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Internet Event of the Year - 2011

Lord JezoLord Jezo Registered User regular
edited December 2011 in Games and Technology
Five years running this thread! So what will define the internet of 2011? My vote this year is for the protests and revolts that happened all over the world. No one specific thing but the internet was used as the way everyone organized and got their assemblies put together.

While it not might be as family friendly as Chocolate Rain back in 2007 it was a pretty big world event.

2010:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/133936/internet-event-of-the-year-2010/p1

2009..

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/108821/internet-event-of-the-year-2009/p1

2008:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/78655/internet-event-of-the-year-2008/p1

2007:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=44279

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  • chocoboliciouschocobolicious Registered User regular
    I dunno, I figured the event of the year is how everyone got hacked, all the time, forever, and still is. This year has been pretty notable as the biggest en masse number of attacks and actual successes.

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  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    When Star Wars Galaxies got shut down, an X-Wing made love to a Sarlacc Pit.

  • The_ScarabThe_Scarab Registered User regular
    Sony being hacked and the aftershocks that are still happening today.

    Hacking personal details in a benign fashion (for fame rather than actual monetary gain) has become a thing now, much more than it used to be.

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    The Sony hack is pretty much the thing.

  • Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited December 2011
    For game enthusiasts: Sony. The hack + the wave of new "can't sue us clauses" that they started are a pretty big deal.

    For the world in general: Egypt. The revolution wasn't televised, but it was Twitter-fied. (Until they shut down the internet. Also a big deal.)

    To some extent the tsunami in Japan as well. The Japanese government kept a lot of information from the people living by the affected nuclear plant. Japanese bloggers and tweeters gave followers a place to read about the event from foreign (often US) new sources in order to keep informed.

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  • SirUltimosSirUltimos Don't talk, Rusty. Just paint. Registered User regular
    Definitely how hacking and theft of personal information has become just another thing that happens. Essentially the beginning of a terrifying future.

    Or the annoying answer: Friday.

  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    I'll add my vote to "everyone being hacked everywhere for everything". It got out of hand for a while there.

    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • HilleanHillean Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Agree w/ the Sony hacking.

    Although you could nearly call it the uprising of Anonymous, or general internet hacking as a whole--Sony may have gotten the brunt of it, but it wasn't just them that got targeted.

    Also, I'd like to thumbs-down the Occupy movement vote. Sure, it was a hot deal for awhile, but in the end, it all kind of dicked out and disappeared, and the last month or so was more or less 'everyone in the Occupy camps are slobs, trash everything, and are pretty much rotten people.' It seemed more like a commune for bums than an actual movement... I think the ideals got lost during the first few weeks. No leadership, no hope.

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Fig has the right idea. Categories that is.

    The events in Egypt are not unlike what happened in Iran in their election and the subsequent protests.

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    We have a new challenger guys. The Ocean Marketing guy losing his shit.

  • dbrock270dbrock270 Registered User regular
    Not even Gaben could stop the onslaught of the hacking.

  • Lord JezoLord Jezo Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote:
    We have a new challenger guys. The Ocean Marketing guy losing his shit.

    That one is pretty awesome but its not very mainstream. It might be big here, Reddit, and Kotaku, but I don't think grandmothers know at all what's happening.

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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote:
    We have a new challenger guys. The Ocean Marketing guy losing his shit.

    Nonono, "Ocean Marketting." Spell it right. :P

    As baffling and hilarious as this is, I'd have to throw my vote in for "everybody got hacked" too.

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    I know it's not as big as the hack story. It's amusing though. And I'm surprised we got something in on the closing days of 2011. I was thinking the thread was pre-mature, but then thought nothing else could really happen. WHOOPS.

  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    The protest stuff just follows from what we learned with Iran in 2010. It's important, but it follows in the footsteps of the what I would consider last year's "big event." And 2010's big event was big because it showed how the internet could promote social change and upheaval. So it's not terribly surprising to see more protests like Egypt and Occupy utilizing social media for their various causes.

    Hacking is nothing new, but it's becoming very widespread and we're seeing that absolutely nobody is safe from it.

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  • THEPAIN73THEPAIN73 Shiny. Real shiny.Registered User regular
    I gotta go with the Sony hacking here too.

    Or the internet being shut down in Egypt.

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Part of what made the Sony thing big was their incredibly long and drawn-out response to it. That was bizarre and still continues to be.

    They almost had me fooled at E3 when whats-his-face came on stage and said, "Y'know what, bad shit went down, screwed over our customers, and we're sorry. This year, no BS, we're just going to tell you guys about awesome games." But then, y'know, Sony's actions across the year just kinda put that apology away as meaning jack and shit.

  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    It's not just Sony.

    We had the whole Lulz Ship deal, which was much smaller but did show some vulnerabilities (admittedly mostly just DDOS attacks, but there was some other stuff). Rift just got hacked this past month, and Valve got hit as well.

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Rorus Raz wrote:
    It's not just Sony.

    We had the whole Lulz Ship deal, which was much smaller but did show some vulnerabilities (admittedly mostly just DDOS attacks, but there was some other stuff). Rift just got hacked this past month, and Valve got hit as well.

    My specific focus on Sony has everything to do with response time and explanation of the situation. Every other case that's happened, the statements came from the companies shortly after notifying people as soon as possible. For Sony, the PSN just fucking dropped and we waited for about two days before they said anything.

  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    The hacking stuff was big news around here, but I'm gonna have to go with the use of social media for all of the protests, uprisings and other events in middle eastern and north african nations in the last year. Obviously the hacking stuff pertains to us here more, being the interweb and a gaming site forum...however, as far as overall internet event of the year, I'm gonna have to go with the protests and such. Time probably got flack for choosing "the protester" as person of the year, but honestly I think they're right.

    It's a pretty big deal.

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  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    But their choice of Protestor goes beyond the internet part.

    The hacking hit more than just game-related stuff, by the way.

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  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Oh, I know, it wasn't just game related, I was just saying that in our little community the hacks are going to feel closer to home given their nature.

    The protests obviously are far more than just social media; but at least from my perspective the validation of social media as something more than time wasters and irriations is a bigger deal than hacks. I view it as a milestone of tech progress, on par with the introduction of consumer level home PC's.

    And it's going to be a generational acceptance too. Just like an aunt who thinks its neat her PC has a pop out cup-holder, you'll have people like me who, despite knowing about reality, will still view things like facebook and twitter like they're a dirty rag that has to be dealt with.

    I will personally, probably, never use Twitter. Nothing I do or say is important enough to bother other people. But these things are bigger than just some twat posting about getting drunk on a wednsday afternoon.

    Yeah, to me that's more important than hacks.

    IF, and only if, something had actually come from the hackings other than annoyance and people bitching, if anything was actually learned, if anything was actually changed, I might be inclined to change my mind. but as far as I can see the end result of all the hacks, be it Sony or a bank, is some people were annoyed, and others changed their passwords. It should have changed things, but I just am too cynical to believe it actually will.

    The social media thing, that's something you can see and feel.

    Anyway, that's just my perspective and I'm sticking with it.

    EDIT: Yeah, to clarify, I just think it was the "Arab spring" stuff that made what I'm saying happen. I guess I wasn't clear. The protests as a whole is a thing, obviously, and not the same thing as what I'm saying, so I probably presented it poorly. I guess I'm saying due to the protests and such, the emergence of social media as something other than some brats posting shitty pictures of themselves is a bigger deal than the hacks.

    EDIT2: Also, you know if you want to get down to it, the way lulzsec and Anon used social media to warn, advertise, and taunt about the hacks only furthers what I feel on this topic. If there wasn't the means to have the information travel about these things as fast as they can now via these things, Sony might have been able to keep their hacks more on the down low. Even gaming sites that advertised it probably didn't get as many people the news as twitter or facebook or whatever. It is the damn near universal use of these (shit, I hate facebook, but I still use it) things that allows these groups to have the impact they do. the whole "kill one to scare a thousand" is much more effecient and effective when you have the means to show that thousand the one dying. Poor analogy but yeah.

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  • DusdaDusda is ashamed of this post SLC, UTRegistered User regular
    Didn't the UN decide that internet access is a basic human right a few months ago? That and stuff like SOPA make for an interesting cocktail.

    Also Weibo is set to launch in the US, and Twitter and Facebook have both been repeatedly accused of censorship with a certain intensity in recent months.

    and this sig. and this twitch stream.
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    edit: misread

    Google+?

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  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited December 2011
    The problem with social media is that it encourages monopolies to some degree. If everyone is on Twitter, then you certainly don't want to uproot yourself and start over on whatever hopes to compete with Twitter.

    Google has failed not once, but twice in trying to get into social media. I suppose some day we'll get someone to support more connectivity between wholly separate media sites.

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  • TeeManTeeMan BrainSpoon Registered User regular
    Dusda wrote:
    Didn't the UN decide that internet access is a basic human right a few months ago? That and stuff like SOPA make for an interesting cocktail.

    I recall reading that, made a pretty big impression on me

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  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Rorus Raz wrote:
    The problem with social media is that it encourages monopolies to some degree. If everyone is on Twitter, then you certainly don't want to uproot yourself and start over on whatever hopes to compete with Twitter.

    Google has failed not once, but twice in trying to get into social media. I suppose some day we'll get someone to support more connectivity between wholly separate media sites.

    It's hard to standardize on something until you decide what that thing is supposed to look like. We're still struggling with HTML after 20 years. Social media in its present form isn't even a decade old. "They don't have an API for that" isn't going to fly when grandma wants to get her Facebook photo tags on G+.

    MKR on
  • DraysothDraysoth Registered User regular
    I'd have to say the many attempted and horribly failed tablet intros - see Blackberry's Playbook and the extremely short lived HP Touchpad.

    Close 2nd would be everyone getting hacked somehow - Sony, EA, MS with the Fifa inspired social hacking, etc. Anonymous made quite a name for itself.

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  • chocoboliciouschocobolicious Registered User regular
    While the social upheaval stuff was a pretty big event, it isn't like the internet part of it was central. Its happened before when twitter didn't exist and was bound to happen with or without social media.

    You didn't mention that when the internet was shut down, a lot of the communication shifted to ham radio and such.

    The hacking thing is huge because it is. In fact, its still happening as of this very second (anonymous and its hacking security, government and private investment firms to steal info which they then use to donate to charities. Robin Hood is in my Intertubes.) Its also making lawmakers reviews tons of old laws and such pertaining to the internet and I wouldn't be surprised to see dozens, if not more, bills spring up all over the world to better codify things like cyber terrorism and such. I know the us is already doing it, as is japan.

    Basically: Egypt was cool and such, but it didn't change the interwebs at all and did nothing ham radio and such hadn't been doing since the 50s.

    The hacking could reshape mister Gore's tubes in a bad way and techno daft politicians are now more interested than ever in castrating it.

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  • Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    I think the interesting thing about the event in Egypt is that the people in power realized just how great the internet's influence is, to the point of shutting it down to prevent the sort of mass communication it was designed for.

    The high profile hackings make us question our security, but I think Sony's "don't sue" clause and its like will have us questioning our legal rights (if they hold up in court).

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  • FremFrem Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    SOPA is pretty high on my list of important internet events, what with US media companies pushing a censorship mechanism down the throat of the neutral internet gatekeeper. But it's still in progress, so I don't know that it's a thing of the year. Yet.

    Frem on
  • Lord JezoLord Jezo Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Was there a video this year that swept the world to the point of non internet forum people knowing about it? Like how the Shiba puppy thing was on Ellen and morning news shows or how Chocolate Rain was on late night talk shows. Did anything like that happen in 2011?

    Oh! Right after I wrote this.. how could I forget?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

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  • mere_immortalmere_immortal So tasty!Registered User regular
    Off topic, but don't we normally have a GOTY thread around now too?

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  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Although I don't like the song, I think it's totally awesome that miss Black found success with it. Thumbs up to her.

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  • elevatureelevature Registered User regular
    Off topic, but don't we normally have a GOTY thread around now too?

    I was wondering that too. It's MCC that usually does it but I haven't seen him around lately. That was always one of my favourite threads.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Lord Jezo wrote:
    Was there a video this year that swept the world to the point of non internet forum people knowing about it? Like how the Shiba puppy thing was on Ellen and morning news shows or how Chocolate Rain was on late night talk shows. Did anything like that happen in 2011?

    Oh! Right after I wrote this.. how could I forget?
    There was Rick Perry's ad :)

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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    elevature wrote:
    Off topic, but don't we normally have a GOTY thread around now too?

    I was wondering that too. It's MCC that usually does it but I haven't seen him around lately. That was always one of my favourite threads.

    MCC decided a long time ago to not really participate in the forum anymore, if I remember right, but he still comes around for GOTY stuffs which has been pretty fine of him. I don't keep in touch and don't know if it will be continued this year. If it does, wait during January, it'll show up then. Can't imagine it's an easy thing to do. Especially since he does it for more than one community.

  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    reVerse wrote:
    Although I don't like the song, I think it's totally awesome that miss Black found success with it. Thumbs up to her.

    I'd love to know how many companies approached her as Black Friday got nearer and nearer and how much money they were offering for her song in their ads.

  • fragglefartfragglefart Registered User regular
    The Guardian has a reasonable summary of some of the events eing discussed here;

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/29/2011-year-review-technology

    Touches of the Arab Spring, destruction of security, erosion of privacy etc.

    For me, the biggest internet event of the year is again the somewhat vague extent to which the internet is still becoming more and more widely used in an increasing number of daily activities, by an increasing percentage of the population. That has massive social implications and I can't simplify the impact with something quite snappy as the outcome of various riots, so I'll settle on the various Arab uprisings.

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  • apotheosapotheos Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Lord Jezo wrote:
    Oh! Right after I wrote this.. how could I forget?

    If you manage to find a way please let us know.



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