Nintendo, sony, video game case Essay Example for Free

Nintendo, sony, video game case Essay The video game industry has gone through six generations of consoles, and the seventh is now underway with new consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Atari led the first generation of the video game industry. They were able to create the first home video game Pong in 1972, and they were the first to develop the interchangeable cartridge and the joystick. The creation of the interchangeable cartridges allowed for third party independent video game developers to enter the market. Atari failed to develop a system that controlled who could develop games for Atari consoles, so the company eventually failed when low quality games created by independent developers flooded the market and caused prices to plunge. Nintendo was able to become the leader of the video game industry in the next generation by entering licensing agreements with third-party game developers and by instituting a â€Å"Seal of Quality† policy where no game could be published without Nintendo’s approval. Nintendo’s success with developing popular in-house games like Super Mario Brothers also contributed to their success in the second generation. However, Nintendo let Sega enter into market and take over as the next leader in the industry when Nintendo mistakenly delayed the release of their 16-bit console to avoid cannibalizing sales of the 8-bit console. Sega took advantage of Nintendo’s mistake by offering lower prices for their new console and games. Sony took control from Sega as the leader in the video game industry from 1988-2005 by targeting more mature audiences for their video games and being the first to install DVD-playing capability and Internet connectivity in the consoles. However, Nintendo was able to take over the lead in the most recent generation from â€Å"forward looking† Microsoft and Sony by being able to attract demand from younger and older audiences. This has caused Sony to reevaluate their strategy for the upcoming new generation of video game consoles. Sony’s target market has traditionally been core gamers, Males aged 14-34. The Wii, while popular with a wide audience, was unpopular with this core demographic because it did not feature the games core gamers loved like Grand Theft Auto and Halo. The Playstation brand is strong because it’s the most powerful system available with the best graphics and games that core gamers love. The poor sales of the PS3 thus far are attributable to Microsoft’s first mover advantage and release delays, similar to Nintendo’s problems in the 16-bit generation. Now that the PS3 has been released, Sony can make its push towards industry leadership by focusing on this core demographic, offering exclusive games, and using its superior graphics and system power as a competitive advantage over Microsoft. While games for more mature audiences should be Sony’s focus, they cannot ignore the expansion of the video game industry into new demographics. However, marketing the PS3 too heavily to these new audiences could dilute the PS3’s cool factor to core gamers by casting it as something their grandparents can play. The Wii has already captured the cool factor for non-typical gaming demographics, and pushing the PS3 in this direction would alienate its core users. Instead, Sony should allow third-party developers to create games for younger audiences so that the younger siblings and kids of core gamers will not be left out on the PS3, but avoid focusing marketing campaigns for the PS3 on these new demographics. This would make the console inclusive for new demographics, but avoid alienating core users while pushing for dominance in the core gaming market. Sony should also continue to move the PS3 towards being a digital living room hub. The Xbox 360 is marketed as an all-encompassing living room experience that replaces the need for movie and music players, and sometimes PCs. Not recognizing this shift in how consoles are used in the home would be harmful to the PS3, and they could lose buyers based not on their video game experience but because it is lacking digital hub features that are becoming basic. Sony should expand their living room experience by allowing third party downloadable apps that add on to the digital hub, and take advantage of Blu-Ray’s industry victory by packaging the system with movie discs. Sony can regain its industry lead by becoming the go-to console for core gamers and pushing for games that are inclusive of all demographics. This can be accomplished by heavily marketing the system as the most powerful system on the market while offering an extensive catalog of games, especially their exclusive game catalog.

Why did the Cold War start Essay Example for Free

Why did the Cold War start Essay The event of Cold War was shocking and controversial event which is still being discussed today. It is necessary to examine the many reasons why it started and how. While the why of what happened is still being argued, the what is fairly clear. The beginning of the Cold War was a basis of deep ideological differences as well as a series of misunderstandings or actions taken during WWII. The two immense powers USA and the USSR were showing some extreme behavior against each other. The conflict of Communism vs. Capitalism soon became grew importance. The beginning of the Cold War is not easy to set up. Although Winston Churchills Iron Curtain Speech in 1946 may seem like the start of the war but it is considered not to be one. Even though being a hero of World War II, Winston Churchill, as the ex-Prime Minister of England, held no official political stand anymore. His speech was a great response to Russias actions of gathering satellite nations to defend itself from Western aggression. The speechs most known quote which summarizes the whole speech was, From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately it could only be taken as a ones opinion rather than a nations viewpoint, yet he was the first person to stop pretending to be friends with Russia. The Truman Doctrine of 1947 is believed to be the start of the Cold War. It stated that America would help any non-communist nation to resist communist force. It was simply a promise and was not in any case responsible of dividing Europe into two. Where the Truman Doctrine was the decision, the Marshall Plan was the action which seemed to bring the two nations (USA and Russia) more towards the Cold War than ever. In the summer of 1947 American general named George Marshall decided that America should give out $17 billion for aiding Europe. He reckoned that Europe was so poor that it is in danger of falling into Communism. It was said that it was up to the countries to decide whether to accept the help or not. The USSR hated that plan and was enraged by USAs anti-communist move. Stalin used his power to strike back by forbidding Communist countries to ask for money. The countries led by Britain and France met in Paris, and did ask for economic  aid and were not fallen into the Communist trap. The Marshall Aid seems to be the only time in history in which the needed results were achieved simply by throwing money at it. In 1948, a year after the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, the cold war was starting to face its first serious crisis. It evolved out of disagreements over the treatment of Germany. It was agreed to divide Germany into four zones. Whereas Stalin being convinced that Germany owed them for the damage that was done, was draining its resources away to Russia. It developed a great contrast between the Western zones and the Russian zone. While the hostility had already started way before 1949All three events had qualities that may count to mark the beginning of the Cold War but none of them can be the definite start point. The closest to mark the start of the war may possibly be the Marshall Plan. It was the most obvious attack against Communism ever made after World War II. As a result, the Cold War was founded on mistrust and concrete hostile policies and actions originated by two superpowers not being able to negotiate their way through it peacefully.

Comparative Analysis of English and Bade Proverbs

Comparative Analysis of English and Bade Proverbs COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND BADE PROVERBS: EXPLORING FORM AND CONTENT It is believed that there is no language without proverbs. Vulic and Zergollern in Valiulyte (2010), corroborate this notion that ‘each nation or country has its own proverbs†. Therefore, every language has its own proverbs which are used by its own speakers through many media as in literature like poetry, prose and drama and other forms of daily communication. Nevertheless, some advanced languages like English have a rich tradition of proverbs, because its proverbs have been collected and analyzed academically. This is probably due to the early civilization of the English people, and their awareness of literature and publication. Consequently, English proverbs have become richer and more widespread, unlike the ones of Bade (a local language in Yobe State, Nigeria) whose proverbs have not received any study worthy of academic recognition. The term proverb has been defined by different scholars in different perspectives. Norrick (1985) defines proverbs as self-sufficient, brief, traditional expression with advisory content and secured poetic form. Meider (1985) sees it as a short, generally known sentence which contains wisdom, truth, with memorable form and which is handed down from generation to generation. According to Tatar (1998), proverbs are concise common expressions with literal and figurative meaning. It can be understood from the above definitions that the term proverb is a terse saying that represents matters of universal truth, with a literal, figurative, or poetic structure, preserved through discourse, and passed on from one generation to another in human society. According to Meider (2004), in Dabaghi, Pishbin and Niknasab (2010), it is hard to identify the origin and history of proverbs. Nevertheless, he adds that proverbs ‘†¦ do not fall from the sky’. Therefore, he observes that there is a similar trend of emergence of proverbs in Europe, Asia, Africa and other linguistic and cultural groups. He traces the origin of European proverbs ‘back to the classical times of Greek and Roman antiquity; the Biblical era; the Medieval Latin, and the mass media’. In tracing the origin of proverbs in Persian languages, religion and literature have been recognized as two sources (Moosavi, 2000, in Dabaghi, Pishbin and Niknasab, 2010). In a rather more specific manner, Ridout and Witting (1969) link the source of modern English proverbs to popular sayings of the common man; borrowing from the Bible and other languages; wise saying of famous literary scholars; turning highly idiomatic expressions into proverbs; and, modern edu cation. Over the years, scholars have agreed that geographical location has some effects on the nature of proverbs. Brown (1983) observes that proverbs emerging from the same zone tend to have common features. The same idea may be noticed in Schuh (2005), stating that indigenous languages in Yobe State share ‘a large number of idioms, lexicon-related expressions’, just like how West African languages share ‘proverbs and riddles, songs and folktales’. Nevertheless, this does not mean that those languages may not have distinct properties that can separate them from one another as different language. Because Bade is one of the focus languages in this research, some characteristics of proverbs that are peculiar to African languages will provide the researcher with some rich data to work on. One very inconvenient aspect of this research is that while available resources on English proverbs are not hard to come by, Bade, being the other target language is badly lacking in literary resources particularly on proverbs on the one hand. On the other hand, it looks interesting that this research will set a precedent in such an area with a serious academic intent. Recently, studies on Verbal Arts posted on Yobe Language Research Project have presented a few collections of proverbs of indigenous languages, with Bole (257 proverbs),Ngizim(230 proverbs), Karekare(32 proverbs),and Ngamo(14 proverbs). In the case of Bade, its collection deals with songs and folktales, with no single proverb attached (Schuh, 2004). Other non-indigenous languages like Kanuri, Fulfulde and Hausa which Schuh sees as widely spoken in the state, are the most widely studied, with the last one topping the list with several pieces of researches about proverbs including a dictionary titled Dictionary of Hausa Proverbs. Hence, these few collections of proverbs on the indigenous languages of the study area will benefit the researcher greatly, by providing him with a platform upon which to study the Bade proverbs easily. The basic aim of this research is to analyze the form and content of English and Bade proverbs. To achieve this, the research aims to address four main questions. Firstly, it tries to determine whether English and Bade proverbs have different form. Secondly, it will address the question of whether there are similarities between the content of English and Bade proverbs. Thirdly, it seeks to establish how English and Bade proverbs are preserved .Fourthly, it will ascertain whether there are differences in terms of cultural materials involved in the construction of English and Bade proverbs. Such questions are directly linked to the main aim of this research. By looking at these differences and similarities, it will be possible to justify this analysis correctly. In order to answer these research questions correctly, theoretical framework is proposed. Initially, there is the need to clarify the variables of this research. This research has two dependent variables-form and content, which depend on the independent variable- English and Bade proverbs. It is often possible that in a piece of research like this, two theories may present better analytical ground. Therefore, I have chosen to be eclectic in method, by using more than one theory in a single research. I will use two Semantic theories: Classical Metaphor will be used to analyze form; and, Topic-Comment Structure Theory to analyze content of all the proverbs in my corpus. These analyses, upon which the remaining questions and objectives will be answered and achieved, will be used to explain the form and content of both English and Bade proverbs. The decision to propose Metaphor is very much connected to its history as having positive effects on literary studies. Norrick (1985) confirms that the essence of metaphor in studies of proverbs can be traced back to Aristotle. Saeed (2004) classifies two approaches of traditional metaphor as Classical and Romantic. He ascribes classical metaphor to Aristotle, as it describes metaphor from figurative and rhetorical perspectives. Romantic metaphor is linked to ‘eighteenth and nineteenth century Romantic’ periods, which define metaphor as possibly common material in language use (Saeed, 2004). To set a focus for the research, the researcher has chosen to position it on classical perspective which directly relates to proverbs studies. Based on classical view, it seems likely that metaphor is a universal feature of proverbs. And since proverbs are characterized by ‘rigid form’, (Norick, 1985), metaphor will be of great advantage in analyzing all the proverbs tha t have figurative form in the corpus of this research. The second theory is called Topic-Comment Structure as stated above. According to Norrick (1985), this theory is attributed to Dundes(1975).He adds that the theorist proposed it due to the disagreement of paremiologists about a unified formula to analyze the content of proverbs. Using some English proverbs such as ‘Like father like son, No rose without a thorn, and Better late than never’, Dundes suggests substitutable variables such as ‘like X like Y, no X without Y, and better x than Y’ respectively. Norrick observes that these variables can be used to substitute any expression in a proverb. Therefore, this researcher will use this theory to interpret the real content of all proverbs in the corpus. This kind of research is not rare in literary studies. Different kinds of proverb research have been conducted by many literary experts in English and other languages in the world. Shariati and Teyabi (2012), in their study A Comparative Study of Proverbs Characteristics of Mesopotamian Language, and Local Dialect of Persian indicate that research in proverbs has been carried out since ‘about 2500 BC’. However, this may not discredit this research as a mere repetition of previous works of experts. Certainly, it will make it even more interesting since so far, I have not found any serious research into Bade proverbs. With this fast growing interest in literature and publication in the age of globalization, the importance of proverbs is realized not only in literary contexts but also in media, politics, religion and several other social transactions. Meider, in Dabaghi, Pishbin and Niknasab, (2010), notes that ‘proverbs obviously contain a lot of common sense, experience, wisdom, and truth, and as such they represent ready- made traditional strategies in oral speech and writing from high literature to the mass media’. Thus, it seems reasonable that for literature to be meaningful, studies of proverbs ought to be taken as important as any other aspect of literary studies. Therefore, through this analysis, this research is set to achieve certain objectives which include the following: to define the formal pattern of English and Bade proverbs; to determine the content of English and Bade proverbs; to unveil the ways of preserving the proverbs of English and Bade; to explain the different cultural material involved in the construction of English and Bade proverbs.

Christopher Columbus: The Villain Essay -- Christopher Columbus Essays

The letter Christopher Columbus wrote back to Spain to report his findings in the New World sparked intrigued me and sparked my imagination. Why I have been so absorbed in this letter I can not explain. This letter is supposed to be about describing an unknown land, a land that has not been seen by anyone besides the natives, but it seems that there is more to it than that. Columbus is known in elementary schools as the man who found the New World, and is regarded as a hero. To the contrary, historians who have done more research on Columbus say that he was driven by fame and fortune and that he was tyrannical in his ways with the indigenous peoples of the places that he came to find. I feel that the contradictory tones Columbus uses gives this letter an eerie feel, and Columbus’s eventual desire to take over the indigenous peoples brings doubt on his reliability as an accurate and fair eyewitness. Columbus begins this letter to Luis De Sant Angel by saying how fortunate he was to find these great islands. Right away, before even describing his findings, he thanks the king and queen and begins to explain how he named the islands he discovered. Everyone knows that the king and queen gave Columbus those ships, yet he wanted to recognize them for some reason. I think that he wanted the king and queen to feel as if they themselves discovered the islands, not him. Whether it was out of fear, or out of respect, Columbus really gave them credit. So much tribute was given that the first island they discovered, Columbus named San Salvador, commemorating the king. He seemed like he really wanted to give credit to everyone that may have had a hand in this voyage, especially the king and queen, who financially supported this expedition. Contrary to what historians believe about Columbus, he was very humble and giving in the naming of these islands. Keeping with the standard tone of the Spa nish monarchial society, he named these islands for the wisdom and greatness of the monarchs. Columbus then went on to describe the natives, whom he called â€Å"Indians†. He made it clear that there were many people, and even used the word, â€Å"innumerable† on several occasions. One of the more disturbing lines to me was in the beginning of the letter, â€Å"I have heard from other Indians I have already taken that this land was and island†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Columbus goes on to explain how he explored the islan... ... this man, and call him your brother? I am pretty sure that the leader of this town is not going to embrace the man who has tyrannically taken over your people. I believe that the king calling Columbus his brother is a fictional embellishment to the story, or that the king of this town was so afraid for his people’s lives that he did not put up a fight. During the whole course of the letter, Columbus beat around the bush and was not upfront with their true intentions of the voyage. He speaks of gold, he speaks of quarreling, but whenever these subjects came up, Columbus quickly changes the subject to a lighter matter. Based on much of the fine print, much of the things that he did not realize what he was writing, and by reading in between the lines of this letter, I saw much more than what was just written. The strayed away from the fact that he was tyrannically taking over the indigenous peoples of this land, even though it was so apparent that he in fact was. Because of this information that we now know about Columbus’s tyrannical ways, was hard for me to read this letter and still believe in Columbus’s integrity as an eyewitness for describing the events on at this New World.

Classical Design Elements In Architecture Essay -- essays papers

Classical Design Elements In Architecture Throughout history, Classical ideals of the ancient Greeks and Romans have been prevalent in all facets of art. In architecture this is especially true. A few of the Classical ideals employed in architecture are colonnaded porticoes, domed centers and symmetrical designs. Architects such as Andrea di Pietro, Christopher Wren and Thomas Jefferson used these Classical design elements in their respective works. These highly regarded individuals were architects of the Mannerist, Baroque and Neo-Classical Ages respectively. They each used Classical design elements in their architecture to portray a sense of simplicity and harmony in their work, as well as to reflect Classical ideals of order and mathematical proportion. Andrea di Pietro, an architect of the Mannerist Age, employed the elements of Classical design in his works to achieve simplicity and harmony. â€Å"The preeminent architect of the Mannerist style was Andrea di Pietro, known as Palladio†(Matthews And Platt 340). The work that Palladio is most synonymous with is the Villa Capra, also known as the Villa Rotunda. The Villa Rotunda, based on the Classical design of a Roman farmhouse, was built for a wealthy Venetian (Matthews and Platt 340,341). The Villa highlights Classical principles of architecture in a number of ways. Palladio employed the use of colonnaded porticoes in the Villa, a covered porch supported by columns, which is typically located at the front of...

The Holocaust: World War Two Essay -- Socialist Nazi Germany Hitler

The Holocaust: World War II The Nazis and their collaborators accounted for the execution of over six million Jews in World War II. In 1933 the twenty one countries that Germany would come to occupy as a result of the war, were occupied by nine million Jews. By 1945 two out of three of these Jews were heartlessly executed. Adding to these victims, Hitler targeted social outcasts such as homosexuals, the disabled, and Gypsies. Poles and Slavs were targeted for their labor, and Soviets faced death by the millions as prisoners of war. Still more, political and religious leaders were exterminated because they were seen as threats. The Holocaust was an example of the terror felt during the Nazi regime. The end of World War I up until 1933 was a time of economic and political crisis for Germany as a result of this war. President Hindenburg looked towards the right wing group, the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi for short), one of Germany strongest parties to help the nation out of its rut. At the time the leader of the Nazi’s was Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg saw his potential as a leader and made him Chancellor, Germany’s most powerful position in government on January 30, 1933. In less then three months Hitler used his cabinet, Security Police, Storm Troppers, and the State Police to change Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship under his power. With his cabinet he rewrote the constitution and took away individual freedoms, the right to assemble, and the freedom of speech and the press. Hitler’s group of specialty officers arrested political leaders who opposed him. By March of 1933 he had so much control he w... ...s most shameful events, and the Nazi terror was so much worse because it was unprovoked. - Poltorak,A. and Y. Zaitsev. Remember Nuremberg. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1966. - Horn, Daniel. Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. St. Louis: Forum Press, 1976 - Kauders, Anthony. German Politics and the Jews. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1996 - Nachmann, Werner, Nahum Goldmann, and Helmut Schmidt. An Exhortation and Obligation. Cologne: Federal Republic of Germany, 1978. - Lewin, Abraham. A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. - Lifton, Robert Jay, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killings and the Psychology of Genocide. New York: Basic Books Inc, 1986. - Gutman, Isreal. Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

A New Kind of Dreaming by Jamie Riley Essay

Jamie Riley changing for the better throughout the novel ‘A New Kind of Dreaming’ is thanks to many of the events throughout his stay in Port Barren. The courts sending Jamie to Port Barren on Isolated Care, I find, is the best thing they have done for him. Even though he was targeted, threatened and set-up, he managed to endure it, and come out the other side a better person. He can only owe it to Port Barren and its people for the turnaround in his life. Jamie’s poor attitude and behaviour issues are no fault of his own. They are at the fault of both his father and late mother. His mother had passed when Jamie was quite young, and his father was of no use either, ‘†¦usually too pissed to worry about anything, particularly the boys.’ Having no parents meant that both Jamie and Eddie could do whatever they like and not have to reap the consequences. Jamie and Eddie both took full advantage of this situation, and it hasn’t done either of them any favours. Eddie is now behind bars, still with no concept of the severity of the situation. He just continues to think that it doesn’t matter, that he will get out and go and find Jamie in Port Barren and they’ll live happily ever after. This attitude of Eddie’s plays a major part in influencing Jamie, especially because Eddie is the only person Jamie can look up to, and he isn’t what I would call a ‘good influence’. So as Jamie carries this attitude into Port Barren, he cops a bit of shit for it. As soon as he arrives in Port Barren, he stops dead still in the road with shock, as if ‘something bad, something evil had reached out and touched him as he crossed the road’. After this little incident, mid-way thru a conversation between Jamie and his social worker Lorraine, a comment she makes, startles Jamie a little bit ‘This is it, Jamie. This is your last chance.’ As much as he had heard it all before, he knew that for some reason, this actually was his last chance. Being Jamie’s last chance, before Jail, he’d been putting in the hard yards. He was attending school, and had become quite close with Cameron, who was becoming more and more like a brother as the story unfolded, and had settled at Archie’s. Often, of an evening, Jamie would go for long walks, to think,  and occasionally to release some ‘steam’. However, on the way back from one of his regular walks, after seeing Butcher burning the school down, Butcher followed him home, and just before Archie’s stopped Jamie; blamed him for burning the school down. Jamie tried to defend himself, but Butcher just smacked him over the back of the head with his Nightstick and threw him in the back of the police truck. After a torturous ride in the back of the police truck, Butcher deserted Jamie at an old Mining Station, Flaherety’s Curse, handcuffed to a retaining pole. Cameron managed to decipher where Jamie was, however, another visit from Butcher, he smashed Cameron’s Father’s car into the Mining Hut, and left. Which meant if the boys even wanted a chance of survival, they’d have to hike it back to town, a very strenuous journey, especially after all of Jamie’s experiences. The boys found the previous person Butcher had left out there, who was unlucky enough to have died out there, and they bought her skeleton back too. After their near-death experiences on their travels, and being struck with pure luck, of finding a watering hole and two recreational hikers, who gave them a ride back to Port Barren, they made it back. Butcher, furious with the news, made a beeline for Archie’s house, in search of Jamie, and after a call from Cameron, he made for his sacred place, the boat. Butcher, eventually finding Jamie, set the boat alight, and upon Jamie’s escape from the inferno, held him at gunpoint. Thanks to some ingenuity from Robb, Cameron and Archie, they managed to make it before it was too late, and Robb shot Butcher in the shoulder, saving Jamie’s life. They made contact with the Karratha Police, and had Butcher arrested and charged. Once all the fuss was settled, Jamie returned to Archie, and in reference to a story Archie had told Jamie, he asked if he was a wanderer or a lost one, and Archie’s reply was ‘Neither mate, you’re a local’. This was a massive milestone for Jamie. Clearly Jamie realises that he needs to ‘pull his finger out’ or he has had it. This is shown right throughout the novel. Jamie does well at school, offers to give Archie around the house occasionally and he is off the streets. He feels different, usually when he was sent to Foster Homes, they’d all smother him, and nurture him, and treat him like an idiot, however, Archie’s was different, he had the freedom to do whatever he liked, but most of the time, he’d be controlled; he’d stay at home, and sleep or  study. Also, throughout his stay in Port Barren, he felt as if he had a Guardian Angel, constantly watching over him and speaking to him. In the words of the narrator, ‘The girl’s presence filled Jamie. She’d been watching him, helping him, calling him, ever since the moment he’d stepped off the bus and into Port Barren. I find that Jamie is also very grateful for the experiences throughout his stay in Port Barren, as good or as bad as they were, because if it wasn’t for them, he’d still be the same juvenile delinquent he’d come as, and for all we know, could’ve ended up in Prison with Eddie.