1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(05/31/17 5:28pm)
Matthew Conwell, a junior musical theatre major, has been acting since he was 6 years old and this Thursday he will be performing as a professional in Summer Stock Stage ECLIPSE's production of “Spring Awakening.”
(05/30/17 12:00pm)
This June, the Muncie Children’s Museum turns 40 years old and has plenty of activities planned to celebrate.
(05/27/17 3:46pm)
by Daley Wilhelm
On the 23rd Overwatch celebrated its one-year anniversary and is inviting everyone to celebrate with the release of three new maps, now-viral dance emotes, and some snazzy new skins.
We’ve lauded Overwatch before for their attention to detail and for lead writer Michael Chu’s dedication to diversity in the game’s lore and characters. Despite this, players have recently been pointing out some inaccuracies concerning Japanese writing in the game and in previous cinematics.
Japanese has three alphabets, kanji in particular being the one adapted from Chinese characters. As someone who has been studying the language for many years, I can say it’s incredibly easy to mix up kanji meanings, since the meaning can change depending on the other kanji they are written with. There seems to have been something lost in translation when it comes to Hanzo’s new legendary skin.
This is what many Japanese players are asking about the very prominent but not exactly accurate kanji 矢印 (yajirushi) featured both on the strip of Hanzo’s quiver and on the bow itself. The “sign” part here literally translates as something that would be featured on a road or street sign. The single kanji 矢 (ya) would have sufficed for the obvious label of “arrow” because that’s what it translates to.
This naturally reminded fans of the similar kanji blunder when the cinematic that explained Genji and Hanzo’s backstory released last year. The scroll at the altar before which Hanzo kneels to offer prayers to the late Genji features the kanji 竜頭蛇尾 (ryoutoudabi), which literally translates as “dragon head, snake tail” which fits the theme of the brothers being long, Japanese-style dragons in the fable. However, Japanese speakers recognized this as an idiom that means “anticlimax.” Something starts out magnificent like a dragon but becomes smaller and unimpressive like a snake. A quick dictionary check confirms the translation of “anticlimax.”
It’s rather disappointing to see a mistake so easily recognizable by Japanese language speakers go unnoticed as production rolled out these features, especially since Overwatch usually does a good job of representing and exploring Japanese culture.
Subtle Details and Better Research in Skins
Genji’s newest legendary skin featuring a sleek green helmet and armor is a play on one of Japan’s most recognizable and oldest pop culture series: Super Sentai Series. Sentai translates as “lightning squadron” and is used to describe teams of superheroes in color-coded costumes who battle the monster of the week using mech-armor, usually with the power of hard work and friendship. The Power Rangers series are the Americanized version of Sentai, which has consistently kept up production and popularity since the 70’s.
Another of Genji’s skins, the demon-masked Oni skin, gets kanji and culture right in a subtle detail on his twin swords, one used for defense and the other he uses to attack. The offensive sword on his back bears the kanji 村正 “Muramasa” the name of a real life 13th and 14th century swordsmith. The other defensive katana has the name 正宗 “Masamune” a rival swordsmith considered to be the greatest in Japanese history. This speaks to game designer’s attention to detail considering the legend behind these two names.
Muramasa and Masamune had a contest to see who was truly the better craftsman. They each made a katana, brought it to the river and laid the blade in the stream, where various things caught against the sword. Muramasa’s blade cut leaves and fish right in half; whereas fish swam around and leaves remained intact when they hit Masamune’s blade. Muramasa declared himself the winner, saying the other had failed. A passing monk came forward and explained that he had seen the contest and interpreted Masamune as the winner. Masamune’s blade refused to cut the innocent while Muramasa’s blade was indiscriminate and blood-thirsty, cutting through anything in it’s path.
There was clearly some research put into such a small detail. Overwatch’s development team does a generally good job of representing the cultures it features in game and playing up the folklore from those cultures. Anyone familiar with Japanese folklore instantly recognized the two Japanese heroes’ names: Hanzo comes from the famous ninja of the Sengoku era Hattori Hanzou, who was described as “Demon Hanzou” by his enemies. Genji is a reference to The Tale of Genji, the world’s first modern novel by Murasaki Shikibu. The book is about Hikaru Genji is a wandering, banished nobleman and his relationships with various women.
According to some fans, his name origin explains Genji’s ambiguous relationship with Mercy.
Shipping theorists aside, Japanese Twitter generally appreciates the two Japanese heroes. As a whole, I believe that Blizzard has done a good job appealing to the massive audience they have in Japan. That’s why it’s confusing why little slip ups in kanji were released without review from someone familiar with the language. Overwatch has the cultural callbacks down but needs to do some dictionary checks.
(05/22/17 5:17pm)
With summer coming up, ensuring your vehicle is safe and ready for the season is something most don't do.
(05/19/17 11:00am)
by Dalton Martin
Ever since Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm Studios has included some interesting guest characters for their fighting games, and with their parent company being Warner Bros. Interactive, they have plenty of iconic characters to utilize. From the nightmarish Freddy Krueger to the deadly Xenomorph, creative director Ed Boon is always hinting at what fighters will be coming next in the form of DLC. So who else might show up to battle with the world's greatest heroes and villains of Injustice 2? Find out what unpredictable surprise guests we think will be appearing below.
T-800 (Terminator series)
With Terminator 2: Judgement Day having just celebrated its 25th anniversary and a rumored reboot of the series coming soon, now would be the perfect time to include the killer robot as a special guest character. The T-800, besides being extremely proficient with firearms and hand to hand combat, is also no stranger to fighting heroes of the DC Universe either. Superman went toe-to-toe with the robots in a special 4-part series back in 2000 titled Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future. In the run, the Terminators were upgraded to take on the likes of Superman and the rest of the Justice League making them far more deadly than their film counterparts. With the combination of the character's comic book past and the promotional timing, it would not be a complete shock to see Arnold Schwarzenegger's face appear in the Injustice universe in the near future.
The Comedian (Watchmen)
Ever since the first Injustice title was released, fans have been clamoring for a character from the Watchmen and with DC’s Rebirth comic run heavily hinting that the Watchmen are coming into the main DC storyline, now would be the perfect time to include someone like the Comedian. Why the Comedian though? Well, the reason the Comedian seems like a more likely character to be included out of the Watchmen cast is because he is the one fans would least expect, something Ed Boon loves to do. Coupled with the fact that fan-favorite Rorschach would translate into a boring brawler fighter and that Dr. Manhattan's is almost too obvious of a fit for the Injustice game and the Comedian looks the most likely out of the trio. The Comedian himself can easily utilize a combination of firearms and brute strength, making him a more versatile character for NetherRealm to work around. His character is also a good match for the bleak and tyrannical world of the Injustice universe and could easily be written in as a Regime-aligned character.
John Cena
Alright, so this one is probably the most ridiculous prediction but bear with me on this one. For those who do not remember, a few years back the WWE teamed up with NetherRealm to produce a mobile fighting game that was very similar to the Injustice mobile title called WWE: Immortals. One of the characters introduced in the game was John Cena in very Superman-esque attire. With the business partnership already established between NetherRealm and its parent company Warner Bros Entertainment, it does not seem so far fetched to predict the inclusion of a powered up version of the WWE champion - if not strictly for a silly way for the companies to promote one another, something WWE is venturing into with their recent business partnership with Rocket League creators Psyonix. Ed Boon has even emphasized how “you will not see” some of these DLC characters coming in interviews leading up to the release of the game. As angry as it would make some hardcore DC fans, the Internet would absolutely blow up in laughter if NetherRealm ever decided to include a superhero version of John Cena in Injustice as a DLC character.
Spawn
Outside of Watchmen characters, Spawn has definitely been one of the most requested DLC characters for not only just the Injustice titles, but the Mortal Kombat series as well. No stranger to being a special guest in a fighting series, having been included in Soulcalibur 2, Spawn seems the most likely out of all the characters listed above to be included as a DLC character. The anti-hero would be a perfect fit for the Injustice universe and it wouldn’t be the first time the character has had a run-in with a DC character, having starred with the Caped Crusader in the one-shot comic Spawn/Batman. With Spawn’s many weapons, his signature cape, and his demonic/angelic powers, NetherRealm could easily craft a unique fighting style for the character that could feel like a combination of Scorpion and Lobo from the first Injustice game.
(05/18/17 4:21pm)
The Discovery New Theatre Festival is bring a free and unique event that allows the audience to help playwrights perfect their unpublished work.
(05/17/17 3:09pm)
The David Owsley Museum of Art is celebrating the beginning of summer by inviting the Muncie community to stop and smell the roses at its third annual Art in Bloom fundraising event this weekend.
(05/16/17 2:00pm)
This summer, Kayla "Davion" Robertson had planned to tour Switzerland and France with the Ball State Jazz Band as well as be part of the ensemble for “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre.
(05/12/17 7:54pm)
by Daley Wilhelm
SourceFed, a company born in 2012 from YouTube’s Original Channel Initiative recently shut down after a merger with Discovery Communications-backed Group Nine Media, to the surprise of both fans and those who worked there. The SourceFed, originally created by Philip DeFranco had three channels, including SourceFed Nerd that produced YouTube personalities such as Steven Suptic, Ava Gordy, and Mike Falzone who have since moved on to produce content on their own channels.
The decision to shut down SourceFed Studios, which provided pop culture and tech news was made purely by Group Nine, DeFranco having sold the company to Discovery Communications back in 2013. Group Nine Media owns brands Facebook users might recognize such as Thrillist, The Dodo, and NowThis. The issue that has Internet commenters extra salty this week involves the latter of this list because those million-odd subscribers who stayed subscribed to the then-dead SourceFed Nerd channel were awoken to a surprise on May 4th when SourceFed Nerd was reanimated as NowThis Nerd.
The channel was originally left untouched: an archive of all the previous content which is still on the renamed and rebranded channel. It doesn’t appear as if there are any plans to delete old content; but former employees such as Reina Scully are worried, as are current subscribers.
The main problem isn’t so much the idea of the eradication of old content, but rather that the rebrand seems like the desecration of a grave. A large portion of comments involve complaints that this is not the channel that users subscribed to and that NowThis effectively stole SourceFed Nerd’s subscriber base by rebranding the channel hundreds of thousands were still subscribed to. On paper, it probably made a lot of sense for NowThis to use a channel that already had a guaranteed subscriber base rather than starting from scratch with a new channel. NowThis Nerd currently has 939,480 subscribers, but this is after the mass exodus of thousands of subscribers in protest, over 20,000 of which occurred within the first five hours of the takeover. The dislikes on the introductory video currently stand at 60,229.
[pullquote]“While this wasn’t our decision, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t honored by the opportunity to produce some great content for such an awesome, loyal community,” and that, “Our ultimate goal is still the same as SourceFed Nerd,”[/pullquote]
NowThis Nerd’s first video Welcome to NowThis Nerd features the channel’s Senior Producer Mike Calabro saying, “While this wasn’t our decision, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t honored by the opportunity to produce some great content for such an awesome, loyal community,” and that, “Our ultimate goal is still the same as SourceFed Nerd,”
The hashtag #notmynerd seems to have been born to contradict the statement that SourceFed Nerd’s community would be loyal to NowThis coming in as a usurper (an apt comparison considering that Calabro compared himself to Ramsey Bolton).
What NowThis didn’t take into account when assuring audiences that the content would be essentially the same was that a significant majority of subscribers aren’t so much brand loyal as they are to personalities associated with brands, especially in terms of YouTubers. Brand loyalty is defined as consumers making repeat purchases, or in the case of YouTube, repeat views, to a certain brand. Personalities are perhaps one of the most recognizable type of branding, and much consideration has to be put into the face that represents a brand. SourceFed Nerd certainly functioned as a news organization, but there was a clear focus on the hosts. The channel’s most popular videos were less focused on subject matter, and more on interaction with the personalities within the company, their most viewed video being 9 + 10 = 21? - Nerds Play the Impossible Quiz at over 4 million views. Among their most viewed content are other challenge videos. Since the dissolution of SourceFed, subscriber counts for the individual channels of various hosts from the company have gone up. Former host Steven Suptic’s subscriber count has officially surpassed the NowThis Nerd channel’s own since the rebrand.
Comments on the videos made by former hosts or others like Hank Green appear to have been deleted.
What former employees and fans of SourceFed Nerd are really upset about is if the channel intends on making the same content, why fire all the staff? This is an echo of what happened earlier this year when the Seeker Daily channel was rebranded as NowThis’ main YouTube channel. New hosts were also introduced, and a plethora of comments followed suit about buying subscribers, fans feeling betrayed, and the content they loved being hijacked.
Technically, YouTube’s Terms of Service in Article 4D communicates that the individual sale of a channel, and thus the “hijacking” of a fanbase, is against YouTube’s Terms of Service. This doesn’t necessarily apply to the acquisition of a company that owns the channel. When Group Nine acquired SourceFed, it acquired the associated YouTube channels. However, it’s easy to see the ethical dilemma here that led to such a PR nightmare. NowThis Nerd is certainly getting attention, but it’s all hostile. Various protest hashtags have emerged and the @NowThisNerd handle on Twitter has been claimed as a protest Twitter as well, since the NowThis failed to secure it before the big reveal.
It’s suspect as well that former employees of SourceFed were not given prior warning to the rebrand. Thus far, there has been no official statement from Group Nine as to why they made this decision. There might have been a lapse in judgement as to how fans might react, despite the similar vitriol NowThis experienced when Seeker Daily was rebranded. Personally I don’t think they had a good strategy in launching the rebrand ambush-style, or in their choice of cover image on the channel: Spider-man wiping off a window, as if starting clean slate.
NowThis Nerd has started off with a dozen reaction videos from various former hosts of the reanimated channel, and a couple dozen livestreams of their subscriber count dropping on SocialBlade.
(05/06/17 11:00am)
by Sarah James
Over the past several months, content creators on YouTube have had an uphill battle when it has comes to their ad revenue. Many YouTubers have had their videos randomly demonetized, most without any notification or reason why. Why is this happening? Well, many large companies have pulled their advertising from YouTube after seeing that ads were placed on inappropriate videos. Videos showing extreme violence or containing hate speech weren’t caught by YouTube’s monetization algorithm and were still running ads, and companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Verizon, and many others have decided to pull their ads from YouTube in general. In response, YouTube has had to pull back on their monetized content, which makes sense from a business standpoint, but does not bode well for the content creators who have made their living on the platform.
Many large YouTubers have opened up about how this demonetization has affected their channel. Co-creator of VidCon and one-half of the famed Vlogbrothers, Hank Green, made a video last week titled, “The Adpocalypse: What It Means.” Not only did Hank coin an amazing term for what is happening with YouTube right now, but he also shed a lot of light on what this demonetization is doing to content creators. In this video, the younger Green brother discusses advertising on the Internet in general before diving into the current YouTube drama. He comments that, “The average YouTube channel gets, like, fifty times less revenue than the average TV channel per minute of viewership. Why? Why are my eyeballs worth ten times more when I’m watching TV than when I’m watching YouTube? They’re the same eyeballs; I promise.”
“The average YouTube channel gets, like, fifty times less revenue than the average TV channel per minute of viewership. Why? Why are my eyeballs worth ten times more when I’m watching TV than when I’m watching YouTube? They’re the same eyeballs; I promise.” - Hank GreenAdvertising on the Internet for online personalities to make a living is still a very new concept, especially when compared to the behemoth that is advertising in broadcast media. Over the past several years, there has been a growing “us versus them” mentality when it comes to YouTubers and mainstream media. More people of the younger generations watch YouTube and not mainstream television shows. Most college students I know, including myself, only turn on the television because there’s a gaming console connected to it. When you ask a group of twenty-year-olds what they are watching, they’ll more than likely give you a list of shows on Netflix or YouTube channels they’re subscribed to. The Internet as a primary source of entertainment is a much more popular idea now than it was five years ago. Yet, YouTube and its content creators are not held anywhere close to the standards of television, especially in the eyes of advertisers.
Hank then goes on to talk about YouTube’s recent issues with demonetizing certain channels, asking himself and the people watching if it’s worth it. Is YouTube’s reliance on advertising helping or hurting those pouring their lives into creating content? Is this system of advertising outdated and not sustainable for the ever-changing Internet? Bigger YouTubers are starting to look towards being independently funded in response; look at Philip DeFranco. Phil, who hosts a weekday news show and currently has over five million subscribers, announced this past Monday that he is now a completely independent creator, and is using crowd-funding site, Patreon, to launch his own news network. The largest YouTuber on the planet, PewDiePie, announced last month that he would be moving to Twitch, where streamers are funded by viewers alone. There are plenty of other YouTubers with millions of subscribers who are looking at this fan-funded option, and it seems to be working.
But what about the smaller YouTubers? Sure, content creators with millions of followers are definitely going to receive the support they need from fan funding, but people without fans aren’t getting anywhere. As someone who has a very small channel (less than 1,000 subscribers), it’s discouraging to see this response from YouTube and the advertisers that once supported it. Creating a successful YouTube channel, one that could feasibly sustain the cost of living, is something that takes an insane amount of time and effort. If I wanted to really get my YouTube channel to a place where I could make money off of it, the amount of time and energy I would need to pour into it would be the equivalent of a full time job. I can’t afford to do that, especially when I may not even be monetized to begin with. All those children of the Internet, the ones who dream of making it big on YouTube, may not even get the chance to try.
(05/04/17 4:27pm)
Editor's Note: Emma Rogers and Tyson Bird are senior journalism majors who write "Dinner for 2ish" for the Daily News. Their views do not necessarily agree with those of the paper.
(05/03/17 1:31pm)
When Elizabeth Benzi began stripping in front of her webcam, she thought she was in control. She thought the only person that could see the video of her getting completely naked was her boyfriend—but she was wrong. When Elizabeth sat in her family’s computer room, stripping live for her boyfriend, she never expected that the video would be permanently recorded.
(05/02/17 3:17pm)
Kylin Schoeff, a student at Purdue University, first heard about the issue of human trafficking in high school from a friend. She continued to hear about the issue in college and even in the news. Her colleagues’ passion for the cause inspired her to learn more until it became an issue she could no longer ignore. She herself became passionate about supporting anti-human trafficking efforts because of what she learned about the prevalence of human slavery and the horrendous nature of the crime. Because of this, she joined the Purdue chapter of International Justice Mission (IJM), an organization that raises money for anti-human trafficking efforts.
(05/01/17 2:21pm)
In 2016, on a mid-September afternoon in Vancouver, Washington, Tara Dublin was on her way to pick up her son from school—something she did almost every weekday. Driving down the street in her red Volkswagen Jetta, which had “Proud Democrat” and “A Woman’s Place is in the White House” bumper stickers on the back, she blasted the song “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters through her car’s open windows.
(04/27/17 4:00pm)
Editor's Note: Emma Rogers and Tyson Bird are senior journalism majors who write "Dinner for 2ish" for the Daily News. Their views do not necessarily agree with those of the paper.
(04/26/17 9:00pm)
By Tt Shinkan
Last week, Starbucks introduced the world to the Unicorn Frappuccino and within a day it created online buzz with thousands of Instagram posts. So I made it my mission to set out and attain the colorful drink for myself so I can see what this “buzz” was all about. Just a day after the drink came out, the campus Starbucks had run out of ingredients under the intense demand for the frappucino.
When the drink first came out, I only ever saw it on my Twitter and Instagram feeds. I had no idea that this drink was being released, but once it had, there were no less than six articles on Buzzfeed about it. When looking at the sugary drink, I can understand why people would want to snap a picture with it. It’s aesthetically pleasing. The purple and pink remind me of grape and strawberry nerds and the blue drizzle ties the drink together. It gives off a Disney vibe, which appeals to almost everyone. People love colorful products; it’s glamour makes for a good Instagram post. This type of marketing strategy is the perfect way to get customers into a business to purchase their products since most people want to show the world the beautifully colored drink they bought.
Another appealing aspect of the drink is the name, “Unicorn Frappuccino”. No other coffee chain has a drink named after a mythical animal. When someone says the name “Unicorn Frappuccino”, you’re instantly going to wonder what exactly it tastes like. Is it fruity? Does it taste like vanilla? What exactly does a unicorn taste like? Also, Starbucks has the stereotype of being the basic Millennial hangout coffee shop, so introducing yet another Frappuccino with an appealing name is sure to spark some interest.
Promotions like this actually helps Starbucks. They’ll have these “special” drinks for only a limited time and then discontinue them. Once the drink has gained a following, Starbucks is more than likely to bring it back, like my favorite, the s’mores Frappuccino, or the ever popular Pumpkin Spice Latte. The latter has brought in almost $80 million a year and sold more than 200 million since it was first introduced in 2003.
Starbucks executives know that by slapping “limited time” on a drink, they are guaranteed to bring in more money. Humans have an instinct that if they see something as “limited edition” or “limited time”, they view that product as more valuable. Yale studies have shown that in order for someone to make a choice, a seller will often put a time restraint on a product to get the customer to purchase it as fast as possible. This marketing strategy can even create a high demand for that product and might even result in a company bringing it back.
Circled in pink you can see a spike in Starbuck's stock the day of the Unicorn Frappucino's release
Now the flavor of the drink is supposed to taste like Sweet Tarts, but since I haven’t tried it, I don’t have an answer to the question. The people who’ve tried it, however, had mixed reactions. Some love it, describing the flavor as sour and after a while it changes to sweet. Then there are those who hate it and say that the flavor is too sugary and chemically. Well, it seems that not everyone hated it since most Starbucks are sold out of the drink nationwide and Starbucks’s stocks are skyrocketing because of it. I’m sure Starbucks intended to create a drink that would not only bring in non-coffee drinkers, but a younger consumer demographic as well.
Another interesting bit I must mention is the fact that baristas hate making the colorful Frappuccino. They’ve said that the drink is time-consuming and very complicated to make. Not to mention it also creates a mess in the process.
With the success of the “Unicorn Frappuccino”, it’s only a matter of time until Starbucks releases their next drink, but will it be worthy of a selfie?
(04/25/17 4:19pm)
Chase Mielke, a teacher at Plainwell High School, has noticed changes in his classroom and in his students caused by the implementation of more technology into the school system. These changes have affected how kids interact with one another and with him, as well.
(04/24/17 2:13pm)
When freshman Madison McGinnis sits in class at Ball State University, she takes notes on her Apple laptop. When iMessages pop up on her screen, she easily swipes over to view them without ever having to get her phone out. When she receives a message or notification from another app during class, it makes it harder to focus because she wants to check it. She feels that technology can make focusing in class more difficult.
(04/20/17 4:16pm)
Editor's Note: Emma Rogers and Tyson Bird are senior journalism majors who write "Dinner for 2ish" for the Daily News. Their views do not necessarily agree with those of the paper.
(04/19/17 4:31pm)
If you look back twenty to thirty years ago, the process of analyzing research was structured differently compared to that of current day. Data would be sent out to scientists in various labs across the world to crunch the large numbers researchers gathered. They would then receive the calculated results weeks later.