New Technology Paper: The Impact of the Digital Age on Professional Musicians

RecordPlayer

According to Nietzsche, life without music is a mistake. Indeed, there are few creations of mankind that are as integral to life as music. Over the centuries technology has impacted music and the profession of musicians. The Internet is perhaps the greatest disruptor of music changing the distribution ways of music, legally or not.

In my New Technology class of 2013, Eric Nielsen did research on how technology over time, beginning with Edison’s phonograph all the way to the current age of the Internet, has changed the profession of creating and performing music. Eric looks at the state of professional musicians in the current age and provides information on how they make money.

Finally, Eric addresses the question: has the digital age created a more lucrative environment for professional musicians?

New Technology Paper: The Impact of the Digital Age on Professional Musicians

Flickr image above by: Ferrari + caballos + fuerza = cerebro Humano

New Technology Paper: Let Me Entertain You?

TV

TV is changing. It may take longer than excepted but the convergence of TV and the Internet is taking place. TV technology is one of the topics in my New Technology course. One student of the 2013 course, Arnþór Snær Sævarsson did research on how TV is changing.

This is the abstract from the paper:

The television set and broadcast television has been the focal point of home entertain- ment for the last 60 years but changes in technology are challenging the status of the device in the home and the business models. In this paper I examine business models, existing paradigms and companies in this space, both incumbent and new players. It seems evident that a disruption is taking place, but what is the nature of it, how are incumbents responding and how will it turn out. My conclusions are that the market is being fragmented but the main disruptions are the web and the ecosystems of the new software driven computing devices. Software stores such as Apple App Store are disrupting the existing paradigm of consumers purchasing their main entertainment access through local television broadcasters, content producers or cable television ac- cess providers. In the new paradigm, content providers sell and deliver their content through their channels (or apps/sites if you will) but the point of access is the web or software stores consumers retrive via the software stores/browsers. The television set as the sole content consumption device of the household is being disrupted by a slew of other content enabled screens. However the television set remains a focal point for the family/household members to share entertaiment. 

Paper is here: Let Me Entertain You?

 

New Technology Paper: Designing Computer Games Preemtively for Emotions and Player Types

PlayingVideoGames

Games are all about emotions, how people feel. Game designers usually focus on the story of the game and the game mechanics. However, designing game for specific player types and gamer emotion is equally important in game design. Student in my New Technology class of 2013, Arelíus Sveinn Arelíusarson, did research about designing games for emulations. In his paper he documents the basic background of game design. He compares three models for player types and suggest an new model based on Yee’s model. This is the abstract:

In this paper I mapped the top ten emotions computer-game players experience, as categorized by Chris Bateman, to player types. I compared three models of player types (Bartle, Lazzaro and Yee) to produce as an encompasing model of player types as possible. Furthermore I have made use of Bateman’s speculations upon which biomechanisms each emotion stems from and assigned them to player types. The result is what I call the Augmented Yee Model which could help computer-game designer to have a clear picture of what gamers desire from their preferred activity and perhaps to identify if a design is missing aspects that are applicable. I also defined the non- aesthetic design constructs of computer-games to better convey understanding of what designers are doing to elicit emotions from players without the use of a narrative, graphics or music. To that effect I am introducing a new concept I call game wiles. 

Paper: Designing Computer Games Preemtively for Emotions and Player Types