Personal music issues- Many people in the streets when crossing roads are listening to loud music and can’t hear oncoming traffic resulting in accidents happening. Secondly there is a lack of concentration from people when listening to personal music and when you are trying to talk to someone with loud music being played it seems rude to carry on listening to that piece of music. I Personally have seen people cross with music being played in their ears and get run over as a result of not looking and concentrating where they areas stepping.

 

Pirate coping- One of the biggest disadvantages faced with music companies is pirate copying. Many people will use pre brought discs and copy them to their IPod which is illegal. For the consumer this is good because they don’t have top pay for songs; but for the company they are losing business. To counter this Apple should look into automatic detection of Pirating via their software as warning message to people who do this.

My experiences of Music in the information age- I personally believe that Music has changed quite significantly in recent decades certainly. Apple is the market dominator and looks to continue that by the huge profits that they make on their products. However the information age is all about wars between companies to make the best products, someone should look to rival apple because letting them have the market stops the consumer from experiences other products apart from apple. The choice for the consumer in ITunes for example is huge and lets them explore many different artists that they may never have heard from. However Apple as we know have ridiculous prices which is why someone should rival them because that is why many turn to pirate downloading.