Community Prewrite

Functions- Xbox live serves as a central connection for gamers to interact and play with each other over the net from different locations internationally and worldwide.

Characteristics- It's benefits are: interaction, fun, competition, tournaments offering cash and prizes and networking.

 Members- Most of the community is composed of gamers, hardcore gamers, professional (MLG) gamers and nerds.

Interaction- The community interacts through the use of a microphone/headset, web camera, or text message in chat rooms, messages and party invites.

Central Membership- All gamers are united through addiction and desire to play video games, compete, communicate or achieve the highest points and gamer score.

Member Consent-  All members choose to be member as illustrated through monthly or yearly payments via microsoft points or visa/credit card.

My intake- I enjoy xbox live and have been for five years now.  The games, competition, fun, intensity and smack talk are all too entertaining to miss.  I dislike the feedback system they have in addition to cheaters, hackers and racists (internet tough guys).

Module I Reflection

+
I Completed assignments on time.
Always in class on time.
Practicing professional conduct at all times.
Did a good job on Powerpoint and Excel.
Was perfect/No infractions.
-
I need to work on verbal communication skills.
Work on being more engaged and interactive.
My low attention span and patience.

Neighborhood Influences

My neighborhood has changed slightly a few times growing up.  As a little kid, I grew up in the grimiest part of Oakland, the 60’s and 70’s.  The crime there was rampant all over with carjacking’s, robberies, murders and shootings.  During the early 90’s, Oakland’s crime rate was at an all-time high.  Everyone living there had to be alert and look over their shoulder to make sure they did not become an innocent bystander.   At the time my family did not have very many resources, we couldn’t afford to move to a better area.   The neighborhood was predominately black and Latino with most of the businesses owned by Korean or Vietnamese Americans.  As an influence, it did not affect me majorly except language habits.  It did make me more aware and cautious of my area and what to avoid.  As a quiet child, I did not really associate with any of the kids with more troubled upbringing.  Most of my family also grew up in the poor area of Oakland but were able to break away from the cycle of drugs, violence and prison that plagued our family to succeed and provide for me and the others kids of my generation.  Towards the middle to late 90’s the crime rate calmed down and my family were able to move to a quieter, but still poor area of Oakland called the 20’s or “Dubs”.  The area was predominately black with some Italians, Latinos, and Asian Americans.  As the decade came to a close, most of the blacks in area were selling their property and moving to Antioch, Stockton and Vallejo.  More Asians and Latino’s moved into the properties, but the crime rate in Oakland was yet again rising and reached an all-time high in 2006 at 150 murders.  Still despite the crime and poverty, I did not let that stop me and never will.  I am who I am despite the neighborhood I live in.    

Legal Crooks and Con Artists

The companies profit from low wage earners by luring in desperate and poor people who need the loan or credit card the most.  The people who need money but are not willing to take out a loan or rely on a credit card know what kind of trap the companies’ snare people in.  So, they move on to the poor, desperate and uneducated, the ones who do not know what interest is and those who cannot or will not read the contract.  Usually to people who don’t understand the contract, the offer is good and seemingly harmless.  But if educated on the ways of those companies, they find the transiency rates can be appalling. Once they find out what they have gotten themselves into, they are in a mountain of debt that they can’t or can barely pay off.  The companies that target the unfortunate charge high interest and service fees to keep the poor from ever paying off that debt.  Their main goal is, “how do we keep people in debt”, in other words, if they are able to eventually pay off their debt then the companies have failed somewhere.  Since those in debt cannot pay it off, they are further denied opportunities and privileges like: buying a house, car or even denied employment due to a poor credit history.  This leads to a vicious cycle of not being able to obtain higher jobs that could alleviate them of their debt and hardships thus being stuck in the cycle of debt and or poverty.   Those who hold the responsibility for putting an end to this issue are the government and the corporations, but it’s well known fact they do not care and never will.  People need to wake from this dream world where government and corporations will all of sudden start to care and fix their problems.  People need to find a different solution to fix their problems like be more observant of how other people fell into the cycle of debt and use them as a lesson or learn to read and do research before hand.  I’m pretty sure almost everyone has a family member in debt, so they can learn from them as well.