Well this is going to be my final blog from the Campus
Party.
My week of residence at the O2 Arena is coming to an end and
for the first time all week I come to you after a good night’s sleep. But after the previous night’s shenanigans,
anything would be a good night.
Today’s work schedule was quite relaxed as things are
starting to wind down.
Yes, that is the Xbox One
We had to finish our work from the David Rowan Keynote
Speech and combined efforts between teams to make a super effort.
Antonio and Raul took in a very interesting speech about how
Digital Technology can make anyone a spy.
I am slightly gutted to have missed that as it is a topic I am
interested in.
Myself, Paul, Ondrej and Jana were assigned a Keynote Speech
from lastminute.com creator Martha Lane Fox.
You can imagine our confusion and surprise when we got a speech about
M2M technology from Camille Mendler from Informa Telecoms. Talk about lastminute.com switches.
Despite this minor setback, we thought on our feet and
managed to still produce some work out of it and got a decent interview from
Camille at the end.
Following on from this we decided to take in a panel
discussion about ‘Emerging Business models for music and artists’ and as
before, there was a late last minute switch in one of the panelists. At this point I could feel the effects of the
previous night catching up to me and sensed I was slowly drifting off in the
gloom.
I swear whenever I nodded ever so slightly, one of the
panelists would stare at me…. Might have been my imagination playing tricks on
me though.
Once we had finalised our work from the day’s activities, it
was time for a well-earned relaxation.
Well for some, as a few people were having to take in a Keynote from
John ‘Maddog’ Hall.
Cheers
Our relaxation was as you’d expect beer and food. But considering the work we have been doing
for the week, we were also in full fun photo mode. I sure am looking forward to seeing some of
the photos that come out.
A good proportion of the group decided that the night was
still young and London was calling, and so they went off to see the bright
lights of the big smoke.
Now, about those expenses Lyndsey
I on the other hand decided that after the previous night’s
antics, I needed to get an earlier night. But I also needed a good night’s sleep
as well. So with this in mind, I headed
back to the camping area and gathered up all my stuff, including sleeping bag
and airbed, and set up in the back of the production office. I wasn’t the only one either as Christian and
Ana-Marie had done this the night before.
Although I did say at the start that I had a good night’s
sleep, I shall never complain about snorers again as Christian is louder than a
747. But apparently I give as good as I
got.
It is sad that I am having to end this week as it has been a
really exciting time, seeing speeches I would ordinarily have missed or even
dismissed. I have had the ear of some of
Technologies finest minds. But most of
all I have had a chance to work with colleagues from across Europe and have
created close bonds that can only be made through experiences like this.
I am actually going to start this day’s events with an
addendum to day 2.
After I had finished my work from the Discussion Panel and
Interviews with Sandy Pentland and Luis Ivan Cuendes, I went for a wander
around the campus floor to see what the night time is like here.
You can watch for yourself what I saw here
Day 3 began much like day 2 with dreary eyes due to late
night fire alarms going off in the camp site and then the dawn chorus of low
flying 747’s.
Today was going to be much more relaxed than yesterday as we
had less to do that was vital and more we could do freeform.
Paul took his chance to take in a talk about robotics while
I went to interview Terence Eden from the O2 Lab about the 3D printer brought
in from Slough. I am looking forward to
their attempts to print out a human brain.
Once I finished my interview I stumbled upon a stand that
was focused on mental powers and tried my luck on a task of using my
concentration to move a ping pong ball up a tube. At first I was not convinced I was doing
anything, but when I relaxed and the ball dropped and then I tried again and it
rose, I was convinced I was on the road to becoming a Jedi.
Our first piece of vital work was a KeyNote speech from Vint
Cerf who is the Vice President and major public face of Google. His opening gambit of being honoured that an
‘old fart’ like him can being in front of so many people summed up how he was
going to be.
Once I had taken in my lunch I managed to get a chance to
test out the Oculus Rift and all I can say about that experience was OMG!!!!! I
want one….. I felt like I was really on a roller-coaster and don’t know if I
was but imagined my body was swaying from the sensations.
Our evening work was covering a Keynote from David Rowan,
who is the Editor of Wired UK. His talk
was about start-ups and entrepreneurs. Initially
I was not expecting to enjoy it too much but get the recording and transcript it
for later use. But by the end I was
listening eagerly to what he was saying and he used a few poster quotes from
the Facebook and Google offices that had great meaning.
When the Keynote was over, a group of us decided to try out
one of the Arenas various restaurants and settled for a Mexican. We also took along a camera to record us
relaxing, and hopefully we caught some good stuff.
However, the night had an unusual twist as I ended up
needing a trip to a local A&E due to cutting my finger as I fell over a
hidden chain and hitting some broken glass.
I must give special kudos to John who took me to the A&E and brought
me back.
We were so wired when we returned at 2am that we wandered
around the campus area capturing the very late night activities on the gaming
station and hackathon.
And once more I have had a very disturbed nights sleep. I think through this I am displaying the British Bulldog spirit of just getting on with it.
After a rather poor night’s sleep, I was up and about at 7am
and heading back to the production room to do some work. I was quite surprised to find I was not the
first there. But it seemed all the guys
that beat me had the same sleeping issues.
Our main focus going in to the day was the two interviews we
had to conduct with Eva Castillo and Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete and we were as
organised as a Jigsaw Puzzle.
A spot of breakfast and all of a sudden things were getting
put into plan.
We had a Think Big School session to go to before our main
event and we sent out Paul, Ondrej and Jana to cover that while Antonio and
Raul went out and captured some Campuseros on film. I was left back to work on the interview
questions.
Once I was happy with what needed to be asked, I went for a
little wander around to Campus and took in a small bit of the Gaming zone. On
the big screens they were showing FIFA 13, Counterstrike Global Offensive and
DOTA 2 being played.
I then had a look at the Microsoft stands where they have a
3D printer and the Xbox One on show.
After chatting to a couple of their guys, I am hoping to get an
interview later on (fingers crossed).
It then came to the interviews and I am not afraid to say I
was a bit nervous being with Jose Maria.
But once I got underway it just flowed and felt good. I did it first in English and then Antonio
conducted the same interview in Spanish.
While Antonio did his bit, I even got to chat with two of
the guys from the Wayra start-up TankTopTV and gave them a bit of good feedback
and suggestions.
After the interviews had concluded and we did a little wrap
up nodding, we had a follow up to the mornings Think Big School to conclude
before having a few hours to kill,
I went for another wander and managed to run into K9. For those that are not Doctor Who fans or
only think Doctor Who existed from 2005 onwards, K9 was the 4th
Doctors faithful robot dog companion. I
instantly had to pet him and have my photo taken.
I was love at first sight
I also found the O2 3D printer and hope to have a small bust
of myself made up in colour.
Unfortunately I failed in my attempts to get an interview
with Microsoft due a PR issues.
Nevermind, at least I got to play Call of Duty Ghosts for a short while.
When I returned to the production room to prepare for the
nights discussion panel, we had a surprise visitor in the guise of Beardyman,
who drew a fair amount of attention.
Beardyman crashes the Production Room
Our evenings work was to capture a Discussion Panel focusing
on digital confidence that included Ronan Dunne, the Information Commissioner
Christopher Graham and Sandy Pentland.
After the Panel had concluded, I was able to get interviews with Sandy
Pentland and young hacker and entrepreneur Luis Ivan Cuende.
That concluded the days required work so hopefully it is
time to get a good nights sleep.
I have been lucky enough to be selected to act as a roving reporter for O2 at this year’s Campus Party in the O2 Arena London. I intend to share my experiences on a day to day basis to give you an idea about what I get up to.
My first day started with the journey from Leeds to London on the train with a fellow reporter Paul Middleton. Having made that journey many times, it was pretty uneventful, aside from the tickets were for a final destination of Greenwich and not North Greenwich (thanks Amanda). So Paul and I had to hop into a taxi for the final leg of trip.
Once we’d arrived at the O2 Arena, we got our passes and sorted out our sleeping accommodation, more on that later though.
We were then given a brief welcome introduction over sandwiches and drinks, before starting a trio of workshops to get a better understanding of what we would need to undertake for the days ahead.
For the week we are split up into 3 teams that have a variety of nationalities. For myself in team 1 I have Paul, the fellow Brit, Jana from Germany, Ondrej from Czech Republic and Raul and Antonio from Spain.
Where we will be spending plenty of time this week
Our first workshop task was a training exercise in getting some video footage to get some practice with the equipment we would be using. This was quite a fun exercise as we got used to working with each other and trying to find things to film. We ended up with a brief sound bite from an O2 staff member and a team introduction.
The second workshop was more of a tour of the O2 Arena and covering off what we will need to report and what would be nice to have reported. Our team has struck it lucky by getting both Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete and Eva Castillo for interviews. Only downside is that they are running nearly together so will split the team.
Workshop three was to try and create a bit of an article, putting together a few videos and stills. With the Campus Party not quite in full swing yet, there was a bit of a limited scope. But, I managed to snag a quick sound bite from the CEO of Telefonica UK Ronan Dunne, and some great footage of a Google Earth flyby on 3 computer screens. Hopefully some of the footage used will make it to the internal intranet.
After a bite to eat, loads of pizza, we headed out to the opening ceremony which was hosted by former Gadget Show star Suzi Perry. We were tasked with getting some footage of what was going on.
Once Suzi opened the Campus Party, she conducted a 20-30 minute discussion panel with COO Telefonica S.A Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, Campus Party creator Paco Ragageles, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey and European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes.
After the discussion panel concluded, we were entertained with a 30 minute set with beatbox legend, Beardyman. Although his style of music is not to my taste, I couldn’t help but appreciate what he was doing. And we managed to capture some great dancing out in the crowd.
Throughout the opening event, I found I was more mindful of what was going on in the crowd than what was occurring on the stage as I tried to look for good opportunities to report.
Once we had a very quick debrief, it was time to head back to our tents, which now had sleeping bags and airbeds. But the fun was to begin as the tents are about 5ft 10 in length and most of the men in our groups are over 6ft. Plenty of feet hanging out of tents ensued. And the 4am wakeup call from Heathrow is really not appreciated.
My sleeping quarters for the week
Needless to say this morning, there were plenty of dreary eyes entering the production office.
Anton
Hysen, not
a name that will be familiar to most people.
And yet he holds the distinction of being the rarest of rare
species. He is the only openly gay
professional footballer. He is the son
of former Liverpool defender Glenn Hysen, who in 2007, was the surprising choice
to make the opening speech at the gay pride festival in Stockholm. And this was when Anton had not yet come out
in public and only to family and friends.
Anton
has fully accepted that his coming out has probably affected how far in the
game he can go in its’
current
state. But he has also said that if fans
abused him, it would just motivate him more to show what he can do to silence
them.
Anton Hysen in action
We
now look at the sad case of Robbie Rogers, a former Leeds United player and USA
international. On 16th
February 2013 he
announced on
his blog that he was gay and then simultaneously announced he was retiring from
football. His decision to retire was
based on the perceived abuse he would receive if he carried on playing.
It is
this perceived abuse that seems to be the root cause of there not being an
openly gay footballer in the top English leagues. I conducted a survey through multiple social
media avenues to gauge the feeling of fans, if their teams’ star player came
out as gay.
I
asked three questions which related to their own feeling, what they thought
fellow fans of the same team would feel, and how other teams’ fans may feel.
When
it came to the personal feelings,
everyone
I asked felt
that they
would give full support to the player regardless of sexuality. A couple made points that as long as the
player performs on the pitch what does it matter.
And that
point strings nicely onto what they felt other fans of the same team may
feel. There was a strong belief that the
vast majority of fans would also support the player. However, they did feel that there would be a
minority that would be of an ‘old school’ mind-set and throw abuse
regardless. Some also felt that if the
performance level of the player was poor, it could get some fans to throw
homophobic abuse.
With
regards to the other teams’ fans, most felt that there would be an element of support,
but
they also felt that opposition fans could end up trying to destabilise the
player with abuse. It is
this abuse that most likely made Robbie Rogers to make his choice of
retirement. But, there is another
element that needs to be focused on that would not have helped.
The
powers that be in the F.A have been having a torrid time recently
trying to
deal with issues of racism directed against some of the top stars of the
Premier League, and there is a belief that they are not doing enough to combat
this. If a player who is gay is looking
at that situation, they will more likely feel that if they received abuse from
fans or other players, there would not be a sufficient punishment handed
out. And that would stop them feeling
they could be open about their sexuality.
In my
opinion, what is needed is a strong stance taken by the F.A, stating that they
will harshly punish any player, manager or team (on behalf of fans), for any
–ism abuse. And these punishments need
to be severe enough to act as a sufficient deterrent. There also needs to be a very high profile
player or set of players that take a stand and come out as this may encourage
players lower down the leagues to follow suit.
But
until the F.A gets its’ house in order, I foresee the closet door remaining
shut tight.
Last year, DICE released a game that was planned to be the
biggest competition that the Call of Duty series had yet faced. I took
the opportunity to take part in the public beta test of Battlefield 3, and when
it was over I made the bold statement that Modern Warfare 3 would get the sales
numbers but Battlefield 3 would get the critical acclaim.
12 months down the line and I think I can say I was correct. The reviews for both games were favourable
but Battlefield 3 seemed to come out on top.
When the awards were being handed out, again Battlefield 3 was reaping
the rewards including ones chosen by the fans.
With the next Call of Duty game now out and gaining more
sales records, Battlefield 3 still plows on with the fans still playing it as
fervently as ever. Why has Battlefield 3
kept going so strongly when others have tried and failed?
The main, neigh sole, reason being the multiplayer aspect
being so very strong. While Call of Duty
is also known for its multiplayer gameplay, it is often referred to as ‘Lone
Wolf run and gun’ due to its fast paced frantic gameplay style. Even with the varied game types, they all
feel very samey.
With Battlefield 3, the same can’t be said. Yes there is the close quartered Team
Deathmatch games that are just like Call of Duty but when it comes to Conquest
(capture the flag) or Rush (destroy checkpoints), there is a whole new ballpark
to play in. The maps are huge compared
to Call of Duty. So much so, that you
need vehicles to traverse them in a timely manner. You’ll see tank, jets, helicopters and jeeps
all moving around you fighting for supremacy.
This is the first thing that stands Battlefield 3 out
against Call of Duty. And it creates the
second point that stands the multiplayer out, which is teamwork. When playing Battlefield 3 multiplayer, you
will be placed into a squad of up to 4 members.
You can try being a lone wolf out in the open but chances are you will
fail. Playing within that squad has
advantages. Healing or resupplying your
squad mates gives you extra points than if you healed random people. And if you get yourself connected to a mic
and headset, communicating with your squad makes the play even better.
I will never claim to be fantastic at this game. I am just a middle of the road decent
player. But the first time I was fully
squaded up with mics and headsets, the team I was on were totally dominant for
the 2 hours we stayed together. And
these were strangers from all around Europe, not friends I knew. We stayed together at all times, spotting and
generally looking after each other. If I
got shot, the medic in the team would revive me. I would drop my ammo packs so
the team were fully stocked at all times.
Our sniper would have motion sensors out and the engineer taking out
oncoming vehicles with his RPG.
There have been other times when this has happened, and each
time it has been the same, unless facing an equally set up team on the
opposition, and then it comes down to skill.
I have played many games of Call of Duty with friends and
have never had the same feeling as when teamed up on Battlefield 3. Although I liked some of the maps on offer in
Call of Duty, I never really embraced them like I did the Battlefield 3 ones.
For the launch of Modern Warfare 3, Activision produced the
Elite service for players to track scores, and gain exclusive early access to
new DLC maps. It came at a cost though
of £50, but that did include all the future DLC maps. As good as the Elite system was, Battlefield
3 had its own Battlelog system that was free to use. But there was nothing in place for the future
DLC. Watching from the shadows, DICE saw
the success that Elite was getting and saw sense in a similar system.
DICE released the Premium service for Battlefield 3 players
that would be approximately £35 to buy and would guarantee all future DLC maps
plus access to special monthly content like double XP weeks; non-premium would
get double XP weekends. This came as a
huge success also and the last figures I saw written about confirmed over 2
million Premium subscribers. That figure
will also have been swelled by the released Premium version of Battlefield 3
that included the Premium subscription with the game.
But how do the DLC’s on offer compare? With Call of Duty you are looking at 4 maps
and maybe a different game mode for each offering. With Battlefield 3 you get maps, guns,
vehicles, game modes and much more.
With each DLC on Battlefield you don’t get the feeling of same shit
different map. There is a sense or
freshness about them, or re-freshness as is the case with the first DLC Back to
Karkand, which returned to old maps from previous Battlefield maps. And with each DLC, there is an underlying
theme with what you will get.
Back to Karkand, as mentioned was a return to old maps. Close Quarters was full of new maps that were
more akin to those found on Call of Duty with the tight maps and fast paced
action. Armoured Kills introduced the
largest maps ever on Battlefield with all out vehicular combat and Aftermath
placing you in a warzone following a severe earthquake. What the final DLC, titled End Game, will hold
is anyone’s guess, but as it’ll be the last piece before Battlefield 4 is
released, I am sure DICE will want to go out with a bang.
As mentioned, with these DLC packs, you get new weapons that
are relevant to the new maps and need to be unlocked to get them. Some of the weapons might get over looked but
some will be sought after. In the latest
DLC, Aftermath, players have the chance of using a Crossbow, which is an
amazing piece of kit, if you can get it and use it.
Throughout the last 12 months, many games have been bought
and played, and most have been great.
But, I just keep coming back to Battlefield 3 all the time. There is just a drawing power to it.
And if I get an comments on this saying I am a Battlefield 3
fan boy, I would like to mention, I do own Modern Warfare 2 and 3 plus Black
Ops and Black Ops 2. I do like Call of
Duty games, I just prefer Battlefield.
Fans of the Far Cry series will be very
pleased to see this latest release. And anyone that has never played a Far Cry
game before, you’ll be able to jump straight in, as there is no story
continuation to worry about.
The basic premise of the game is that you
play a rich American kid, out having an adventure holiday on the fictional
Pacific locale of Rook Island. You and
your friends, including your Army brother, are captured by vicious pirates that
control the island. As you and your brother try to escape, he is killed by the
pirate leader and you manage to just escape.
From here you are rescued by some island
natives who are trying to reclaim the islands from the pirates, and they will
help you rescue the others from your party if you in turn help them.
The game itself is primarily mission
based with the main quest-line having 38 stages to complete.But there is far, far more to the game than
just the main story.There are a huge
number of sub missions to sink your teeth into and the game area is quite
substantial in size.
The sub missions themselves are quite
varied and can range from hunting specific animals or collecting specific
plants to capturing enemy outposts.
This game is very much a first person
shooter but you will find that a lots of the time you are travelling from point
to point in a variety of vehicles.
This is one of the first let downs I
found in the game, in that controlling some of the cars is quite difficult if
you are not used to the perspective you drive from. The
boats and glider though seem more forgiving, and the glider gives a wonderful
view of the world you have to explore.
Where this is a shooter, this is not a
all guns blazing sort of shooter. You
will find yourself sneaking about and looking for vantage points to scout ahead
and work out what opposition you may face.
To help with this, you are armed with a
camera that you can use to lock onto enemies and animals alike. This makes your stealthy approaches
easier. But one thing that doesn't make
life easy is the wildlife.
Many a time I have been stealthily
sneaking up on an enemy, had my box ready just about to fire and a Komodo
Dragon or Tiger has attacked me, flushing me out of my hiding spot. It may get very annoying after a while but it
makes the game so much better, and make you aware of your surroundings.
This is a truly beautiful game, using the Crytek 3
engine, let down in only very slight ways that don’t overly detract form the
enjoyment factor.
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