Legos...I love legos!

So, the primary type of video for my topic, the Enderverse, is video clips from the Ender's Game movie and reviews of the books/movie. It took some digging to find other things, primarily because most of the content for the Enderverse is not images or video. (There's only one book that has been made into a movie.) I found some fan trailers, a few book trailers, a few musical pieces inspired by the series (pretty painful to listen to, actually), and even a Halo tribute that was using trailer and movie footage to compare story lines and character origins. But then I stumbled upon my favorite...Enderverse Minecraft builds.

It was a little hard for me to do this post because many of the fan and amateur videos out there on my subject are not well done or fairly frivolous. There are a lot of people who see Ender's game as a movie with a bunch of little boys playing mock war games, and all they like to talk about is the battleroom. For me, the books are much deeper and more meaningful, and I have very strong opinions about them. Many of the videos about my subject were paying homage (but sometimes doing it very well). Others were trying to share their love of the books/movie or criticize aspects of them (some of these were good, others kind of lame or naive.). And a few were parodies (the majority of these weren't really funny).

I enjoyed the minecraft videos most because the narrators either took time to actually express thoughts and feelings about the universe that were well-thought-out, or they let their creations speak for themselves. I posted this video because it was the most impressive build, though it has no talking. I believe it is a great homage to the books and movie, and it's a great nostalgia trip for people who are familiar with the subject. It takes a lot of time to make a build this large (even in creative), and the artist/gamer was obviously trying to do a good job (and mostly succeeded). Even though Minecraft is just like legos, where the pieces are all there in set colors and etc., it takes skill to build something this cohesive with the level of detail present.

The Dragonborn comes…

As I was looking on youtube, I noticed that my theme–skyrim–has two major types of videos commonly made: the first is fan-made re-enactments or mod reviews. The re-enactments involve fans dressing up like characters from the game and creating original content, like in the video I linked, or recreating actual moments from the game story-line. The video I linked is also a cover from the soundtrack of the game.  The other type of videos review mods, which are changes in the game code that alter certain characteristics like appearance or gameplay. Both types include videos that are humorous and also pay homage to the game. The fascinating realization I made about these videos is that Lev Manovich's principle of transcoding has come full circle with the Skyrim game. What I mean to say is that a culturally diverse group of programmers came together to create Skyrim, and then fans reinterpreted this digital art form in their daily lives through cosplay and film making. The initial purpose of the game was for purely entertainment purposes, but the fans in these youtube videos are learning valuable skills of programming and film making to fuel their love of the game.

Blog Post #6: Dexter on YouTube

It's interesting that Dexter is such a dark television show, yet most of the videos on Youtube in relation to the show are humorous. Youtube is filled with fan-made videos consisting of scenes and segments from various episodes, sometimes in a collage and sometimes alone, with a theme for each collection of segments.

For example, one of the most popular videos that appear under the search term "Dexter" is "Dexter's Most Awkward Moments." This, obviously, is a compilation of clips from episodes where the main character, Dexter, has some awkward interactions. Because of the heaviness of the show, this is one of the ways that the writers create some comic relief. Many of the fan videos like to focus on this comic relief. In a way, this contrasts the drama of the show, making the drama more dramatic and the humor more humorous. The cultural meaning of the show is in no way being changed by videos like this--rather, it is being emphasized in one aspect.

All Out War

First and foremost,  I apologize in advance for the language. Hockey is a brutal sport and thus the language is harsh. This video, put together by NeutralzoneHD, shows people inside and outside of the sport just how much goes into the sport. It is war, when it comes right down to it. The entire conference is working toward taking the Stanley Cup home with them, and they will do whatever it takes. The music works perfectly with the war theme, and the small pieces of text cuts are perfect in driving the "story" of this video. I was very impressed. It didn't show favoritism for one team, it did a very good job of showing each team and their individual paths to victory. I know for certain I lack the skill it would take to put a video like this together. I also lack very much the skills necessary to do any sort of digital editing, and am impressed when fans out there can to things like this. It carries a message, and drives a point. Hockey isn't just a sport, it's an all out war.

Tributes, Testimonials, Hairstyles, Hot Chicks, and Misogynist Rants

YouTube videos by and about women in the military remind me there’s nothing new under the sun in the gender "debate." Women and men serving or who’ve served in the military are there to remind us that women have served as long and as well as men; others tell us they haven’t. What’s both fascinating and scary to me are the high stakes of military service that place  genders under a microscope. I’m glad to see that’s happening on YouTube: Historical accounts of women and the men they’ve served testify to the honorable contributions of women in the military. Women officers post their reasons for joining up and becoming leaders. Women soldiers, being women, offer tips on being women and bearing hair on their heads. Men soldiers, being men, don’t hold back from displaying varying degrees of stupidity in responding to human counterparts who are not the men they aspire to be. What twists the entire narrative is the fact that people under the military microscope are the ones we civilians hire to fight our fights. Most of us who’ve worked have had bosses with varied qualifications. How good are we as bosses? Are we human, or are we dancers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92-SFW09ag0

Blog Post #5 -- DexterDaily.com

I've never been one to like anything so much that I browse fan sites, yet here I am. I guess the fact that I am doing it for a grade helps. I found DexterDaily.com, a fan website completely dedicated to Showtime's Dexter. While browsing the website, the only links that I found were either navigation within the website, an advertiser's link or a reference link in an article. The reference links went to other Dexter fan websites or the official page. I took note that, other than the official Dexter website, none of the external links were quite as extravagant as DexterDaily.com. Perhaps this is on purpose? I wouldn't doubt it.

These external links within the articles add to the experience of information on the television show. Through exploring these links, one's knowledge on the subject of the article, always Dexter-related (including the cast members of the show), I compiled more knowledge and deeper interest about it. Now I see why people visit these websites. It's intriguing, especially when you already have an interest in the subject. The ads don't add much of an experience, and they seem randomly placed throughout the internet, like Amazon.

The design of the placement of the links is very straightforward -- right in the sentence in an article that is relevant to the information that the link provides. For example, a sentence might say, "In season 2, Dexter finds himself in a situation he has never encountered before, threatening his addiction." The text "in season 2" would be linked to some website that provides episode summaries. This way, the link doesn't interrupt your reading, but is conveniently placed so that you have an idea of where that link goes and how it is relevant to the information. This is much more effective than listing sources at the bottom of the article and slightly more effective than a "click here for the season summaries" note after the sentence.

Fus Ro "Duh" consumerism plays a part in the fan site!

So, I looked at skyrimfansite.com/ and the main page didn't really contain external hyperlinks so I clicked on one of the internal links that led me to a page that contained articles. In one of the articles about the effects of gaming their was two in-text hyperlinks that led to two different news websites containing articles of a similar subject. These links were only related by the general topic of gaming and not by Skyrim specifically. The point of these links is to provide a connection to Skyrim on a larger scale of relate-ability by comparing the specific game of Skyrim to the broader topic of gaming in general. These links put a spin on the fan site that I think is interesting. Usually, fan sites are devoted to fan worship of a piece of culture. However, the links on the skyrimfansite.com website create a narrative that promotes intelligent and responsible gaming. The website even encourages viewers to consider various news articles by making the hyperlinks embedded directly into the article that is being read. In addition, the links are in red and underlined, a feature that makes them stick out even further.

There is another group of hyperlinks on just about every page of the fansite linking users to the various forms of social media for the skyrimfansite. These links are such things as facebook, twitter, pinterest and youtube. The links all directly relate to skyrim fandom. Namely, Pinterest is liked to the fansites memes and Youtube is linked to the fan site videos. By linking to Youtube, the website allows users to see not only videos that they personally endorse but also any other skyrim video that Youtube's site suggests. The Facebook and Twitter links expand the experience of the relationship because they allow the users to share the site and their fandom with their friends. Not to mention, the links are encouraged to be used by placing them on every page, right at the top, and are visually appealing because of their easily recognizable logos.

Finally there is a group of links in the sidebar that take viewers to product sites. The links are directly related to skyrim because the links are to sites that are selling Skyrim based  gear and products. These links add the obligatory connection to consumerism, to put it bleakly. On the other hand, it shows that the fan-site wants to recommend additional ways for viewers to participate in the game other than just playing it. These links are probably the most appealing because they are of a skyrim based picture or product with a small amount of accompanying text. They are also comparatively large in size when looking at the social media icons.

Webbing and Link Hopping

From my brief digging through a few google searches, it looks like the most extensive fan sites for the Ender Universe are philoticweb.net and ender'sansible.com. The sites have some sort of partnership going on, but I like the design of Ender's Ansible better, so I'm going to use that one for this post.

This site has links to the following categories of sites:

• Commercial websites selling various products.
• Examples: game shops, movie prop stores, Amazon, and book stores/presses
• These sites are not focused on the Enderverse. They are probably the least related if the entire site is being analyzed, but they sell products related to movies and books, and they have content on their sites related to my topic.
• Other fansites
• Example: philoticweb.net
• This site is another one directly focused on the Ender's Game universe.
• Author and Publisher official sites
• hatrackriver.com and tor.com
• These sites are the most closely related, after the fansites for the Enderverse. The author's main site has a lot of content on the series, but it also has information about himself and his other books. The publishing company also has a lot of content about the universe, and about fantasy and science fiction, but it has content about a lot of unrelated books.
• Social Media sites
• Examples: Ender's Ansible FB page, Actor pages on Instagram, FB, etc.
• These sites as a whole are unrelated, but pages within the sites focus on things with a relationship to the Enderverse. The actor pages are for those actors who played in the Ender's Game movie.
• Blog sites
• Examples: Book blogs, news blogs, etc.
• These sites were mostly unrelated to the topic, but they made mention of the books or the movie in some way.

Ender's Ansible is focused on official news, discussion and the community surrounding the Enderverse. Exploring the links to the various sites was like listening in on different parts of the community's conversation, looking at how they all interlace. Some of the links added a more narrative style to the site, while others made it seem more of a database. Some of the sites, like hatrack river and Tor have narrative sections and content that logically proceeds or antecedes the content on Ender's Ansible, so the exploration of them is a little like turning the pages of a book. Exploring other links was like moving in completely different directions, rather than following a narrative line.

In some ways, this site is not that great at encouraging the viewer to follow links. Mention of some of the websites, like philoticweb.net, on the main page aren't actually linked to the sites. Without finding the links on other pages, you would have to type the link into the browser yourself. Most of the actual links are in the blog posts on the site, though, so they are easy to access. They're obviously highlighted and colored, placed within the text where the viewer will be likely to click on them because the surrounding context will lead the reader to be interested.

What I Did Last Summer (Well, This Afternoon)

I visited the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) website to explore its use of hyperlinks. SWAN is a civil-rights organization that educates on issues relevant to women in the armed services and advocates for its members through partnerships with legal organizations.

The site links to recent high-profile news stories with SWAN pundits on C-Span, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and PBS; and articles referencing SWAN-related issues posted on ACLU, Stars and Stripes, and Huffington Post websites. Newsworthy tweets and retweets by SWAN staff are also linked. The site also links to two blogs, one written by SWAN staff, and the other composed of re-posts from blog sites outside of the organization. In all, the links provide instant access into the wide-ranging, high-profile activity of the organization, and lend it credibility in terms of fulfilling its mission and representing its members. 

A slider just below the nav bar is positioned prominently in the header, about 300px high X 600px wide, with links to the above-mentioned stories. A scrolling box just right of the slider links to the tweets. I’d say the design is pretty effective in putting viewers in touch with the organization’s issues as reported in the national media, and letting them select the stories and tweets they want to follow up on. What might be less effective is the link to Front and Center, the SWAN blog, which is found under the Blog menu on the nav bar – i.e., if the number of blog comments is any indicator: of the five current blogs posted, only one has been commented on, by one commenter. 

A quick survey of similar organizations’ sites — or any other informational website for that matter — suggests there’s nothing innovative about SWAN’s web design and use of hyperlinks, but its familiar layout is probably just what makes it so effective: even viewers unfamiliar with the organization's site pretty much know exactly where to go for the information they’re looking for.