Andrew's Internet History Blog

Cohen and Rosenzweig’s “Digital History” talks about copyrights and how they’re used, abused, and all other aspects of the copyright laws that exist today. To our generation this is a completely relevant concept as our generation grew up with the internet, and subsequently, were around for and the most exposed to the introduction of music pirating. The outbreak of pirating caused a great deal of turmoil for music artists, especially those struggling to get by. The fact of the matter in the recent past was that with the introduction of the digital age and thus digital music, what was the point of going to the store and paying $10 to $20 for a CD when with one click of a button you could get the same thing for nothing?

However, through all of this, I found it especially intriguing when considering the video about the “Amen Break”, a 6 second drum loop introduced in a 1969 song but subsequently used in widespread fashion for many years afterwards. When I first heard the loop, I recognized it immediately, and while I can not pinpoint specifics songs that use the Amen Break, I nonetheless know that there are many out there that use it. This got me to thinking about subliminal advertising in regards to music samples and music loops. Clearly one can attach some sort of meaning to a mere 6 second loop of a drum solo, as is done with the Amen Break, but can that be used somehow to subliminally advertise for oneself? That is to say, if another music sample is formally linked to a certain song and/or musician, can that loop be used in other songs and provoke thoughts of the original song, thus advertising in subliminal fashion for that song and artist?

The Wikipedia article I chose to judge is centered around my topic regarding MMORPGs. The article covers a lot of information about one such game known as Star Wars: The Old Republic (abbreviated SWTOR). I have a good amount of experience with the game itself as I played it for a little over half a year. However, the purpose of highlighting such an article is not so much for the game itself, but the information about such a game. To start off with, here is a link to the newest version of the article: .

After reviewing the latest version of the article and looking through some of the early on revisions of the article as well as the article’s creation back in 2008, it was very interesting thinking about the development of information available for the game. When a new MMORPG is announced there is almost always next to no information available about the game besides the title (and that sometimes isn’t even given) and a couple key facts. The most interesting thing when viewing a Wikipedia article about an MMORPG, is sifting through which information was actually released by the game’s developers, and which information is just added or elaborated on by random users. Therein lies the struggle between the validity of information. Nonetheless, the demand for information on a new and upcoming MMORPG is very high, as gamers want to know every little detail about the game, and to see the information evolve and be released over time is quite an interesting happenstance.

When reading the article about evaluating web sites I found myself really thinking about the concept of “currency” as detailed by the author of the article. The author introduces this concept outright by defining it and explaining its importance by stating, “The currency or regularity of updating information is vital for some types information and less so for others.” I find this concept very interesting and absolutely true, as many websites need to constantly update themselves not only to maintain factual accuracy but also to maintain their viewers as any article invested in the accuracy and reliability of their information finds great importance in the amount of people that use their website.

However, what I found really interesting was applying the currency concept to the most obvious example of such a concept, Wikipedia, and analyzing the process of currency. The video by Jon Udell was quite interesting in highlighting the revision process that takes place with each and every Wikipedia page. The most interesting part of the video, when considering the concept of currency, is observing when someone revises a page and inputs false information (whether intentionally or unintentionally) and the aftermath of such an occurrence. It was entertaining to see the speed at which such information is not only taken out, but also corrected, and its really puts into perspective the amount of people that could certainly be viewing even the most obscure of Wikipedia articles.

I am an avid and passionate gamer, I can not deny that fact. So, my idea here is to come up with a research topic centralized around gaming, specifically online computer gaming.

1.) How did the breakout of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) impact the world at large and is that impact still holding true today?

2.) How did the introduction of articles about MMORPGs impact the games themselves?

3.) MMORPGs soared with the introduction of World of Warcraft, but there were many MMOs that preceded WoW; How did those games help to shape WoW and MMORPGs themselves?

This is the heading……I hope.

I’m told that this blog post can be about anything, so I think I’ll talk about the fact that this is the first time I’m using HTML on WordPress. Not surprisingly, this is more difficult to do than I thought it would be. I kind of wonder about the benefits of using HTML in the first place, though with the Internet at my disposal I’m sure I can find the answer to that question with a simple click of a button. Nonetheless I find the use of HTML fairly interesting, as what I’m used to on WordPress is just simply typing out a blog and posting it.

My WordPress Experience

Believe it or not I’ve done some article writing for the Internet. Specifically, I’ve published articles for a gaming website known as Lagwar. Here’s a link to one of the articles:

Accompanying it is a picture from the article:

I wrote articles about:

• Games in general.
• Certain aspects of games including gameplay and graphics.
• Innovations that games had within them.

But, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with tweaking the appearance of a blog.

I’ve only done the following really:

1. Color
2. Theme
3. Time Settings

Regardless, I hope this experiment with HTML works out well, I know I’ve been previewing it the entire time to see if I made any mistakes =).