Immersion Theory

Gaming at its heart is actually a simulated reality. It is fun because it allows you to step outside your daily,boring life and jump into a more interesting one for example:a soldier fighting violent Aliens,or a superhero with electric power,or maybe a Plumber trying to save his princess from an evil villain.The success of any simulation lies in how immersed the user is in it. By immersion I mean the degree to which the senses of the user are engaged so that the user,while in that simulation is unable to differentiate reality from it. The sole objective of game developers,Console designers and anyone making anything remotely related to gaming is to increase the immersion level the game offers-Increased immersion level=Great user experience=Better ratings=more sales.There are five elements to immersion,these are like resistors connected in series in a circuit.The more of these “switches” are activated the more deeper the level of immersion goes.Basically these are actually the various senses of our mind,the same ones that allow us to feel the reality around us. That is: Seeing,touching,smelling,feeling,hearing and emotional involvement. The gaming industry has been working on Seeing (3D innovation,HD Resolution) Feeling (Motion based controllers,normal controllers) hearing (SRS,Dolby) and emotional involvement ( Story line) but it cant possibly work on smelling or touching. Atleast in the near future. As one would see,even the “switches” the gaming industry is working are far from perfect,and some of them-For example (3D TECH,HD Resolution,over expensive motion based controllers,over expensive graphic cards) are slow and expensive to develop and even slower to get adapted by gamers-also factor in fragmentation of market.hence a game developer cannot rely on these to give the immersive experience he wants. the most powerfull “Immersion switches” are emotional involvement (Better story) and a better gameplay. Hence the games that concentrate on both get the most ratings.

The elelments of Immersion

Motion Controller Vs Game Controller-A fresh perspective
As I highlighted above a better controller would be the one which provides a more immersive experience to the user. It is generally believed that motion controllers are better in this area.This according to me,may not be so. Consider the Human mind for a second it moves the respective body part only by the force of will. Now lets make a seemingly hilarious assumption. in which the Human mind becomes the controller (Something like the Dualshock for instance) When you want to move something say your hands you exert a force of will to move the hands. In a game if you want to shoot an alien you exert a force of will,which translates to a specific button press and hence the shooting happens.So infact the controller is an extension of the human mind,having the simple function of translating its will into the game. Motion controllers do the same thing,but infact in genres like shooters a controller is much more effective. (For Casual games like Virtual Table tennis,and Cricket etc a motion controller provides a more immersive experience because the hand actions are similar to the real thing) and this is because it takes less time for a button press than for a hand action. Not many people have experience in wielding an SMG,and so a motion controller does not provide the same familiarity that it can provide when you play a game such as Table Tennis. If there is no familiarity there can be no immersion and therefore according to me a Controller is much more effective than a motion controller in maintream genres.

Google Music

So,with my review on Google plus out, i finally had the time to check out another service launched by google called Google Music.

“Music” is a service which streams your music across supported platforms (Application on Android and Web page for PC and iOS) it integrates seamlessly with your library and can simultaneously play Local (Offline) and On the cloud music.So what does this mean? In essence Music saves you the pain of transferring your music collection to your phones thereby saving you the time and the space in your SD card.If this doesn’t sound like much its maybe because a)You are not really into music or b)You haven’t experienced it. I have been using this service for months now and it really gives you the convenience.But wait there is more! If you are going for a trip or any other place where you would be unable to connect tot he net you can select which songs you would like to make available offline from the Library,Google even caches the music you have streamed for some time. I would like to specifically mention the awesome download speed I get when I make music available offline. On an experiment I could download 8 Songs in 10 Minutes.

The “Music” Android app

The music android app is really competent and as far as I have found out lacks in nothing. Visually it is a treat for the eyes with 3D coverflow and a changing background depending on the album art. Even with songs without an album art it automatically adds a name in the place which makes it look really good

 Nothing much lacks in this app,although I do wish they would add a rating system.Beware though once you get used tot his player it would be extremely difficult to shift to another due to its streaming features,it has completely replaced the default HTC Player on my device. I think however that Google should push this app as a standard for android for the sake of uniformity.

So,How do I get in the Beta?

Officially you need to be the resident of United States  to participate in the Beta,but there is a work around for that,you need to fool the beta site into thinking that you are a resident of the united states you do that using Tor Browser (Click to download) its set to United states by default,so simply go to Music.beta.com after the firefox window opens and confirms that you are using Tor. After that simply register for the service and download the PC Application that will upload all your songs over the library  (You can even be selective) You might have to change the upload settings a little bit so that your connection speed doesn’t get throttled and you are all set. If you are an Android User and not in the united states,download “Market Enabler” for Android Market and set it to US from settings then go to the market and search Google music,Download the application and go to settings to make it connect to your Google account you will see all your songs in the library instantly.

Misc/Closing comments:

The Music Beta is a blessing for us Android users,the sheer convenience has made me ditch my iPod in favor of my mobile,I can only hope that this service stays free after its Beta Phase because it does seem to be too “convenient” to be true. Google has also included a lot of free tracks that you can add to the library which is really thoughtful of them as it has made me discover new band.Lets see how this service matures and compares with others in the future

*All opinions have been taken using an HTC Desire HD Mobile device (running a variety of custom ROMS ) and an ASUS Eee Pad transformer tablet (Tegra 2). Check back later for my Review on the Eee Pad and dont forget to Like “Arkadious” my official Facebook page.

You Harry?

 Official Facebook page

Google + Revealed.

Whereas I initially planned to write an extensive,multi-part blog post on Facebook,and how to enforce your privacy on it,but the very next day I finally got into Google Plus (It took me a lot of effort by the way,had to ask multiple people over multiple forums for invites) and this social service really seems to be everything Facebook is not.I shall be going over what Google plus is and how it fares against Facebook.

Google Plus has ditched the traditional concept of friend list’s in favor of “Circles”.In terms of social networking wars,this is Google’s Nuke against Facebook. Why I say this,is because with “Circles” Google plus gives you full control over what information you share,and who you share it with. Basically Circles are groups your peers belong in,You would definitely not be comfortable sharing sensitive information with some people you met on the net for example so you simply block all photos from that circle,and enable it for the rest.All your peers are different,and all of them dont care about each and every status you post. Say something related to Gaming,it would be better if you simply share gaming related content with people who do care about stuff like this,so you make a circle consisting of your gaming buddies and share the status update with just them,this goes both ways too you can select what content to appear from different circles  in your “Stream” (Similar to Facebooks news feed)and you can also mute the posts that you dont care about so that they dont bother you with notifications.

Take a look at my circles:

My circle list

As you can see this is where I can select what stream I want,by default you get all streams to your news feed but you can click on a circle to get status’es from a particular circle.By default Google has Friends,Family,Acquaintances and following circles but you can add more. Interestingly Google incorporates twitter into it by this method.I share all my info with my friends,some pictures with my family and No sensitive data with others.In Facebook that’s not possible.

Unlike Facebook where you have to “Approve” a friend request here you have something called incoming which will notify you when someone adds you to their circles,and shares a post with you,here for the first time you can add random strangers to your circles anyway but make sure you have all your sensitive information blocked to that circle.

This simplistic approach to networking by Google Plus really wipes the floor of Facebook’s counterpart.

 Recently,Facebook introduced,along with skype its own video calling service.This was intended to answer the “Hangout” feature by Google. However aside from the fact that both involve Webcams and internet there is nothing more common between them. Hangout allows you to have conversation with multiple people (upto 10) Google has been pretty clever about this the system uses the audio stream to figure out who is speaking  and brings him to the main screen,while the other stay at the bottom in thumb sized videos. As of now however expect Facebook to have a more stable service since its going with Skype,however Google will definitely Match that.

This is one feature that I haven’t understood till now,or is poorly implemented. The essence of this Feature is basically you can subscribe to your “intrests” your favourite brands like playstation etc.It uses Googles search engine to give you this but it is not really as effective as Facebook “Pages”,this Feature actually appears half baked.

Where the interface is concerned the stream appears much cleaner,and you can filter them according to circles which is quite handy.I also like the fact that you can post animated GIFS on your home page something I always wish I could do on Facebook.I also like the way photographs are displayed in a more tile like fashion in thumb size,however Facebook theatre mode is much better than Google’s own counterpart of it.

Mobile Features

Mobile is an integral part of Google plus. The app is available right now in Android,and soon to come for iOS. It does everything you can do from desktop,but apart from that it also has features which set itself apart.

Think of this as a text based version of video chat,Google plus is apparently all about multiple people as with Huddle you can text chat over Wi-Fi and Edge with multiple people.Think of it as an advanced version of BBM. However as of yet there is no picture/music transfer option.

Aside from this,Google plus also makes sharing photos an easy job by instant upload,which instantly uploads the photos you have clicked to a private album on google plus. You can share them later on.

Also,in mobile their is a specific tab called “Nearby” with which you get public posts from people near you the mobile uses in built GPS for this,sharing your own location is optional of course but I really find this feature potentially useful to know people around me.

Conclusion:

Google plus can really potentially replace Facebook. indeed it is a strong competition to Facebook whether it fails or not  and it would be interesting to see how Google and Facebook fare in this new “Social Networking Wars’ I am even eager to see some “Fb fanboys,and G+ fanboys” like we have on many such competitions today.

If you want an invite go to my Official Facebook Page here and post your email on my wall 

 

Your complete guide to Facebook privacy

Unless you live under a rock or somewhere similar you must have heard of this website called Facebook,its great! Not only does it let you connect to people you know it also lets you share parts of your life with them.

The above is the most outdated statement of the century.

Welcome to the modern Facebook, here many add people as a friend regardless if they know them or not,some are a bit more guarded-They add people based on how they look in their profile pictures again regardless if they have even seen them or not. Then their are the oh so famous Facebook “apps”. Profile watcher,endless quiz’s,friend questions and all that which for you,the user is just some incentive to waste your time rather than being productive.

So,when you access an app you see the following pretty screen:

We are asking you to hand over your profile NAO!

As it is this is a lot to share but there is plenty hidden between the lines,You are giving away quite a lot of information about yourself,and control over your profile to someone who can use it against you. Some circumstances I have observed over facebook tell me that such apps actually control your profile,once you give them access. These may be,when your friend “invites” you to join an app,writes on your wall with some questions to unlock or posts a video to your wall.

On clicking on the “see what they said” option,you would be shown the permission screen and then asked to either fill a  survey or give facebook credits both of which give the owner  money.You would also be spreading these wallposts around to your friends.

I definitely know,that my friends didn’t invite me to any of these apps. Another example.

Pretty embarrassing eh? This is what apps have become nowadays,granted there may be legitmate facebook apps out there but its too much of a risk to trust them specially if they are able to do the above things with your profile.

Lets leave apps for a while,and come to general privacy with every update facebook is becoming pretty lenient on that too. Did you know you can download other peoples photos? I will also link some news headlines where facebook was used as a tool for kidnap. People fail to realise that their profile holds vital information about themselves one should treat it as a cybernetic version of their own self. Do you value yourself? then you should be concerned about your privacy. Its that simple. Dont add people you dont know,or dont care about. Block the ones you think are stalking you. Snip out your friend list.

Many people are unaware of the ways with which they can make their account more secure.Facebook provides an easy  UI to protect yourself it may be found under Account>Privacy Settings where you will see a summary of your privacy settings below are what I have set for myself,they are the strongest setting possible

As you can see,only my friends can see any information related to me,as a pointer here  by friends I mean people I know and genuinely like not a random stranger with a good profile picture. You may use the customize setting option to mimic these settings. Furthermore there is a setting for apps right there below which you may use to remove unwanted apps,its a pretty nice and user friendly system Facebook has come up with.

If you follow the above steps,you would definitely be causing less embaressment and hassle to yourself.And keep in mind,like I said before if you respect yourself and the life you lead,you should definitely not be leaving vital details about it in the open like that.