The Future is Games

Technology is something that we as humans in today's society cannot imagine living without. There isn't a time when we leave our house without our smartphone, that is just how our media platform has risen. Our demand for more technology is so great that companies need to compete in a dog eat dog market. Convergence will be the driving force for these companies to keep competing. Media and content have taken over the spectrum and will continue to do so since the amount of users rise on a daily bases. Social networking have taken over as the main platforms that we use in our everyday lives. Our future is in technology and media, the path that we going toward has made us realize that we cannot imagine ourselves in a different era. We have just seen the beginning of what is yet to come in the future.

Jay-Z and Bing Campaign

Media across multiple platforms has been a big player of recent years and is transforming into a great form of communication. For example Hashem Bajwa from Droga5 worked with Microsofts Bing and World superstar Jay-Z to collaborate on a project that would market both parties. Jay-Z had released his book Decoded and Microsoft was promoting their new search engine Bing. The campaign was created to allow people to interact on a multiple platforms using a game they came up with. Bajwa took a idea and turned it into a what we will continue to see in the future. The message was to promote both parties by using transmedia to their advantage. Pages from Jay-Z's book were placed on billboards, signs, clothing, and other symbols. People where able to look at these pages from Bing to capture the pages and win a prize. This allowed people to have incentive for using Bing and buying Jay-Z's book. It formulated a huge success and we can expect more advertisement from gaming.


Transmedia story telling through games will be used in the years to come because it is a fun way for people to interact and understand what is being promoted. People in today's society have high expectations for color which makes it hard to promote boring ads. Society is taking steps toward more tans media which is why out future is within advertising using games and other ideas that promote storytelling. Henry Jenkins explains that kids that understand their experiences with technology and transmedia are going demand it when they get older. Jenkins states "Kids who have grown up enjoying Pokemon across media are going to expect this kind of experience." (Jenkins P.1)I have to agree with his statement because the future is in technology and we cannot deny that fact.

Which brings up probably the biggest phenomenon of technology and that is video games. People are being consumed in this digital world and cannot get out. Hours and hours are being spent on gaming which is why transmedia storytelling is salting on a gaming scale. The problem with video games is that some people cannot understand that it is not healthy to play days straight. Which is why we need to be careful when we deal with gaming and games because it can become addicting. Other than the addiction games are the perfect way for people of all ages to interact with each other and share ideas. jane McGonigal has clearly stated "Games can make the world better", and she is right by saying this. Technology is used everywhere and why not use games as our basis for learning, McGonigal creates games for children to think critically. These kinds of games can help society because kids are so used to gaming that their attention won't be lost. There is a school in New York that basis their educational system on learning through games and technology. Children are being taught to create and learn about games which is so crucial to todays society.

The future as we know it is evolving each and every day and we can expect it keep improving. Games are going to be the future of transmedia storytelling, and we are certainly heading into that direct as we saw with Hashem's demonstration. Technology is going to force people to realize that they need to keep up with multimedia and different forms of transmedia. It is an exciting time for people who enjoy technology as we will continue to see opportunities arise. As for those who haven't had the opportunity to learn about all these new platforms it is going to be a struggle, that is where we are heading and there is no turning back.


Bibliography

Droga5

Jane McGonigal

Jenkins, Henry. "Solutions to Electric-Vehicle Battery Hazards." MIT Technology Review. 15 Jan. 2003.