Gaming culture and hacking culture are two different things but they are connected. However, since people are told that hacking is illegal, most of them tend to think negative when they hear the word “hacking”. While the technology is developing, hacking culture pops up at the same time. Some gamers hack into systems, for example, to change the game level to be easier for them. Actually besides gamers, computer users are also known as hackers in hacking culture. These hackers hack other computers illegally to steal important documents or send viruses. In order to stop the hackers from stealing secret archives and sending viruses to other computers, the government created law rules to protect other computer users. Unfortunately, it does not prevent people from hacking, and we can still find gamers hacking everyday and everywhere. It seems like the law does not work much in the hacking culture.

It is not surprised to find some people win the games (for example, video games, computer games, online games, etc) by hacking. Hacking culture becomes normal in our society now, people like me who are not a gamer, would try to hack the games in order to get the level or prize we cannot pass or gain it. For instance, I played a game called Pet Society on Facebook a lot, and I was addicted to this game. Since the creators just allow gamers to earn few money for each game and the stuffs are too expensive to get them all, I played Pet Society a lot (whenever I got a chance to use the Internet), so that I could earn enough money to get the cute stuff (they publish different cute stuff such as clothing and furniture to the game every week) as much as I wanted. I was so jealous of other gamers that they had a lot of money to buy all the cute stuff to fill in their house, but I was curious how could they have such huge money at the same time. My question solved until my cousin showed me a video YouTube one day. There are several videos online teaching people how to hack the money or level for the Pet Society game! I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe people are hacking the game! That explains why they have such huge money to buy all the stuff!” I was mad when I knew other gamers did not play the game in the right way, but then I realized how nice it is to get all the stuff/win the game by hacking. Hacking saves us the gamers’ time, and it makes the games to be much easier to play. Something good is that hackers are not necessary to understand about technical functionality. Like I said before, I know nothing about the technical functionality, but I know how to hack the Pet Society by just watching the hacking video online.

But is hacking really awful? Well it depends. Of course it is absolutely wrong if people hack into governor or users’ computer, or games. However, I think it is acceptable for government to hack into suspects’ phone lines or computers, and I consider the hacking as to protect the citizens and society. If people use the hacking in the negative way, then we should do something to prevent them. Like the game Pet Society, the creators blocked the big hackers after they found out who often hack the game. This is a good sign to warn the gamers and people from hacking. You might not believe it, but it is different to find a person who has never hacked games nowadays. Should we do something to prevent the hacking culture from grows up in our culture?

Traditional medium of database is known as old media such as radio, television, and newspapers that we still use today; while new medium is the information that related to technology, for example, we use internet to search information from different web pages and we receive information via cell phones as well. Most students use database for their research papers because database sources are trustful and organized. Therefore, both traditional and new medium of database are popular to use for sources searching. When internet was not common and popular, students usually went to libraries to do research by looking for books and newspapers; but nowadays, most of them just go online and find the information they need for their projects or research papers instead of going to the libraries. I personally think new medium of database is the best way for data research because it saves time and conveniences. Moreover, new medium of database can store information and keep them all in one system for a very long time in an internal database which known as metabase, so that we do not have to worry if we lose the database. For example, we can save the information in magnetic tape machine, floppy diskette drive, hard disk drive, CD-ROM and so on, which are mostly the form of digital media . Not only research sources but we can also receive the latest information and news from web pages. Examples such as Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube are the most famous and popular web pages that used in the world.

Traditional medium of database are commonly found in newspapers and books; however, the public are not able to respond or make comments for the cases. On the contrast, people are allowed to add information on web pages such as Wikipedia, and also comment and share their own opinions after they watch the news or videos on YouTube. Therefore, the new medium of database encourages us to communicate and share our own opinions with others. I think new medium of database is somehow better than the old one because it allows people to make and share their comments with others instead of receiving information from one way and cannot make any responses of that. Although there is a big difference between the traditional and new medium of database, they both are the best tool for searching information and sources.

The writer Walter Benjamin states that “aura” is an art work in the age of mechanical reproduction, and its concept is used to describe as the unique phenomenon of a distance. I agree with his view that mechanical reproduction is a work of art. Long time ago, when the printing machines did not develop so well, people made copies for books or paintings by hands. Realize the limitation of artworks offer in art museums, the copies of the artworks are made to instead of the original copies, so that people in different cities can also have the chance to admire the great arts.

Paintings, for example, like The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso in art museums are not the original copies that painted by the artists.

   

(I am not sure if I get it right, but if it is not, please correct me.) I think aura in media is commonly used to make VCDs or DVDs copies for films. Like the copies of artworks in museums, film companies usually make and supply the VCDs and DVDs copies to the market after the films shown on big screen.

Films, are known as produced by motion pictures with cameras. And animated movies such as Matrix are the good examples of the form of machinima, which show us the relation between photographs and computers and films. Filmmakers edit motion pictures on the computer and make special effects for the images with technique. The special effects of animated movies become better and better these over years, referred to the music videos that Martin Picard mentioned in the article, you see the form of machinima is not only use for films but also for other media production. Since it recently creates more different ways to express the media than the past, it shows that machinima is the new culture of mass production.

It is interesting how machinima works on video games and animated films. The new form of media productions bring out the new style of the media. Music Videos are the examples that clearly show how machinima work.

Crazy Frog is the classical new style of music video.

And Utada Hikaru's music video here makes a great work with technique, too. It is a-must-watch video!