Online Entertainment

Entertainment is the most widely used feature on the internet, especially for the younger generation who have learnt to grow up with the internet from a young age compared to some adults. Hours can be spent on the entertainment side of the internet and you would still be as interested and immersed in what you were doing when you started off. There is such a vast area of entertainment online that it is near impossible to categorise them all into sub areas, as there are new software, features and games being put onto the internet everyday. However, despite the vast network of entertainment, there are some programmes or sites that are known to offer endless enjoyment and are used as part of some people’s daily routine to use or check. Some of these being:

-YouTube; an extremely well known site in which users upload and share their videos with the world.

-World of Warcraft and other role playing and massive multiplayer online games (RPG’s and MMO’s).

-Spotify; a music streaming site that gives access to millions of songs from thousands of popular record labels.

YouTube:

YouTube, created in February 2005, is a website in which users can upload, view and share videos. The site contains millions of videos, popular and not so popular, for everyone to watch and enjoy and, for the most part, the whole reason why it is so popular is for the simple fact that it is free, letting you watch as many videos as you want without cost. Videos can reach millions of views within the space of a few months depending on the popularity it gains and some even make a living from blogging or posting videos about gaming, music, and so on. Some companies can team up with YouTube and become “partners” with them so that they can upload music videos or programmes that would usually be featured on TV, some of these include well-known music corporations such as VEVO or popular TV broadcast stations like BBC. Users can also opt to become registered members of YouTube which, if chosen to, allows you to upload as many videos as you wish and also leave ratings and comments on other peoples videos; almost all of YouTube’s users are registered members, since this does not need a payment of any kind, yet you still get more features. Because YouTube is such a widely used site there needs to be some sort of rule and regulations of what can and can’t be uploaded. Users have a lot of freedom on YouTube, of which some take for granted by posting harmful comments on some videos, but some videos require the user to be of an older age if it includes adult humour, profanities etc. YouTube takes its rules and regulations very seriously and if anyone is caught breaking these rules they will be banned almost instantly.

World of Warcraft (RPG’s and MMO’s):

World of Warcraft, or more commonly known as WoW for short, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, created by Blizzard Entertainment and currently holds around 10.3 million subscribers as of November 2011; making it the worlds most subscribed MMORPG and as a result holds the Guinness World Record for being the most popular MMORPG game in terms of its active users and sheer amount of subscribers. An MMORPG is an online game in which a server holds hundreds of thousands of players at any given time and they can all play and interact with each other in the virtual world. Usually these sort of games will be free of offer a time trial of free play to test the game to see if you like it or not and then after that time is up you will need to pay. Although, in some instances, players can choose to become members of the game so that they can gain access to every feature of the game, instead of being limited to just a small section of the game. Most MMO’s and RPG’s hold some basic, common, principles. These often include a natural form of progression over time, character customization, and social interaction and are usually themed around the fantasy genre. There is, however, the huge possibility that one can become addicted to such games, as they offer a totally different and new perspective to a different life, and as a result people can become detached from their real life, spending vast amounts of money to keep up their membership and, if worse comes to worst, can even completely forget about the real world; becoming isolated and shutting themselves away from the world. Never the less, they are an excellent source of entertainment, especially for the younger generation who want to get away from the hassle of school and work for a little while.

Spotify:

Spotify is a Swedish founded music streaming service which gives access to a massively wide range of songs and artists. It was launched in October 2008 and as of September 15 2010 it had approximately 10 million users, with 1 million of those being paying members. The service is available in almost every part of the world, with places including Spain, France and the USA. Unlike YouTube to become a member of Spotify the member needs to pay a monthly subscription fee, which can be done through the means of secure payment options such as PayPal. Though users can choose to register for free accounts, but the downside to this is that some features are not available to the free users. Despite Spotify being a site that needs a paid system for most of the features it offers, millions of users are still happy to pay for the music it offers, because of the sheer number of artists and record labels it has for the customers to listen to. Spotify has been victim to some bad history however. One instance on March 4^th, 2009, Spotify had announced that there had been a security flaw in its services and as a result private account information, like emails and passwords, of registered paying members were potentially exposed. Another instance was where on 28^th January, 2010, an anti-virus software called Symantec’s had marked Spotify as a possible carrier of the Trojan Horse virus which resulted in the disabling of Spotify accounts across millions of users.

Advantages of Online Entertainment:

-There is an unbelievable amount of choice and category’s for games, music etc. There is literally something for everyone.

-It’s a nice get away from the real world if needed.

-Most sites and features are free and you can keep using them for a long time.

-Games, like RPG’s and MMO’s, allow for social interaction which makes the games more interesting and exciting.

-Very little waiting is required for online entertainment, for the most part you click on a page and you are instantly on what you wanted.

-If you wanted to watch a video or programme the day it came out but you missed it you will most likely be able to watch it on the internet on YouTube, BBC iplayer etc.

Disadvantages of Online Entertainment:

-People can become very addicted to online entertainment and become detached from the real world.

-Advertising can get in the way of what you are doing and ruin your online experience.

-Some sites or features may carry virus’s which will be passed onto your computer if you come into contact with the site or feature.

-The quality can be very bad, in terms of audio and visual qualities.

My Experience:

I have used at least several different versions and types of online entertainment in the light of gaming, music, videos and so on. I use YouTube as a source of fun entertainment but also as a source of news and information, as there are many people who upload videos about events and happenings in the world that haven’t occurred in England and this makes for very interesting videos. When I was much younger, about primary school age, playing on games like World of Warcraft, even though that particular game I never played, was all my friends and I would play. It was almost impossible to not play a game where you could fight off monsters and dragons in a large never ending fantasy world; the appeal was actually seeing it and being involved as appose to pretending. I haven’t played an RPG or MMO game on the internet in years, since the days of primary school; my internet time is usually taken up by the means of videos on YouTube and talking with friends on Facebook. I have never used music sites however, such as Spotify, for online entertainment in the way of music; again I use YouTube as a source for looking up music, as most of the time the quality is of a very high standard and I know where and how to look for the music I enjoy and want to listen to.