Archiv für den Monat: Februar 2018

Finding of the week #258

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YouTube’s Decline

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about YouTube’s latest measurement to stop the exploitation of the monetization system. A measurement that turns YouTube into a very unhealthy ecosystem.

This week, I received an interesting email from YouTube informing me about the fact that I will have no longer access to the monetization system as my channel is not fulfilling some arbitrary yearly watch time and subscriber requirements. Interestingly, although stating that this measurement is an attempt to reduce the exploitation of the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube does not take into account how long a particular channel already is active.

YouTube Partner Program

Personally, I would fully understand if they do not allow new channels to enter the partner program and access the monetization system unless a channel published new content over a certain amount of time. For instance, it would perfectly make sense when they only allow channels that exist and were active for six months or longer to enter the partner program. However, this apparently was never considered by them. Instead, they once again just base their decisions on the success of a particular channel.

This also aligns with previous decisions and the general structure of their platform. Search results and video recommendations are mostly based on the view count of a particular channel. As a result of this, small or new channels do not have good chances to compete with already established channels that accumulated a lot of regular viewers during the early days of YouTube.

From my point of view as a very motivated and vested content creator, YouTube’s new measurement against the exploitation of the monetization system is another setback and a very disappointing decision. Of course, I never relied on the monetization system or created videos to make a living of them, but it gave me the feeling of being part of a healthy ecosystem. Now, the system seems to change to a more and more unhealthy system. After the new measurement entered into force, YouTube even further focusses on key-stones instead of leveraging niche players. In addition, they show once again that they do not care about low subscriber content creators who are the basis of their success.

In conclusion, I have to ask myself if I still like to continue to support a system that does not value the efforts of their users and only focusses on a few selected ones who can do whatever they like due to their huge amount of frequent viewers. Viewers who probably have never heard about smaller channels, that potentially produce better content, as YouTube avoids to leverage them. In the end, I think they went one step too far and it is time to take own measurements by uploading my content to a different video platform …

Finding of the week #257

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Dramatic Music in Calm Moments

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of a game’s soundtrack and the necessity to implement additional functions that check if a certain music theme has to be played.

A computer game’s music has a similar purpose to the soundtrack of a movie. It contributes to the game’s overall atmosphere and underlines key events of the gameplay. For instance, many stroy-based linear games implement an atmospheric background music that fits the overall setting of the game, but play more dramatic, energetic, and dominant music during a fight.

Depending on the style of the game, this also influences a player’s interactions with the game. During explorative gameplay that requires players to solve puzzles or to move from one spot to another, a player can interact with the game without any pressure. This more relaxed gameplay is supported by atmospheric background music. However, when a fight begins, one has to react quickly and accordingly in order to overcome the challenge. Thus, some more dramatic is played to emphasize the importance of the player’s gameplay and to induce some artificial pressure.

In addition, a change in the music theme can also provide players with hints about upcoming events, such as an encounter with a strong enemy, or an upcoming key moment in the game’s story. As a result of this, music is also used to guide the player through the story.

However, although music fulfills a similar purpose to a movie’s music, the implementation of theme changes is critical for the believability of the game’s atmosphere. In contrast to movies, a player can control the progression of the story by stopping at a certain spot to enjoy the scenery or taking a different approach than anticipated by the developers. This potentially can create unwanted effects that render the gameplay almost hilarious.

For instance, a player can trigger an event causing the music to change to a dramatic theme indicating the existence of enemies. However, when the player then decides to turn around because they want to check if there might be a different path, then they are continuously listening to the dramatic music without being in a fight. This potentially results in a very hilarious moment for the players as this music will not stop until they returned to the point where the story continues and the fight begins.

Therefore, it is also important, like with any other game mechanic, to anticipate any player behavior and to implement functions that change the music back to the previous theme or the general background music when a player takes a different route or starts to move away from the position where the next event would be triggered. Overall, music is an important part of each computer game and greatly affects a game’s atmosphere.

Finding of the week #256

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Falcon Heavy: A Sportscar in Space

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about SpaceX’s impressive technology demonstration by launching a Falcon Heavy for the first time into space. The rocket transported a Tesla Roadster sportscar which now orbits around the Sun.

Last Tuesday at 2045 GMT, SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy for the first time into space. The maiden flight transported a very special payload at first into an orbit around the Earth and later on into an orbit around the Sun that almost extends to the orbit of Mars: a Tesla Roadster driven by a mannequin wearing a spacesuit developed by SpaceX. Normally, those demonstration flights only transport a block of concrete into space, but Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, decided to launch something fun to inspire people all around the world and get them excited.

The gigantic rocket is the most powerful space launch system since the Saturn V used to launch Apollo crews to the Moon. At liftoff, the Falcon Heavy had a mass of roughly 1,420 metric tons and left the historic launch pad 39A with nearly 5 million pounds of thrust. The thrust provided by the 27 Merlin main engines was about two-thirds the power of a space shuttle at launch.

The Falcon Heavy rocket basically consisted of three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. The two strap-on boosters returned back to Cape Canaveral after being jettisoned during the ascent. They performed a synchronous landing with only a few hundred meters separating them. Personally, I found this moment just epic and inspiring. The core stage was programmed to land on an uncrewed barge in the Atlantic ocean but unfortunately ran out of igniter fluid and crashed into the sea only a short distance away from the ship.

The webcast covering the launch already ended about ten minutes after liftoff and the successful orbit insertion of the Tesla sportscar. Shortly afterwards, SpaceX started another stream showing footage from various cameras installed around the Roadster. The images of the mannequin sitting inside of the car in front of the Earth were just mindblowing and hilarious at the same time. „Don’t Panic!“ After about six hours in Earth orbit, the upper stage’s engine was ignited again and propelled the car into an orbit around the Sun.

In the end, SpaceX has opened a new market for super-heavy payloads and paved the way for more advanced and potentially even crewed missions to Mars. Well done!

Finding of the week #255

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Train Any Knowledge You Want

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about how computer games can be used to learn any knowledge in a highly motivating way.

Acquiring new knowledge not only requires a learner to memorize and understand theoretical information, but also to gain experience with its explicit application. This often is achieved with repetitive training allowing for the experience of new problems that demand the application of the learning content. However, in many cases, repetitive training can become boring, is expensive or even dangerous. As a result, computer-based simulations are developed that allow learners to practive the knowledge in a safe environment.

Computer games are a special form of simulations as they not only encode a particular knowledge in their game mechanics but also allow for an adjustment of its abstractness. Computer games not necessarily need to simulate every detail of a knowledge and hence can present and demand it in a more intuitive way. This also is a critical element of making a game fun to play and highly intuitive. That way, players easily can gain experience with a particular knowledge on a meta level or focus on a particular aspect without being overwhelmed by its complexity.

However, like real training simulations, computer games can also encode all aspects, information and principles of a particular knowledge. Thus, they achieve an accurate simulation of it which potentially is enhanced with some additional rewarding gameplay elements increasing the motivational aspects of using the game for a knowledge training.

In conclusion, computer games can be utilized to demonstrate and to demand any knowledge. Moreover, they can also demonstrate the knowledge’s application in a meaningful way by embedding it in a narrative or using it as a means to solve puzzles. This potentially increases a learner’s motivation to tackle the virtual training exercises as the knowledge’s pure theoretical aspects are then hidden in the gameplay.