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Viewpoint
Mountain View High School 2135 Mountain View Road Stafford, VA 22556
STUDENT NEWS Magazine MVHS VOLUME 9 ISSUE 1 October
Sophomore running back Jamil Collison-Cofie stiff arms North Stafford player in the fifth game of the season. Check out his teammate. Page 12.
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The Viewpoint OCTOBER 2014 VOLUME IX ISSUE I
CHANGE I try to pretend I’m not a nervous person, but I am. If I had a dollar for every time I said, “This gives me anxiety,” in a day, I’d probably have enough money to seek help for my issues. There are several things that make me more nervous than others: parking lots at night. Snakes. Movies with possessed dolls. They make my skin crawl. However, there’s one thing that I fear the most: change. There seems to be a whole lot of it this year, too. Since freshman year people have been asking me, “Where do you want to go to college?” I’ve always muttered, “I don’t know, yet,” and until now, it’s been sufficient. As the days until graduation tick closer and closer, my lack of answer gets less and less acceptable. I’ve been planning this big, bright future for years. It’s finally decision time, and I have no clue what to do with it. I groan and complain about high school. As a senior this year, there’s a ton of last first times. It makes me nervous. I don’t know If I’m ready for all the change. Change, in many ways, is thrust upon us. Now that I’ve recognized it’s presence in my life, it seems to be everywhere. Someone somewhere said that when a girl changes her hair, she’s going to change her life. Old wives tale? Maybe, but here’s a story for you.
Editor in Chief
Megan Clark
In an attempt to take some of the summer blond out of my hair, I ended up with bright, bright red hair. The literature student in me can not ignore the symbolism here. Even though I wasn’t planning on it, again, there’s more change. Even The Viewpoint can’t hide from change. If you look over to your right and think you see a new adviser on our masthead, you’re correct. As I previously stated, change isn’t my thing. However, with a bright new staff coupled with a new adviser, you can look forward to good things from us. A (slightly) new look. There’s a lot of things that are different this year. Stakes are high, and time is running out. People move on. Dynamics change. Change, change, change. If you didn’t get my vibe from the last couple of paragraphs, I utterly despise change. I don’t like to be uncomfortable. I guess this is something that applies to everyone. At some point in our lives, change will happen, like it or not. At the end of the day, it’s something that needs to be embraced. There always has been change, and there always will be. Change means progress. Change is good, right?
Assistant Editor in Chief
Sami Toal
Social Media Editor
Erinn Black
Copy Editor
Josh Guillemette Photography Editor
Cory Haley
Business Manager
Sarah Yakulis Adviser
Trisha Strahl The Viewpoint is a cross-section of the news and opinions of the student body of Mountain View High School. It is a forum of expression published by aPrintis. Letters to the editor are welcome and should be submitted to rooms 303 or 307
Staff Writers
Hailey Bullis, Alex Harrington, Emily Johnson, Dekker Jordan, Paul King, Morgan Ocetnick, Lee Penninger, Austin Venable, Nico Villarreal, Sarah Yakulis
Feature figure of the month by Morgan Ocetnik Ciara Havener is the senior captain of the
calling out the cheers. Havener said, “I help
ing coach Sarah
cheerleading squad. Havener has cheered all
them keep their moral up as well as keeping a
Kania describes
four years at Mountain View, two years on JV
positive attitude.” Havener explained that as
Havener as
and two on Varsity. She enjoys entertaining
captain, the cheers they use are ones they have
“strong leader and an outstanding
the crowd and spreading the school spirit. “I
known about since freshmen year, or have just
athlete who gives one hundred
never saw myself coming in freshman year and
added on to them over time. Havener calls out
percent at all times.”
being at the top for senior year,” said Havener.
the cheers with the other captains on Friday
On Friday nights under the lights, Ciara leads
nights, using her loud voice as a leader for all
the team by getting the girls pumped up and
30 girls to hear down the sideline. Cheerlead-
Front Cover Erinn Black
a
2014 Virginia High School League State Championship First Place Award Winner 2013, 2014 Free Lance-Star Best Over All Newspaper 2011 Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medalist 2011, 2010 and 2009 Virginia High School League First Place Award Winner Erinn Black
Mountain View High School 2135 Mountain View Rd. Stafford, VA 22556
Loving The Viewpoint? There’s even more! Check us out on issuu.com to see more pages of content from The Viewpoint EXTRA. october 2014 q the viewpoint q 3
Who failed Ferguson?
MCT Campus
What public distrust means for the local and state governments by Nico Villarreal
I
n Ferguson, Missouri, Aug. 9, Michael Brown, a black teenager set to go to college the next day, was shot to death by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. For several weeks after the shooting, racially-charged protests and riots took over the St. Louis suburb. The happenings and intricacies of Ferguson continue to dominate the news cycle. Although they may have been sparked by the shooting, the culpability for the disastrous events is not completely on any one person, not even Darren Wilson. Since the shooting, a massive growing distrust was revealed between the people of Ferguson and their state and local governments. A distrust that existed far before the shooting. Hardly surprising considering 67 percent of the town’s population is black and only 5.6 percent of the police force is. On Sept. 10, an angry crowd attended a public meeting for the City Council of Ferguson, the first one since the shooting. While the council focused on routine business, the people of Ferguson called for Mayor James Knowles, and Police Chief Thomas Jackson to step down.
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Complaints about racial profiling, ineffective city leadership, and police harassment were met with applause. I think most would agree both the council and the police can be pointed to as institutions at fault for the recent protests. Highlighted most by the meeting were the problems of racially directed harassment and profiling by the police, and overall inaction by the city council. Where the local government has taken action, in the form of vague proposals for a citizen’s review board of police and the lowering of fines and penalties in the municipal court, it has only been reactionary action. The reason there exists decentralized authority, the reason there are local governments in the first place, is to better respond to the specific concerns and welfare that change from region to region, or the concerns and welfare of people who are not represented in the majority on the national level. Yet, the local government failed far before the shooting of Michael Brown. The distrust between the people of Ferguson and their police force went unaddressed. When Michael Brown was shot, the fumbling and foolish
way the police department handled the case, with releasing unnecessary details and changing their story several times in an attempt to push culpability away from themselves, resulted in a distrust that exploded into civil unrest. While confronting the protesters, the Ferguson police were often seen misusing military grade weapons, vehicles and equipment they acquired through the Pentagon Excess Property Program which sells old military hardware for little to no cost to local police departments. The scene of police pointing guns at protesters, fingers on the triggers, treating them more like enemy combatants than citizens of the United States, was one that was repeated many times in Ferguson. “You see the police are standing online with bulletproof vests and rifles pointed at peoples chests,” said Jason Fritz, a former Army officer and an international policing operations analyst. “That’s not controlling the crowd, that’s intimidating them.” By treating the case and protesters this way they allowed more and more culpability to piled upon them. The failures of the Missouri state
government were slightly different. It certainly appeared as if they did their best in a deteriorating situation, with the early action of declaring a state of emergency, imposing a curfew and deploying the National Guard to end night-time looting. But the curfew only caused more distrust between protesters and the government. As Margaret Huang, deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA says, “It’s clear that the community doesn’t feel heard. It’s hard to build trust when the governor won’t meet with community members and restricts their movements with a curfew. The people of Ferguson should not have their rights further restricted.” While the actions of the state government are understandable, they did not help to solve the problem. With losing the trust of their people these governments also lose their legitimacy and deserve little more than dissolution if they do not make amends. The problems of distrust won’t be solved with force, guns or curfews. They can only be solved by the state and loval governments addressing the grievances of the people. of Ferguson.
sexy shoulders E
What is really being enforced by the dress code? by Sarah Yakulis
Sarah Yakulis
arly fall is the prime time for problems with the dress code. Those super cute shorts you wore practically every day this summer? Nope. That adorable tank top? Sorry, we can see your shoulders and the overwhelming sex appeal of a shoulder may just be too much for teenage boys to concentrate on school work. There is much said about our dress code. Just get on Twitter to see the ranting or listen to a group of girls talking to each other on a hot day at lunch. Of course, some parts of the dress code are simple to understand. It should be no surprise that you aren’t allowed to expose your entire body or permitted to wear clothing that would directly interfere with your safety or work. I think we all agree that not being allowed to wear fringed garments around machinery isn’t outrageous, but at what point does the dress code take away our freedom of self-expression, and our freedom of speech? According to libertarianrock.com, in 1999, Heather Wells, a high school student from Indiana, protested her school’s dress code. Her school didn’t allow the students to wear tank tops or have any body piercings. She said that this was unfair for two reasons. Heather, and other students that supported and assisted her protest felt as if the dress code banned them from expressing their individuality. Also, the students complained about their town, and especially school, being extremely hot and uncomfortable, especially when they weren’t allowed to wear basic tank tops. Over 250 students at Heather’s school signed a petition to get the school board to re-examine and change the dress code. In addition to presenting the petition to the principal, students rallied together and protested the strict rules by wearing tank tops and body piercings, which are against the school’s rules. In the end, they were successful. Many students participated and they got to have a discussion with the principal. In addition, the protest prompted all students and teachers to reconsider the harsh dress code and make changes. The problem with our dress code isn’t that wearing leggings or tank tops is actually a distraction from school work. It only becomes a distraction when we put so much emphasis on a little thing like a shoulder or half-an-inch of a stomach. When a teenage girl spends more time planning her outfit to make sure it fits the strict standards than being sure her homework is done, because breaking the dress code yields a harsher punishment than not completing an actual school assignment, we have to see that there is a problem. Maybe the school board should be considering what they’re actually enforcing through the dress code. They’re teaching teenage girls to cover up their bodies, to conform to a standard society has of treating males as if they’re more important. Girl’s are taught from a young age to act a certain way around all men; it can be interpreted as common courtesy, but what if we aren’t getting the same respect? Why do we as females have to cover up our shoulders and small parts of our bodies deemed inappropriate so that guys can focus? Shouldn’t we put more our energy on teaching men to respect women? If a teenage boy is not capable of focusing on his school work because of a female shoulder, the answer isn’t to tell the girl to cover herself or change, the focus should be on making teenage boys control their hormones enough to get a basic education. Limiting a women’s right of dress and expression so a male can somehow receive a better education is a prime example of sexism. Now I’m not saying we all start a protest and rebel against our school, that probably isn’t the smartest thing to do, nor is it likely to get us what we want, but I do believe Stafford needs to re-examine the dress code, and make sure it isn’t taking away our rights.
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Christiankarateacademy.com Panoramio.com
Potomaclocal.com
Panoramio.com
panoramio.com
Stafford isn’t always so boring... What is there to do for fun here? by Morgan Ocetnik
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veryday someone has something new to say about Stafford County. People say, “It’s so boring here,” or “I would rather live anywhere else but here.” Stafford County is a highly populated place with many people and businesses. It is so hard to find things to do in the area or places to go without driving 30 minutes out. Neighborhoods in Stafford are continuously being built when they could be constructing something more useful that Stafford does not already have. Our county neighbor, Fredericksburg, has plenty to do, but it is not fun to drive far when you can stay in the place you live. People who have lived in Stafford their whole lives and have adjusted to finding things to do besides going to the movie theater, Stafford Market Place or Moes. Many people have found adventurous places to hangout when needed to stay in the area and still have fun. De’Nae Whittington has lived in Stafford, Virginia for 17 years. She said, “Well there’s things to do in Stafford, but you just have to find them.” Over the summer De’Nae went paintballing with a group of friends at Power-line Paint-ball in Stafford County, off of Poplar Road. She explained that it’s in the woods, and the owner owns about six acres of land that contain three fields. In the three fields, you will find obstacles and things to use for cover and hinding. Government Island opened up last year in Stafford County. Government Island is near Aquia Creek, but the exact location is online. Reagan King visited Government Island in the summer with her family and enjoyed hiking and
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taking her dogs on a walk. She explained that Government Island has a lake, a wooden path for walking, trails, and historic sites. Reagan said, “We really like to go camping and hiking and we really wanted to stay local in Stafford.” Austin Cole enjoys going to a place called Aqua-po. Many people don’t know about this place but it’s located near the Potomac River by Brooke Point. It seems to be reserved and away from everything else. Aqua-po is a beach-like area. You can find shark teeth in the sand and go fishing. Austin Cole has lived in Stafford his whole life and has visited this area since he was a kid. He loves to go and hangout with his family while fishing. In the summer of 2013, Dylan McLaurin visited Aquia Landing also near Brooke Point. The first time he went there was with his parents. He later visited with a big group of friends. He explained that the area is similar to a beach and that he and his friends like to go to hangout and have fun. Aquia Landing is fun to go fishing, swimming or boating in the river, with also bringing a grill and corn-hole to play. If you are looking for one more fun place to go fishing, kayaking or canoeing, Ian Hodge recommends Abel Lake. Ian has lived in Stafford for ten years and has been visiting Abel Lake for two years. Hodge loves to hangout at Abel in the summer with the warm weather and the refreshing water for swimming.
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A class too full This year has been marred by budget cuts, teachers leaving and jam-packed classes, but will things change? by Paul King
Roads that lead into Stafford County, Virginia are marked with signs that read, “Stafford County: A certified business location.” Driving through Stafford, you’ll see brand new houses and new neighborhoods ready to be built, ready to take in the fresh tax revenue, tax revenue that should only enhance public services, including education. Read Forbes, you’ll see Stafford ranked as the ninth richest county in the United States in 2014. What you will also see are high school classes with upwards of 35 students. You’ll see confident, skillful teachers forced to leave Stafford for a higher paying job, not getting a real raise in their salary in upwards of five years; there isn’t any room in the education budget. What you will see is money going to new housing developments and new business developments that isn’t going to education. A very small portion is, but in a policy indicative of Tea Party Republicanism. Residents and businesses in Stafford pay incredibly low property taxes. The low taxes facilitates development of the county, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The bad thing is how low per-student spending is in Stafford. Some would see the expanding tax base as something that would help the education budget situation, but it only exasperates it. Fifty-five positions within Stafford County Public Schools were eliminated going in to 2014-2015, as part of a new budget plan that began this year. For the ninth richest county in the United States, the fact that teachers have to get cut is atrocious. The main problem is the firm belief held by the Stafford Board of Supervisors that they provide enough money to the school board. When it’s pointed out that there isn’t enough money, the Board of Supervisors blames it on wasteful spending by the school board. This has been an issue for a while. The small education budget means that the per-student spending by Stafford County is low compared to other counties in Virginia, let alone the United States as a whole. This is the same county that ranks ninth in per capita wealth in the country. Per-student spending is a measure of how much a county spends on one student on average. A former Stafford teacher with first-hand experience of low per-student spending said, “With lower spending per pupil you get larger class sizes, textbooks that are outdated and teachers who do not feel they are being valued. When this happens the climate in the school goes down and it makes it a hard place to learn and work.” The lack of funding directly influences teachers’ pay. In Prince William County, teachers on the lowest end of the payscale make $45,988, compared to $37,793 in Stafford. That’s a difference of $8,195, and that’s only at the entry level. At 13 years of experience, the current payscale has the Prince William County teacher making at least $58,837, while in Stafford, teachers at the 13th level makes only
$51,697. For many teachers, the extra commute north is worth it. There’s little incentive for teachers to sign on or stay in Stafford. “When you have to compete with school districts with higher pay, it’s tough to entice teachers to come (to Stafford),” said assistant principal Eric Cooke. And teachers are very aware of the difference in pay. The former Stafford teacher was very frank as to why they left. “The difference between my pay in Stafford and Prince William was close to $10,000,” they said. The new budget plan could make that number go up. “With the change in benefits that Stafford was looking at, not only would I have not gotten a raise, but my take home pay would have been less.” That’s how teachers are being rewarded for their years of service: by having their salaries cut. “Our teachers have really stepped above and beyond their paygrade, though,” added Cooke. “They’ve really done a great job with dealing the bigger class sizes.” Several problems come with increased class sizes. Forgetting the fact that a full class is downright uncomfortable, there almost weren’t enough desks at the beginning of the year to accommodate large class sizes said Cooke. “The enrollment hasn’t changed, but we’ve had a reduction in staff, therefore class sizes go up ... But from an instructional standpoint, it’s difficult to teach classes that once had 30 students but now have 40.” The increased class sizes present a different challenge to anatomy and biology teacher Margaret Gallagher. “The bigger class sizes makes it harder to run any sort of laboratory experiment. With 35 in a class, we barely got through a lab today. It makes it very difficult to go to each group and help them figure out what’s going on [in the lab]. It’s going to be much more difficult in anatomy with dissections ... It makes it dangerous. When you have eight kids around a single sink, things got spilled today that have never gotten spilled before.” The budget cuts have made things much tougher for Stafford teachers. The larger classes make instruction, grading and everyday tasks harder for the Stafford teacher compared to other districts-all the while being paid less. Conditions will only get worse for the students. The new developments mean more children and more crowded classes. The board of supervisors has to understand the consequences of underfunding the schools, and the consequences apply directly to the student body. Plain and simple, students are getting a lower quality education, because of the board of supervisor’s firm belief that the schools have enough money. There are several instances that disprove the board’s beliefs, but things have only gotten worse over the years. It’s time for a change. For the ninth richest county in the United States, there is no valid reason for underfunding arguably one of the most important government services: education.
Paul King
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Life back home 1
2
3
Students and teachers share what it’s like to have a loved one overseas by Lee Penninger
As the anniversary of 9/11 comes and goes, we are reminded of the sacrifices of many men and women serving in the United States military and their families. A large community exists at Mountain View who are directly affected. Several Wildcats’ parents and spouses have been or are currently deployed overseas. So what happens to these students’ and teachers’ lives when their loved one leaves? Government teacher Abigail Murray said, “I had to do everything. I had to rent out the house and sell the house among many other things,” in reference to her husband Captain Robert Murray leaving for Afghanistan in 2011. Senior Bailey Whitaker said, “[My family and I] can’t do certain things. Like when the car breaks down, we have to take it to a mechanic because he’s not here
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to fix it.” Furthermore, she remarked that her mother had to take on another job because her father’s pay is being docked. In regard to changes in responsibility, Senior Caroline Koscheski said, “I do more around the house. Like now I mow the lawn and that sucks. [My mom and I] have to learn dad duties.” The transition home can also be difficult. Murray regarded it as “...the harder part. I became accustomed to doing things my way and all of a sudden I had to start compromising again.” Koscheski said, “When [my dad] gets home, I’ll be moved into college. It’s like we will never really be the same family again.” We all know it will be a happy homecoming, but the sacrifices these students and faculty make cannot be marginalized. They are just as important as those actually serving overseas.
Photos provided by the families
1. Senior Bailey Whitaker and her father Colonel Joseph Whitaker, currently deployed in Afghanistan
2. Abigail Murray and her husband Captain Robert Murray, deployed to Afghanistan 2010-2011
3. Caroline Koscheski and her parents Jolisa and Colonel Michael Koscheski currently deployed in Qatar
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Cory Haley
Brothers Andrew Dass (left) and Anthony Dass (right) pose in their different uniforms on the football field.
Two different worlds Brothers Anthony Dass and Andrew Dass may live in the same house but they live two completely different lives. by Cory Haley The Viewpoint: What is your role on the field? Anthony Dass: I’m a trumpet player and I’m the rank leader for the trumpet section where I teach kids to march. Andrew Dass: Hype man. If on the sideline I’m always jumping around screaming. I’m always getting the team pumped. VP: Why didn’t you do football Anthony? Anthony: My question everyday when I go to practice is why do I have to hit him? Why do I have to do that? What’s there to prove? I just didn’t feel the sport. I didn’t make me feel good like band and music does. VP: Andrew, you did chorus as a kid why did you stop? Andrew: Chorus wasn’t that fun for me. It didn’t have the adrenaline rush that I wanted. VP: Anthony, why did you decide to go into band? Anthony: In my house we listen to a lot of music so I’ve been interested in music for a very long time. My brothers and I started out taking drum lessons early on. We did a lot of listening to music and drummers. VP: What’s your favorite thing about band and football? Anthony: Everything. There is no specific part. I just love being able to come every day, sit down with some of my greatest friends, and come together to play the most amazing things and feeling the emotion while playing. Andrew: The excitement. When you’re out there up against people with your adrenaline rushing.
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VP: How do you think you’re doing now? Anthony: I think I’m doing exceptionally well. I’ve grown a lot in the past four years because I remember when I was a freshman and I had a weak tone, weak sound then it just exploded from there. I progressed well, my reading is better, my playing abilities strengthened. I feel like I’m ready for whatever comes next. VP: Tell me about your brother. Anthony: My brother? He’s stupid, he’s big, he’s fat, he’s annoying, but I’m kidding. He’s difficult sometimes. He tries to control everything because he’s two minutes older. He’s him. He’s his own independent person but there’s nothing bad about him. He’s always there for me. I’m always there for him. We have our differences but we’re the same. Family. VP: What’s alike about you two? Anthony: We’re both funny or can be funny. We bounce off each other. He does one thing I do the other but they’re kinda the same like football and band. I do band which is part of the spirit in the school and he does football which is the main spirit of the school. Two different points that build spirit in the school but at the end of the day we’re both trying to do the same thing. Andrew: We both like to argue a lot. What are the differences between you two? Andrew: He likes band I’m more of the sports kind of person. I’m more of the talkative person he’s more of the keep to himself person but he gives more details I’m more straight to the point. VP: Do you two get along at home?
Anthony: At home it is a constant battle between me and him. I don’t know a night that isn’t an argument about who did what and who’s supposed to do what and why we did that. It’s morning, noon, and night with him. In the morning we argue once and in the night we argue at dinner three times. Some days we’ll have good days where don’t even fight and agree on everything. Andrew: For the most part yeah. We argue a lot but there are good times in there too. It’s like you’re still my brother, its cool. VP: Your little brother does football and band. How does that play into your relationship? Anthony: He has both of our personalities and both of our gifts. We all have our different competitions with each other on who what better. Like me and Aric, I’m doing one thing in band and he’s doing another and I’m like we’re this and we’re doing It better than you. Aric and Andrew, they just talk about their football all day long, different plays, who’s going to do what, how we’re going to match the next team. VP: Do you think he looks up to you both? Anthony: I would think so since we’re 18 months older than him. Basically he’s done everything we’ve done. He’s looking at us for what to do and where to go but he does pretty well at doing his own thing. We do support him with some type of guidance. Andrew: In a way. If I’m not going hard in practice he won’t or since I was on varsity before him he tried to get up there.
m .co ea
BS
by Joshua Guillemette
Electronic Arts and other game companies have been restricting content, ripping off gamers and hoarding money for many years, yet, not enough people care to do anything to do about it.
www.desinythegame.com
www.battlefield.com www.ea.com
lectronic Arts: awarded “The Golden Poo Award” two times in a row consecutively. An award given by the Consumerist for being the worst company in America two years in a row. Although they lost to Time Warner Cable, EA was nominated again for a third time. Sure, EA puts out great looking games that seem exciting. They, and the media, hype up these games to such a high standard that when these games come out people are disappointed because they are super buggy -crashes, game breaking glitches-, don’t work and don’t live up to the amount of
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hype and expectation that the games were supposed to have. A great example is SimCity which was developed by Maxis and released Mar. 5, 2014. When released, its state was atrocious. Servers were always down, people had to be connected to the Internet and many different elements of the game were broken. On Metacritic, the number of positive reviews by users are 273. The number of negative reviews are 1,732. Six times the number of people disliked the game rather than enjoyed it. Another example is Battlefield 4. Developed by DICE and released in Oct. of
last year, this game was also buggy and not quite yet ready for launch, much like SimCity. The game constantly crashed and had problems with the network code that still exist today. These examples explain what they messed up, but it doesn’t explain how they messed up in the first place. Electronic Arts owns so many game development studios now that this money-thieving company forces studios like Maxis and DICE to pump out unfinished games so they can get their money as soon as possible. John Bain, better known as Totalbiscuit: The Cynical Brit, or Totalhalibut, a self-proclained gaming critic on YouTube would agree. Other YouTubers would concur as well. Joe Vargas, aka Angry Joe has uploaded various rants to YouTube about this exact ordeal often commenting on how the big companies suck the money right up. Another mistake EA has done is make way too many downloadable content (DLC) so they can further receive more money on top of the $65 consumers already payed for the game. To add that all up for SimCity, with eight DLCs totals to roughly $120. For Battlefield 4 along with original price from release and all of its DLCs, the last one having recently come out, amounts to $140. For example: Bain lead a campaign against EA when he found out that multiple DLCs would be released for Mass Effect 3. The issue goes beyond EA. More and more publishing companies are jumping on EA’s bandwagon. Destiny, created by Bungie, was published by Activision. Despite the great gameplay, the campaign is very short and incomplete. Why is Bungie, the creators of the game that revolutionized the FPS world
with one of the best campaign stories of all time releasing a game with an unfinished story? It’s because Activision, by corporate decision, told Bungie to chop it up and put the remainder into DLCs. These companies are ripping us off, just to suck us dry of our money. Not enough people to care. Even if there is a protest against these companies, other’s will buy the next, new upcoming game which is why companies like Electronic Arts do not care. In conclusion, big gaming companies are just milking consumers of all our worth by stretching a good, rich story into thin, chopped up pieces. They also put out incomplete games, just to get their pay check sooner. People don’t care enough about this issue because even though the consumer gets shafted over and over again because we can’t control the temptation and peer pressure of the “new best thing!” So, the dos and don’ts (mostly don’ts) on considering to buy a game: firstly, don’t believe the hype. Remember Titanfall? It was supposed to be a really good game. People are not talking about it anymore, because EA paid gaming journalists to give it shining reviews. Don’t buy the game on release. Wait and see how other people, not journalists from IGN, Gamespot or other journalistic sites of the like, rate the game. If you do decide to buy a new game, be prepared for loads of disappointment. Think of all the mainstream games that came out in the past year. Most, if not all, have fallen short of our expectations. october 2014 q the viewpoint q
by Dekker Jordan
activision.com
For this game to live up to the hype, it would have had to have given the most amazing gaming experience in the history of creation. So let us move past the hype and get to the game.
Destiny, has none
The unfortunate thing about Destiny, which is a hybrid of first-person shooter and an online multiplayer game, is that while it does have an unique combination of features, I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly Destiny was trying to be. Some people have told me it’s a first-person shooter with massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) elements. I knew that was utterly untrue before I actually bought the game. I was there for the Beta, that’s the test version they let people play before release for those wondering, and once I was beyond the opening sequence of said Beta I was barraged with nothing but features you’d find in MMO’s. Controls don’t leave much to be desired having been made by the team that brought you Halo or at least the developer that brought you Halo. It’s a first-person shooter so don’t expect any major innovation here. Now at this point I could continue talking about how the graphics are nice and the game didn’t throw up all over itself, but that all should be a given so I won’t waste my time with that. What I will talk about though are the design choices I noticed about the game and I’m not talking about the character design. Though I’d like
14 q the viewpoint q october 2014
to point out how sometimes I had a trouble telling the difference between enemies at a glance. One of the stranger design choices that does not make sense for a player vs. environment (PvE) shooter is a levelling system. As much as it seems like a good idea as a way of separating out the new guys from the veterans, a first-person shooter denotes progress by making new ways of killing the enemy available to the player as they progress through the game.
a first-person shooter, a traditionally flowing gaming genre that relies heavily on pacing to give an exciting experience, is very bad. The problem for Destiny is while it is not actually as much of a “grind” as other online games, it feels that way and how a shooter feels is very important. In a PvE first-person shooter, a player is kept engaged with pacing and while a self-contained mission in Destiny can be well paced, the overall experience can feel a bit start and stop.
It’s a distraction, something to do when you have no better games to take up your time.
2.5 out of 5
As a result, levelling is hindering this experience. On the other hand, Destiny has more going on in it than Halo or Doom did being online as it is. As far as I could tell though from what I played, shooting is still a big part of the game. The problem levelling can create is a feeling of grind because in order to level to get farther in the game, players sometimes have to “farm”, kill enemies for experience. That for
Destiny reminds me most of shooters like Borderlands and Fallout 3, both being first-person open-worldish shooters with a levelling system. The difference between them is how the first-person element was worked into the game. In Fallout it felt like simply another aspect of the game and not the core element around which everything revolves and was better for it. Borderlands, on the other hand, felt like it did revolve around
shooting things and suffered as a result experiencing the same problems as Destiny is now. There was another first-person shooter that I played that tackled the massive multiplayer online form of gaming, Planetside 2. In Planetside 2, as in Destiny, players are all plopped in the same free-roam environment that allows players to interact. That is where the similarities end and where Destiny’s other offering, player vs. player, finds its greatest rival. Planetside 2 is solely player vs. player, giving it an edge right off the bat simply due to being specialized. Other games aside it’s worth saying that if you are just looking to kill time, Destiny is actually very good at that. The same qualities that make it repetitive also keep you busy and in the end it wasn’t a case of having nothing to do while playing the game that made me stop and never look back. Also, because it’s not that engaging you can put it down when you need to and not even care. Now, from I got to see, I didn’t see any reason for someone to buy the game as it is. It didn’t engage me enough to see it as the best game to buy if you are strapped for cash like I am. It’s a distraction, something to do when you have no better games available to take up your time. It just stayed too broad in what it was attempting in order to hit enough points to be a good overall game.
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students @ work
The real royalty of MVHS Students play princess and prince to make some cash. by Sami Toal
H
ow many young kids dream about being royalty when they grow up? Probably a lot. Now, thanks to two local companies Princess Parties by Heidi and Imagine Entertainers students around the school have grown up to become real-life princesses and princes. “The Little Mermaid has always been my favorite princess,” said Ashley Utterback, who plays Ariel for Imagine Entertainers. “Now that I get to be her, it’s my dream job.” The job of being royalty isn’t as easy as it sounds though, as the hired princesses must dress completely in costume and then travel miles away to host children’s parties. “The only big difficulty is costume changes,” said Hannah Cruzan, who plays Anna, Elsa and Barbie for Princess Parties by Heidi. “For example, on some days I have parties as Anna and then Barbie, so changing in the car is very hard.” Check out below to see what students think about wearing the crown.
Pictures provided by Princess Parties by Heidi and Imagine Entertainers
“A lot of people don’t know that when I play Rapunzel, it’s not just a wig. The top part is my real hair and the long, bottom part connects to the ends of my hair because I have the right color to match. The hardest thing about being a princess would be having to paint their faces because they can’t stay still!” - Jordan Johanson
“Basically, working at a party is like being a celebrity for an hour. The kids notice the funniest things, like since I play Elsa they’ll tell me stuff like, ‘You’re hand is so cold.’ One little girl even pulled me aside and whispered, ‘Don’t tell Anna, but you’re my favorite.’” - Shelby Pedigo
“It doesn’t bother me being the only guy. I just do it. You get a lot of money and the boys usually talk to me more. The kids follow me out to my car but it kind of sucks because they think I’m riding in a carriage, and it ruins the illusion.” - Ian Hodge
“My hands are naturally cold so if there are kids who ask me to use my ice powers, or think I don’t have them, I let them touch my hands. Their reactions are priceless! They’re so amazed because they really do think I have ice powers.” - Bri Biorn
“I play Elsa and Ariel so to get ready I need a wig, the makeup, and the costume. You have to deal with the funny looks you get while you’re driving. The kids are so excited and it’s awesome making their day. Sometimes they cry because they’re so happy.” - Addy Anderson
“I would describe my job as very fun. I like making kids’ days. At my first party, the girl was wearing an Elsa costume so when she saw me, she was speechless and then ran up to me and hugged me.” - Haley Olsen
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“My favorite thing is seeing the kids’ reactions when entering a party. When I walk in, they’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, Cinderella, Cinderella, Cinderella. Cinderella’s at my party!’ Sometimes when I’m not working I forget I’m not wearing my costume, and I’ll smile at every kid.” - Abigail Ranberger
“The parties pretty much consist of singing with the kids, getting to know them, making the birthday girl feel special and playing games. The best thing about the job is definitely knowing that I made someone’s day and that memory will be with them forever.” - Emma Olbetter