week 3: GOLDEN AGE OF TV SERIES

I’m sure each of you like to watch TV series. As for me, I love them. Right now I’m watching 8 TV series, so it means I spend 6-7 hours with my screen heroes per week. I have to admit, this is my favourite entertainment. When an episode is finished, I wait impatiently for another one the whole week. It seems to me that I’m not the only person who loves them so much. TV series have evolved.  There are no longer many stupid soup operas nowadays but you can find easily a number of brilliant stories, which rule the TV world. 

[http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/So.....+I+miss+it+already_408394_4594690.png]

Series are getting better and better thanks to great actors, genius directors, amazing special effects and breathtaking, intriguing stories. Sometimes we experience an episode longer than it lasts. It happens that I can’t fall asleep after watching a good piece. Good series have many fans that not only follow life of their favourite heroes, but also talk about them on Internet forums. The high quality of the stories makes television more and more competitive against cinema. When in Hollywood they are making boring romantic comedies and predictable action movies, television can create more attractive entertainment.

Right now one of the best series without doubt is “House of Cards”. It’s about a cynical congressman who climbs the ladder of power in Washington. Kevin Spacey brilliantly plays him. Robin Wright who acts his wife is also amazing. 

[http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/house-of-cards-poster.jpg]

Kevin Spacey gave The James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at Edinburg International Television Festival in which he announced a change, which will be, or rather already is, in the TV world. He said that viewers want more complicated and drawing stories, which they can watch anytime, anywhere and on any device. It means you do not need to wait a long time for a new season. He rightly notes that thanks to flexible access to loved program viewers will be more willing to pay for it than to steal it, i.e. download illegally. Netflix, the company that has made “House of Cards”, is an American provider of online video films. Thanks to its availability on every device connected to the Internet and, or maybe first of all, intelligent stories, it has become very popular. Good content and forward-looking approach to viewers’ needs is the right recipe for a success.  

Here you can find his lecture:

I believe that the future belongs to good TV series.  I think that Damian Lewis, known from „Homeland”, will most likely replace Daniel Craig as a new James Bond. Actors from „Game of Thrones” have caused mass hysteria and traffic jams in the cities they visited. Sociologists write essays about the most popular series and fans wait impatiently for new exiting episodes. 

What are your favourite series? How do you watch them?

If there was Netflix in Poland would you use it?

What do you think about making all episodes in a series available on the first day of its release?

Week 2: The Real Silent Hill

From books written by Lovecraft to movies directed by Hitchcock, the popularity of horror genre seems to prove that people consider being scared as an entertainment. Fortunately, it's not unnoticed in the video game world, as there are more and more titles designed to shiver the market.

 
Source: http://batoutofhellblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/welcome-to-silent-hill.html

One of the most popular video game franchises, Silent Hill, has been brought to the cinema twice by now. However, those movies are just a sneak peak to the real story that lies in a virtual world. A wonderfully written psychological horror film set in an imaginary town in Maine, US leaves us very uneasy. The occurring sound of sirens is a signal of incoming darkness, everything is grey and covered in ash, which falls from the sky like rain.

(Showing the footage from the movie, as all of the games serve more disturbing pictures, but I encourage you to try and watch "the scariest moments of Silent Hill" on YouTube :) ).

But did you know that the dreaded town burning with eternal fire... actually exists? The ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania resembles Silent Hill in many different ways. Well, there are no monsters there (or so we think), but even considering this huge comfort no-one thinks about moving there. The town literally lies on fire, which comes out with pillars of smoke through the cracks in the abandoned highway.

Source: http://www.sadistic.pl/centralia-pieklo-tuz-pod-stopami-vt147227.htm

The fire comes from a coal mine beneath the town. It started to burn over five decades ago and it's estimated to last for at least the next 250 years. At first, the scale of the fire was not known and the locals lived their normal lives above the burning ground. It all ended when a giant sinkhole suddenly opened under one child's feet. A 12-year old boy was playing outside when the ground just disappeared, and if it hadn’t been for his brother to pull him out, he would have certainly fallen into the lava. Since that moment, its inhabitants have begun to leave the town. Apparently, few of them are too attached to this place to leave, and as it is stated in documents, 9 people still live in Centralia.

Questions!
1. Do you like horror stories? What are your personal favorite horror movies/books/games?
2. Have you heard about any other ghost towns that drew your attention?
3. Would you like to visit Centralia or other ghost towns, considering all the risks?

Week 2: Indie heaven - how to build your own game?

Nowadays, the availability of game engines, programming knowledge and tools needed to start your own adventure with game development is so vast and standard that the so-called "indie" developers are growing in numbers - rapidly!

"Indie Game: the Movie" is an awarded documentary about three small teams (consisting of 1 to 3 people only!) developing their own dream titles. They struggle with the lack of money, time pressure and promotion issues. Although they have to face emotional breakdowns and the vision of their hard work falling into pieces, they managed to make games good enough to make them famous all around the world.

One of those games is called FEZ and it's an interesting platformer based on the idea of rotating the whole map in order to find every secret passage and collect golden cubes. Seems pretty simple, but the beautiful music, graphic design and locations we visit with our little white character make this game unforgettable. Nostalgia is a very strong factor here - what we have here is a pixel-art platformer, and it's a genre absolutely forgotten by the biggest game producers. That's why indie developers usually "break the rules" and try to come back in time to the era of good gameplay being more important than realistic graphics.

One of the most interesting stories about indie developers comes from the life of Dean Hall, an ex-soldier and the creator of the famous modification called DayZ. Basically, he took the game that was supposed to resemble the most realistic battlefield - Arma 2 - and made it into a zombie apocalypse simulator. And it's more serious than you think - you have to worry more about food and fresh water than about zombies wandering everywhere. It's more important to find a shelter during rain than to find a shooting weapon! You can die of hunger, thirst, flu, food poisoning or even sepsis - and yet, there are zombies trying to catch you everywhere and the worst nightmare ever: other players, who are often hostile towards you and would love to kill you for your backpack with two cans of baked beans. And the whole adventure takes place on the biggest map you can imagine - 225 square kilometres!

Source: http://dayzdb.com

(Looks like eastern Poland, right? Actually, it's based in the Czech Republic)

Dean Hall created the concept while he was a soldier in the New Zealand Army. He was inspired by experiences during jungle training, where he was badly injured in a survival skill exercise. Again, his project could only happen in the "indie" world - this game is simply too hard to be published by huge, commercial producers, as difficult games have smaller target when it comes to sales.

Now, Dean has his own studio and he's working on DayZ Standalone. From  a soldier to a successful producer? Why not! See for yourself:

And, question time:
1. Is working alone on such a big project a good idea? What are the odds of success when you invest in a good team versus when you work alone/with your friends?
2. Would you rather work in a big company on a huge project made up by someone else or work alone on your own idea, facing the risk of failure?
3. Do you think indie is the future? Will individual, small studios take over the gaming, motion picture or television world serving more interesting ideas, or are they doomed to be a minor force?

Week 2: Pixelated heart - emotions & gaming

This week the presentations will be focused on video games - but don't worry, non-playing folks, we're going to approach this topic from slightly different angles that might interest even the biggest sceptics and those who know everything about gaming. So let's go!

Source: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lie-down-try-not-to-cry-cry-a-lot

Usually, we do not connect the world of emotions with video games. Well, at least not the deepest emotions and reactions like crying in pain of loss, writhing in pain because of the broken heart... You get the idea. Sure, we all know raging players trying to destroy their keyboards and other mad kids, but it's not something that gamers are particularly proud of.

(Here I've tried to find any video showing a raging gamer without curse words that would expel me from this course, but I failed.)

Probably the first game that shattered the hearts of people all over the world was Final Fantasy VII. In old good days, every video game had saving points, levels of difficulty to choose and cheats or tricks to use. We knew how to win – a permanent death of a character was never an option. It all collapsed when Aerith, a beautiful, innocent girl from Final Fantasy VII was doomed to die during the game. Players were not prepared for this - a love story between her and the main character developed slowly, she was too unique and powerful. Some of the fans even tried to alter the code of this game to keep her alive!

Today, more and more game developers invest in the emotional side of their products, creating new titles based entirely on it. Journey, which was called by numerous sources the best game of 2012, is the greatest example. We play as an anonymous, red-hooded person wandering through the desert. As we struggle to reach the top of a mountain, another player appears near us. We can't communicate with each other, but only with mutual help we can reach the end of the game. The silent friendship is formed, and when... SPOILER ALERT!... a friend dies, the tears come streaming heavily.

To The Moon is another emotional game made by the small, indie studio. It's worth mentioning that there's even a challenge connected to this one! "To The Moon Challenge", as people call it, is practically "how long can you play this game before you start crying". Personally, I was pretty strong during the whole walkthrough, but the ending just crushed me and left in tears of the whole evening. Below you can see the random reactions of players - major spoilers there, so please don't watch if you want to play this game in the future! Anyway, the compilation shows clearly that it's no matter who plays the game - grown-up men cry the same as the young girls.

Question time!
1. Do you often cry while watching movies, reading books or playing games? What were the most emotional moments for you?
2. Do you think that putting a strong emotional side in games is a wise production plan to grant some more money, or is there more to it?
3. Would you like to play any of those games above? Or have you done it before?

Week 1: Childhood? Yes, I remember

I would like you to read/watch and comment on/discuss the presentation –  Childhood? Yes, I remember. You will find it at  
http://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2014/03/childhood-yes-i-remember.html
Comment on  it here.

Week 1: Could your home office kill you?

I would like you to read the article Could your home office kill you? published at  http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131204-could-your-home-office-kill-you and comment on/discuss it. Besides, describe your study room/home office. Are you a homeworker? If not, can you imagine working from home?  Will more people work from home in the foreseeable future?

Week 1: Best jobs for smart, but lazy people

I would like you to read the article The Best jobs for smart, but lazy people published at

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140228-jobs-for-the-smart-but-lazy and comment on/discuss it. Make your own list of such jobs in  Poland;)