January 13th: Sydney University |
Journal Entry:
Australian Broadcasting Company
Our tour of the ABC station in Sydney began with a typical tour through the studios used to develop, the makeup room, and the radio area of the station. Then it pressed on to a special show of the archive rooms where they kept much of their content for a while. This was much like ACMI except far more industrial and private – only for ABC.
Our tour of the ABC station in Sydney began with a typical tour through the studios used to develop, the makeup room, and the radio area of the station. Then it pressed on to a special show of the archive rooms where they kept much of their content for a while. This was much like ACMI except far more industrial and private – only for ABC.
We spoke to two individuals responsible for saving and cataloging prior footage and radio recordings where they spoke about deciding what would become the personal history of the institution; what they kept and what they didn’t. They discussed the difficulties with retaining that information in a relevant and accessible format. They discussed retrieving the data and the rites issues that followed with it. They showed us prior tapings and the machines that they relied on to access the data and most importantly, they showed us the people that kept the data intact, alive, and ready to view. Archivists are very special people in our world.
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Kyle Moore – Gaming Culture in Australia
From ABC we headed to Sydney University to speak with Kyle moore, a graduate student studying game culture and it’s link to geography; how local economies effect game sales, how communities affect what games, how government censorship affects international game play etc. Sydney is a beautiful campus with the “Stanford” feel. His research position was that localized game play that focuses on physical worlds could change game culture and used the popular android and IOS game, “Ingress” as a prime example. |
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What i learned from Kyle
- Studying the location elements of gaming culture in Sydney.
- “How can I understand from Aussie gaming culture how local cultures are affected by westernization?
- wireless interconnectivity effects people’s connection so professional gaming is non-existant.
- Cost of games are expensive due to delivery meaning they’re only for the rich or their children.
- Online game play is restricted due to the metered connections and PC gaming, although present isn’t huge.
- Access to games in general is not there so there is a huge problem with piracy.
- mobile games are cheap and easy to download which leads to a lot of the games and that is where the location gaming of apps comes in.
- The average gamer is:
- 33 years old
- 98% of homes with a child play video games.
- 50/50 gender split over all
- Asian gaming population is the biggest.
- Banning and censorship are big deals for the country and free speech is not guaranteed.
- “South Park: stick of the truth replaced its censored content with a crying koala and kangaroo because it wasn’t allowed to show some of the cut scenes and areas.”
- On Ingress:
- Location based gaming is a problem if you are rural or others don’t play.
- Show great places for you to engage in as you play.
- Potential problems come up in that people can track you and attain information.
- Companies use that data to easily develop graphics or other platforms.