Tiffany Ghannam
Wiki Post #1:
Everquest was one of the first games to have graphical MMO's. It was released 12 years ago and it was an extreme advancement in the gaming community. The creators of Everquest, Sony, wanted to keep updating the game that way gamers wouldn't get bored of the game. In order to do this Sony kept releasing advancements of the game, which opened up various levels and "worlds" of the game. This game became extremely popular when the game makers made it possible to travel back in time and play the game back in time before there were any advancements. This was so popular because gamers were allowed to freeze time in the past.
The main idea of this game was to recreate the past. Although in some aspects, such as being able to freeze the game in one time period, recreating the past is possible, in others its not. Everquest was made 12 years ago, leaving extreme amounts of room for game improvement and advancement. As a result of said advancements, it’s virtually impossible to get back to that original game setting. The author argued that although the games popularity speaks for itself, players wont ever be able to play the old model of the game because the past is the past. Aside from not being able to recreate a games past because of all the new updates and advancements, the author stated that its often very difficult to simply remember what a game was like at the very beginning of its existence.
In order to address some of the political, social and cultural needs of its players, Sony allowed the gamers to vote on various aspects of the game. By allowing them to pick and choose what they like about the game allowed Sony to release new and improved aspects of Everquest. In order to address the social and cultural needs of Everquest players, Sony made it a priority to keep the game constantly evolving. The game makers didn’t want to have their players get bored because they reached the end of the game of anything of that nature. Sony also used a marketing line, “Are you ready to relive the greatest memories that you’ve ever had in EverQuest?” which applies to the social needs of society. Everyone is always trying to relive their greatest memories in life and Sony is capitalizing on that. By giving players hope that they can relive the past worlds of this game they are really getting in touch with the social aspect of society.
After reading the comments that was left on this games page I noticed a couple things. First, one person compared replaying Everquest to rereading a book. This person meant that you can often see and experience things in a different way when you replay this game; much like you would when you reread a book you enjoy. Another comment mentioned how every change in this game came to them as a new challenge, a new way to “break” the game. The comments that I read didn’t really agree or disagree with the authors argument that the game can never really be played back in its former glory when it first came out. Most comments come from people who seem to be very happy with how the game has turned out and evolved over time.
I strongly agree with the author’s opinion. I think that realizing you can’t relive everything from the past exactly how it happened not only applies in this game, but also in real life. Although I’ve never really been into playing these types of games, I can see both sides to this debate. Being able to recreate the games first realm of adventure would be extremely fun, especially because of how technologically advanced times are now. On the other hand, however, I can imagine the excitement gamers get when playing new levels or discovering new challenges of this new and updated game. I’ve never heard of this game so reading this brief article was really interesting to me. I think the author, along with the comments posted, make very good points regarding the evolution of this game. I’m interested to see how gaming changed even more as time goes on.
Final Wiki
After reading and watching the necessary content for this weeks Wiki assignment and doing some of my own research, I was able to learn a lot about Anonymous, SOPA, PIPA, and everything related to these topics. For starters its important to understand the difference between a domestic internet site and a foreign internet site. A domestic site is one that is registered by some authority located within the United States. A foreign site is simply a site that is not domestic, or one that isn't located within the U.S. After understand the difference between these two I was able to better understand the different between SOPA and PIPA. SOPA is a United States directed site that "...facilitates the commission of"(Harvey 2012) copyright infringement and counterfeit product violations. PIPA is a site that is used to engage in copyright infringement or counterfeit products. It is believed by the authors of various articles that SOPA and PIPA will not stop piracy, but instead produce various censorships on what should be considered to be a free and open internet. The last thing i needed to research was what Anonymous was. According to a Wikipedia page (2011), Anonymous is described as an "internet gathering." It is mainly associated with a group of hacktivist entities that initially wanted to create entertainment for people by using different hacks and pranks. It soon became an organization that rallied against anti-digital piracy campaigns.
After reading more about different hacker groups, such as Anonymous, I was able to get a better understand as to how they set out to protect online privacy. According to the New Yorker newspaper, Anonymous was mainly known for their ability to poke fun at various subcultures. At first the ground didn’t want to participate in “…intelligent discussions concerning foreign affairs (Kushner 2014).” Over time the group of individuals started to help protect people on the Internet. For example, many members would pose as underage girls, which would lour out the pedophiles. The members would then turn the pedophiles information over to the police. Aside from wanting to create a humorous name for themselves, Anonymous did many things to protect online privacy. Anonymous was a group that wanted to expose many secrets within society, which is why the group soon became a very debatable topic. In order to keep themselves anonymous they decided to wear masks when they got together at rally’s and protests. The Associated Press called the group “expert hackers” because of their ability to hack and decode almost anything.
These readings and research relates to everything that happened with Edward Snowden because of how he received the files about National Security. Much like the Anonymous group, Edward Snowden was an expert hacker. After working for the CIA and NSA, he was exposed to a numerous amount of private information that could potentially harm the United States if released. After Snowden released some of this top secret information he was, at times, called a hero, whistleblower, and a patriot. Much like the Anonymous group of individuals, many people perceived Snowdens actions in different ways. While some thought he was helping the citizens of the United States see what was actually going on, others thought he was a terrorist for releasing information that was kept private for a reason.
Hacking has become such a defined and alarming skill set. Peoples ability to get into almost any website and decode information is something to not be taken lightly. Whether you think Anonymous was a group of heroes or terrorists, they were growing in size all across the nation. After reading about Anonymous, all the issues surrounding Snowden made more sense. Ones ability to access information that no one else can is amazing and it gives them extreme power in this country.
Works Cited:" Anonymous (group)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 June 2015. Web. 29 June 2015.
Harvey, Jason. "Blog.reddit -- What's New on Reddit: A Technical Examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP." Blog.reddit -- What's New on Reddit: A Technical Examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP. N.p., 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 June 2015
Kushner, David. "An Inside Look at Anonymous, the Radical Hacking Collective - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 July 2015
Wikipedia Contributors. "Edward Snowden." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 July 2015.
