blogorama

Well gamer week is upon us and like some of you, I’m less than thrilled. My gaming experience consists of the original Nintendo and Mario Kart and Goldeneye on N64. But that’s about it. And I generally only played those with friends. So basically, I’m not into the whole video game world. I read Zach Whalen’s article, “Game/Genre: A critique of Generic Formulas in Video Games in the Context of ‘The Real‘” and I can’t lie. I was bored. It took me a good three or four attempts to get through it. I tried the other articles as well, but I just couldn’t force myself through it.

I think that Whalen presented some slightly interesting ideas in regards to the typology and genre classification of video games, but it’s difficult for me to sit and read through something like that since it makes me want to crawl into my bed and sleep. I went to one of the websites he suggested and poked around for awhile just to see what it was all about. And it looked nice. Well-made. I guess it would be interesting to people… Whalen mentions the various categories that video games can end up being classified under on websites like gamespot, such as Grand Theft Auto III. Apparently in its case, it is classed under both action and Adventure. Is that weird for video games? To be two things? I’m trying to compare it to movies and there are romantic comedies and “dramadies”, so why not for video games too? Whalen notes that, “Action games typically rely on simulated violence or highly kinesthetic game play (or both) and generally lack narrative depth” and “Adventure games, on the other hand typically rely on a story to involve the player and successful game play requires understanding and advancing the story line.” Now, I have basically no experience with today’s video games, but the main two I can think of are Halo and Grand Theft Auto. And I would classify those two as Action and Adventure… According to Whalen, this is why video games should not be classified into various genres.

This is a really weak commentary. I apologize. That’s pretty much all I got out of the article. It bored me greatly. I can’t lie. (Sorry Paul! and Sorry Zach!). What can you do? I’d rather be watching The Hills and painting my toe nails.

Ok I feel as though I need to rant about something. Hollywood spawns the most ridiculous trends. Whether it’s designer bags, leggings, or adopting babies – they got it covered. The trend right now though, is rehab. And what the hell????? Seriously. Who has been to rehab lately? Lindsay Lohan, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears, Nicole Ritchie, Isaiah Washington and today I read the Jesse Metcalfe (of Desperate Housewives fame) is joining in on the fun. Now maybe rehab isn’t a trend and these people all have valid issues. But I don’t know. I just find it odd that going to rehab is part of my everday tabloid readings and that’s weird. It’s strange that ALL of these people are choosing to go into rehab around the same time. It’s also odd that their publicists send out a press release to announce it to the world. Shouldn’t something like going to rehab be a personal experience? If you don’t advertise that they’re going, maybe people wouldn’t know they’re there and would leave them alone! Geez.

I get so frustrated with the celebrity world sometimes. Maybe I should stop reading gossip blogs… If only I could somehow. I’m just addicted. Maybe I should go to rehab too!! hahaha. I hate that hollywood is making rehab seem like something easy. Easy to decide to go to, easy to be in, and easy to get back to your life after. Because it’s not! I think it’s horrible that rehab is becoming somewhat of a joke because it is a very serious form of treatment for very serious disorders. It’s frustrating. Anyways. That’s my rant!

This week I read the article “Should gay people seek to cultivate representations of a unified gay identity in the media, or is this counterproductive?” I read the other articles as well and I didn’t find them as compelling as this one. I can actually remember the first “gay” show I watched on TV and it was Ellen Degeneres’ sitcom “Ellen”. What’s interesting about this sitcom was that when the show first began to air, her role wasn’t a lesbian. But then she came out and so the character did as well. Even more interesting is that it was cancelled soon after. I watched a re-run of it awhile ago and I’m beginning to think that had more to do with how not funny it was…. but either way, it was cancelled.

If you look at the tv line up today, there is way more inclusion of gay characters. In the article Horsley explains that when he was growing up he could only see “gay things” on late night television and even then it was rare. Now anytime of day you can tune into Will and Grace. Plus there are shows like Queer as Folk and the L-word which are dramas solely based on gay characters. Frankly I think all three of these shows are great. I’ve watched Queer as Folk a number of times and there are graphic scenes that would shock me whether it was a hetero couple or a gay couple, but the storylines are amazing and the actors are GREAT (and hot!). I’m just glad that there is at least some media representation of homosexual people out there.

Horsely also mentions that Queer theorists seek to problematize the notion of a gay/lesbian identity so as to somewhat normalize the gay community with the straight community. I actually agree with them. Although I think shows like the L-word and Queer as Folk are great, I think people would benefit even more from having gay characters and straight characters together. Rather than making it a “gay show”, we really should be able to just recognize it as a “show”.

I loved the article for this week, “All of Your Insecurities Wrapped Up in A 30 Second Spot”. When I was in Sociology of Women, Men, and Gender we discussed advertising quite a bit and it totally fascinated. That was over a year ago and I still have a critical eye when I see ads. I’m constantly looking at print ads and commercials with almost a feminist point of view. I wouldn’t classify myself as being a feminist, but there are so many images that disturb me as a female. In the article, the book Reviving Ophelia is mentioned and i LOVE that book. I read it years ago, but it still resonates with me. It’s excellent. I recommend it to all!!

One of the quotes mentioned from the book is “Women are portrayed as expensive toys, as the ultimate recreation.” I love that!!! This one little sentence is just so accurate about the portrayal of women. In everything from music videos to print ads to commericals on TV, women are constantly hypersexualized and “dumbed down”. Even commericals for toilet paper or stomach medicine are sexualized – and women are almost always the target. It’s ridiculous! It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to people that girls have low self esteem and struggle with self image.

So obviously I agree that there are negative images and messages sent out to the masses through advertising, but sometimes it can go too far. Friedrich mentions in her article that women wearing white in ads symbolizes innocence and purity. Which on some level, white does represent. But I don’t necessarily agree that everytime a woman in an ad is wearing white, that the company is trying to sell the ideals of virginity and purity to the masses. A good majority of ads contain sexual undertones, but I think sometimes we are being unrealistic in chalking up everything little thing to sexual innuendo.

I was just perusing the many blogs I read on a daily basis and followed a link which brought me to another link, etc. In the end of the long line of links, I came upon an article on nme.com about the ‘Best Song Ever Poll’. Here’s the list:

The global top ten songs were:

1. ‘We Are The Champions’ – Queen
2. ‘Toxic’ – Britney Spears
3. ‘Billie Jean’ – Michael Jackson
4. ‘Hotel California’ – The Eagles
5. ‘La Tortura’ – Shakira
6. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – Nirvana
7. ‘Yesterday’ – The Beatles
8. ‘One’ – U2
9. ‘Imagine’ – John Lennon
10. ‘Sultans Of Swing’ – Dire Straits

So I’m confused. They’re telling me that ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears is better than Billie Jean, Hotel California, and Imagine????? Is this a joke? I’m just really perplexed by this. That wasn’t even her most popular song! Apparently the survey was conducted in 44 different countries. I just don’t get it. The world’s gone mad! And Bohemian Rhapsody is better than We Are The Champions. Come on people! Bohemian Rhapsody is like four songs in one! It’s amazing!!!! Anyways, this post has no point really. I just found this pretty disturbing. Does anyone agree with the list?

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