BSIT400-T301 - Week 10 Posting - Wrap Up for BSIT400-T301

 I've done the blog a few times for about four different classes by this point, but this semester I enjoyed it. I liked it because I tried to relate the topic of the week to video games in some way. Seeing how I found very fun and interesting cases to talk about, such as the Blizzard DDOS attack and things like that, made it not just entertaining, but very informative to see how the backbone of some of my favorite games operates.

Unless a different class requires me to blog, I will not be blogging in my free time. There isn't an appeal to me, other than using it as a time capsule or diary. The sad part is that my life is not that interesting, and thus, I have nothing to blog about. That may change since I have no clue what life might be like in even three years from now, but as far as I can see, there is no reason for me to continue. Goodbye again unless the next semester brings me back!

BSIT400-T301 - Week 09 Posting - Online Services and the Hate

    Keeping with the gaming theme for my blog posts, I came across how PlayStation was attempting to bring out its PlayStation 3 servers in 2021, but due to the outrage and complaints from many fans, the servers were shut down. No one would be able to purchase any games that would have been exclusively sold through that service, nor would you be able to buy downloadable content or videos either.

    It is just like the Arkham series fiasco with the Catwoman DLC. The studio that owns the licence to the game removed the ability to download the content online. This means if you paid for the DLC, you can no longer download it, even if you paid for it.

    This is why people hate online services when it comes to purchasing software. You do not own any of the software you purchase online; you are purchasing the ability to access the content, and at any point, the service provider can take it away from you.

    An example of this is a P.T. demo released on the PlayStation 4 over a decade ago, which was removed from the PlayStation Store due to licensing issues, and now you can't download it anymore. People have resorted to purchasing entire PS4 consoles that have the game installed on them to play the demo.

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References

Kommandotech. (2021, March 29). Sony shutting down online stores for PS3, PSP, and Vita this summer. https://kommandotech.com/news/gaming/sony-shutting-down-online-stores-for-ps3-psp-and-vita-this-summer/

Makuch, E. (2015, May 5). P.T. Silent Hills demo pulled from PlayStation Store. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2015/5/5/8557807/pt-silent-hills-demo-pulled

BSIT400-T301 - Week 08 Posting - Xbox Game Pass

 In keeping with the theme of tying my work to gaming, Xbox Game Pass has been on my radar, but I have not tried it out yet. One of the things about this service that intrigued me was how they use the cloud features to improve the gaming experience for gamers. 

In almost every case, if you want to play a game, you first need to download the game onto your PC, and then you can launch and play the game with Xbox Game Pass, which isn't something you need to do at all. You can launch the game directly through their servers, and the latency when playing games in that way is minimal to non-existent. This means that your system isn't running the game, so people with very slow gaming PCs can take advantage of this feature and play games that their system would typically never be able to run properly or run at all. 

This was very cool, and I wanted to share how gamer-oriented this service is. They are taking advantage of being able to use their resources to improve the experience for users with and without powerful gaming systems.

BSIT400-T301 - Week 07 Posting - My Love and Hate for MFA

 Keeping on topic with this week's module on authentication. I have come across something extremely annoying and haven't been able to fix it because I currently have no phone service. MFA has prevented me from logging into different resources I require, such as looking up my work schedule or even signing in to my Hotmail so I can sync my mobile with my desktop. There is no alternative for my schedule since I must use my phone number verification code that gets texted to me to log in and change the verification method. 

So I love the fact that my account is safe since I have MFA, but currently I am hating it more than I have ever hated anything in my life, since I have to grab a printout of my schedule at work and check it up to Saturday to make sure none of my days have changed due to scheduling.

This is in keeping with my theme of trying to tie everything to gaming. I got hacked in my World of Warcraft account when I stopped playing for over a year. After a long while, I returned and noticed nothing in my account anymore. I was hacked due to having no MFA, but luckily, an email and verification through a picture ID allowed me to get all my items back, thanks to Blizzard support. Afterward, I set up MFA using the Blizzard mobile app, which generates a unique token every time you attempt to log into one of their services, and I haven't had a problem with hacking ever since.

BSIT400-T301 - Week 06 Posting - Blizzards DDoS Attack

 Checking out the article about DDoS attacks in our written assignment got me thinking about how Blizzard was a target of a DDoS attack. In June 2023, Blizzard's servers were hit, and I was among the many players affected by this attack. I tried logging into Diablo 4 since it was a new release, but I could not log on. I was confused about what it might be, and I thought I was just stuck in a long queue of people attempting to log into the new game. I learned from other friends also facing the same issue that even if you manage to log in, it would only be for a few moments before you are kicked out due to the attack.

There has been an official answer as to why the attack occurred, but what many people speculate is that since many gaming companies have been making their games require players to have internet access and always be online to play their games, they wanted to prove a point about how this tyle of gaming has its weaknesses.

If I want to play my game alone, I should be able to, and if I don't have internet access, I should still be able to play my game. So, I agree with the message but do not agree with the approach to getting it across.

BSIT400-T301 - Week 05 Posting - Never Game Over with Cloud Computing.

 I am an avid gamer, and one of my favorite things became the standard when they started saving your data in the cloud. There is no bigger frustration as a gamer than putting hundreds of hours into a game and having the file randomly corrupted. Which means the entire time you invested was for nothing. Since many gaming services, such as Steam, have been uploading the data to their cloud save when you close out of a game, which is like saving the game twice for good measure, it has helped many of us be able to recover our game files, which would have been lost to the aether otherwise.

Not only is that one of the biggest boons to cloud computing in the gaming world, but I could also do it if I wanted to play my game from someone else's computer in a completely different house. All I have to do is log into my account, and all my games and progress are on their servers to access at any time. Gone are when you had to take your physical game cartridges and memory cards to your friend's houses.

These were some neat things in my daily life that related to the topic this week, and I wanted to share them.

BSIT400-T301 - Week 04 Posting - AWS Regions Compared to Game Servers

Reading up on the AWS regions made me think about how much that reminds me of online gaming. AWS has different regions where your site can be hosted, depending on your needs, similar to the servers when logging into a game. Of course, the further you are from the server hosting your site, the longer the delay will be between your clicks on the website and the page displaying your results, and the closer you are to the server, the faster your information will load.

Gaming companies are also beginning to do the same regarding online games. When you log into a game and take Path of Exile, you are asked to enter the region you want to join. I live in California, so I would like to select the NA West server instead of the NA East or EU servers.

Some games like Street Fighter dynamically change servers for you and your opponent, since playing on a server closest to you and not your opponent would give you an unfair advantage. So, those games choose a server between the two players and even add artificial lag between player input and character actions. 

I found that pretty neat, and I wanted to bring this up.