Things are going Downhill: Media Meditation 3

Hello again people of the Blogosphere and here we go for another ride of for video games and other media and world that events that spring to mind

On March 20th I competed in the 31st anual George Syrovatka citizens downhill at Jay Peak VT. which is a charity event to raise money for leukemia research it is 60 dollars for a lift tick, a T-shirt and raffle ticket which is cheaper than just buying a lift ticket for the mountain. The event is a lot of fun and you meet a lot of interesting people during the race most of whom are in the 50 years of age and up category and are skill flying down the mountain at 80 plus miles per hour. I did okay at the event my self doing a modest 70 mph which was a terrifying experience for me since I was on a 181 Atomic Giant Slalom ski and those are only meant to go 60 mph. So I was happy with my performance. so here is a video of what it looked like from my view. The picture was provided by nbcsports.com

Image provided by spawnkill.com

This leads into the first game I will be talking about to day and that game is Vancouver 2010. This game is one of the worst games of all time in my opinion. I got this game after I broke my leg senior year ski racing and this games boasted first person skiing. So feeling desperate I purchased this game. For starters the games graphics are terrible and do not even stand up against games of past generation of gaming platforms. The controls are sluggish and unresponsive and its just not fun the sports are not represented well. This is just down right awful game that was just made to capitalize on the Olympic hype which has been a problem with the game industry for a while.

This video is from the pc version which as better graphics that the counsel version.

Now that has baseball season has begun I have alway enjoyed baseball and baseball games playing them my favorite recently has been MLB THE SHOW 2010. Which I have been playing for about a year now and I have throughly enjoyed the experience the game has great controls and many great modes which allow for extensive replay value and I can not wait till I can purchase this years incarnation of the game. Here is the commercial

So this Ends blog I leave you with this one suggestion for those Si-Fi mans would be to watch the British Tv show Red Dwarf

Its All Just Black and White With Some Fire Breathing Dragon;media meditation #2

Picture provided by Gaygamer.net

Well it has been awhile since I last posted and a few new games have come out since then, along with some other interesting topics to touch on.

First order of business is that Nintendo has just released new Pokemon games, Black and White.

These new games have added another 156 Pokemon to the universe, bringing the total now to 649 Pokemon, but luckily you only have access to the new 156 plus three promo Pokemon until you beat the Elite Four. This forces you to use the new Pokemon instead of just using your old favorites. The first four generations of Pokemon games were based on the regions of Japan, but since they have run out of regions, they have modeled this new region after New York state. I had my doubts when I first heard this, but then I walked into the city of Castelia across a bridge that much resembles the Washington Bridge and into a port city that looks like this

picture provide by pokemonblackandwhite.com

This city much resembles the Big Apple that is New York City. Getting into the game with out spoiling the story, the developers choose the odd route of giving you what is essentially a second starter that is super effective against the starter Pokemon that you are traditionally weak against. For example, if you start with the fire starter, then you would be weak against water type, so you would get a grass type to counteract that. Since you have two rivals to deal with in this game, it is nice that you are guaranteed to have one Pokemon that is strong against their starter. So far this game seems easier than past games because of the use of HM's, which are moves that help you clear obstacles and move across the world. In past games you have been forced to use HM's to get from town to town and advance in the game. Currently, I am at the fifth gym and have only had to use one HM once so far in the game, so I am interested to see if this trend keeps up through the rest of the game. The core mechanics of this game have not changed, but even after all these years, Pokemon games are still fun to play. I would strongly recommend this game as a buy to people. Here is the trailer for this new installment.

Picture provided by G4tv.com

Another new game that has just been released. It is another Bioware game Dragon Age II. This game is similar Mass Effect 2 only that it is set in a medieval setting. I have not played the game as of yet but I have watched my roommate play the game and it seems to have a very engaging story and a much improved combat system from the first game and there have been very apparent upgrades in the graphics. if you want a review for the game I trust IGN as a site that reviews video games so here is there review for Dragon Age II.

I personally cannot wait to play this game when I have the chance.

In sporting news the 2011-2012 NFL season is in jeopardy as the players union has not signed a collective bargaining agreement and they are now suing the NFL on anti-trust law suit. In response the owners and the NFL have lockout that prevent the players from playing until a new collective bargaining agreement is signed so unless a lot of ground is meet between the two sides there will not be football any time soon.

So until text time which will hopefully be some time next week have a good time in the media play ground that is the modern world.

Game Informer

This picture was provided by irrationalgames.com

Game Informer was founded in 1991 by Funcoland which is now GameStop

Game Informer being a text based is based on stimulating the neocortex part of the brain by requiring us to read its pages to understand the massage and information that the magazine is trying to give us.

Game Informer focuses on the technological shift from board and card games to the digital era's form of entertainment video games and how they are becoming apart of everyday life. They also moved the digital media where you can download the magazine to their computers instead of getting the magazine delivered to their house in print form.

Game Informer relies on value message by providing people with up to date gaming information and opinions on what you they thought about games that are on the market now and where you might want to spend your money. And features about what is going on in the gaming industry.

Game Informer tries to persuade their reader by using group dynamics by talking to their readers as the gaming community in general. They do this for all of their articles and in issues where they focus on important topics they heavily lean on reaching you as a part of the gaming community.

For this issue they also add nostalgia based on the cover going back to labeling this the october 1912 issue of the magazine and using old time art and feel on the front cover of the issue instead of the glossy from the other issues I have.

So that is Game Informer viewed under the lens of media power tools from my CCM 120 class.

The Super Bowl and Media Convergence post for ccm 120 take 2 media mediation #1

Hi everyone it has been a while since I last posted and many things have happened. As I write this blog I am watching Super Bowl XLV. I would like to first focus on the commercials that I have seen so far. The Doritos commercials have been the best so far especially the one with the dog tackling down the door to get to the Doritos that the guy his holding behind the screen door or the one where it turns out the Doritos crumbs can bring people back from the dead. Audi commercials continue to air commercials that play against the old luxury. This VW commercial has been the cutest of the Super Bowl commercial so far.


Continuing on with Volkswagen I had to test drive a Volkswagen Golf GTI for are final project in my Marketing 130 class. This car is a blast to drive with a four cylinder 2 liter turbo engine that generates 200 horse power. The model I drove had a six speed manual transmission that was the smoothest transmission I have ever driven and the engine produced a very smooth torque curve allowing for smooth and consistent acceleration and quick steering This is an excellent car that I would recommend to people looking for a four door hot hatch, but enough about the car’s performance. This car is a prime example of media convergence inside the car just from the steering wheel I can use blue tooth devices to make phone calls and manage the stereo and control the devices gauges and dashboard display. For example you can set the car to beep at you if you exceed a certain speed as well as set the car but for different driving conditions. The touch screen of the car allows for control of satellite radio and GPS along with many other media devices.



Here is the Car that I test drove on Saturday the 2011 Golf GTI for the auto section of yahoo.com

Moving on to the Video game aspect of this blog. I am now about half way through my second play through of Mass Effect 2. I am still enjoying myself making what I believe to be better choices to get the out come that I want to achieve. In other game related media Dead Space 2 has used the interesting ad campaign of billing it as the game that your mom will hate.


Sony has announced that it will be releasing a new portable gaming counsel called the Next Generation Portable or the NGP for short. It has a quad core processor and can play playstation 3 games due to its processing power. It is also equipped with the convergent media of wifi and 3G capabilities as well as GPS and it also can connect to all forms of social media. The NGP will also have the ability to locate other NGP's in a given area and through them you can tell what game they are playing and you can go on to the playstation store and download the game or movie that they are playing or watching immediately. This product will offer strong competition to Nintendo's own handheld the 3DS.

The Super Bowl is Now over and the Green Bay Packers have been crowned Super Bowl champions so congrats to them.

And to until net time enjoy living in the world of convergent media and remember we live in a society of information technology IT, but we are working toward total information technology TIT and when you sucking on the TIT they have you by the motherboard.

Second Infant Step in to the Blogosphere Introduction

Hi my name is Leif Gurdin and I am from Rochester New York and I am a marketing major at Champlain college where I am a Freshman. I enjoy skiing, playing ultimate frisbee, airsoft, and playing video games. And for the purpose of this blog I will be related my social media experiences I get while playing video games along with other things that I do from skiing to anything i want blog about.

For a recent social a media experience I have been playing Call of Duty Black Ops with my friends from home who are at different colleges to keep in touch with each other and be abe to chat and play together. I have also been playing Mass Effect 2 the newly released BioWare first person shooter RPG for the PS3 I have greatly enjoyed my experience with this game so far and have just started my second play through the story line and I enjoy the combat and leveling system but I enjoy the dialogue between the characters and the may options that you have for each conversation which makes each play through of this game different and unique experience. That I would highly recommend to any one with a PS3.

Things that I do not like about todays culture is mostly that people can not seem to escape from the media I most especially hate smart phones like the three major brands Blackberry , Droid, and iphone. I have never had one of these phones before so maybe I am missing something, but I find them so rude because people are constantly checking them even during conversation. For now I have a Samsung Intensity II which is just a basic qwerty phone and I enjoy texting with it but nothing more I prefer to use my laptop to access my social media.

Also I am an avid skier and I raced throughout high school and my favorite skier is Bode MIller and the picture above racing in his gold medal event the Super Combined.

Has the Super Bowl contenders have been decided the Packers Vs the Steeler we now will look to the Super Bowl ads here his my favorite Super Bowl of all time.





Thank you for letting me introduce myself to you and as a parting note I would like to become a marketing executive for a ski resort or marketing director for a game developer for a company like BioWare.

One small step into the blogosphere

One key concept that I learned that convergence has created a need for less journalist because they can now because of convergence report on multiple plat forms of media which as caused people to have less of a choice in new coverage out lets to choose from.

Key Term: Low Culture is soap operas, rock music, radio shock jocks, and video games. Low culture is also considered popular culture and is aligned with the questionable tastes of the masses.

Five Facts:

1.Obama had 2.3 million friends on facebook while McCain had just 610,000 thousand friends on facebook

2. That in 2009 we spent 1,562 hours we spent watching tv by the average American and when you consider that 16 minutes out of every hour of tv is commercials that’s a lot of commercials time viewed by Americans.

3. 90% of households have internet service and a DVD player.

4. The last telegraph was sent in 2006 by Western Union Telegraph Union.

5. Block printing was first used in China in 1045.

Personal Story: video games play a rather important role in my life I play them almost daily. For the most part I play them to communicate with my friends who are at other colleges. Like on Saturday night while I was sick and not out with friends at college I stayed in and played games with my friends and caught up with how things were in my home town and how things were in college and even got to talk to a friend how I had not seen since 5^th grade. So I use video games for enjoyment and for communication with friends.

now a great Super Bowl ad

and my favorite football team 1. http://www.raiders.com/index.ht

Favorite Skier Bode Miller