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(02/24/19 9:11pm)
by Blake Chapman
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board.
2018 was one arduous 12-month stretch of time. The United States seems to still be divided, politically and socially with debates over the future of the country and the world taking place daily. However, if there is one thing Americans can agree on, it is questioning the odd choices the Academy of Motion Pictures makes about the Oscars. It was not a very positive 2018 for the Academy, which included hosts stepping down, backlash about whatever that “popular film” category was supposed to be and the decision to not honor some of the most integral members of the filmmaking process. Controversy aside, the program has also been losing viewership consistently over the last five years.
With some fresh ideas and a couple risks, the Oscars could be well on their way back into the spotlight.
(02/24/19 7:00pm)
Demi Lawrence is a sophomore journalism news major and writes "Unspoken" for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Demi at dnlawrence@bsu.edu.
(02/23/19 5:00am)
Welcome to this week’s episode of Input 2! We discuss Fox’s Rent Live and how it compares to its movie and stage predecessors. How did this movie handle the topics of AIDs and LGBT representation? Find out this and more on this week’s episode of Input 2!
(02/22/19 9:59pm)
As anyone keeping up with these reviews would know, the pacing of Vento Aureo’s fights has recently become somewhat problematic. It felt like the team behind the anime couldn’t quite figure out how much time they should spend on the past two fights, which lead to Grateful Dead being way too bloated and Babyface feeling incredibly rushed and insignificant in the grand scheme. Fortunately, the team managed to rebound from their recent missteps and delivered one of the anime’s most enjoyable fights in a while.
(02/22/19 7:24pm)
Even a person who has never played a video game before has heard of Tetris. The player is tasked to line up falling blocks in a horizontal row, and once a row is cleared, they get points. The goal of older Tetris games is simply to survive while getting as many points as possible, but newer entries all try to put their own spin on Tetris. At the end of the day though, Tetris is Tetris, and can’t help feeling a little stale even with new mechanics. The game has literally been released on every single game console, even the freaking Philips CD-i had Tetris (complete with an unironically good soundtrack). Games like Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris Effect add enough bells and whistles to overpower the Tetris-ness of the experience and end up being pretty amazing games as a result. It’s clear that there’s still potential for Tetris to be more than just another puzzle game with falling blocks.
(02/22/19 7:17pm)
by Ian Roesler
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board.
Machinima was a company that specialized in video game related content entertainment. Let’s start with a brief overview before detailing the decline. Machinima first began in the distant past of January 2000. The name comes from a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema.” They had a popular Youtube channel that they started in the early days of Youtube. Machinima was important because they helped to popularize video game entertainment that was beyond just playing video games. Many famous Youtubers worked for Machinima, such as Darksyde Phil and Maximilian Dood. In addition they also had their own original shows. I highly recommend Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Check it out on Steam. Machinima was not without its controversies, however.
The biggest controversy concerning Machinima was regarding the contracts its creators were under. Some of the stipulations in the contract that creators signed was that Machinima held the rights to the videos that content creators uploaded for life. Also, in the contract was that they could advertise on videos, but the creators got a percentage of the profits. So, that kinda evens it out in a way. Sure, you don’t have ownership of the content you worked hard to create, but you get a percentage of the profits. Always read your contracts carefully, folks.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1275"] Image from Imgur[/caption]
Currently Machinima has 12 million subscribers and all of its videos set to private. They were acquired by Warner in 2016, and just recently Warner was acquired by AT&T. Technically, Machinima was acquired by Otter Media which is owned by AT&T. But back to Machinima, the reason why all their videos have been set to private is that they stated that new content will be put up on new channels instead. Machinima was on a decline when they were bought. Understandably, creators were not happy. All that content just gone. I don’t have much experience managing a billion-dollar company. Just recently they laid off 81 employees. The website is still up and you can still apply for a job. Some of the perks include dental and activities led by the “Fun Police.” The way that things are it remains to be seen what will ultimately become of Machinima. However, I do have some theories as to what may happen.
The first theory is that Machinima may go the way of the dodo. For reasons that I will discuss later, I believe that this one is the least likely. I don’t see much recent evidence to support this, if this is the case however, they must be doing some hardcore trolling before the end.
My next theory is closely related to the first. Machinima will still exist, however it’ll exist in a sort of limbo. It’ll stay in its current state, never being updated. It’ll be just there, existing like a houseplant in a corner. This is the case of another former Internet big name: StumbleUpon. Nowadays, their website redirects to Mix, which is a similar website. This one I feel has more of a possibility of happening. Maybe Machinima will be forgotten amidst all the other companies that AT&T own. Which is seven major ones at the moment.
The third and final theory is that Machinima will be rebranded or relaunched. I believe this to be the most likely of my theories. The first evidence to support this is that Machinima has changed their logo from their familiar red to a new green logo. I find it unlikely that a company going out of business would make the effort to change a logo. Albeit, weirder things have happened. Another piece of evidence I would like to mention, or more accurately, re-mention is that their videos still exist in a way. They were set to private for a cost-cutting matter. I imagine that it’d be a lot cheaper to either delete the videos or the channel itself. Or leave them up and continue to collect ad revenue, but potentially continue to pay the creators. Another thing, their Twitter feed was still being updated. As of today their last tweet was three days ago, but it appears that their account was deleted between then and now. Prior to deletion they had tweeted random letters of the alphabet. Also, Rooster Teeth announced that they are going to relaunch some of Machinima’s shows. Rooster Teeth is an entertainment company in a similar vein to Machinima. And guess what? They’re owned by Otter Media as well. So it looks like Machinima will exist in some form or another for the time being.
(02/22/19 11:02pm)
Editor’s note: Elevate’s vice presidential candidate Cameron DeBlasio currently contributes to NewsLink Indiana, an organization housed in the Unified Media Lab with The Daily News. He served as assistant news director for NewsLink from January to December 2018.
(02/22/19 7:45pm)
(02/22/19 3:00pm)
Editor’s Note: The Daily News reached out to all three slates running for election during the 2019 Student Government Association (SGA) elections and offered them the opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor addressing The Daily News’ readers. These letters were received prior to the evidence of copyright violation being submitted against Empower and Elevate. The Daily News publishes Letters to the Editor with minimal copy edits and provides a headline only if the author does not provide one. We reserve the right to withhold submitted letters depending on the content. Letters should be approximately 500 words and sent to editor@bsudailynews.com.
(02/22/19 3:00pm)
Editor’s Note: The Daily News reached out to all three slates running for election during the 2019 Student Government Association (SGA) elections and offered them the opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor addressing The Daily News’ readers. These letters were received prior to the evidence of copyright violation being submitted against Empower and Elevate. The Daily News publishes Letters to the Editor with minimal copy edits and provides a headline only if the author does not provide one. We reserve the right to withhold submitted letters depending on the content. Letters should be approximately 500 words and sent to editor@bsudailynews.com.
(02/22/19 3:00pm)
Editor’s Note: The Daily News reached out to all three slates running for election during the 2019 Student Government Association (SGA) elections and offered them the opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor addressing The Daily News’ readers. These letters were received prior to the evidence of copyright violation being submitted against Empower and Elevate. The Daily News publishes Letters to the Editor with minimal copy edits and provides a headline only if the author does not provide one. We reserve the right to withhold submitted letters depending on the content. Letters should be approximately 500 words and sent to editor@bsudailynews.com.
(02/21/19 4:00pm)
Jack Williams is a junior journalism major and writes “Sharp Around the Edges” for The Ball State Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Jack at jgwilliams@bsu.edu.
(02/20/19 8:15pm)
by Baylie Clevenger
Music is a part of life that has always brought people together. Whether it be through storytelling or connecting people with similar music interests, music is universally loved and celebrated.
Ball State junior Ashley Vega has found some beautiful opportunities within her love for music and concerts. Her passion for music has brought her a whole group of friends and even decided her career path.
Ashley has been to more than 20 concerts, and she has traveled for about 15 of those. She spends a lot of time camping out for shows so that she can get in and find her favorite spot on the barricade for the show, and spend time with her friends in line.
She has also dedicated a lot of her concertgoing time to one artist, Hoodie Allen, whose concerts she says brought her most of her concert friends. Through her dedication, she has also gotten to know Allen as well as his crew and band over the years.
“The best part is making friends and getting lost in the music, also forming relationships with the artists. The worst part is the cost and how mentally and physically taxing it is. Losing all that sleep and doing all of that traveling is extremely exhausting, but well worth it for the experiences,” she said.
While Vega does not think there is necessarily a culture, the way people go to concerts has certainly evolved over the years. Seeing how people camp out, interact with artists, and dedicate time and money to the concert experience, I would argue that there is a culture surrounding modern concerts.
“...So I think avid concert-goers participate in a certain culture whether or not they mean to. People who travel hundreds of miles, or camp out for hours or days, or wait after the show to meet people, or know every lyric, or never miss a chance to see a certain artist, are all a part of concert culture...” said one of Vega’s concertgoing friends, Sarah Wolf, 17.
Concerts in current times have gotten a lot easier to attend. They have also become safer. With technology and and the rapid spread of information, concertgoers are able to sustain themselves while camping outside of venues for hours and traveling long ways to see their favorite artists.
Even with the ease of concertgoing nowadays, Vega says she would have participated in this lifestyle, regardless of the era.
(02/19/19 5:24pm)
Editor's note: This letter was received Feb. 19, 2019, before SB 12 moved out of committee to be considered by the full Senate. The Daily News publishes Letters to the Editor with minimal copy edits and provides a headline only if the author does not provide one. We reserve the right to withhold submitted letters depending on the content. Letters should be approximately 500 words and sent to editor@bsudailynews.com.
(02/18/19 1:05pm)
by Tanner Kinney
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
If there’s one video game genre that defines the second half of the 2010s, it’s battle royale. Coming out of nowhere with mods of games, like Minecraft: Hunger Games or the Arma 3 mod that later became PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it quickly became wildly popular. The genre was massive on Twitch, with PUBG having millions of concurrent players despite being a fairly rough game in terms of mechanics. The genre would later completely explode through Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale, which is certainly the winner winner, chicken dinner of the genre… or is it?
Recently, a true challenger has arrived to take on Fortnite and is actually giving it a run for its money. That challenger is Apex Legends, a game from Respawn (developers of Titanfall) that released out of nowhere and quickly gained quite the audience. The game has found a playerbase of 25 million within its first week, and completely eclipsed Fortnite in terms of viewership on Twitch. Epic finally has a fire under its butt to start delivering on even more player demands, and competition is definitely healthy. And then, even more out of nowhere, Nintendo announces Tetris 99 during their February 2019 Nintendo Direct, a Tetris-flavored battle royale game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-9Y9apW0Q&feature=youtu.be
Yes, you read that right, Tetris, but a battle royale. And it actually works way better than it has any right to work. It’s honestly incredible to see something so strange as a puzzle battle royale, but it makes you think: what other games/genres would work for battle royale? I’ve rattled my brain and scratched out some amazing ideas, and have come up with a few games that would be perfect as battle royales. And don’t worry developers, if you take my ideas, you don’t even need to call me. We’ll both know where it came from, even if no one else does.
(02/18/19 4:00pm)
Sophie Nulph is a freshman journalism major and writes “Open-Minded” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Sophie at smnulph@bsu.edu.
(02/15/19 7:33pm)
Disclaimer: This review is of the PC version and was conducted on a PC with an Intel Core i5-7500 with a GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.
(02/15/19 5:00am)
In retrospect, Animal Collective’s 2016 record Painting With sparked quite a change in the group’s output. For a band that is known for their sonic experimentation and left-field approach to psychedelic pop and rock, Painting With was a shockingly one-dimensional effort that garnered lukewarm reception from critics and fans. It was the last thing that an Animal Collective record should be: safe.
(02/15/19 4:00pm)
Jack Williams is a junior journalism major and writes “Sharp Around the Edges” for The Ball State Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Jack at jgwilliams@bsu.edu.
(02/14/19 7:05pm)
On this week's episode we are discussing the loved and hated topic that is known as romantic movies. With Valentine's Day being a great day to dive into the world of love and romance, what better time to bring up these movies?