Author Archives: Charlie’s Blog

Essay 2

Ever since I could remember, I’ve loved gaming. Not just video gaming, but also board games and various other recreational games. On September 18th 2018, I made my first blog post. This was the Encounter With a Stranger post, it wasn’t particularly exciting nor accomplishing, but it was a step in the right direction. After 12 weeks of posting on my blog, I feel that I’d discovered an interest into content creation in the gaming genre.

The Online Self

Through all my process posts, there is a consistent theme of my bringing up of “The Online Self”. The online self is s persona that one creates or invents when they create content, such as Youtubers like Pewdiepie. The mannerisms and personality help the content creator engage with their audience, creating a coherent and loyal fanbase. I’ve had issues with developing an online persona around the first 3-4 weeks of the course, thinking that it’s awkward to be someone else. This led to the narrative of the blog being slightly dull, and my post introducing the game Overwatch perfectly illustrates a bland persona. There was no greeting to my audience at the introduction, I only focused on the technical analysis of the game, instead of cracking a few jokes, eliciting emotion or making connections to my real life. It was after I read John Suler’s The Online Disinhibition Effect, where I started to realize how I can develop my persona on my platform. Suler mentions seven different effects the online platform has on one’s personality, and the Dissociative Anonymity (Suler, 2004) effect resonated with me the most. Dissociative anonymity is the phenomena such that, a lot of times people interact with stranger on the internet, not knowing their true identity, and this anonymity empowers one to speak their true thoughts (Suler, 2004). This had taught me that I could display an even more “real” personality online, than I would with strangers in real life. From the post Infamous Second Son (PS4), I’ve started to incorporate greetings, and a few weeks later through Puzzles & Dragons (Mobile), I’ve integrated some of my real-life events like talking about my midterms. It is evident through my posts, that I was growing as a content creator, taking baby steps to engage with my audience.

The Design

At around week 10 of developing my blog, I started being more mindful on my Google Analytics, reflecting upon what the data tells me about my audience. According to my analytics by Monster Insights – a widget that I downloaded as an alternative to Google – there was a 62.96% bounce rate on my site. This means that around 63% of the sessions, the viewer leaves the site without going further than the homepage. My course of action against that was to drastically change the design of my webpage. The initial design of the banner, as I’ve been told by my peers, had too busy of a background which took the attention away from the navigation menu, which was integrated within the banner. This might have caused the user experience to lack in affordance. Affordance, according to Victor Kaptelinin in The Encyclopedia of Human Interaction, is design based on human intuitiveness (Kaptelinin, 2013). In order to create a more intuitive user experience, I changed the theme of my blog into having the banner on the left side of the page, taking up about 30% of the homepage. I feel that this puts more focus on the navigation menu, which helps the user explore my blog posts in a more robust manner. Furthermore, Mauve Page, a guest speaker from week 5 had given a presentation on web design and user experience. According to Page, contrast in the color and general content is critical in creating a point of focus for the audience (Page, 2018). This is also reflected on the change of banner on my blog, I chose a mostly white background for the banner, to create a contrast with the dark font of the navigation menu. This helps create a focal point for my audience, and ultimately develop an affordance in the navigation of my blog.

Final Thoughts

Over the course of the 12 weeks of this course, I feel that how my blog has evolved in terms of the Online Self and the Design and what I’ve learnt in this process is a skill that I will continue to explore. Blogging every week about gaming has been an eye-opening experience, as this is my first time creating content and a presence online. I’d like to continue this journey, expanding it to streaming games, creating Youtube commentaries or even podcasts. Developing an online persona has taught me how to engage with my audience, to create a coherent fan base.

Works Cited

  1. Soegaard, Mads & Friis Dam, Rikke. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed..
  2. Suler, J. (2002). The basic psychological features of cyberspace. In The Psychology of Cyberspace, www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/basicfeat.html (article orig. pub. 1996)
  3. Page, M. (2018). Some Considerations On Web Design And Type On Screens

 

 

 

Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! – Nintendo Switch

I always say to my friends “Pokemon is the greatest game ever made”, when I say this, there isn’t a particular Pokemon game I’m referring to (Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red etc…), I’m referring to the general game of Pokemon created by Gamefreak that we all know and love (90’s kids will know, I know it sound snobby and being born in 96 barely makes me a 90s kid). Furthermore I’m not even referring to a specific aspect of the game, not graphics, not mechanics, not the narrative. Sure, there are a lot of games out there nowadays that are better in all those aspects. But to me Pokemon will always be one of the greatest games ever made because it was the first game I fell in love with – catching my first legendary (Groudon), failing to catch a legendary because I didn’t save the game before trying (rookie mistake, I know). So you can imagine my reaction when they finally released a Pokemon game for Nintendo Switch, I was through the roof!

Mid to late 2018 Gamefreak and Nintendo released the games Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s go Eveee. These games are not exactly conventional Pokemon games, now I know a lot of hardcore 90s gamers will freak out if the game isn’t an exact 1 for 1 copy of the old ones, but bare with me. The game now has way better graphics, meaning the characters will finally have dynamic emotions on their faces. One of my favorite features they introduce in this new game is that they offer more immersive Pokemon battles now. The Pokemon is now shown actually attacking each other, instead of the old Dungeons & Dragons like mechanics.

In my opinion, if you’ve been a big fan of the Pokemon franchise you really should search up some gameplay online (Because I know not everyone has a Nintendo Switch). It offers a more contemporary game style to an all time classic!!

Process Post – 9 (Developing Community Guidelines)

Online trolls are an inevitable subsection of a content creator’s audience as the content gains more attention. This is why all social medias and platforms for content creators have community guidelines, to control the toxicity nature of the comment section.

In my blog’s niche, a community guideline is prominent, because the gaming community is full of kids and teenagers who don’t think that they’ll have to be held accountable for what they say. However, as a gamer myself, I dont believe that there should be a profanity filter because being censored takes some fun out of engaging with the community. That being said, I strive to build a harmonious community where everyone is welcome to engage in.

(tentative) Community Guidelines:

  1. No pornography (links, videos, comments)
  2. No discriminatory comments towards and not limiting to – Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation
  3. No spam advertisements
  4. No exchanging personal information (emails, phone numbers)

I feel that the above tentative community guidelines are a good starting point to creating a safe and harmonious environment for my audience.

Process Post – 8

As we integrate our everyday lives with technology, there are undeniably limitless marketing/business opportunities. Creation, curation, and dissemination of free content comes with advertising opportunities, and as we’ve learnt, there are multiple channels to do so. I think that this is another fantastic way to engage with my audience, to establish my brand as a publisher. Furthermore it offers me an opportunity to think about putting advertisements on my blog to monetize this process. In my opinion, one of the channels with the most potential would be social media, especially Snapchat and Instagram. These two apps are perfect for my blog because of the target audience it can reach. According to Statista, Snapchat is a social media with one of the most pre-teens/ teenage users, with 23% of users being between the ages of 13-17 years old. This is perfect for my blog because my target audience would be gamers, and most teens/pre-teens game.

With the knowledge that social media is a profitable channel for my blog, I think my next course of action would be to create a Snapchat, and create more content on social media that would attract more users to my blog.

Links:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/326452/snapchat-age-group-usa/

Peer Review #3

Introduction

For the third peer review of this course, I’ve been assigned to review Joaquin’s blog – Belly Good Food Review. From the about page and the general recent content on his blog, it is apparent that this is a food review blog. I’m going to be categorizing the review of this blog in terms of general user experience (design) and content, relative to the demographic of the blog.

User Experience (Design)

Joaquin’s primary demographic for his blog would be foodies, or other food reviewers. I’ve personally known quite a few foodies myself and from hundreds and thousands of Instagram posts, it is common knowledge that they are famous for their appreciation for art and aesthetics. This brings us to the homepage of Belly Good Food Review, which is in my opinion, fantastic. The background of a picture with a filter of cool colors is complimented by the white texts of the name of this blog and the introductory statement. Further down the page, the background transitions to what looks like wooden panels, overlaid by individual posts with white borders and a picture that’s relevant to the post. The layout of the posts on the homepage is probably one of my favorite aspects to the blog as a user. I appreciate that the sizes of the posts are sufficient to showcase the content with a large picture, but not large enough to become a nuisance to have to scroll through.

The design of this blog is simply aesthetic, and generally a pleasant experience to surf through. That being said, there are some minor tweaks that I would suggest for this blog to make the user experience even better. As I scrolled through the posts, and commuted my way to page 3, I wanted to take a look at the “About” page, however, I could not find a navigation menu. I feel that a navigation menu is critical to help keep your audience oriented on your website, even more so as you add more content. Adding a navigation menu is a means of saving time and hassle for users, though a few seconds to go back to the home page and click on the “About” page might sound insignificant, but in my opinion, I feel that every second is valuable from the user’s perspective.

Content

The first impression of the blog from the homepage that I had was that it was going to be a fun read. This is because the introductory statement showed a sense of humor, that I just haven’t found in other blogs. “Peas to meat you! Orange you glad you discovered this site? Lettuce get right to it and taco ‘bout some gouda food!” word play genuinely brightened my mood, and I feel that it has and will continue to do that for his other viewers as well.

The first impression of the blog from the homepage that I had was that it was going to be a fun read. This is because the introductory statement, and the title from some of the blog posts like “New Design, Who Dis?” showed a sense of humor, that I just haven’t found in other blogs. The word plays in the introductory statement on the homepage “Peas to meat you! Orange you glad you discovered this site? Lettuce get right to it and taco ‘bout some gouda food!” genuinely brightened my mood, and I feel that it has and will continue to that for his other viewers as well.

Conclusion

After reading some of Joaquin’s blog posts, I feel that Belly Good Food Review’s most marketable trait is Joaquin himself. The personality and rapport that’s created on this blog is phenomenal, the light-hearted comedy would be the secondary or even the primary factor that people return to this site. With more functionality that’s based towards the user experience like adding a navigation bar, I feel that this is a website that I’d visit daily, even when I’m not quite a foodie!

 

 

 

Vancouver’s new Overwatch team!

As Inaugural season of the Overwatch League (OWL) came to an end, each of the teams from the Atlantic and Pacific Division has had their fair share of victories and losses (some with 0-40 loss ahem… Shanghai Dragons… ahem). It looks like the OWL has plans of expansion to its original 12 teams, which include:

From the Atlantic Division:

  1. Boston Uprising
  2. Florida Mayhem
  3. Houston Outlaws
  4. London Spitfire
  5. New York Excelsior
  6. Philadelphia Fusion

From the Pacific Division:

  1. Dallas Fuel
  2. Los Angeles Gladiators
  3. Lost Angeles Valiant
  4. San Francisco Shock
  5. Seoul Dynasty
  6. Shanghai Dragons

6 new teams will be added to the original 12. Including 2 teams from China, Chengdu and Hangzhou. 2 teams from Canada, Vancouver and Toronto. One team from Paris, France. And one team from Washington, DC.

Most of these have been announced; Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, Paris Eternals, Toronto Defiant. The remaining teams (Vancouver and Washington DC) has not been announced yet.

However, there’s recently been a “leak” according to some sources on Reddit. A picture of the team name Vancouver Titans, with the skins has surfaced (see image below). Whether this source is credible is uncertain. But either ways this is a very exciting tease!

Links:

VANCOUVER BRAND LEAK: Titans from Competitiveoverwatch

https://www.sportsnet.ca/more/report-vancouver-franchise-coming-overwatch-league/

http://fortune.com/2018/09/08/overwatch-league-2019-new-teams/

Process Post – 7

This week, I’ve been trying to set up the Google Analytics plugin for my blog. By installing Google Analytics, it can help me look at different user statistics on my blog. This will allow me to identify demographics on my website, user behavior on different pages (how long people stay), and adjust my site functionality accordingly. That being said, I had trouble setting up the Google Analytics plugin, because somehow it wouldn’t let me authenticate my google account. Thus, I tried using an alternative produced by Monster Insights, which also produces Google Analytics but simply an alternative plugin. I was able to authenticate my Google account for this plugin, however, it seems to be malfunctioning because it wouldn’t display any user activity (page views and sessions show 0). This means that there’s definitely some malfunction because I’ve visited the sites myself, my classmate has visited it, and my TA Ellen has also viewed it.

In conclusion, I will be focusing on setting up and troubleshooting Google Analytics plugin in the following week. Perhaps I will look at more forums and videos as guides.

Red Dead Redemption 2 – PS4

Whaaat!! Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) is finally out for PS4 and XBox One players!! I could not possibly call this blog a “gaming blog” if I didn’t do a review on this game!

Introduction 

The Red Dead Redemption series is a developed by Rockstar games, which also brought us the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Thus these two games have very similar gameplay but contrasting plots. RDR2 is an open-world action adventure game, that’s set in the 1800s in America. This setting is crucial for the theme of the game, which is a Western styled outlaw game.

Plot

The player follows the story of Arthur Morgan, outlaw gunslinger from the Van Der Linde gang. The gang consists of Dutch van der Linde (the leader), Arthur Morgan, John Marston, Bill Williamson, Micah Bell and many others. The story starts with a fleeing and vulnerable Van Der Linde gang, after a heist gone wrong and police or “lawman” – as the character says it – are tracking them down. As the story progresses, the gang runs into trouble left and right under Dutch’s reckless leadership. Resulting in the gang having to orchestrate multiple heists and other illegal operations to sustain.

Gameplay

RDR2 take a lot of game mechanics from its predecessor RDR1, such as the gun mechanics (Dead Eye), and honor system. What I like most about this game is how much agency the player has in the game. There are countless numbers of character customization options, such as beard length, hair length, using pelts you receive from hunting to craft special clothing items and many more. The player is also able to interact with NPCs (Non Playable Characters) in a way I’ve never experienced before. Being able to instigate fights (but not always because NPCs have different personalities), defuse heated situations, killing witnesses, and robbery.

In conclusion, I feel that anyone that claims to be a gamer needs to check this game out, as it’s redefined open world map games in my opinion. If you don’t have console (xbox, ps4) get one! It’s worth it.