Here are some links that may be useful for our final project:
1. Everquest
2. Webkinz
Eris Eells
Nov12
Nov12
online games
Nov11
Still Playing Games at my Age?
Besides those we have already mentioned, my sources tell me that this is a ever-growing popular game:
http://www.eveonline.com/. I also learned my first gaming acronym – MMORPG (Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game). And I thought the corporate world of acronyms was bad!
Facebook also has several games to become involved with, but I’ve not had a chance to investigate them just yet.
Jackie Larsen
Nov11
Web Games
Here are some web sites I found (with a little help from my “little people” at home !!)
http://crossfire.real-time.com/
http://wwww.webkinz.com/us_en/
http://community.clubpenguin.com/
Jan Z.
Nov11
Online Games
Hey class!
Here are a few online games that I found:
1.) Second Life
2.) EverQuest
*By clicking on the online games it’ll redirect you to Wikipedia with a brief overview of the games!
Enjoy =]
Sheena Kalchthaler
Nov10
When to use citations
I realize I was less than specific in my instructions for your papers on how to cite in text, and, sure enough, one of the most common errors I’m finding in these papers has to do with citing. More specifically, the authors of the papers I’ve read so far don’t cite often enough, are using ideas and evidence for which they obviously have a third-party source, but not citing them.
In class last week, we talked about the format of MLA citations. But…when do you cite? Well, here’s a guide to referencing; and a page on knowing when to use citations…
Jay Stevens
Nov9
Collaborative writing project: online economies
From “Game Theories,” by Clive Thompson:
He began calculating frantically. He gathered data on 616 auctions, observing how much each item sold for in US dollars. When he averaged the results, he was stunned to discover that the EverQuest platinum piece was worth about one cent US—higher than the Japanese yen or the Italian lira. With that information, he could figure out how fast the EverQuest economy was growing. Since players were killing monsters or skinning bunnies every day, they were, in effect, creating wealth. Crunching more numbers, Castronova found that the average player was generating 319 platinum pieces each hour he or she was in the game—the equivalent of $3.42 (US) per hour. “That’s higher than the minimum wage in most countries,” he marvelled.
Then he performed one final analysis: the Gross National Product of EverQuest, measured by how much wealth all the players together created in a single year inside the game. It turned out to be $2,266 per capita. By World Bank rankings, that made EverQuest richer than India, Bulgaria, or China, and nearly as wealthy as Russia.
It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn’t even exist.
Welcome to your collaborative writing assignment! We’re going to split into groups, each of which is going to explore the economy of an online game, and, from that exploration, write a proposal and prepare a presentation on a strategy for making a virtual fortune in that virtual world.
For Wednesday, read Thompson’s article, and be prepared for discussion. Also, do some cursory research on different online games with economies, such as Puzzle Pirates or Second Life. On Wednesday, we’ll make a list of possible games to choose from, and address the more specific steps towards a successful project…
Jay Stevens
Nov5
Cover letters
As promised, we’re going to go over writing cover letters in class today.
Among its many other resources, the Academic and Career Planning center explains cover letter and resume basics and provides example resumes and cover letters. Of course, there are loads of example cover letters out on the Internet; a quick Google search brought me to some cover letters provided by Virginia Tech’s career services office, for example, as well as dozens of examples provided by Quintessential Careers, each broken down by job type and applicant experience.
But cover letters are useless without jobs to apply to! Again, Penn St. Behrend’s Academic and Career Planning center has a list of jobs aimed at Penn St. students and alumni. Monster.com is a national jobs listing site, although the listed jobs are pretty terrible. A better way to go would be to use job listings that concentrate on your area of interest; for example, I typically use Dice.com, a job site for computer technology work. And, of course, there’s always Craig’s List, Erie.
If you know any other good job sites, please share…
Nov2
In-text citation
Waffles have been around for centuries, perhaps introduced by the ancient Greeks thousands of years ago, who made “extremely flat cakes” called obleios. (Kaufman) (And my Greek uncle still makes them.) And the first waffle irons were probably introduced by the Germans or Dutch in the 1300s. And while waffles flourished in early America – a waffle iron obtained by Thomas Jefferson from France coincided with waffles’ emergence in the New World in the 1700s. (Kaufman)
But when did “waffle” turn into “waffle” – to “equivocate” or “vacillate,” according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary? (“Waffle”) The Oxford English Dictionary lists the first recorded use of that definition of “waffle” as occurring in an 1803 ballad mentioning “Saint George, the girt champion,” who was “nobbet a waffle to Matthew Macree.” The OED makes no mention of why the breakfast pastry could suddenly describe a negative characteristic of a brawler, other than to mention that it was a feature in Northern English and Scottish slang. (“Waffler”)
Kaufman, Terry. “Waffles – Contemporary Food with Thousands of Years of History.” Ezine @rticles 2008. Web. 2 Nov 2009. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Waffles—Contemporary-Food-with-Thousands-of-Years-of-History&id=967437>.
“Waffle.” Merriam-Webster Online. 11th Edition. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Web. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waffle>.
“Waffler.” Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Web. <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50279745?query_type=word&queryword=waffle&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=3>
Jay Stevens
Oct26
Lifehacker
Recently I have been using lifehacker.com a lot. Lifehacker is a blog site set up to give you tips about anything. Many of these tips are extremely useful so I suggest everyone go take a look. For instance, the most current post pertain to Microsoft 7, and in particular how to prepare your computer’s software to merge with this new innovative software. They even have a post comparing Microsoft 7 with the famous Mac OS-X leopard, which is what I use at home. There are other useful tips like using a packet of lemon koolaid mix to clean your dishwasher, or using soda with aluminum foil to clean your chrome. Like I said this is a great site and I encourage everyone to take a look.
Josh
