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It was the most revolutionary game I had ever seen when it first came out. You could actually play music with a guitar-shaped controller which interacted with the video crowd. What was this miraculous game? GUITAR HERO

Yes, the original Guitar Hero took the world by storm in 2005. It was first published by Red Octane and distributed by Activision. The original game included one guitar controller with a chord and the game. The controller has five colored fret buttons and a strum bar. The objective of the game is to complete popular rock songs from different decades by strumming the strum bar and matching up the notes on the fret buttons to the rythm of the song. Different difficulties are available so any experienced or lack of experience player can play. Also, you could rock out alone or with a friend in co-op mode where one person picks the lead guitar part while the other person picks rythm guitar or bass (depending on the song).

Well that was all fine and dandy, but NOW Guitar Hero has become HUGE. After the original Guitar Hero was made, Guitar Hero 2 was created and retrieved even more success and has sold about 3 million copies to date (the original only sold 1.5 million copies). After that, a small expansion game called Guitar Hero Encore: Rock The 80's came out and did okay. That was when Red Octane was bought by Activision for $100 million. They left their previous developer Harmonix to be purchased by MTV Networks to make Rockband.

After being bought by Activision, Guitar Hero took off with a bang. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock came in bundles featuring a wireless guitar for more spastic rocking and even featured real rockers like Slash and Tom Morello to battle against along with better graphics. Needless to say, the game was awesome. It was the first single game to exceed $1 billion in total sales.

From there Guitar Hero made expansion Aerosmith game to feature many of their songs. After that, they released Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008. This was the first game in the series to come with a four player band capability. This includes a microphone and a drumset along with the guitar and bass. This game also lets you control the real rockers in the game including rockers such as Jimi Hendrix. The latest game to come from the Guitar Hero family is an expansion game featuring Metallica songs aptly titled Guitar Hero: Metallica.

The Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide. It is truly one of the best video game series of our generation. I am excited to see what else they come up with.

Aside from being a great game to play I think this game has served more than one purpose. Because of this game, many of our younger children are introduced to music from different generations. Also, if the kid is anything like me they grow an actual interest in music and not just the game. After a year or two of playing Guitar Hero I wanted to do more. That is when I picked up a real guitar and started learning different fingerings for different chords. That was almost two years ago and I still enjoy playing Guitar Hero as well when I get the chance.

There you have it. Guitar Hero. It is one of the greatest games of our generation. It's fun and interactive and, who knows, maybe it will inspire you to become a real guitar hero.

Weblogs on the Space Machine

Yes. This week I am doing a blog on blogs. The term blog comes from "weblog." Blogs, as you should know, are websites with many entries written about anything, usually a certain subject, displayed in reverse chronological order. Embedded in these entries are usually pictures and links to other websites and blogs.

Now, it's time for a little history about blogs. One of the people credited for being a pioneer of blogging is Justin Hall. He started writing on his "online diary" in 1994! This was three years before the term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger. Justin's early blogging was happening five years before the term "blog" was coined by Peter Merholz in 1999. He began blogging at Swarthmore College.

Around 1999, blogging increased drastically in popularity. In 1998, Open Diary was created. This created thousands of online diaries which initiated the user comment section. This is used quite frequently these days in blogs (look down there V). This wonderful website I am using to write this blog, was launched in 1999 by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. It was then bought out by google in 2003 (probably making Evan and Meg jillionaires).

As of December 2007, Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs. I started this blog in 2009 so that number has had to have grown by at least one (probably many, many more). Also according to Technorati, the number one blog is written by Arianna Huffington and can be found here.

Now, for you people that believe everything you see on the internet, blogs aren't always credible sources. People can write whatever they want. They usually incorporate their opinions in what they say. So don't believe everything you hear.

Well, that is all I have to say about blogs. If you are looking for a very fun, interesting, hip, descriptive blog try looking at this one.

Video Killed the Radio Star

Now that I have your attention with that annoying song, I can make my point. What is the most under-rated medium? Well, in my opinion, I think it is radio. Just think about it. What medium can you buy one receiver for and get ENDLESS amount of information from for FREE until that receiver dies? RADIO.

Now, many people, me included, think that radio is a dying technology. With things like television, mp3 players, and more advanced things like the iphone, why on earth would we need to listen to the radio? In my opinion, radio stations feed the masses with overplayed mainstream music filled with commercials. But, as I said earlier, IT'S FREE. With the push of a button, you get access to thousands of songs, news reports, and talk shows. On itunes, the average song you would listen to on the radio would cost $.99. Cable television where you can get news and talk shows, would cost you somewhere around $40 bucks a month.

Therefore, I stand by my choice of radio as the most under-rated medium there is. For the price of a receiver, you can get news, sports, talk shows, and all kinds of music. Also, in emergency situations, you can get special up-to-the-minute news bulletins. For example, this past Friday I was in Valley City moving people out of the dorms because of the flood and we heard that we were not supposed to use the water because of the sewer system. We flipped on the radio and, sure enough, they were talking about it right that minute. Plus, they don't have very important scheduled programs so that they can have news updates right when they happen.

So, are you short on your buck? Are you all out of money on your itunes card? Flip on the old-fashioned radio and jam for free!

Welcome to YouTube....

YouTube star Bo Burnham sang it best- "Welcome to YouTube"

Well that pretty much sums it up, have a good week. Oh, wait, I have 279 words more to type. Yes, we have given the "OK" to stray away from our topics in Understanding Media and Social Changes so I will NOT be writing on sitcoms this week. I know, you are all crushed.

We all know about YouTube. It is a website that let's you put videos on it. You can put whatever you want on it (as long as there is no nudity and other rules). Personally, I think it is AWESOME. I can get lost watching random videos for hours! It has everything from music videos to political videos to whatever this is.

Now I will present some researched information that I found. The most viewed video ever on YouTube is The Evolution of Dance which, according to my last refresh, has 117,581,481 views. That is a LOT! Now on the other end of the spectrum there are very poorly viewed videos such as my Public Relations video which now has 15 views. Woohoo!

The most subscribed user on YouTube is Fred. He is a fifteen year old kid who plays the character Fred Figglehorn- a 6 year old kid who uses his mom's video camera to make videos and post them on YouTube. He has 1, 031, 781 subscribers (I am NOT a subscriber of Fred. I cannot stand him, just to make that clear.).

YouTube is a great resource for when you need a video to learn about something or just to have fun. It is taking the world by storm ranking as one of the top visited websites on the internet. It is a great way to get your voice heard and to see what other people are interested in. As I stated earlier I think it is AWESOME and it is one of my favorite websites. If you wanted to know, my favorite YouTube user is Bo Burnham (warning: questionable lyrics).

Well, that's all I got......... and boom goes the dynamite.

The Big Bang Theory.......no not the one from science class

The Big Bang Theory is one of the funniest new shows on television. I have spent nights this week staying up until 4 a.m. watching the seasons of it. It is not your typical sitcom. This show is about a very pretty girl named Penny (Kaley Cuoco) who moves in across from the hall from two geeky scientists, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons). Also visiting often are Leonard and Sheldon's geeky scientist friends Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar).

This show might be the smartest show on television, as you can tell from some of Sheldon's jokes. In some internet blogging I have seen it deemed as "Frasier goes to college." This is referring to how it uses intellectual humor kind of like the show Frasier, but, is also young and, dare i say, "hip" (yikes I am turning into my dad). Now, if you are worried about watching an "intellectual" show, don't be. It is not all art, literature, and wine like Frasier. When the guys aren't making physics jokes they are talking about comic books, science fiction, or video games.

The whole show revolves around these geniuses outside of the lab. Penny from across the hall is the normal factor in the show. She is just an average intelligence, gorgeous girl who befriends the guys and their jokes go WAY over her head.

I really enjoy this show. Some of my inner nerd comes out while watching it. I think it is a very creative new show (it started in 2007). Many sitcoms these days and in years past have just been about "normal" people. This sitcom takes a look into what could be a group of "nerds" that are friends. Some don't like the show because of the nerd stereotype, but I think it is all done in good fun while being hilarious.

Well, I hope you go watch The Big Bang Theory if you haven't seen it before. I am sorry for not having any links for you to go watch it. I was looking around CBS's website and I could not find any full episodes. I am sure it is somewhere on the internet.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and, to all you ladies, as Raj would say .......

(please tell me someone got that joke)