Kujyou's McMath Tech Corner

Throughout the years, there have been many arguments about whether or not gaming is a sport or if it could be called professional. As the years go by, gaming has taken a big leap from years ago. Nowadays, gaming is considered a professional sport or even a job where they use their winnings to feed their families or getting the resources need to put food on the tables. A few years back, you would think that someone who plays video games for a living could not make 900,000 dollars. In the year, 2013, professional players can make up to 900,000 a year. One of the professional players in the League of Legends scene makes about 950,000 dollars of winnings, merchandise sellings, streaming, salaries as well as personal sponsors. The major League of Legends tournament a few months ago had a prize pool of 2 million dollars.A few months back, the U.S government declared that gaming is a professional sport, they even gave visas to players from different regions so traveling to play in tournaments would be easier to get to. I think that this is a pretty big step in the gaming scene because even the government is saying that it is.

 League of Legends is not the only game that can be considered a job, there are many other games that could be played as a job. Call of Duty and Starcraft 2 are just some of the other games that are popular where you can make money from. I think that gaming as a sport will start rising in popularity, many people enjoy playing these games and people are willing to spectate the game as well, just like in a hockey game or basketball game, there are fans cheering for the team that they want to win, there are even tournaments where you can win trophies and I think that competitive gaming will someday be on par with the other sports.


-Kevin

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Nokia's new tablet running Windows RT, the Lumia 2520, has become the rival of Windows' Surface 2 tablet. This puts the companies in very awkward positions, as Microsoft has been planning to buy Nokia for a while. One big advantage the Nokia tablet has is a 2.2 GHz processor while Microsoft's Surface 2 uses a 1.7 GHz processor. While this puts the Nokia tablet ahead in technical terms, both companies have yet to see who's sales will be bigger. So far, tablets running Windows RT have not been favored by consumers. The new Lumia is actually only the second system to be running this OS, besides the Surface 2. The Windows RT is the first system that uses less powerful chips from cellphones in a tablet. It was the software to make Windows compatible with processors from big manufacturers such as Qualcomm, who actually provided the processor for the Lumia 2520. Qualcomm is a huge company that provides the processors for many of the biggest smartphones, such as the  Apple iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S4. However, this doesn't help the popularity of the operating system itself in the slightest. It's inability to run many older applications has made it a less-than-popular choice among consumers and companies. Perhaps we will see more people moving towards tablets running the Windows OS after they see the performance of the Lumia.

I can see Microsoft getting more excited about their future buy-over of Nokia. They have now seen first-hand what they can create, and together I'm sure they can create the next best tablet. But how high up will they be seen in the people's eyes? Apple has also recently released their new iPad Air and updated iPad Mini. This will create some big competition in the marketing aspect for these companies. So how will brand loyalty come into play here? I believe that the iPad's will still sell better due to the fact that many people are still devoted Apple followers and much of the population just doesn't know much about Microsoft's tablets. Many other companies are using Qualcomm's chips though, due to their ability to support larger resolutions. There will be big competitive scene over their chips, and when it comes down to it, most tablets in the future market will probably be running either the same or a similar one. What will make or break it will be the OS and its functions, and currently, Microsoft isn't delivering. Hopefully their long term investment in the new low power technology in the OS pays off for them or they will be in for some tough times.


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In a recent interview, Sony said that they are not giving the DualShock 4 a touchscreen, the producer said that the cost was one of the main reasons why they scrapped the touchscreen. The reason why the developers didn't want a touchscreen was because they thought that looking down on the screen and back to the big screen was a hassle. Sony wanted the people who bought the ps4 to stay focus on the main screen, rather than looking back and forth. Personally, I think that the touchscreen was a neat idea, but I would rather stay focus on the main screen. When playing fighter games on the console, you need to pay a lot of attention to the screen so that you can either block their attack or tell what they are doing so you can counter attack. This goes for shooter games as well, I would not look down on my controller too much during this time either because shooter games require you to look around your surrounding for clues in where the enemy is, so looking back and forth in this situation would not be a good thing. Also, I think that Sony isn't really fit for a touchscreen, they are the type of company which sells well with games like shooters and fighters. I think that the reason why the Wii U touchscreen was a bit better is that they were trying to make it more like a game where the whole family can play. Having the whole family playing with a touchscreen would be fun but using touchscreen for shooters and fighters would be different.

Sony tried many different ideas in making the DualShock 4, many prototypes for this controller used the ideas of the touchscreen of the Wii U where the analog sticks were on the top of the controller. They also tried making it look like an Xbox controller where the one of the analog sticks would  be on top of the D-pad. They tried making it look similar like that because the developers knew that most people preferred the Xbox 360 for shooters so they thought maybe the analog sticks had something to do with it. Many prototypes were made, from having touch screens and no buttons to other kind of variations, about 20 prototypes were made.

Personally, I think that not having a touchscreen for the DualShock 4 is a good idea because Sony spends a lot of time on the graphics on the games and if the touchscreen could potentially lessen the focus of people looking at it which would give less incentive for the developers in making something with great graphics. Also, I usually focus on the screen and rarely look at my controller in general, so I don't think the touch screen would not be that big of a change. I know that some people want the touch screen but in this scenario I wouldn't really care. I think that the DualShock 4 controller is fine the way it is, but I don't know what other people think as I don't know why people prefer the Xbox 360 for gaming, maybe there is a reason I don't know. Maybe it's just that I am used to a Sony controller. I guess we will see what happens when they release it.



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On tuesday October 22, Apple released its new iPad Air and iPad Mini with a Retina Display. The successor to the iPad Mini, the iPad Air is a 9.7 inch device that is featuring a 20% decrease in thickness and a 29% decrease in weight. They are using the same name as their MacBook on purpose, since the name is already associated with a good feeling of success from the laptop. Apple was falling behind in the market for tablets; companies such as Samsung and Microsoft have jumped in and released their own products, cutting Apple's market share from 60% to about 33% in just a year. Samsung, Apple's direct competitor, has had their market share leap from 7.6% to 18% after releasing a frenzy of different tablets. Tim Cook, however, argued that the market share doesn't matter. The CEO of Apple is more concerned about the device usage, stating that people use the iPads 4 times more than other tablets.

Their prices however, are not so competitive. The iPad Air has been priced at $499 and the iPad Mini with retina display has been priced at $399, while the original iPad Mini has only dropped to $299. Apple has always wanted its tablets to represent the high end, premium side of products, but with Android tablets selling for $250 or less, these new iPads may not make the impact they need to get back some of the market. This shows that although they may win in the premium tablet sector, they will ultimately lose to other competitors who sell cheaper tablets and continue to lose their footing on the slippery slope they have found themselves upon.

However, there may actually be a large group of people who are quite willing to pay the extra $100-$200 for an Apple tablet simply because of brand and the premium nature of the product. For example, Apple's iPhone 5s outsold their 5c model when it was released because of the premium feeling associated with the product. In this case, Apple's brand itself may be the selling point of the new iPad Mini and iPad Air. The price gap between the new Mini and the Air is only $100, giving the feeling that if you're going to buy the Mini you may as well get the more high-end Air device since it's only a $100 difference. This may have a certain amount of truth to it, but it doesn't change the fact that the market is changing. Apple taking the route to remain a premium brand may not be the rest route to take considering the situation of the economy at the moment. People will continue to want to save money, and with rivals everywhere producing products that appeal to the larger of the markets, we will have to see if Apple is able to maintain its position as a top predator in a sea full of other sharks.


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Chapter 1 & 2

And once again, we're back! Anyways, I'll try to cover as much as I can on this post so we can move on. In this post I'll talk about the relevant easy mods and some, 'extra' stuff. The relevant ones are as follows. Easy, Half time and No fail. Most of the time, people don't use these as they lower your multiplier but if you're practicing an incredibly hard song (cough scarlet rose cough) or just screwing around, they're pretty cool. Easy is pretty much the opposite of hard rock, it makes everything well, easier. The circles and sliders are bigger and that's about it. Half time is the opposite of double time as well, it halves the bpm (beats per minute) and makes everything very, very easy. Of course it also makes the beatmap or song sound weird and last twice as long. Finally, there's no fail, which makes it impossible for you to fail. This is probably the only one that's used as people use this to practice the hard songs I mentioned. It's really nice to have when you're practicing so you don't fail immediately when you miss a note. People don't usually use these, 'mods' but they're there. It's nice to have and I'm glad they're implemented into the game.


Now that I've covered most of the stuff within the game (I think) I'm going to talk about some, 'advanced mechanics' or just terms used when people talk about this game. I'm not the best at this game, so this stuff is just my understanding of the terms. The first thing I'll talk about is, 'streaming'. How the term streaming came about, I have no idea. But this is seen fairly commonly nowadays. How streaming works is essentially putting a bunch of objects incredibly close to each other. The first object is about the same, but the next object will be almost immediately after the prior circle and so on. When the stream is short like 4-5 circles, it isn't so bad. When it gets very, very long it's insane and pretty unfair. I would describe that as around 20ish circles in a row. The difficulty with streaming is that you need to complete the stream almost immediately after it appears. When it gets long, obviously that's not the case but you still need to go at the same speed as before and it's very easy to drop your combo or get many "50's" or "100's". I would say streaming is pretty fair by osu! standards. There is something else called a, "deathstream" which is a stream that's even HARDER which is insane. I've never done one, I've probably seen a few and I don't want to do one. Not only are they incredibly long, they also have a weird pattern which makes the streaming process even harder. What I've heard of but never seen are, "Ninja spinners". They're spinners that pop up randomly during a beatmap just to screw you over. They're incredibly unfair and are probably gone by now. The difficulty or unfairness of this is that you need to start spinning right away after it pops up and even then the beatmap keeps going as if nothing was happening. It's very weird and it's almost impossible to keep your combo if you encounter one.

Well, I think this should end the series of posts about osu! I've been dragging this out for a while now, and I feel I should end it here. Although I haven't really covered EVERYTHING that there is to cover about osu! I guess I'll end it here. In case you still have stuff you have questions about, I'm sure the wiki/FAQ can answer it. Here's the link to that amazing place. Once again, I'm not the best of the best (in fact i'm pretty bad) but I think I have enough knowledge about the game to post stuff about it. I love this game and I think there's a lot of things to do in this game. It's pretty casual too. Well, until next time!

- Henry

Ubisoft has announced that they will be delaying Watch Dogs, their highly anticipated "big" game, until the next year. They have also announced that they will be delaying their racer, The Crew, until the next year as well. This has impacted them greatly; share prices have fallen up to 32% after these announcements. They announced that they are delaying Watch Dogs to give more time to tweak it and polish it, as it has potential to be even bigger than the popular Assassin's Creed franchise. The Crew never had a confirmed release date, so the delay is more or less expected. People who have ordered Watch Dogs console bundles will still be able to get their console, but the game will be distributed when it's released. Ubisoft is working on truly winning in sales in the next generation, and they hope that the quality increase will also help their market share.

Many gamers, including me, are disappointed about this delay. I know I have been looking forward to Watch Dogs ever since I first saw the videos, and I've been patiently waiting for it since. Now that it's delayed, we'll have to wait until the spring of 2014 before we see either of these games. This has also been a very expensive decision for Ubisoft to make. They are going to have to continue to hype up the games and make sure they sell well for them to get their stocks back up. I think that they'll be able to pull it off; as much as I hate delays, you also have to look at other games that are being released. Games such as COD: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 are soon to be released in the next month or so too; in their view, Watch Dogs could be easily lost among these sales giants. I just hope that they didn't delay it because the game was unfinished. That would really suck after all the cool trailers and gameplay they've shown us :(



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Swiftkey 4.3 is something that you can download for various android devices. The purpose of swiftkey is so that you can choose what  keyboard you want to use in different scenarios. Swiftkey comes with three presets: The compact setting which lets you use your phone for one hand, The full which is pretty much the default for more devices, and the thumb which splits the keyboard in two 'thumbable' halves. If you are only able to use the device with one hand, You can change is so that the  keyboard is easily useable with one hand. I think that this is a really smart thing to make because nowadays, many people use their android devices with one hand almost everywhere. Everyone is into using their phone every minute they get and the people who made this application knows this.

Personally, I prefer the default keyboard because I am more used to it but some people may not like have the keyboard split in half. I think that this will be liked by people who are on the go a lot but not as much for the people who type slowly. Swiftkey is in beta at the moment so there might be bugs in the programming. In my opinion, this is only good for the function where you can easily use it with one hand as I think that that is going to be the most used one. If I had Swiftkey I would probably only use that function or the default one given on the device



-Kevin



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Click here if you haven't read chapter 1

And we're back baby. Anyways, the next thing I'm going to talk about are skins on Osu! Skins are a neat little feature that's in the game. You can mod your game to look how you want and you can actually do some pretty neat things. For example, if you're playing some of the harder beatmaps, there are a lot of beats. You can remove all those numbers that pop up by skinning over it. It's possible by just replacing the numbers with a blank image. There's so much to skin in the game that it's almost a new game when you skin over everything you can. Almost every single thing in the game can be changed. The only exceptions is the title screen and multiplayer screen (which you can mod by donating). The other thing that's pretty notable are combo-bursts. They're a small image that pops up every time you reach a fifty hit combo. It's a pretty cool feature that they implemented. However the thing that's really cool is that you can mod that too. So if you have a favourite character from an anime (they usually end up looking the best) or something similar, you can have that character pop up when you get a combo-burst!

The other thing I want to talk about are the mods in the game. The ACTUAL mods. The difficulty multipliers are as follows : Hard Rock, Double time/Nightcore, Sudden Death/Perfect, Hidden and Flashlight. Hard rock multiplies your score by 1.06x, and the difficulty increase is that the song gets well..harder. It makes the beats smaller and they're in harder to reach places. The next one is double time, which doubles the speed the song is. Of course this also makes everything twice as fast including the song itself and the beats. Nightcore does the exact same thing except it makes the song sound as if Alvin and chipmunks were singing it. The multiplier for both of these are 1.12x. Sudden Death is where if you miss a single beat, you fail the song as the name implies. Perfect is even more unforgiving as it makes you get a perfect on every single beat. This means you have to get an SS rank no matter what. However, the thing about this mod is that you don't get any score multiplier for doing this and is only a fun thing to do. The next mod is hidden. This makes everything essentially invisible. You do get a cue for each beat but they pop up for a second then disappear right away. The multiplier you get for this mod is 1.06x once again but a cool thing about this mod is that it's the requirement for the silver S and silver SS ranks. Finally, we have flashlight. This is probably the hardest mod of the three as it makes your entire screen (except an area) black. The only area that is not blacked out is around your cursor essentially making it a, "flashlight". It requires you to pretty much memorize the entire beatmap and play it like that. The multiplier for this is 1.12x.

This still isn't everything! I'll have one more post about this, next time! So until then, stay tuned for the next chapter!

-Henry