CSE 40850: History of Computing

My own personal opinion is that violent video game play does not directly correlate to real life gun violence. Through Travis' presentation we got some numbers which explained that a small percent of real life shooters actually play violent video games in comparison to the overall percent of people that play violent video games. I believe that the current regulations are fine and for the most part useless, because if a kid really wants a game they will find a way to play it, whether it be asking older friends or finding pirated versions. Kids aren't dumb, adding restrictions only makes us think harder of ways to get around them and we usually find them. Though I discredit the supposed push towards violent tendencies from video games, I do believe in the addiction issue. The Vice article talks about how it ruins and even ends the lives of some people that get attached to a game and play for too long, but on the lower end of the addictive response I have had friends neglect han

I think eSports and competitive gaming is ridiculous. I am not a competitor or an avid spectator of this "sport." I believe that it should not receive any level of recognition even remotely near that of an olympic sport or any major sport for that matter. The fact that these grown men and women are being paid millions to play a video game is ludicrous to me, especially considering the fact that most olympians that train their whole lives to make a countries team and then place top 3 can make close to nothing in comparison. For my social sensing project we are doing a project on twitch streaming which involves watching the current overwatch tournament. Yes, I understand that there is skill that goes into playing these games, but video games to me are not serious, they are a time waster and boredom killer. Though I am super against it, I can see eSports reaching levels of professional sports, but I still do not believe that it can be as massively popular as physical sports w

Sooooooo apparently I didn't save any pictures that I took at strikes and spares, but I did beat Professor Bui in a game of bowling so that should be proof enough that I was there. While at the arcade I played a mario cart simulator, which was actually quite fun! I believe that there is still some charm to arcades, especially ones that have a variety of games to play such as mega play because though you can have your friends surrounding you while you kill it at a game at home, there is sometimes a larger variety of games to play (depending on your at home collection) that you don't get to play often. In addition to the hype of having your friends surround you while you play an arcade game, there is also the challenge of beating other players previous scores, which you can obviously do with console and computer games, but the price is less (i believe) and there is lesser chance of cheating/unfairness with everyone being restricted to using what the arcade provides. 

Being that I am not someone that likes to spend hours at a time playing a game where I am interacting with NPCs or paying a monthly subscription to play a game with my friends, I view the growth of social/casual gaming as a positive phenomenon. I enjoy being able to have a game at the tips of my fingers, that doesn't require me to stay inside my house to play and can be fun even if I play it for just a couple 10minute intervals. With games like motocross back in high school, you could still be competitive with your friends and race them in real time, so the aspect of competition is still there, but with games that are not as "intense" as halo or COD. As far as the associated business models go, I have no problems with waiting for a few ads every once in a while, because, in reality, what i'm trying to do is kill time and they still accomplish that. But, the microtransactions can be a touchy topic as some games made it too easy for young children to make accidental