Carlo Gagliardo
Dr. Mark Crane
English 1010
Social Media Experience
There are
many forms of social media that any one person can attach themselves to. Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are just a few
of wide variety to choose from. I
happened to choose an unconventional form of social networking to attach myself
to. A video game called Call of Duty on
Playstation3. Call of Duty has become
one of the most popular games in the world.
With technological advances it has become more popular as your ability to
network with people around the world grows.
Most people would know what it is just by telling them the name. Although I have known a few people that ask
what the game is.
If you have never played the game let
me explain a little detail about what it is.
It’s a first or third person shooter set in periods of war. You can play the game in two main ways. You can play and try to complete the campaign
in which you follow a story line that is based on modern warfare weapons and
techniques. You have to complete several
missions in order to complete the Campaign. Or there is the online play, were you battle
against other people around the world. While
playing on line you can also talk to anyone all over the world online with you,
however I have found at times people can be just as annoying as enjoyable. There are times that I will be playing with
someone that is speaking a language that I am not familiar with, or some people
can be crude in there communication with others on the game. The idea of online play is to kill more than
you are killed. At the end of the match
the player or team with the greater number of kills is the victor. The first three Call of Duty games did not
tap into the social side of game play. The
online feature did not come into play until the later games in the series.
There are eight games in the whole series but
it really took off in 2007 when Infinity Ward started the present-day modern
warfare branch of the Call of Duty, The fourth in the series. It then became a different kind of game. Grossman
and Narcisse explain how Call of Duty became evolutionary “The earlier call of duty games rode a
powerful wave of saving private Ryan-style WWII nostalgia, but modern warfare
tapped into something more primal” (70-75).
This is when I found myself trying to find more time to play. I had played the previous games in the series
but really could never get into them.
They often seemed slow never really grabbing my attention. The graphics just did not excite me as the
modern warfare series did. Coming from a
military family and also spending time in the military myself, I related to the
modern warfare game play on an unusual level.
I never had to go into battle while serving in
the military. I was prepped and ready to
when I was injured and sent home on a medical discharge. I had full intentions of going back in two
years when my medical discharge was converted to an honorable discharge. However life happened and I never returned. I met my wife and my life had changed directions. I have never and will never regret getting
married and having a family, however at times I miss the excitement and the
adrenaline rush of being a soldier.
Samuel Johnson explains my feelings; “Every man thinks meanly of himself
for not having been a soldier” (70-75) Call of Duty creates a way for every man
to be a soldier, if only virtually. For
me it’s almost like being on the battle field and feeling the rush of it
without the danger of real bullets flying past you. Although at time when playing Call of Duty
with the surround sound on still makes me duck.
I feel that my past military back-round is a big reason I did not relate
to the older games in the series. The
older time frame was not as real to me as the modern warfare’s were. Creating this primal feel to the younger
video gamer population I think is what really set this game above the rest.
Although the feelings I get are mixed
while playing Call of duty I feel that the best one is the ability to connect
with my family and friends. When I moved away from home to join the
military my younger brother was just eight years old. The technology was not available, not that he
would have been allowed to play the game.
Now that the technology had become available and my little brother is
mature enough, Call of duty has in some ways created a relationship with us
that we never had. Our family does not
often get to see each other, so more often than other forms of communicating we
get on the Playstation3, Thus creating a
way to hang out with my family even though they live in Nevada, five hundred
miles away from where I live in Utah. We
make fun of one other as we kill each other.
This barbaric humor gives me the feeling of being there giving my little
brother a punch in the shoulder. Meena
kumara implies that todays’ technology could explain the way I feel; “When
time, geography or financial constraints keep you from being with family…
today’s technological conveniences can keep you connected and make you
feel…almost as if you’re there.”(web). I
really enjoy this time that we can get together on the game. It’s like going out to the movies with my
family and never having to leave the couch. Another way of putting it is playing a board
game in two different states, even though it is a very graphic board game. I would have never thought that a video game
would create such a way to bond with my family.
The creators of Call of Duty have
made big strides in making Call of duty more than just a game. In November 2011 Activision released call of
duty elite. Elite is accessible from
your Playstation3 consoles, computer, and even your cell phone. You can check in via a mobile app and change
your weapons setting. When you get home
your new setting will be waiting for you on your console. Connecting to your Facebook friends through
your Call of Duty account allows you to show your progress through-out the
game, not to mention being able to invite your Facebook friends to play while
on the Playstation3 console. Dean
Akahashi explains how you can make personal relations with people threw call of
duty elite: “You can join groups based on your interests, such as a sports
team”(web). Meeting new people, with
your same interests while playing a video game, Sounds like a social media site, such as
Facebook.
The variety of social networking
sites are growing at a pace no one could have expected. I would have never thought, 10 years ago
while Playing the very first call of duty game on the Playstion that today I
would be connected to so many people.
From friends 2 miles down the road, to my family 500 miles away, and a
stranger half way around the world all sharing a common interest. Talking with one another no matter how many
miles apart you are shows how Call of duty and even other video games that you
can play online are vastly growing and becoming more of a social network in
their own right. My social media site of
choice, Call of Duty all the way!
Works Cited
Akahashi, Dean “Call of Duty Elite social network”
VentureBeat web. Sept. 22 2011
Grossman, Lev and Narcissi, Evan “Conflict of Interest”
Time;
10/31/2011, Vol. 178 Issue 17, p70-75
Kumari, Meena “To Keep Families connected use Technology”
Aussie
Articles Web. 2010
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