BCM322 Digital Artifact Final Project

Contextual Essay

My digital artifact is a little bit different from what I was originally planning on doing. I decided to change from my previous DA because I have spread this project over many subjects and wanted to do something along the same lines but also slightly different. When I came up with this idea for my DA, I just knew that I had to do it. My project is based on Week 8’s topic of China and Soft Power. I am also very passionate about demonstrations and human rights violations that are occurring in Hong Kong and wanted to try and do something about it. This opportunity could not have come at a better time for me. In this video, I am trying to show the public, the violence that the Hong Kong Police are executing upon their own citizens. I paired this footage with the song “Black Mammoth” by Fit For an Autopsy as it is not only one of my favourite deathcore songs, it was also created to fight another injustice happening due to poor/corrupt government, this time, in North Dakota in the USA. The meaning of the term Black Mammoth is referring to a Mammoth ( a great and wonderful creature) being completely covered and weighed down in Oil. This is in reference to the injustices happening in North Dakota which are based on the government’s greed for oil and their lack of care/sympathy for the native tribes. 

 

The lyric “Tragedy Reigns Forever” is a recurring lyric in the song and perfectly encapsulates the Hong Kong situation. What is happening over there is in no doubt, a tragedy, and, if the people of Hong Kong are not supported in their fight, this tragedy will reign forever and will come into our homes next. The tag line “Hear Hong Kong now or be Hong Kong soon.” has started to become a very popular warning spread by the demonstrators. This is very evident in the protests that have just started in Chile which, despite not stemming from the same reasons as Hong Kong, have been bolstered by the people of Hong Kong. The Chilean protestors have shown solidarity with the Hong Kong protestors and have learned from what they have done and put those tactics into play int heir own protests (e.g How to nullify tear gas, etc). 

 

All of the clips in this video were sourced from the subreddit r/HongKong. This subreddit has been the HQ of all people who are interested in the protests and for those people involved in them. I also used the website standwithhk.org/.

 

Bibliography

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Crazy Hong Kong Cop of the Day, October 13th, 2019. (Chasing After A Senior Citizen For Not Removing Flu Mask, Tackled to the Ground After Attempting to Protect His Eyeglasses) : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dhay2i/crazy_hong_kong_cop_of_the_day_october_13th_2019/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Second day of the anti mask law in effect, the police removed a reporter’s mask by force, despite the Secretary of Security’s assurance to the press that reporters at work are exempt from the law. : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/de3qp6/second_day_of_the_anti_mask_law_in_effect_the/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Police snaps first aider’s arm : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbqx9e/police_snaps_first_aiders_arm [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Standwithhk.org. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://standwithhk.org/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com (n.d.). Video shows moment shots fired at Tsuen Wan.. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbqsfl/video_shows_moment_shots_fired_at_tsuen_wan/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Who is more violant? : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cutlyk/who_is_more_violant/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Wesley-Smith, P. (1991) “Sovereignty and the Status Quo: The Historical Roots of China’s Hong Kong Policy. By Kevin P. Lane. [Boulder: Westview Press, 1990. 167 pp. HK$332.00.],” The China Quarterly. Cambridge University Press, 128, pp. 857–858. doi: 10.1017/S0305741000004562.

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). HK police rage charged into crowd to assault woman who said to him “your wife is making you a cuckold right now” : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dl4h9b/hk_police_rage_charged_into_crowd_to_assault/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Hong Kong police throws tear gas grenade at journalists : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/d1b4kg/hong_kong_police_throws_tear_gas_grenade_at/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

Reddit.com. (n.d.). CityU Student Union Editorial Board just put out this badass fucking video taken from the first person perspective of journalists (Credits to: Facebook page of Editorial Board, CityU SU) : HongKong. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dlicps/cityu_student_union_editorial_board_just_put_out/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Reddit.com. (n.d.). Video of police shooting protester. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbqunq/video_of_police_shooting_protester/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

 

Standwithhk.org. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://standwithhk.org/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

BCM302 DA Pitch

For my digital artifact, I will be creating a youtube channel where I will be uploading Twitch clip compilations taken from popular twitch streamers. The purpose of this channel will be to try and game YouTube’s algorithms to monetize and grow the channel as quickly as possible. To do this I must utilize clickbait titles, spam, tagging, and must I must upload regularly and upload a lot. This project will be focused around FIST and will hopefully help both content creators and YouTube itself.

BCM300 Assignment 1 Part 2 – Ajax: Battles of Champions

My original thoughts for this game stemmed off wanting to do a miniature wargaming themed game and also wanting to do a card game of sorts. So I decided to combine the two. Now I play the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG and the biggest problem that I have with current Yugioh is that it is no longer “Here is my big monster and it’s going to fight your big monster.” That’s why I have created the game that I have.

Through playtesting this game, I found that it’s always best to keep things like this simple. I tried to add a mana component such as Hearthstone or even Magic but quickly realised that the balancing between cards and the mana pool would be too difficult and would be much harder for people to create their own cards and types. I also found that by having a proper and real figurine instead of pretending that there is one there makes the game way more fun and interesting and also immerses the players more into the game.

MEDA301 Workshop 2

For the workshop, I have decided to unpack and look at my video from last year called ‘Problems in Overwatch Competitive and how to fix them!’

For this project, I used adobe premiere elements 15 which is a basic version of the Adobe Premiere package.

to Create this work I:

1. Needed to get some footage of myself playing the video game in question: Overwatch. This was recorded by using the GeForce experience program called Shadow play.
2. I then placed the clip into adobe premiere elements and edited it using multiple effects
3. I also added pictures and overlays that I found through Overwatch’s official website and fan related websites

For the analyses of a practitioner that I admire I am going to choose Alvin Lucier and his work titled ‘I am sitting in a room’. To create this work, Alvin:

1. Sat in a room with no other audible form of sound creation
2. recorded himself saying a phrase
3. then manually recorded the recording of himself using another recording device.
4. he did this through many iterations to see the desegregation of the sound.

 

 

BCM300 Blog Post 2

In week 4 our groups were given a baggy with some random pieces in it. Even though we didn’t have to use all of the pieces, our group decided to give it a go. Tasked to create a prototype for a board game that didn’t necessarily have to be the board game that we used for our assignment, we got cracking. We started off by creating a board and working out our base mechanics. Roll and move along with player elimination made for a very simple game that was fun to play for the first time. We then added some variables such as obstacles that made the game more interesting and much more fun. We made sure that we had the ability to place the obstacles ourselves as well as them being random as to both add some strategy along with randomness. We based our original prototype on the Titanic and this helped us work out our main mechanics and gave us direction for where we wanted to go with the games. The main objective was to traverse through 3 game boards and not be the last person to the lifeboats as the Titanic was slowly sinking. The game is a race at its heart, but unlike most race board games, the aim is not to determine a winner but actually determine a loser. The game is made for 4 players (mostly because that’s how many we have in our group) but can easily be modified for more players. Bellow are the very basic rules written on post-it notes.

Between week 4 and 5 I took it upon myself to come up with some more complicated rules for the game and mock-up a game board. We had spoken about including some sort of mana and card system into the game and so I decided to add some basic rules surrounding both this and the game itself. In class, we also went over these rules and rewrote some of these rules to better fit the game we wished to create. The current rules are as followed:

Rules

-Draw 3 cards at the start of the game

-there are obstacles in your way and the only way to reveal them is to play a reveal card or by landing on the space

-After every turn, you must draw till you have at least 3 cards in your hand

Obstacles

Roll two D6 when rolling for obstacles

-Double 1/2

-OB1

-Move back 1 space

-Double 3/4/5

-OB2

-spend 1 mana to remove the obstacle

-Double 6

-OB3

-Spend 1 turn to remove the obstacle

-Anything else

-Nothing

-Nothing happens

Turn structure

Roll Phase: Roll D3 for mana points

Quick Phase: Play quick play and reaction cards

Main Phase: Play normal cards up to the amount of mana you have available.

        Roll after every movement card played to see if you stumble upon an obstacle

Even though these rules are relatively basic it allows us to start to create more intricate mechanics and work on the finer aspects such as card ratios, etc. I also created a mock-up game board in the style of the Titanic.

Since creating the board and getting a better grasp on the rules we have decided to move the theme of this iteration of the game from the Titanic to a dungeon based theme. We are yet to decide whether it will be a sex dungeon or something perhaps more serious but that the fun. One of the great things about this game is that it is easily malleable to fit any type of theme you wish it to (e.g., Fantasy, sci-fi, pirates, horror, etc).

BCM300 Blog Post 1

In week 1 I played Settlers of Catan. I had played this game before but I was playing with 3 other people who were very new to board games and had never played Catan before. Apparently, when it comes to Settlers of Catan, experience doesn’t really matter and as long as you understand the base mechanics of the game, you’ll do alright.

Carcassonne was designed by famed board game creator, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published by Hans im Glück in the year 2000. The game is named after the town of Carcassonne in southern France which is famous for its city walls. Just like the town, the game is based around building cities through the connection of walls and land. The game is played by placing tiles in a connecting manner as to create cities, block others off, create farms and create roads. To win you must have gathered the maximum number of points through creating these things. The game itself is very simple and can be played by almost anyone as long as they have the ability to place tiles. Each tile can only be connected to another of the same type (e.g farm to farm, town to town, wall to wall, and road to road).

Carcassonne uses modular boards and area control as its 2 most base mechanics.
Modular boards allow each game to be vastly different to the one previous and allows the players of the game to be able to create boards they want as well as giving them a sense of control over how the game plays. It also allows players the ability to purposely mess up other players. Carcassonne uses this expertly by randomizing each tile when you draw and by minimizing the better and more flexible cards and maximizing the tougher cards that only work in certain situations. In my experience, having the less flexible cards being the ones that you draw the most makes the game more difficult and makes you have to think about your strategy multiple turns in advance. In spite of this, I found that it didn’t matter how far I planned ahead and how much I tried to mess up my competition, the randomness of the tiles leveled the playing field for myself and my competitors.
Carcassonne’s other mechanic of area control adds a skill to the game that perfectly matches the modular board’s randomness. By minimizing the number of followers that each player has access to, players really need to make sure every placement of a follower counts. In the 2 games that we played, I lost probably 3 followers by being too ambitious with cities and/or roads that I was trying to build. Because of this I probably lost both the games.

BCM114 Making

Since my project had changed completely in the last 3/4 weeks of classes. I didn’t get the amount of time that I would have liked to spread my secondary DA on. making is probably where I would excel as a student and a creator. yes, I do come up with plenty of ideas but I find that when I put my mind towards something, I really get into it and enjoy it more. This is where the POdcast and the video come into play. It is relevant in the video that I did care about what I was making are there are multiple edits as well as a proper voice over. Whereas there is basically no editing done in the podcast. This is mostly because, by the time I actually had a video that I could edit, I did not really care about the project anymore. Funnily enough, the first episode of the podcast is actually our 3rd. But the first 2 were not recorded and only the 1st one was streamed,. As soon as I took over that side of production, everything went well and I started having things to work with. But by this time, I already wanted to move on to something new.

 

In relation to my new project, I got my inspiration from channels such as Overwatch Central in how they edit and present their videos. I would like to have done more videos on the topics that I encountered but alas, I ran out of time. Here is a screenshot of the video timeline.

Granted, this isn’t as crazy as some professional YouTubers timelines and how they edit their videos, but I would like to do some more video editing and videos on this topic to expand my capabilities as a video editor and creator. And this only comes from practice and practice and practice.

A hard thing for me to realize Is that I definitely could have done a lot more, and I really wanted to. I think next time I will find a project that I will enjoy and something that I can do on my own so I don’t need to rely on others.

BCM241 Assignment 2

For my second BCM241 assignment I will be doing a youtube video series on the video game overwatch. I will be focusing mostly on how it is for a support main in lower to mid ranks of competitive Overwatch and whether I find any tips/tricks for how to climb ladder or just enjoy the game more as a support player. The Overwatch community (like the majority of video game communities) can be pretty toxic. This just comes from the competitive nature of video games. I would love to be able to shine a light on these cases and find any strategies when this occurs and see if it’s possible to climb higher as a support main compared to playing other heroes.

Overwatch is a team-based, first-person shooter that is most popular on PC but is also available on Xbox and PlayStation. There are currently 28 heroes available to play in overwatch and these 28 heroes are lumped into three categories: Tank, Damage, and Support. Objectively, the Damage heroes are more fun the play, with tanks following up and then support. Overwatch released in May of 2016 and has been growing into one of the biggest video games of the past decade. With events such as the Overwatch World Cup and the first ever week by week esports competition in the Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders, the game has been revolutionary for the esports genre. Since it’s release, we have seen the addition of 7 heroes, 14 maps, 6 recurring seasonal events, and countless aesthetic items such as hero skins, sprays, voice lines, emotes, victory poses, and highlight intros. According to DBLTap.com, Overwatch was ranked as No.2 in the world when it comes to revenue produced by Pay-To-Play PC games in 2017 at $382 Million. There is no doubt in my mind that, in 2018, this number has risen significantly. So now we know that the game is highly successful and isn’t going anywhere, let’s delve into the problems with it.

Like most other highly competitive games that came before overwatch (e.g. League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Starcraft 2), the community surrounding the game is very polarising. You can mostly split the community into 3 sub-groups. Those who play competitive, those who play casually, and those who just watch. Let’s focus on the 2 groups that actually play the game. The competitive and non-competitive players. There is a certain stigma that surrounds those who are mainly non-competitive players (let’s call them Quick-Play players or QPP). This stigma is mainly that “If you are a QPP then you are a bad player.” This mostly stems from people being turned off from competitive as they are usually forced into hero roles they are unfamiliar with or just don’t want to play. However, this is the nature of the game. As someone who often just plays competitive to get their placements out of the way and plays a couple games at most, I can see both ends of this argument. On one side, there are players who want others to play the game as the game intended itself to be played (this entails swapping to needed heroes, countering the other team, communicating with your team, etc.) and on the other, players just want to play the game they want to play it. Now, are both these sides justified? Of course. Who are you to tell someone how to play a game that they bought with their money, and then who are you to consciously make it difficult for others to play the game by not playing it “properly”.

I have decided to play the game as it is intended to be played. This entails, swapping to a needed hero, being supportive of my team, and communicating with them. I have chosen the support category to mainly play as this is the role that is most needed in the majority of games. Play 10p games around 2400sr and I promise you that at least 60% of the time, someone will have to play support when they don’t want to or you just won’t have a support hero on your team. The difference between having 0,1 and 2 healers on your team is absolutely incredible. At the very least you need 1 healer but if your opponent has 2, then you need to. However, if by some miracle I already have 2 support mains on my team, then I will play whatever hero is needed on my team. This is known as a ‘flex’ player.
Communication, like in life, is a very important part of Overwatch. This way you are able to time pushes call strategies, and tell your teammates crucial information. If you were to do the same experiment as you did when counting the support heroes, I promise you that there would be only around 5% of games where every single person in voice comms actively participating in the communication.
Considering all these problems, Overwatch has been known for its toxicity in competitive and even quick play matches. This is usually derived from the problems above as they usually make the team start to lose, and then when people start to lose, they often like to blame others for their own failures.

I really feel like this project will be a good thing for the community as there are a lot of people who just don’t know how to communicate their problems with the rest of the community. I hope this series of videos will allow people to have civil discussions on what needs to be done in the overwatch community or game to better the experience of both types of player.

A whole new DA

So my old kinda sucked. It wasn’t the worst idea but, Like with our DA I BCM206, we ran into a lot of problems. Mostly that not many people give a shit about 2 randos talking about Wrestling. It’s a hard business podcasting and the gimmick that I had definitely wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. We actually lost 2 of our podcasts. Both to faults that were difficult to foresee. Example podcast 1 was lost bc OBS didn’t record but did stream and then Twitch deleted it then the second one we lost due to lack of communication. All the problems that we found in the first iteration of this DA were very present in this iteration.

 

However

 

Blake has dropped out so NOW ITS MY TIME TO SHINE

 

I have decided to do a new DA that focus’ on overwatch, A game that I play way too much of. This DA will focus on the problems in the community that you face as a support main in lower to mid levels. I am currently 2400 sr and play a multitude of heroes. there are many problems found in lower levels that are found in higher levels as well and I would like to put a showcase on them and start a more intelligent conversation through this that may show people what they are doing and how better to treat others in the game and then maybe even climb themselves.

iWrestling Podcast Episode #1