Entertainment

===Ever since the Internet was made available for public use the inception of online entertainment has grown and evolved and has become an integral part of social communication. Social networking sites have popped up all over the internet, including the well-known Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. These few sites include various ways of blogging or expressing your interest in any particular subject such has video blogging which is namely Youtube. E-Commerce appears in almost everything related to the internet. This includes the infinite category of games. Here are a list of some of the popular types of games and blogging. ===

**__Poptropica:__**
 Poptropica is a fun and addictive game aimed at children aged 6-15. In poptropica users can customize their own character and move around in the game. You can unlock special areas and there are various Easter eggs hidden. This game is unblocked and can be accessed by going to [|www.poptropica.com]. To move you point and where you want to go and click. Your character will jump automatically. You can go to different 'worlds' by jumping in the hot air balloon and clicking on the area you want to go to. It is very useful for distracting kids for an extended period of time. However, don't get addicted to this game yourself because there are better games to play like Runescape, Maplestory and WoW.

__Neopets:__
 Neopets is a fun and addictive game aimed at people of all ages. You can have your own pet __**Cross Fire:**__ Cross Fire is a free online FPS (First Person Shooter) that allows you to become a mercenary Black List or a counter-terrorist military unit Global Risk. With a large array of guns available for use, Cross Fire provides an opportunity to join a world scale war. Cross Fire is a game that was developed by South Korean FPS games developers, Smilegate and Neowiz. The game was first released in China by Tencent, an exclusive agent service company. Official public testing of the game started in April 2008. Since then the game has been released in multiple countries around the globe as popularity of this free online FPS grows. Cross Fire has been released in South Korea, Vietnam, China, UK, USA, Canada, Philippines, Taiwan, and Russia. __[|http://crossfire.z8games.com]__ The advantages of having online games like Cross Fire, is to gather people of the same interest, FPS games, together in a community where the can play together. Free online games allow the part of the online community that wish to experience gaming with other people with no cost possible. There are many free to play games on the Internet, as there are many game developers that create games in their spare time, and release them as freeware. Most of them are single player, and allow little to no interaction with other players. Free multiplayer games allow teamwork, and strategic thinking that need a team of supportive team players to work. Disadvantages are always present with free things. Free to play games always have exclusive items for those willing to pay. These items may be better than those that require no real life transaction. This may cause a problem as players may find this unfair. Another disadvantage is the availability to the public. Free multiplayer games may have a small number of servers, which can cause problems in gameplay.

**Twitter **  Twitter is an international social networking site which was launched on July 15 2006 over 200million users. The website is based in San Francisco, California and was founded by 4 men; Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Its official link, __[|www.twitter.com]__, is internationally recognized and is ranked in the top ten most visited sites in the world by //Alexa’s web Traffic. //It is most popular in countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, Netherlands and Japan. **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Benefits **: It allows users of all kinds to post text-based messages of up to 140 characters. Socially it is described as the SMS of the internet which are socially known as ‘tweets’. People can reply back to these messages instantly anywhere the site is available, such as computers or smart phones which are common personal tools. Many commercial industries use this site to promote themselves or use it as a communication tool. According to a Pear Analytics survey to over 2000 tweets 40% are pointless babble, 38% is conversational 6% is self-promotion, and also 4% is news. This survey can concur that this social networking sites commercial uses are somewhat useful as 10% of the tweets are used publically and are informational. Messages are now easily spread throughout the world because of this site. An example of this is when the Haiti earthquake broke out sympathy was condoned across this network which in turn helped the situation. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Disadvantages **: Twitters disadvantages include people anywhere in the world can potentially spam your account which is vastly annoying at times. According to the survey, 4% of tweets are spams which is a small let down towards this popular social networking site. At times people can abuse this site and become addicted to its contents which in turn can lead to spending more money on everyday bills such as the mobile phone bill.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-indent: 36pt;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Types of Entertainment include so cial networking, music, video clips and online gaming sites. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Examples: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Social Networking //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">- __[|Facebook]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">, __[|Twitter]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">, __[|My Space]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Video Clips //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">- __[|YouTube]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">, __[|VEVO]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">(music videos) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"> Online Gaming Sites- __[|Miniclip]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"> (Flash games), __[|Nitrome]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"> (Flash games) Music- __[|MTV]__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">What is **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">YouTube? ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">YouTube is a free video hosting service.YouTube allows people from all around the world to share, upload and view videos.It allows people to share their interest via the internet. (E.g. Users who have the interest of playing piano could upload a video of themselves playing a piano and get feedback from all around the world.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">The Benefits of **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">video hosting services ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">YouTube allows online marketing to be done without adding extra costs to the budget. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">With all the tutorials available on YouTube, users can learn or find out how to do just about anything by on YouTube. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Users can get the message out or broadcast themselves to people who live in countries all across the globe. This can be great for self-promotion and even business marketing. Available in just about every country of the world, anyone who has Internet access can visit it each day. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Companies or Businesses could pay for YouTube to advertise their product on the home page, like what apple did (see below). Although advertising is possible free on YouTube, but paid advertisements are preferred by big companies <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">The Disadvantages of **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">video hosting services ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Users could upload copyrighted material when they didn’t get any permission from the rightful owner. YouTube doesn’t view any videos before it is uploaded, it is up to the companies to complain about it, and then YouTube takes the video down. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">YouTube has been widely criticized for its controversial contents.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Type of entertainment <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - social networking: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|Facebook]__, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|MySpace]__ , <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|Bebo]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - games and applications: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|Miniclip]__ , <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|Nitrome]__ , <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|AddictingGames]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - video clips: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|YouTube]__, Home-made videos <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - music and movies: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|MTV]__, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|Vevo]__ , <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|PirateBay]__ , <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|TV-Links]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - Example – <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|facebook.com]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Benefits of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|facebook.com]__ : <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - Released in 2004, and with over 600 million users (as of January 2011), Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to create your own profile with your details and interact with people around the world. The site also authorises you to share your pictures and videos with your friends and family, and also share things that are on your mind. Facebook has made mini games, e.g. Texas Hold’em Poker and Scrabble®, and applications that you can play with people and compare your score in a certain game globally. For security reasons, you can enable a system that only lets people that you’ve added as your ‘friends’ see what you are doing and view your images and videos. Due to Facebook, people can now chat with each other half-way across the world without any fees. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Disadvantages of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|facebook.com]__ : <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -18pt;"> - other people. They spam people and repeatedly annoy the m just for the fun of it, causing people to just quit and never use Facebook again. Trolls, There are many privacy and security problems associated with Facebook. Numerous cases of cyber-bullying have come out of Facebook, with many young teenagers joining the networking site and sending other people ‘hate mail’ and starting groups about their peers. Many children have gone into a severe state of depression and some have actually committed suicide after getting threats on Facebook, with people saying that ‘you better not come to school tomorrow, or else’ or various other messages. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Other disadvantages of using Facebook include cyberstalking. Many people (especially kids) add random people that they have never seen or met as their friends, just to impress other people about who’s got more friends. Sometimes this random person could actually be stalker, and with them added as your friend, it enables them to see your information and pictures. Remember that it doesn’t matter how many friends you have, and do not add anyone that you do not know as your friend. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;">Also, there are many people on Facebook who like to ‘<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #800080; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">__[|troll]__ ’<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">other people. They spam people and repeatedly annoy them just for the fun of it, causing people to just quit and never use Facebook again. Trolls, as they are called, do this as they get a sensation of winning every time they make someone give up and ‘lose’. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">__**Dragon Age: Origins**__
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 115%; padding: 3.6pt 7.2pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Sharad Vallabhji ||

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">The internet is an extremely good source for games as it combines ease of access with more fun. There are 2 different types of online games: Free online games and Games purchased on an online store. An example of a game that can be purchased on an online store is Dragon Age: Origins.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Dragon Age: Origins is a RPG with a hint of RTS thrown in. It comes from the makers of Mass Effect and Baulders Gate and was published by electronic arts. It is currently available on the 360, ps3 and pc. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Origins follows the story of your character as they fight their way through the ever changing world of Ferelden. Every choice you make and every word you say alters the plot line, sometimes in unexpected or disastrous ways.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Dragon Age: Origins is linked to the internet in many ways. Fi rstly, dragon age is connected to the EA store meaning that achievement points earned in game can be used to purchase other things from the online store. The game also connects you to thousands of other players worldwide allowing you to chat with other friends and view their achievements. The new idea of using points earned in games to purchase other software of the internet encourages online gamers to buy their products and spend hours playing their games to try and earn enough points to buy another of their games. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">However, this system makes it easier for theft of games from the internet and enables hackers better access to thousands of gamer files and is the only real downside to online achievements. Hopefully in the future the internet will be able to completely block out hackers but until then there is a small danger of theft while playing games connected to web sites.