Media Case Study 2: Skype

Skype is a multi-platform application primarily used on Windows, OSX and Linux which allows users from all over the world to phone each other for free with as little equipment as a microphone, a computer, the Skype program and access to the internet. Skype offers crystal clear phone calls (with the right equpiment, of course), and for absolutely free (providing the call is to another Skype user on a computer). It is also possible to phone non-Skype users on landlines and mobile phones, however this costs a small price and is available in offers similar to a mobile phone network – Pay as you Go and Pay Monthly.

THE HISTORY OF SKYPE:

Skype as it is known today started development in 2003, being first released in the August of 2003: the Skype Limited wikipedia page says this about the company’s history:

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, whose main intention was to develop a piece of software which would revolutionise telephone calls. Allowing users to speak to each other via computers promotes the use of the Voice over Internet protocol and the use of computers in the technologically advancing world. Users are able to talk for free, an incentive to future and present members.

Zennstrom himself started a professional career at telephone operator Tele2, before co-founding Altnet, the world first secure peer to peer networking platform which promoted commercial content to potential consumers. Interestingly, both also developed the popular p2p downloading platform Kazaa, which has faced major controversy due to the ability to breach copyright by downloading songs illegally from it. These programs were precursors to Skype itself, which used previous technologies the duo had developed in order to revolutionise the options both home and business users had to contacting each other by voice. The partners then sold the Skype technology to eBay, before going on to found Joost, an online platform for streaming video – clearly the pair are pushing the forefrounds of the user demand’s of the capabilities of the internet.

VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VoIP):

The technology that Skype uses in order to create a telephone network over the internet is called VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol). The wikipedia page goes into greater depth with the technology used, however the key strengths of VoIP are listed here:

• The ability to transmit more than one telephone call over the same broadband connection. This can make VoIP a simple way to add an extra telephone line to a home or office.
• Conference calling, call forwarding, automatic redial, and caller ID; zero- or near-zero-cost features that traditional telecommunication companies (telcos) normally charge extra for.
• Secure calls using standardized protocols (such as Secure Real-time Transport Protocol.) Most of the difficulties of creating a secure phone connection over traditional phone lines, like digitizing and digital transmission, are already in place with VoIP. It is only necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data stream.
• Location independence. Only an Internet connection is needed to get a connection to a VoIP provider. For instance, call center agents using VoIP phones can work from anywhere with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection.
• Integration with other services available over the Internet, including video conversation, message or data file exchange in parallel with the conversation, audio conferencing, managing address books, and passing information about whether others (e.g. friends or colleagues) are available to interested parties.
• Advanced Telephony features such as call routing, screen pops, and IVR implementations are easier and cheaper to implement and integrate. The fact that the phone call is on the same data network as a users PC opens a new door to possibilities.

The main advantages of the system clearly show that Skype is offered as an alternative to regular phone calls, even as the successor – the advantages of being on a digital system are that updates and fixes to the system are easy to implement, more features are easier to implement and are more likely to be more widely used, and the main reason is that despite all these features, it’s all no cost or very low cost. Disadvantages, of course, it that the protocol is on a digital platform – a digital platform leaves it easy suspectible to secruity exploits, wiretapping, and general system failures which couldn’t occur with a normal telephone network.

THE COST OF SKYPE:

For the most part, Skype is a free system; the program is free, the calls to other skype users are free, video calls are also free. In fact, the only component of the program which needs to be paid for are calls to phones on landlines or mobile phone networks. The exact pricing plan is here:

Skype-to-Skype calls	Free
Transfer calls to people on Skype	Free
Video calls	Free
Instant messaging and group chats	Free
Conference calls with up to nine people	Free
Forward calls to people on Skype	Free
Call phones and mobiles	From £ 0.012 per minute² – See rates Buy Skype Credit · Save with a subscription
Receive calls from phones and mobiles	£ 10 or £ 35 (3 or 12 months) Get SkypeIn · Save with a subscription
Send and receive voicemails	£ 3 or £ 10 (3 or 12 months) Get voicemail · Save with a subscription
Skype To Go number	Available only with a subscription.
Forward calls to phones	From £ 0.012 per minute² – See rates Buy Skype Credit · Save with a subscription
Send SMS messages	From £ 0.026 See rates · Buy Skype Credit
Transfer calls to phones and mobiles	From £ 0.012 per minute² Available with a subscription at no extra cost.

As you can see, the prices are relatively small. We can compare these costs to a typical mobile phone provider (using O2’s Pay & Go pricing plan):

Standard calls1	25p/min for the first 3 mins/day then 5p/min for the rest of the day
O2 mobiles	as Standard calls
Other UK network mobiles	25p
Video calls	50p
Text message2	10p per message
Picture message3	25p per message
Voicemail 901	15p per call
WAP via 915000 or +44 7712927927	10p
Browsing4	£3 per MB

Of course, a big advantage is that features that mobile phones have you dish out money for are standard on a computer – browsing the internet is free, as is sending other users emails (which are longer and more convinient than text messages),  video messaging, sending pictures et cetra. Skype adds phone capabilites to these features which of course excel over a mobile phone as they have been developed over years on the computer. The pricing of calls to any phone which isn’t Skype is also comparitvely cheaper than that of normal telephones, theoretically being more appealing than a normal phone.

WHO CAN USE SKYPE?

As of 2008, the user figures look like this:

Date	Total user accounts (in millions)[36][37][38]	Skype to Skype minutes (in billions)	Skype Out minutes (in billions)	Net revenue USD (in millions)
Q4 2005	74.7	N/A	N/A	N/A
Q1 2006	94.6	6.9	0.7	35
Q2 2006	113.1	7.1	0.8	44
Q3 2006	135.9	6.6	1.1	50
Q4 2006	171.2	7.6	1.5	66
Q1 2007	195.5	7.7	1.3	79
Q2 2007	219.6	7.1	1.3	90
Q3 2007	245.7	6.1	1.4	98
Q4 2007	276.3	N/A	N/A	115
Q1 2008	309.3	14.2	1.7	126

Over 300 million people use Skype at the moment, and this figure is growing increasingly rapidly. A key component of this is that Skype is available on many, many different platforms:

• Windows
• Mac OSX
• Linux
• Windows Mobile
• WiFi Phone
• Cordless Phone
• 3 Skypephone
• Nokia N800/N810
• Palm OS (Opening up a lot of PDA/Smartphones)

Not only is Skype available for pretty much every home operating system (Windows, Mac OSX and Linux collectively account for over 99% of all personal computers), it is also available for wireless platforms – this is key for the continued growth of Skype. If it was not available on handseld systems such as the Nokia N800 and the 3 Skypephone, then it’s growth would be limited to households and it would be unable to break ino the lucrative mobile phone market. New Media Technologies crucially are becoming wireless, free of the house and more openly available to use in everyday life outside – one example of this being streaming video for phones through WiFi. Skype hits that gap in the market by offering a free telephony alternative to the ordinary and making it available for everyday phones – increasinly so with the compatibility with Palm OS and Windows Mobile, which collectively runs most phones (at least, most Smartphones) and pretty much all PDAs on the market at the moment and recently.

WHAT OTHER FEATURES DOES IT HAVE?

Besides the obvious features Skype boasts which have already been covered in this study (Calls, Video Calls, Conference Calls), it also has a large number of useful features which further cement it as a good alternative to ordinary telephones. A full list of these is available on the features of Skype wikipedia page, however here are the key ones:

• SkypeOut
• SkypeIn
• Skype Voicemail
• Skype chat
• Skype Me
• Skypecasts
• Skype SMS
• Skype web toolbar
• Skype Zones
• Skype history logs
• SkypeFind
• Skype Prime

All are branded with the Skype name, and are an example of one platform converging existing communication technologies on the internet. For example, Skype Chat is a basic IRC program which allows a chat room of up to 150 Skype users to chat simultaneously, showing features of chat programs such as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Skypecasts are live, moderated conversations between up to 100 people, moderated by a hst who has the ability to mute someone, pass the virtual microphone or eject someone from the conversation. SkypeFind is a user driven community, much like a massive online phone book where you can find anyone you want to who has signed up to SkypeFind and allowed people to find them.

These features, while allowing more freedom on the internet to do what you want to do in regards to community driven expansion and communication, are all also suspectible to the usual downfalls the internet has, however. All talk is uncensored, which probably upsets some mother somewhere. More seriously, Skype is shown to be open to some serious security issues related to how the data is encrypted which would potentially allow someone to listen in, exploit and bring down the network. This in itself is one of the biggest disadvantages of a completely digital server based means of communication – the phonelines always have a backup, and are relatively hard to manipulate and exploit, where digital servers are easier to hack into and bring down – the reliablity of these new networks can probably ever be no where near as good as regular telephony networks.

SKYPE’S INTEGRATION WIH PRODUCTS:

Skype’s logo and brand can be seen tied in with many products on the telephone and communication market, including computer accessories such as headsets or microphones. On the Skype Shop website, all of these products can be seen; for as little as £69.99, a twin set of ‘3 Skypephone’s can be bought, which in turn encourages growth as the second phone is designed to be given to someone who will also join the Skype network. Packs of wireless routers and cordless house phones can also be bought, which not only encourages use of Skype, but also use of other WiFi enabled products in the household such as laptops, games consoles, et cetra. Finally, the Skype shop offers mobile phones with Skype pre built into it as the network provider – this is Skype’s convergence of mobile phone techology with it’s own internet communication technolgy.

IN CONCLUSION:

Skype is a flourishing network, having only been founded 5 years ago. However, 300 million people are signed up to the service (including myself), and this figure is increasing daily. The question is, how will mobile phone and indeed normal phone manufacturers respond to the rising free telephone revolution? Will they embrace Skype and try and converge technologies, much like Skype has already started doing, or will they create yet another alternative to confound consumers? The next few years are crucital for the market’s growth, both economically and on the internet.

 

Media Case Study 1: Nintendo DS

The Nintendo DS caused shockwaves in the gaming industry when first released: the basic premise of the console, as described by Nintendo themselves, is to “combine dual screen action with Touch Screen interaction, providing the player with a unique gaming experience”. A direct competitor of the PSP in the ‘handheld console wars’, it is the forth distinct Game Boy product on the market (after the Game Boy, the Game Boy Colour and the Game Boy Advance).

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NINTENDO DS:

The Nintendo DS is part of the seventh generation of computer gaming systems, which covers both portable mainstream video game units in the market, Nintendo DS itself and the Playstation Portable (PSP), and the home console units, Nintendo’s own Nintendo Wii, the Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. However, Nintendo has a long and fruitful history in the video game business, arguably starting off the current enormity of the industry with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and it’s direct competition to the Sega Mega Drive. Nintendo’s foray into the handheld console business started with the Nintendo Game Boy: released in 1989, simple games such as Tetris and Super Mario Land amoung others gripped the world over in all it’s monochrome glory, while it’s use of 4 AA batteries was far superior to the nearest competitor, the Sega Game Gear, which guzzled up 6 AA batteries in half the time it took for the Game Boy’s power supply to finally run dry:

“In 1991, Nintendo experienced heavier competition from Sega’s Game Gear. To promote its new, color console, Sega aired a number of negative but unsuccessful ad campaigns in the United States that criticized the Game Boy’s monochrome color palette. Like the [Atari] Lynx, it too required six AA batteries that only lasted about 4-6 hours and was much more expensive than the Game Boy. The Game Gear had the advantage of being fully compatible (with an adapter) with all Sega Master System games and, while not as successful as the Game Boy, it sold from 1991 until early 1997.”

As mentioned here (found on the Game Boy wikipedia page), the Game Boy’s monochrome was quickly becoming obselete in portable consoles, to be overtaken by the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear, which offered superior graphics more similar to their home console conterparts (the Jaguar and Mega Drive respectively). In order to keep up with the changing landscape of portable graphics, the Game Boy Colour was released. By March 31st 2006, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined had sold 118.7 million units worldwide – their roaring popularity due to franchises such as Pokémon, Mario, Tetris, and a wide variety of TV/Film tie-ins. The Game Boy Colour could play not only the rich, colourful Game Boy Colour games which had been created, but it could also play the original Game Boy games (in some cases adding colour to the existing game, such as Pokémon Red/Blue). This console also easilt beat off competitors such as the Neo Geo Pocket/Colour, which legendarily were pulled off some shelves in under a month.

The natural successor to these consoles was the Game Boy Advance, which boasted 32-bit gaming, wired multiplayer of up to 4 players (this, later in the life cycle of the GBA, was upgraded to wireless multiplayer for the Pokemon Crystal games), and has sold 81.06 million units worldwide (including highly successful redesigns SP and Micro, SP in it’s own right selling 43.23 million worldwide, over half the total units sold). By this point, Nintendo had clear dominace of the handheld video game console market, with only minor competitors available for very brief, unsuccessful periods of time, such as the Wonderswan, the Zodiac and the Nokia’s foray into gaming, the N-Gage.

TECH SPECS OF THE NINTENDO DS:

• Mass: 275 grams (9.7 ounces).
• Physical dimensions: 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9 mm (5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 inches).
• Screens: Two separate 3-inch TFT LCD, resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, dimensions of 62 x 46 mm and 77 mm diagonal, and a dot pitch of 0.24 mm. The gap between the screens is approximately 21 mm, equivalent to about 92 “hidden” lines. The lowermost display of the Nintendo DS is overlaid with a resistive touchscreen, which registers pressure from one point on the screen at a time, averaging multiple points of contact if necessary.
• CPUs: Two ARM processors, an ARM946E-S main CPU and ARM7TDMI co-processor at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz respectively.
• RAM: 4 MB of Mobile RAM
• Voltage: 1.65 volts required
• Storage: 256 kB of Serial Flash Memory
• Wireless: 802.11 + Nintendo Original Protocol
• Wi-Fi: Built-in 802.11 Wireless Network Connection (802.11b/g compatible with WEP encryption support only)

We can compare this with the specifications of the Sony Playstation Portable:

“Playstation 2 level graphics, a compact 1.8GB media, Wireless 802.11, USB 2.0, 7.1 channel Audio, and a 24bit 16×9 screen TFT LCD Screen. Sony has called this device the ‘Walkman for the 21st Century’, and plans to allow the user to enjoy movies and music for the device, along with games”

The difference here clearly between the Sony Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS is that the PSP is intended to be a convergence of all of Sony’s products (shown by the high focus in promotional material on the widescreen LCD screen and the frankly rediculously high audio specifications (one wonders the true use for having a portable unit support surround sound). The Nintendo DS, on the other hand, is clearly meant to be used for games, which is obvious through it’s touch screen, the low RAM, the lack of a hard drive to hold other media, yet having wireless networking to enable online play. The graphics are also far inferior to the PSP, as the DS can only produce graphics as techincally advanced as the Nintendo 64, while the PSP is a whole generation ahead, producing graphics on par with the Playstation 2. So what is the broad appeal which means DS continues to sell more than the PSP on a worldwide basis?

“TOUCHING IS GOOD”:

The main obvious draw of the system are the dual screens, one of which being touch screen – Nintendo explains in it’s promational content:

“With two super-sharp, backlit LCD screens, the Nintendo DS Lite offers a groundbreaking new approach to gaming. Each 3-inch screen is capable of producing true 3D graphics; the DS has the power to produce even more advanced visuals than the Nintendo 64 could display. Plus you can adjust the screens’ brightness in four different levels to adapt to different lighting conditions.

The possibilities are limitless – one screen can be used to show the main action, while another might be used as a map, inventory, or secondary viewpoint – or both screens can be used simultaneously to depict huge boss characters!”

Playing one game, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, it becomes apparant how well implimented the system is into the games; in my playtest, I tried the Nintendo DS out in direct sunlight, and then again in the night. In both scenarios, the game was birhgt and easy to read, in comparison with a number of mobile phones I have owned, which don’t just cut the mustard when played in direct sunlight. As promised, both 2D and 3D graphics were boasted simultaneously on both screen, with no drop in the smoothness of play or the frame rate. The screens were used to great effect as well: inventory and items were shown on the top (non-touch) screen, while the action itself was played through on the bottom screen. This enabled features such as hitting away blocks of rock which blocked your way in the game with your finger, or creating a shape on screen in order to finish bosses, lest you have to chip away at their health points all over again.

It is clear that Nintendo believes that user interactity is the next step in video games; the interactivity adds a new touch (no pun intended. aha. ha. ha.) to the games, a new excitement which picks up the recently floundering games that reuse the same old forumlua over and over. On the other hand, it can be argued that the touch screen is a gimmick used to draw in punters; this view is spread widely over the gaming community. Browsing internet forums, I found mixed views:

• “to be honest I did not got intothe whole touch screen gimmick at the begining. I later got into it when the ds lite came out” – white143papi, Gamespot forums
• “I sold my ds as the wow factor wore off after 2 weeks and after playing a psp and realizing that the ds can’t compare.” – screw, 1Up Forums
• “That Harrison guy is pretty funny calling the DS a gimmick. I say call it what you want. The fact is Nintendo has sold over 5 million “gimmick” DS systems worldwide. Just double that of Sony’s PSP. Hmmm.” – jimmyangel82, 1Up Forums

These views come from multi-platform gaming sites, so it is unlikely that the views would be too biased on the whole. Some comments were very biased though, so I am only using this evidence as a general basis for video game fans’ views on the subject.

However, the touch screen is not just used for gaming, it is also used for an application known as Pictochat: “Draw pictures and send them to your friends with PictoChat”, the Nintendo website boasts. While the Nintendo DS is a clear example of a more pure gaming experience than the PSP, it appears that Nintendo has also attempted convergence in it’s own consoles, offerig a basic messaging service available over only a short distance of space, 100 feet. This pretty much rules out the concern of the likes of paedophiles gromming children as it is a small distance, used very little on the console (although Fox News appears to want to show the true horrors of it).

TOUCH! GENERATIONS:

As the touch screen on the DS is clearly one of the USPs on the console, Nintendo very wisely decided to put it’s advertising focus on this as much as possible. The result of this is a series of games known as the Touch! Generations games – these games are designed to appeal to all ages and sexes, and make full use of the touch screen. The series also trancends onto the Nintendo Wii, the home console counterpart which uses a motion sensitive wand in order to control the gameplay. Nintendo states in it’s Touch! Generations promotional material:

“Nintendo’s ‘Touch! Generations’ range is a collection of software for the Wii console and the Nintendo DS handheld system that offers a variety of unique and accessible ways to play. By keeping the controls simple, Touch! Generations titles open up a world of video game experiences that anyone can enjoy.

Nintendo’s Touch! Generations titles can help you train your brain, play sudoku, become a doctor, make music or connect with people thousands of miles away. They can be enjoyed on those quiet moments for yourself, or together with the whole family.

There are already several Touch! Generations titles available, which you can easily recognise in the shops by the Touch! Generations logo on the packaging.”

Games range from the fairly uninspired 42 All Time Classics, which lets the user play cards and basic board games with the touch screen, to Trauma Centre: Under the Knife, which places you in the shoes of an operating surgeon, to the Brain Training series, which has recently been advertised by the lieks of Carol Vorderman and is designed to improve your intelligence, all the way to Electroplankton, which is a game that – no joking – lets you create ambient, experimental music by controlling plankton around the screen. Obviously here, one advantage of the Nintendo DS is that it has opened up games to a higher level of variety, with a whole host of original games that haven’t been dreamt before, let alone seen before on any other console.

One disadvantage of primarily touch screen games is that people who are physically disabled or elderly are at a disadvantage when playing the games, or simply may not be able to play the game at all – this is one common complaint of NWTs, and in games specifically, which aren’t exactly known for disabled-friendly fun times, it can only get harder.

PLAYING WITH THE FAMILY:

The promotional pictures all have a common theme, from the pictures to the TV adverts – all show a family scenario in which the family are huddled around DS or Wii, playing a game together (one example of the TV adverts is found here courtesy of YouTube). It has been argued that in recent years that video games are a stereotypical male activity to partake in – with the guns, Lara Croft and aliens, this preconception is probably founded. However, Nintendo are trying to breathe more life into video games by broadening the appeal to a far wider audience – a look at the sales figures (in millions) of the Nintendo DS since release is evidence of this:

Date	Japan	Americas	Other	Worldwide
2004-12-31[33]	1.45	1.36	0.03	2.84
2005-03-31[34]	2.12	2.19	0.95	5.27
2005-06-30[35]				6.65
2005-09-30[36]	3.63	2.87	2.34	8.83
2005-12-31[37]	5.70	4.63	4.10	14.43
2006-03-31[38]	6.91	5.11	4.71	16.73
2006-06-30[39]	9.24	5.90	6.13	21.27
2006-09-30[40]	11.52	7.51	7.79	26.82
2006-12-31[41]	14.43	10.18	11.00	35.61
2007-03-31[42]	16.02	11.74	12.52	40.29
2007-06-30[43]	18.11	14.14	15.03	47.27
2007-09-30[44]	19.71	16.06	17.88	53.64
2007-12-31[45]	21.66	20.18	22.94	64.79
2008-03-31[2]	22.38	22.39	25.82	70.60

Since Touch! Generations was introduced in 2006, you can plainly see that the quarterly sales if the machine increased at a rate which is rarely round in consoles – a more typical chart would show sales very strong at the release and few months after release (discounting shortages in supply), before a steady decline up until production is stopped. The DS, on the other hand, as increased at an impressive rate, one which the PSP simply cannot stand up against – worldwide, only 20.7 million have sold as of March 31st 2008, 4 million selling in 2006 compared to 3.1 million in 2007. While a reason for sales not being as strong could be due to the strong Game Boy brand, the sales figures were much more level at both systems’ launches, and it wasn’t until Touch! Generations was released that the figures started to pull away from each other.

One criticism for the Touch! Generations series is found in the special edition Pink Nintendo DS, more often than not bundled with Nintendogs, sometimes even bundled with an adorable cuddly dog which matches the edition of the game bought. This can be seen as perpetuating female stereotypes in a business which is trying to get rid of the male dominated community – a pink edition console is more likely than not going to segregate the user base between sexes, and targeting specific games at girls would only add to this. Especially ones which are the more caring, calm, sandbox style of games. Especially when it involves cute dogs. However, I believe Nintendo are veering away from that in the recent months – in recent promotional work, all the consoles used and all the advert colour schemes are white, which gives a less gender orientated look at the consoles, encourages potential gamers from all walks of life to join on in.

IMPORT GAMING FOR THE NICHE AUDIENCES:

While gaming itself can be seen as a niche audience, there are many features of the Nintendo DS which would appeal to a more refined, smaller selection of niche audiences. Firstly, a small subculture of gaming requires games that are not even released in this country, for example, the games Daigasso! Band Brothers and Jump Super Stars are japanese games which are not available in this region. For regular consoles, such as the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360, your console would have to be specifically chipped in order to play games which aren’t in the specified region (much like DVDs) – this is alledgedly done in order for specific regions not to lose profits. This, quite clearly, is not done in the best interests of the conumer. The Nintendo DS removes specific regional coding in order to allow these niche markets to exist and so improve the consumer satisfication levels through the existance of niche markets – this is one common benefactor of new media technologies, as NWTs such as YouTube and Facebook are free from regional segregation.

WHY-FI? (sorry):

Another feature relatively new to Nintendo consoles (at least, on a mainstream basis that is easy to connect) is the option to connect to a Wi-Fi network and play online. Nintendo boasts these features:

“Nintendo DS Lite comes with built-in wireless communication technology which lets it link up to Nintendo’s free online gaming service, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This easy to set up service lets you compete with your friends online whenever you like; all that’s needed is a Wi-Fi compatible game like Mario Kart DS or Animal Crossing: Wild World. Players can connect at home through their existing wireless broadband connection, or at public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is not only free and easy, but also safe: you play with people you know by swapping Friend Codes. Plus, new voice chat technology means that in certain games, like Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, you can even talk to your competitors via the DS microphone.”

Wi-Fi is a relatively new technology which allows people to go online from any location which is Wi-Fi enabled – be this in your own home through a router or a dongle, public wi-fi hotspots, or in businesses such as restaurants and cafes. This means, for the DS, anyone can go online for free (not counting connection costs: basically, Nintendo doesn’t charge you) and play anyone over the internet, from anywhere over the world, and get ranked online. Advantages of this are that, in theory, the game becomes limitless in opponent potential – the thrill of playing a game online far outweigh playing a computer repeatedly. The lack of a service fee is also an advantage over other gaming online services such as Microsoft’s Xbox Live – while the service certainly lacks the features that Xbox Live has, the cheapness and ease of the service can make people more likely to play online and promote growth of such communities.

This, of course, can be a disadvantage – those opposed to globalisation especially. The fact that anyone in the world can play anyone else anywhere in the world is likely to cause a closing in the gap of culural divide and make our world a less culturally diverse place, which many agree is important in society – no one wants to be the same as everyone else, do they? Another disadvantage is that online systems are prone to abuse. Take this hypothetical scenario: a child is playing Mario Kart online, when suddenly a person uses the built-in microphone to blare out racist/sexist/offensive slurs – would the child be affected? As there is no real way to filter online talk without taking away freedom to those who do not abuse, will children ever be protected online? Then again, this is a general arguement against online systems, and is not restricted to merely the Nintendo DS.

IN CONCLUSION:

I feel that the Nintendo DS is a positive, shining example of a new media technology for a variety of reasons. It opens up video games to a wider audience, it promotes game manufacturers to create a more diverse selection of games, yet it is also a mild example of convergence: the Nintendo DS combines casual, more traditional games with more “mature” games such as Su-Doku and keeping dogs happy. Although one does wonder if it’s gradually taking away reality from people: why should you not just play Su-Doku in real life, or actually get a real dog? While this console is improving games, is it improving worldwide culture? The future will tell.