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WEDNESDAY | 04.09.2014 | MaceandCROWN.COM | Vol. 56, Issue 20

Old dominion university

Mace & Crown

NATE BUDRYK| M & C

Higgins, Monarchs Put on Offensive Show, Beat William & Mary by Fifteen By:Nate Budryk Sports Editor Mace & Crown The rout was on Wednesday as the Old Dominion University baseball Monarchs’ offensive attack made easy work of the William and Mary Tribe, defeating them 20-5 at Bud Metheny Stadium.

In a game where every Monarch starter recorded at least one hit, P.J. Higgins, the sophomore infielder from Connecticut, led the charge. Higgins had four hits and an impressive five RBI, two coming on a single in the Monarchs’ astounding nine-run third

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Minor Tubulence

inning, and two more coming on a double in the fifth.

“It feels good going into this weekend… and it was a good all-around team win—21 hits, 20 runs, so everyone swung the bat well, and that’ll give us a lot of motivation going into this weekend,” Higgins said.

The Monarchs’ nine-run third inning really was the difference in the game. “You score nine runs in an inning, that’s a great inning, but we put together a lot of good innings and a lot of good at-bats. I think we had eight extra-base hits and 21 hits overall, so the guys did a good job,” Coach Chris Finwood said.

Other sources of offense came from ODU’s shortstop and leadoff man, Nick Walker. Walker, a freshman from Virginia Beach (Kellam High), had three knocks in the game, including a 2-run homer to really break open the game in the Monarchs’ huge third inning.

“I think it gets us in the right location to go down to Miami this weekend. This definitely gets us motivated. We’re all seeing the ball really well. We’re in the weight room a lot, getting bigger, stronger, faster. We attribute a lot of it to that… and just trying to hit the ball hard,” Walker said.

The big innings and huge offense from

ODU helped to bail out Monarch starter Tommy Alexander, who allowed five runs on eight hits to the Tribe. Alexander has shown flashes of excellence at Old Dominion, but has lately been struggling with consistency.

“We’re trying to get Tommy Alexander figured out, he’s just been struggling. He wasn’t great today either. We had to go get him in the fifth with a nine-run lead, but he did some better things,” Finwood said.

“The bullpen was really good. Brad Gero threw the ball well. Turner Bishop threw it well. So the bullpen did a good job, just trying to get Tommy back on track.”

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Monarch Madness

C2 We Don’t Want ‘Bama

This win comes as a great morale boost after the Monarchs’ tough 7-1 loss to number 1-ranked UVA in Charlottesville.

“It feels great. They [William and Mary] have a great club. They’re having a good year, and offensively they’re really good, so they kind of jumped up on us and I thought our guys answered the challenge,” Finwood said.

The Monarchs next play on the road is against the Florida International University Panthers in Miami.

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Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | A1

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

MACEANDCROWN.COM

NEWS

EDITOR: SEAN DAVIS | NEWS@MACEANDCROWN.COM

Mace & Crown Staff : Derek Allen Page Editor-in-Chief editorinchief@maceandcrown.com Sean Davis News Editor news@maceandcrown.com Adrienne Mayfield Arts & Entertainment Editor Copy Editor artsandentertainment@maceandcrown.com copy@maceandcrown.com Nate Budryk Sports Editor sports@maceandcrown.com Ellison Gregg Photography Editor photo@maceandcrown.com Jonathan Kwok Senior Graphic Designer layout@maceandcrown.com Elijah Stewart Graphic Designer Assistant Jason Kazi Advertising Director advertising@maceandcrown.com Sean Burke Webmaster webmaster@maceandcrown.com Noah Young Assistant Webmaster Alyse Stanley Technology & Gaming Editor astan023@odu.edu

Senior Writers: Jasmine Blackwell Brian Saunders Pamula Floyd Mitchell Brown Matt O’Brien

Staff Writers: David Baah Mark Fulton Symmion Moore Veronica Singer Joshua Stanton David Thornton Kimberly Joy Ward Noah Young Kemma Effiong Brian Minnick Eric Guy

Staff Photographers: AJ McCafferty Claud Dargan Ari Gould Chris Ndiritu

Nikita King

Mace & Crown is a newspaper published by and written for the students of Old Dominion once a week throughout each semester and once in the summer.

Originally founded in 1930 as the The High Hat, the paper became the Mace & Crown in 1961. The Mace & Crown is a primarily self-supporting newspaper,maintaining journalistic independance from the university.

All views expressed in this collegiate paper are those of the author, not of the University, Mace & Crown, or the editors.

JASON KAZI| M & C

Minor Turbulence in SGA Election By:Derek Page Editor-in-Chief Mace & Crown After weeks of campaigning, the Student Government Association general elections are over, but not without a bit of controversy.

Sources in the Office of Leadership and Student Involvement (LSI) informed the Mace & Crown that presidential candidate Chris Ndiritu and vice presidential candidate Carina Wicker suffered a 2 percent deduction in votes

resulting from issues that teetered the line of legality.

Ndiritu checked out 10 iPads for friends to use as mobile polling stations.

They wore “Vote Ndiritu-Wicker” campaign buttons and urged students to vote outside of designated polling stations.

The friends were not affiliated with SGA. Ndiritu called the penalty “ridiculous,” claiming the friends weren’t aware they were campaigning near designated polling stations.

Illegal campaigning resulted in the disqualification of vice presidential can-

didate An Pham.

Pham’s votes were deemed invalid after he was found distributing flyers and campaigning via email after the official campaign time ended. Campaigning was to cease and all material to be removed by 5 p.m. on March 28.

The decisions were made in a closed meeting between the candidates, SGA and faculty members of LSI. Despite the penalty, Ndiritu won the presidency with 1053 votes and Wicker won the vice presidency with 746 votes.

“I’ve worked hard to be in the posi-

tion...literally blood, sweat, and tears,” Ndiritu said. “I’m very excited to be working for the student body. I feel as though my experience in SGA, as well as Carina’s, will give us a big advantage in the next year.”

Courtney Miyamasu won the office of secretary with 978 votes. The candidates for treasurer and speaker of the senate, Vincent Saravia and Kyle Francis, respectively, ran opposed and will serve their roles in the 84th session of SGA.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | A2

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JASON KAZI | M & C

Alumn Panel Concludes Media Week, Weeks Later.

By: Sean Davis News Editor Mace & Crown After weather conditions forced it to be rescheduled, the alumni panel discussion, “Media: Then and Now” was held in the Kornblau Building on the evening of Thursday, April 3.

The original week of events, scheduled to celebrate WODU’s 40th anniversary, was set for March 3-7 but several of the events had to be rescheduled due to snow. Thursday, April 3, two days shy of a month later, the final event, the discussion closed out the series.

The panel featured four successful media professionals who attended ODU including Barry Graham who is a producer at WHRO/WHRV, Jeffrey Myers, the chief photographer and news operations manager at WAVY-TV, Woube Gubre a producer with the City of Hampton, and Jenner Mason an editorial assistant with the Norfolk Compass.

They discussed their college media experiences, their professional careers, and how the media has changed over the last 20 years.

“When I worked for the Mace & Crown I had a big thing, a cover story, and I remember the thrill of watching other people read it,” said Mason who graduated in 1992 (the same year moderator Alex McGinnis was born, as he noted).

“That’s really when I got the bug,” she continued, “it was just really a thrill to write

something and put it out there and have people read it.”

The panelists elicited a common themeyou have to start somewhere, and college is a good place.

“I started my broadcast career at WODU… my first day, it was like there I was, I had a radio show… and I had no idea what to do,” said Myers, who’s now been in journalism for three decades.

There were mixed thoughts on how the media, especially news, has changed. On one hand, old-guard institutions like newspapers have been going out of business, but on the other hand the internet has allowed greater access to information than ever before.

“The internet is this great tool but it’s also a wasteland,” said Myers, alluding to the wealth of misinformation prevalent in it.

Social media, conglomeration and internet and satellite radio and have created a radically different media environment according to Graham, who’s been involved in public radio for 30 years.

“In some ways college radio and public radio are the last bastions of what it was supposed to be,” he said.

“If you work at a newspaper now, you don’t have just one job,” said Mason, explaining that cutbacks and layoffs have slimmed down workforces but not work loads.

“Don’t just know reporting, she continued, “you have to be a good storyteller.”

Myers left the audience with a piece of advice and a challenge.

“What are you doing to make yourself better than everyone else, to make yourself stand out from everyone else?” he asked.

“Embrace changes… you’re always learning, you’re always working on the next best thing.”

“And just because you haven’t made it to New York City doesn’t mean you aren’t successful.” Gubre added.

Media Week brought in several other notable alumni, including Jeremy Coleman, current vice-president of programming for Sirius XM and distinguished sports writer Christine Brennan, as well as several members of the Virginian-Pilot staff.

Despite the fact that all of the events were still held, the weather over the course of the semester has not been a friend to organizers of the event.

“I was very worried [about the cancelations], “said WODU Public Relations Director and Mace & Crown advertising director Jason Kazi, “next year we will definitely start planning for it in September if we hold it in the spring, and have a backup week.”

Barry Graham graduated in 1982 and is a producer at WHRO/WHRV. Jeffrey Myers graduated in 1984 and is the chief photographer and news operations manager at WAVY-TV. Woube Gubre graduated in 1999 and is a producer with the City of Hampton. Jennifer Mason graduated in 1992(and is an editorial assistant with the Virginian-Pilot and the Norfolk Compass. (caption info^)

Arrest Made In Tropical Smoothie Robbery By: David Thornton Staff Writer Mace & Crown The Old Dominion University Police Department apprehended Derek James Lochotzki, the suspect believed to have robbed the Tropical Smoothie last month. The arrest of Norfolk resident, Lochotzki, 22, was announced on April 1.

ODU Spokeswoman Giovanna Gerard announced the arrest to the student population via an emailed safety alert update. There was some conflict in the original reports.

Gerard stated that Lochotzki had received a bond hearing, and was being held without bail. Amanda Howie, of the Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, said that he did not receive a bond hearing, he had been arraigned.

Detective Taylor of the ODU police department confirmed that he did have a bond hearing on March 31, and was being held without bail.

Detective Janka of the ODU police department led the investigation that ended in the arrest. Police have not divulged any of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

On Tuesday, March 4, Lochotzki allegedly walked into the Tropical Smoothie at 4316 Monarch Way around 8 p.m., and handed the cashier a note implying that he had a weapon and demanded cash. After receiving an undisclosed amount of money, the criminal fled the area on foot. Police cannot confirm whether or not he actually had a weapon.

Lochotzki was not an ODU student. He lived in the area, but had recently moved here. His hearing is scheduled for May 1.

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

CRIME LOG

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: ADRIENNE MAYFIELD | ARTSANDENTERTAINMENT@MACEANDCROWN.COM

Monarch Madness Mesmerizes Masses By: Adrienne Mayfield Copy Editor Mace & Crown

The evening’s excitement was palpable as a line wrapped around the corner of the Ted Constant Center an hour and a half early for Monarch Madness. One of the first warm days of the year, students donned club gear, buzzed with anticipation, swaying their hips to the blasting background music and shooting selfies to pass the moments while inching closer to the door.

The line up, Air Dubai, Jhene Aiko and Chance the Rapper made Old Dominion University so thirsty.

April 4’s Monarch Madness concert saw one of the largest turnouts of a SAC event of the year. Over 5,000 tickets were sold preshow, with more students purchasing theirs at the door. The Ted Constant Center was

filled almost to capacity as people continued to flood in during the first and second acts.

“Monarch Madness is a revamp of SAC’s annual event Campus Chaos. For the concert portion, I knew I wanted to do a large production. Chance the Rapper and Jhene Aiko both embody a fun mix of genre’s I thought ODU students would enjoy live.

The show was nearly sold out too, with almost 7,000 tickets sold,” Amira Taylor, SAC concerts director.

Self-described as “hip-pop,” Air Dubai opened the show with an energetic mix of rap, strong guitar chords and pulsing drumbeats. The band is currently touring the college circuit and is getting pumped for their first Warped Tour, coming up this summer.

Air Dubai’s roots are in Denver, where the original members, vocalists Julian Thomas and Jon Shockness, released their first inde-

pendent mix tape, “The Early October,” in 2009. They recruited the last four members Lawrence Grivich (guitar), Michael Ray (keyboards/synth), Taylor Tait (bass), and Nick Spreigl (drums), from another band and began rehearsing in Shockness’ parent’s garage.

“My mom would bring out tea and everything,” Shockness laughed.

“We would just have these random neighbors stand there and stare,” Grivich said. “It made us feel good because we were just a garage band at the time.”

A garage band no longer, Air Dubai admitted that Monarch Madness was one of their biggest audiences to date and one of the most exciting line-ups they’ve ever opened for because they really respect the artists.

“We’re personally huge fans of both artists,” Shockness said. “It’s kind of cool to be

here and play with them. I’m trying not to like geek out about it.”

“Whoever put that [the lineup] together was a genius,” Grivich agreed. “We’re stoked to be playing this.”

As the crowd began to fall into the rhythm of Air Dubai’s raps, it was time for the stage change in preparation for Jhene Aiko. The air in the venue began to tingle with exhilaration and agitation. The combination of heat and overstimulation caused fights to break out in the pit, creating a wave against innocent bystanders. Slamming into one another and knocked down smaller concertgoers.

Some people decided to enjoy the concert from the safe confines of the stadium seating, but despite the fights happening, many loyal fans braved the floor. Groups of friends linked arms and snaked their way through the packed pit, forging room that wasn’t there in hopes of being an inch closer

to the songstress.

Aiko did not disappoint the crowd who passionately sang alongside the sultry artist.

The routine built upon some of the lesser known songs, climaxing at the end of the performance as the crowd shouted along to her radio single, “The Worst.”

Her performance seemed too short to many, who pleaded for her not to depart the stage. Still, the crowd thickened even further as Chance the rapper took to the mic, opening his performance with “Everybody’s Something.” The pit, already filled to sardine like capacity, further thickened. Thus giving patrons literally no space to move or breath, except to raise their cell phones in the air, flickering signs of individuals in a faceless crowd.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | B2

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

A Woman’s Worth

By: Joshua Stanton Staff Writer Mace & Crown The Downtown Art Center of Hampton Roads held an opening reception for its 24th annual Mid- Atlantic Art Exhibition at the d’ART center on April 4. Glass rooms showcased the free exhibit, which featured the works of 50 artists from across the nation and will run until May 18.

Live jazz music and free snacks accompanied the reception as twinkling lights stretched overhead the strolling guests.

“I love the art. I see a lot of it often since I’m here a lot. Some of the artists are old friends. It’s like, y’know visiting with friends, and there’s nothing here I don’t like,” guest of the exhibit, Craig Adams, said with a smile.

The largest space displayed the exhibit “Consumption,” by Nicole Harp. Harp, a former Old Dominion University undergraduate, develops a dialogue between the guest and her art by provoking thoughts about what society’s behaviors are doing to the earth.

Traditionally an abstract painter, Harp blended mixed media with imagery to convey this idea of consumption within the United States. Motioning across the room to her exhibit, she said, “It flows the way the ideas flow. I start with the ‘60s and this idea of excess. The ‘60s were just the height of excess, and all this color. Then we start to lose our color, and this idea of humanity.”

“Consumption” plays with a stringed

metaphor behind the images. Recycled steel frames that hold images illustrating the effects of an industrial society and how its subtle influence on nature has amplified with time, prompts the question, “ is there time to recuperate?”

“It’s really just to get you to question – what do you see for our future,’’ Harp said.

Harps mother, Doris Harp, was among the guests at d’ART center.

“She works very hard, and I love her work. It changes all the time y’know? Everyone has their period, and she usually out does herself. She’s really happy about it, and it’s a good show,” Doris said.

Parallel to Harp’s exhibit, was a room filled with the collection of admitted submissions, ranging from all artistic mediums, such as digital photography to oil painting.

Nearing the end of the reception, executive director Jennifer Palestrant, garnered the attention of guests with the distribution of awards, including Best-In-Show.

“Last but not least, because it’s actually first, Best-In-Show. Now best in show for 600 entries, 50 finalists and a lot of blood, sweat and tears goes to… Janice Gay Maker,” Palestrant said, to roaring applauses and flashing cameras as she handed Maker her award – an envelope of $1,5000 .

As the night came to an end, guests began to slowly trickle out. The artists and d’ART Center look forward to future exhibitions such as this.

“We do a lot, and we’d like to do a lot more,” Palestrant said.

JOSH STANTON| M & C

Find Your Place in the Sun I OF THE SUN BY RICHARD ARTHUR

By: Kimberly Joy Ward Staff Writer Mace & Crown An autobiographical adventure, “I of the Sun,” by Richard Arthur, regales the reader with an odyssey across Asia. Arthur, the narrator and protagonist, confronts strange situations, psychological and social dilemmas and various degrees of culture shock.

The story begins with the narrator taking a one-way trip to Kuala Lumpar, the capitol of Malaysia. He then crosses the Thailand border on bike, takes a long-tail boat on Laos, walks across the Cambodian border and Vietnamese borders in the span of one year. The youthful insanity pushes for metaphysical dilemmas in between.

Originally from Cambridge, Richard Arthur wrote this novel in reflection of his first year in Asia. A story about him as a newly graduated young man from The University of Leeds attempts to understand human nature’s complexities while he searches for the true meaning of life and morality. The juxtaposition between his personal struggles and the larger conflicts exhibit a parallel ethical dilemma and address it on both scales. His degree in Management Studies & Philosophy shows through the difficulty to define a definitive ethical standard and the impossible attempt to fulfill it. Now living in Bangkok, Arthur works as a writer and university lecturer.

Within “I of the Sun,” Arthur defines his literary voice through a raw male perspective as he goes though the cognitive expansion in a bildungsroman. Utilizing the metaphor of wandering as a rite of passage, he explores the quandaries of the human condition

through the well-integrated interior monologue. The philosophical aspect permeates through the adventurous tone and follows how the idealistic views of the narrator collide with the harsh realism of the world.

The natural swings in perspective between the two opposing views aids in a maturing paradigm shift that the narrator endures. The gritty reality complimenting the pure intentions and idealism provides a strangely philosophical chiaroscuro. The semantics and vernacular portrays such an overwhelming disorienting undertone as the narrator attempts to understand him and the rest of humanity.

“I of the Sun” requires an active imagination as the snippets of imagery are well integrated but vague to the degree that allows for personal interpretation. With this necessary interaction with the medium, “I of the Sun” becomes a unique flavor of escapist fiction, in which the reader joins the narrator on a fantastical journey while exploring the same philosophical debates within the same context.

This literary work embodies a quilt of emotions, experiences and consequences through a cohesive adventurwe narrative.

The adventure is in the rollercoaster of life’s simplicities taken to their logical extreme as the narrator’s type B personality invites the oddest circumstances. There are a range of interesting set-ups and payoffs in many of these scenarios, but not enough actual conclusions to numerous threads of speculation that leaves the reader with more questions.

Thus giving an obtuse sense of cultural awareness. The material within this narrative seems to lean more educational value rather than entertainment value, yet it had some

very entertaining moments.

Most of the entertainment value can be attributed to the narrator making some pretty interesting choices. “I of the Sun” describes the most masculine road trip scenario with alcohol, drugs, sex and misadventures that leave the narrator barley breathing.

However, it also addresses the morality and extent these activities should be experienced without an ethical meltdown. It approaches every scenario with dignity and a reverence completely portrayed through the author’s tone and artistic style. This point of view slants the literary work toward the male demographic, but women can find this book interesting for different reasons.

As a woman, the rawness of the male cognition often missing in the literature directed toward the female demographic as a point of enlightenment, not about what guys think but how guys think. Women are often spoiled with delusional fantasies about how men think similarly, but this novel highlights the stark contrast of cognition, even more than most of the fully developed, well-written male characters. This piece of literature does touch on what guys think and it does follow some conventions of stereotype, but the way it handles the material speaks of a real maturity.

Overall, this book was a good read that requires a lot of attention to really appreciate. Richard Arthur is very confident with his literary voice and particular style of narration. Those who would like to branch out into reading the autobiographical genre as well as those well versed in its complexities will appreciate his work.

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Big Man on Campus

By: Alyse Stanley Technology & Gaming Editor Mace & Crown Comedian Ronnie Jordan had Old Dominion University students erupting with laughter with his college-themed theatrics and self-depreciating humor on April 2 in the Webb Center.

Jordan, headliner of the RJE Comedy Cabaret Tour and featured comedian on P. Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy, is no stranger to the university scene. He was voted 2011 College Comic of the Year and toured record-setting 102 colleges in 110 days.

Opening for Jordan was comedian Jay Dukes, a South Carolina native who has performed at over 50 colleges. Dukes warmed the audience up with candid jokes about college dorm life, dating and his religious upbringing.

Dukes listed anecdotes about his college experience, particularly about having little money. Several members of the audience shouted “preach” when he joked that pregaming sites were determined by which friend had the best wifi.

“We know how to ball on a budget,” Dukes said.

After a few failed attempts, he got the audience to sing along to two impromptu rap songs based on lines in his jokes and live broadcasted the “takes” to Instagram. After the show, Dukes explained why he incorporates music and audience participation into his act.

“This might be college students first time experiencing live comedy so you want to focus more on entertaining and giving them some comedy. It’s kind of like hey, you’re coming to class, I want you to take a test, but we’re going to watch a movie first,” Dukes said.

After Dukes, Jordan strutted on stage to a round of applause and thrumming bass of rap music. As he began his performance,

By: David Thornton Staff Writer Mace & Crown Love was in the air at the Norfolk Zoo on Saturday, March 29. The drizzling rain couldn’t dampen the fires of passion as couples learned about the mating habits of animals. It turns out people have a lot to learn.

The Norfolk Zoo held its third adultsonly event on March 29, entitled “Love is in the Air.” The first two, both called “Kiss and Tail,” happened around Valentine’s Day in 2013 and 2014.

The “Kiss and Tail” events focused on how animals get it on, while this event focused more on courtship rituals in honor of springtime, although there were still plenty of raunchy details to amuse the guests.

The events have been big successes so far.

Guests were given the option of which section of the zoo they would like to experience (Asia, Africa or nocturnal), and are then taken on an hour-long tour by docents, basically volunteer teachers/tour guides.

The docents for the Asian tour, John and Marie, explained that the Norfolk Zoo belongs to the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This organization promotes breeding programs at zoos. Animals are often exchanged among zoos in the organization to broaden the diversity of the gene

music cues from an off-stage assistant played after the set-up of each joke, to which the audience respond positively.

Though some students compared this style of comedy to Katt Williams and Kevin Hart, Jordan explained that the technique belongs to no single comedian.

“It’s an old parlor trick that you got to use because college kids are pretty much like ‘impress me, please’ so you have to come out with your little smoke and mirrors a little bit just to get them into it,” said Jordan.

Jordan wasn’t afraid to address a subject most comedians would stray away from: the number of empty seats in the room.

“How are all 13 of you doing,” he said.

“We could have done this in a circle. Played duck duck goose.”

Taking the small turnout in stride, he singled out audience members and incorporated running jabs at them into his act.

Jordan filled his set with self-depreciating humor about his weight and jokes about how other people perceive him. He cited growing up with a “food network certified” chef for a father as one of the causes of his love for food, and a source of bullying in school when he would bring restaurantquality meals for lunch.

He also joked nostalgically about subjects everyone who went through high school or college could relate to, such as school lunches and getting along with roommates.

When audience members did not laugh as loudly as he anticipated, he took it in stride.

“If you don’t think that’s hilarious, get out now,” Jordan said. He explained certain jokes twice, enunciating the punch line when he thought that audience members didn’t understand.

Jordan played several parody rap songs he wrote, the “fat versions” as he described them, after he jokingly “turned into a rapper” by turning his hat backwards. To much applause from the audience, he sang a paro-

dy of K Camp’s “Money Baby” called “Hungry (Munchies) Baby,” among others.

For his final act, Jordan brought out a honey bun from his pocket that had been there the entire show.

“It’s a perfect 98.6 degrees. Perfect temperature to eat with a fork and or butter,” Jordan said. With music that matched the tone playing off stage, he pantomimed the internal struggle whether or not to eat the pastry.

Once he finally gave in, the music switched to a more seductive song, but it wasn’t long before he dropped the honey bun. Several members of the audience gasped, thinking it was an accident, but soon sad music began

to play revealing it had been planned.

“I loved the honey bun skit. That was fantastic. When he dropped it, I didn’t see it coming. I felt for him! He seemed so excited to eat it,” Rondell Wrice, a student at ODU, said.

While many students had not heard of Jordan or Dukes, several found their first impression of the two entertaining.

“They were both really funny. I felt like it was just a good time, the whole thing,” Nini Norris, ODU student, said.

Others came specifically because they were not familiar with the performers.

“I was just excited to see people that I’ve

Love is in the Air

pool.

The docents were full of interesting details about the mating habits of the animals.

For example, Malayan tigers will go at it for two to three days before the female is finally aroused.

The stars of the show were the Binturongs, also known as “bearcats”, who put on an impromptu show for the guests. As the group rounded the corner, John pointed out that the bearcats have a distinctive musk that smells like popcorn, especially when they are actually breeding. Seconds later, an unmistakable whiff of Orville Redenbacher wafted past.

As the group approached the habitat, the bearcats (Susie and Rugus) were clearly visible in a small house atop a post, only three feet from the walkway. They were curled up together, and the whole area smelled like a movie theater.

Sure enough, after a moment, they shifted positions only slightly, and the whole group burst into laughter as Rugus began pumping away. “Hey, what else can you do when it’s raining outside?” Marie asked, garnering laughs of approval.

The bearcats weren’t shy, and continued going about their business as John provided commentary. “If he’s doing a good job, she’ll make a low, purring noise,” he said. As if on cue, Susie made just such a noise. “Oh baby,

oh baby!” John said, to renewed laughter.

Not long after Susie voiced her approval, the deed was done. Apparently, bearcats don’t cuddle afterwards. Rugus wasted no time leaving, and quickly made his way to the other shelter. Considering how fast he cleared out, it must have been a booty call.

“Wham, bam, thank you ma’am,” John said.

The rest of the tour proceeded uneventfully, although the male tapir did demonstrate his considerable pheromone-laden urine spraying abilities. No one was quite sure where he was hiding the super soaker.

After the tour, everyone proceeded to the cafeteria to watch a hilarious presentation on courtship rituals and mating habits presented by Tidewater Community College biology professor Lisa Behm, entitled “Be Mine.” A full buffet was laid out, including chocolate-covered strawberries and every couple shared a bottle of wine.

Behm told the gathered couples that she worked at the zoo for many years, and had started teaching nights at TCC “mostly to keep me out of the bars.” Her sweet, slightly ditzy persona deceptively hid a fountain of knowledge about the animal kingdom.

The purpose of sex is genetic diversity, explained Professor Behm. Females choose which males they want to receive sperm from based on any number of criteria.

“Shopping for sperm” was how she phrased it.

Courtship is a method males use to convince females to accept their sperm, she explained. Males show off their best attributes in order to pass along their genes, while the females are very choosey. “Nobody wants mediocre kids,” Behm said.

She explained that this is the basis for the saying “opposites attract.” It truly applies to genetic diversity, especially in immune systems. She told the group about the “stinky shirt test,” where men were made to wear the same shirt for a number of days without showering or wearing any kind of scent or deodorant.

The shirts were given to women, who had to choose which scent was the least offensive to them. Without fail, every woman chose the shirt of the man who had the most complimentary immune system.

In the animal kingdom, 90 percent of birds and only three percent of mammals are truly monogamous. “Promiscuity is the norm,” said Behm. Only swans, gibbons (a kind of ape) and sometimes wolves are truly monogamous, mating for life.

Males have any number of techniques they use to attract females, and Behm pointed out these different techniques, juxtaposing them with their human equivalents.

Males advertise their physical health by

never heard of before,” Shawna Owens, ODU student, said.

Despite the lack of attendees, Jordan and Dukes both said they thought it was a good show and enjoyed coming to ODU. Jordan said that he would rather have a smaller, engaged audience like the one he saw that night, than a crowd of people who would rather not be there. Dukes shared his sentiment.

“Every time I hit the stage, I always think it’s a blessing. So I appreciate everyone for coming out and having a good time with us,” Jordan said.

trying to look good, because looking good is equivalent to good health. Birds displaying their plumage were depicted alongside teenagers primping in front of the mirror.

Males also “sing” to females, emitting certain calls and other noises to attract attention and warn away other males. Males also learn specific “dances” in order to impress females.

Elvis demonstrated this behavior in humans.

Animals also use pheromone-laden scents to attract potential mates. Behm explained that colognes often use weasel musk because of its strong pheromones.

Animals also bring potential mates gifts and build houses to impress them. And if all else fails, Behm says they resort to simply “beating up another dude.”

Members of the audience kept sharing amused and accusatory glances with one another throughout the presentation, reveling in racy inside jokes. It was clear that many had no idea just how wild their relationship really was.

After the presentation, it was time to leave. With a pleasant wine-buzz and springtime thoughts of romance floating through our heads, it was time to go home, fill the house with the scent of popcorn, and see where the night led.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | B4

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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NICOLAS NEMTALA| M & C

By: Maria Victoria Staff Writer Mace & Crown The Downtown Art Center of Hampton Roads held an opening reception for its 24th annual Mid- Atlantic Art Exhibition at the d’ART center on April 4. Glass rooms showcased the free exhibit, which featured the works of 50 artists from across the nation and will run until May 18.

Live jazz music and free snacks accompanied the reception as twinkling lights stretched overhead the strolling guests.

“I love the art. I see a lot of it often since

Glass Houses

I’m here a lot. Some of the artists are old friends. It’s like, y’know visiting with friends, and there’s nothing here I don’t like,” guest of the exhibit, Craig Adams, said with a smile.

The largest space displayed the exhibit “Consumption,” by Nicole Harp. Harp, a former Old Dominion University undergraduate, develops a dialogue between the guest and her art by provoking thoughts about what society’s behaviors are doing to the earth.

Traditionally an abstract painter, Harp blended mixed media with imagery to convey this idea of consumption within the United States. Motioning across the room

to her exhibit, she said, “It flows the way the ideas flow. I start with the ‘60s and this idea of excess. The ‘60s were just the height of excess, and all this color. Then we start to lose our color, and this idea of humanity.”

“Consumption” plays with a stringed metaphor behind the images. Recycled steel frames that hold images illustrating the effects of an industrial society and how its subtle influence on nature has amplified with time, prompts the question, “is there time to recuperate?”

“It’s really just to get you to question – what do you see for our future,’’ Harp said.

Harps mother, Doris Harp, was among

the guests at d’ART center.

“She works very hard, and I love her work. It changes all the time y’know? Everyone has their period, and she usually out does herself. She’s really happy about it, and it’s a good show,” Doris said.

Parallel to Harp’s exhibit, was a room filled with the collection of admitted submissions, ranging from all artistic mediums, such as digital photography to oil painting.

Nearing the end of the reception, executive director Jennifer Palestrant, garnered the attention of guests with the distribution of awards, including Best-In-Show.

“Last but not least, because it’s actually

first, Best-In-Show. Now best in show for 600 entries, 50 finalists and a lot of blood, sweat and tears goes to… Janice Gay Maker,” Palestrant said, to roaring applauses and flashing cameras as she handed Maker her award – an envelope of $1,5000 .

As the night came to an end, guests began to slowly trickle out. The artists and d’ART Center look forward to future exhibitions such as this.

“We do a lot, and we’d like to do a lot more,” Palestrant said.

Tidewater Comicon is Coming By: Seann Barbour Staff Writer Mace & Crown Tidewater Comicon is the first comic book convention to be hosted in Hampton Roads for nearly two decades. The con is scheduled to be held in the Crown Plaza Hotel at Town Center in Virginia Beach on April 12. Admission will be free for all.

Mike Federali, the founder of Tidewater Comicon, has been hard at work to promote the event. He began planning out the con in June 2013. A comic writer himself, as well as a comic book store clerk, Federali used his own paycheck to slowly build the con from the ground up. By September, the groundwork had been the laid, and word was beginning to spread.

“The ball started really rolling in September,” Federali said. “By September I was running into people that were telling me about it, not knowing that I was in charge of it!”

Of course it wasn’t easy. Tidewater Comicon will be the first comic book convention in the area in almost 20 years. Naturally, many were skeptical that it could be pulled off, and many more were hesitant to support

it.

“It’s all been tough because it’s year one,” Federali explained. “In year one, a lot of people, they don’t want to work with you until you’re already established, but you can’t get established without these people, so it’s a bit of a Catch 22 as we started. But once we got a couple of people under our belt, more people saw that it was definitely happening.”

Perhaps the biggest source of news on Tidewater Comicon has been the Facebook page. With over 3000 likes, the page has been making regular announcements to a wide audience. In addition to con announcements, Federali and his right hand man, Bryan Atkinson, had also actively used the page to post comic book news, memes and to pose questions to the community.

Scheduled for the con are a number of guests in the industry. Perhaps the most high-profile guest will be Ethan Van Sciver, an artist known for his work on DC’s “Green Lantern.” As a North Carolina resident, Sciver was willing to come up to Virginia and spend a day at the fledgling con. In addition to Sciver, the con will also host Reilly Brown. Brown is a Virginia Beach native, coming home to attend the con after having

drawn “Deadpool: The Gauntlet” for Marvel Comics.

Bob Frantz of the radio station 96X will be also be present. The DJ will be hosting a trivia contest that all attendees are welcome to participate in, but trivia isn’t the only contest. Tidewater Comicon will host a cosplay contest as well; one that boasts a total of $1000 in prizes. Best in Show will win $400, while Best Male, Female and Group will win $200 a piece. All costumes must be childfriendly and home-made and functional weapons are prohibited.

For younger fans, the con will hold a coloring contest. “We’ve drawn up a mascot that we’re not actually going to show until the day of the contest,” Federali said. “It’s just a little character, and we’re gonna let kids color it in. And we’ll announce the winner among those kids.”

A number of local stores, such as Fantasy Escape, Comic Kings, Atlantis Games and Comics and Untamed Worlds, will have a presence at vendor tables at the con. Ensuring that there will be a lot of merchandise and memorabilia for fans to purchase. In addition, the K9 Justice League, an organization that helps find homes for dogs, will also

be present.

For those interested in the comics business, the con will host a number of panels.

The topics range from how to get into comics, to how to write for them. The group Action Packed! will also host a panel dedicated to cosplay, exploring both how to create a costume, and the wider culture that surrounds the practice.

Federali has ensured that the con will be free, and insists that there are no hidden fees.

The Crown Plaza will be hosting free event parking on the day of the con, and no admission fee will be required. To do this, Federali has relied mostly on donations and his own paychecks. “I work at a comic book store and my paychecks for the last few months have been going directly into doing this. Someday that’ll pay off, but right now I’m in the hole and I don’t care,” Federali said.

Over the past few weeks, Federali and Atkinson have been all over the area, dropping off flyers at a number of stores. They have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of enthusiasm for the con, as well as how many people are willing to help spread the word.

“I wouldn’t want to waste the amount of volunteers that are popping up out of the

woodwork that absolutely want this to happen,” Federali said.

“Like this guy, Jeremiah at GameStop, he’s giving out a flyer with every copy of “Titanfall.” This girl we just met to drop off flyers yesterday; she works at the airport, and she meets just tons and tons of people every day, and she’s like ‘I’ll just have them on me and give them to people.’ ... The stores themselves? That makes sense. But the people that have really no vested interest? Like they’re just doing it to do it? To make it a big convention? That’s just been inspiring.”

Hopes are high for the Tidewater Comicon. Next year’s event is already being planned, and Federali hopes to do a Halloween event in the fall as well. He has started to use Facebook to gauge community interest in such a “Halloween Spooktacular Event.”

So far, the idea appears to have been met with quite a lot of enthusiasm.

The Tidewater Comicon Facebook page can be found at facebook.com/tidewatercomicon and the official website is located at tidewatercomicon.com. Come Saturday, April 12th, the con will officially kick off, and everyone is invited.

©2013 Feld Entertainment

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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SPORTS

EDITOR: NATE BUDRYK | SPORTS@MACEANDCROWN.COM

Where Do We Go From Here NCAA HIDES ILLITERATE STUDENTS BEHIND MISLEADING GRADUATION STATISTICS

By: Brian Saunders Senior Writer Mace & Crown I caught HBO’s award winning show “Real Sports” last weekend. From it, I realized the NCAA and some universities are even shadier than I ever thought. Earlier, in March at the Miami International Airport, a Businessweek magazine cover with the University of North Carolina Tar Heel’s basketball jersey plastered on it- the jersey displayed the letter “F” for failed, caught my eye.

Once my ride arrived at the airport and I was settled at my destination, I Googled the article from the magazine and I came to disturbing conclusions.

UNC covered up several academic scandals and admitted students who read on elementary levels. It looked the other way when football and basketball players signed up for fake classes and even steered them into majors with no substance, so they could obtain a degree.

The NCAA’s contract with student-athletes says, although they will not be paying its student-athletes, in the form of money, contractually it will provide its student-ath-

letes with an education as compensation for their athletic talents.

North Carolina is a high profile Division I athletic program.

For incoming admitted students to be eligible for Division-I sports or receive scholarship assistance, they must complete four years of English, three years of math higher than Algebra 1, two years of natural science, one extra year of English, math or science, two years of history and four years of electives.

The NCAA changed its rules; it used to be, students must maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.0 and obtain a SAT of 820 and ACT sum score of 68. (ncaa.org) Since 2003, in an attempt to bolster admission, test scores no longer matter – the University must simply graduate a minimum of half their student-athletes.

The NCAA even runs a campaign, “NCAA going pro in something other than sports.”

Undoubtedly, college kids receive more accolades and recognition for their play on the field than achievement in the classroom.

It was once argued that a minimal academic requirement for student-athlete opportunities was unfair to disadvantaged youth. In

the collegiate setting, if one is lucky enough to play a collegiate sport, academics and sports should be given the same amount of time and effort. In the term student-athlete, student life comes first, however, as a scholarship-bearing athlete you are held to a certain requirement within the field of play.

Schools are supposed to treat academia with the highest respect and importance.

However, these players are tools used to achieve, once they cannot perform any more they are tossed aside, and it’s on to the next one.

As I said, student-athletes are expected to devote the same dedication to sport as they do to the classroom. To put it mildly – UNC did not adequately set up its student-athletes to balance the rigors of one of the top-rated colleges in terms of academia in the country. Students whose literacy was questioned were given passes instead of being given the help they needed and steered in the right direction. Academic advisors turned the other cheek and allowed students to cheat, helping them maintain enough academic standing to play sports, but sacrificing a legitimate education for the student-athletes.

Fan admiration for high-level college sports is unparalleled. The student-athlete

signs on to honor a dual commitment as both an athlete and student. A typical college student spends 13 hours in the classroom per week; add that with weight lifting, team practices, conditioning, film sessions and game traveling.

However, what happens to these kids once they graduate? “Real Sports” reporter Bernard Goldberg spoke to former Tar Heel football player Bryan Bishop. Bishop told Bernard, “ from the first day I stepped foot on campus I had a schedule.” The athletic department pre-assigned Bishop and other players like his former teammate Michael McAdoo majors. “To stay on course with graduation we need to take these courses,” Bishop told Goldberg with a look of disdain on his face.

Gerald Gurney, former professor at the University of Oklahoma was in charge of making sure enough players graduated from the football and basketball teams-, which meant pushing them towards the easiest class and easiest degree options. “And there’s one like me at every big-time university in the country,” Gurney said during “Real Sports” air time.

Same old narrative; capitalism and positive statistics for the NCAA to point to while

boosting up its resume and campaign that it is adequately preparing athletes for life outside of sports.

Dasmine Cathey, a former University of Memphis football player, got into the university without the ability to read above an elementary school level. He told Goldberg he would lock his bedroom door, dig into a stack of Dr. Seuss books and teach himself how to read; he demonstrated with “Green Eggs and Ham.” Cathey got an interdisciplinary studies degree from Memphis, however, he took classes such as yoga, intro to dance and beginning tennis. In addition to that, Cathey failed 13 courses and received 7 grades of a D on his way to a degree.

Cathey agreed to take an administered standardized test with his scores of 67 percent in reading, 26 percent in writing and 20 percent in math, put him on par with middle school students.

It’s all a game and the NCAA does what it has to do to bolster its personal image. More and more information is being released, and soon the jig will be up. The universities’ mission is to educate its students, all of themadmitting students on false pretences with intent to win games is a SCAM.

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Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | C2

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Meet The Blue Raiders A LOOK AT A NEW C-USA FOE

By: Mitchell Brown Senior Writer Mace & Crown If there is one issue Old Dominion University Football had last season, it was finding a way to stop ground games. Week after week, the Monarchs would give up almost 200 yards rushing a game. This season won’t be any easier for ODU as they have to face the 31st best rushing attack from last season in Middle Tennessee State University.

The two C-USA foes will create a rivalry on September 26 inside a packed S.B. Ballard stadium. There is no typo with the date; it in fact will be a Friday night game for the Monarchs, the first in the program’s brief history.

History has been a huge part of both of these programs recently and it continued for MTSU as they completed their first backto-back eight win seasons in 21 years. On a larger scale, the Raiders have been bowl eligible four of the last five years. While ODU continues to “Raise the Bar”, MTSU is worried about the same exact thing.

“I am excited about the future and proud of what we have accomplished. Our program is on solid ground, we have a great culture from an academic standpoint to a work ethic standpoint to how we go about our daily business,” said Blue Raiders coach Rick Stockstill.

The Raiders were impressive on the ground last season, gaining 199.3 yards per contest. Junior Running back Jordan Parker was on pace for 1,000 yards rushing last season before injuries slowed him down. To bolster the stable of backs, head coach Rick Stockstill added three-star recruit J’Vonte Herrod. The 5-11, 215 pound Georgia na-

tive ran for 1,172 yards with 14 touchdowns.

“We did a great job of filling our needs with this class,” Stockstill added.

MTSU returns 49 lettermen from last year, including 20 on offense, and more specifically five returning starters. A fresh face will be under center, as the graduation of Logan Kilgore will provide a tough act to follow. Although his time was very limited in games, redshirt sophomore Austin Grammer is the only quarterback on the roster with real game experience.

Stockstill believes that all three of his gunslingers can provide wins for MTSU. “I don’t believe it’s fair to name a starter after just 15 spring practices. It will all work out,” he said.

The competition to this point has been tough to call but the Raiders may not know who’s barking out plays until days before the game. “The cream usually rises to the top so I will be comfortable even if we don’t make an announcement until the Friday before the first game.”

Defensively, the Raiders will be just fine.

In 2013, they ranked 5th nationally in turnovers forced and 17th in red zone defense, a place on the field where the Monarchs excell. They return eight starters, including safeties Kevin Byard and Xavier Walker, and defensive linemen Alexandro Antoine and Pat McNeil.

Stockstill feels that the defense has a lot of learning to do in the allotted 15 spring practices but game experience will be the critical factor. “We have our nucleus back on defense with eight starters returning but we have to replace some key guys and continue to strengthen our depth. One thing I like with the quality guys we brought in at midyear will be the competition they will bring

for playing time.”

The inaugural battle between the two “Big Blues” will be nothing short of physical and exciting. There is a lot at stake in this

game for the Monarchs, including a huge opportunity playing on national TV on a primetime Friday night. One thing for sure is that the Monarchs and Blue Raiders have

We Don’t Want ‘Bama

ample time to prepare, and of course, get some quality wins before these two meet.

For information on tickets, visit www.odusports.com

OLD DOMINION SAYS NO TO PLAYING THE CRIMSON TIDE IN 2015 By: Jasmine Blackwell Senior Writer Mace & Crown ESPN officials recently reached out to Old Dominion University’s athletic director, Wood Selig asking if ODU would be interested in playing the Alabama Crimson Tide football team in 2015.

ODU would receive a check for $1.3 million and the chance to play in the 102,000 seat Bryant-Denny Stadium. There would be a much larger crowd than the Monarchs are used to, being that Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium only seats 20,118 people.

Playing the Crimson Tide would give the Monarchs the chance to be acknowledged on a national platform.

Well, Dr. Selig decided that we don’t want ‘Bama.

“There is something to be said for exposure, but something can be also said for bad exposure. Our program is in its second year of transition and in 2015 it would be our first year as an [Football Bowl Subdivison] school,” Selig said. “In my mind it would be like taking a seventh grader and putting them on varsity. We are not physically ready as a program to entertain arguably the best team in football.”

Old Dominion’s football program is in its infancy. The 2015 season would only mark six years since the reinstatement of the foot-

ball program. It is quite admirable that Selig turned down the Alabama proposition, as saying “yes” would have resulted in a huge pay day for the Monarchs.

“There would be nothing positive coming from that exposure other than the paycheck,” Selig said of the $1.3 million offer.

While ODU will not be playing Alabama, the Monarchs will be facing off with Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference football teams.

The Monarchs will play a Conference USA schedule beginning in 2014. ODU and Virginia Tech have agreed to a four-year, home-and-home football series. The Monarchs and Hokies will meet seven times over nine seasons starting in 2017.

“I think it’s great exposure regionally.

[There will be] national television opportunities and those are schools that we can realistically expect to be competitive with and possibly surprise,” Selig said.

The Monarchs are eligible to compete for the Conference USA title in the 2014 season and will then become bowl eligible in 2015.

“We will now have a reason for competing to compete for Conference USA champ and see how successful we are against new teams in our league and gives our fans something to cheer for as opposed to 12 nonconference games,” Selig said.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | C3

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Benchwarmers

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES PRIMED FOR INCLEMENT SEASONS FOLLOWING DESEAN JACKSON RELEASE By: Eric Guy Staff Writer Mace & Crown Broken wings, shattered dreams and once-strong relationships cut right at the seams.

Do you know who I am referring to?

Well, the Philadelphia Eagles, of course!

The team’s decision to part ways with DSean Jackson, one of the greatest, most decorated players in the franchise’s history, has been a blast from the cannon heard all around the world.

For a moment, let’s be real, though. Based on a bevy of reports prior to his release, it was safe to assume that he’d be dealt.

But released on the grounds of mere speculation?

Chill.

Comments from people trying to justify the team’s decision—”He twists his fingers in Instagram photos!” “He’s a thug!” “He’s a bad influence!” “He isn’t that good!”—are certainly worthy of a few scoffs.

While many claim to be behind their team 100 percent, the painful realization is that the decision can, and most likely will, turn out to be a franchise-deadening one.

While the Eagles’ division, the NFC East, certainly isn’t the best, it is one of the toughest to escape from as No. 1 at season’s end.

Last season, Eagles fans were ever-indebted to Dallas Cowboys quarter back Kyle Orton as his Tony Romo-like second-half breakdown aided greatly to the Eagles’ cause during their Week 17 showdown.

The winner, Philly, would go on to be crowned the champ of the division.

The Eagles had to claw their way to victory. Although Jackson only had three catches for 28 yards, his presence on the field undoubtedly made it difficult for the opposing secondary to account for other weapons like LeSean McCoy, Brent Celek and Riley Cooper.

Although many players possess All-Pro

ability, their arsenal was the epitome of the whole being more than the sum of its parts.

Their recent decision has already created impediments in their quest for February champagne showers, let alone clinching the division.

Jackson is now sporting burgundy and gold.

Yes, having inked a three-year, $24 million contract, Jackson is now a Washington Redskin.

How the tide turns.

To let a player of immense value waltz to

a rival without getting anything in return is a huge, devastating, crippling blow.

Fronting like, “Eh, it’s not a big deal,” is nothing but a nose-growing lie.

With that acquisition, new head coach Jay Gruden now has a playmaking receiver to pair alongside the 12-inch hands of Pierre Garçon, creating a dynamic, intimidating unit to go along with a playbook full of highflying, complex spreads and formations.

What’s pretty laughable about the whole process is that this isn’t the first time Philly has made a move that has hit them where it

hurts.

Are you familiar with Hall of Fame WR Cris Carter, eight-time Pro Bowler, twotime first-team All-Pro? Well, prior to tearing up the league in Minnesota, Carter’s first three seasons were spent in the City of Brotherly Love.

Why was he released?

Off-the-field issues.

Ah, it’s Wild!

Carter even tweeted that he’s “praying” the Eagles’ decision to cut Jackson is the franchise’s second biggest mistake in team

history.

Sure, one can argue that everything will be fine and the Eagles will prosper, but let’s remember this isn’t a dream, a novel or a franchise in EA Sport’s Madden series.

This is real life.

I hate to dwell in negativity, but to all fans, I say remain optimistic.

Just refrain from looking up when the birds do indeed fall.

It’s a Business after all NFL FRANCHISES CUT TIES WITH FRANCHISE PLAYERS By: Eric Guy Staff Writer Mace & Crown Often times, as fans, we are caught in the idea of rooting for our favorite teams and player. We forget to realize the NFL is a business, and like every other business it is about the money. Contracts are no more than placeholders and the only thing guaranteed with NFL contracts is the money. You could literally be here today and gone tomorrow.

Professional sports are leagues based on performance , what-can-you-do-for-menow leagues to say the least. In addition, contracts are given on a basis of what you can offer an organization in the future, never based on past success and accomplishment.

To a lesser extent in the NBA, you see key franchise rotation players released via the amnesty provision. However, in the NFL, teams often rid themselves of some of the best players in franchise history.

Fans are quick to pull the loyalty card

when a player leaves a team in free agency, but players have to do what is best for them.

Just Friday, the Tennessee Titans parted ways with Chris Johnson. In six seasons with the franchise, Johnson ran for 7,965 yards and accounted for 9,968 total yards from scrimmage. In just his second season in the league, Johnson ran for 2,006 yards, one of the top single-season performances in NFL history.

Johnson signed a contract extension worth $53.5 million in 2011, just three seasons later he was released. Johnson was due to make $8 million over the course of the 2014 season, however his decreased production, including failing to tally a per-game average of 80 yard per game over his final three seasons, the Titans had to move on. Based on Johnson’s production or lack thereof, Johnson was not living up to his contract, so he was relieved of his duties.

Of course with Johnson, big-play-ability always made him a threat in Tennessee; however, his home-run plays decreased

yearly and the Titans were not winning with him.

Over the course of the 2014 offseason, many players who were key parts of team’s success were released. The way the salary cap in today’s NFL is set up, no one is safe and more than likely, cornerstone pieces who got major contract extensions are the casualty.

The NFL is worth over $35 billion, and player contacts are given out, as I said, based on potential. As hard is to say, often times teams hold on to franchise corner stone players too long based on what they have done in the past.

As was the case with Johnson and several other players this offseason, the production did not match the payment. When a player you are attached to leaves your favorite team remember, millions of dollars are at stake and the NFL is a business and it’s about what you can do for a team in the future, not your past performances.

AJ GUEL| M & C

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Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | D1

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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OPINION

EDITOR: ADRIENNE MAYFIELD | ARTSANDENTERTAINMENT@MACEANDCROWN.COM

???????

By: David Thornton Staff Writer Mace & Crown I was out in Norfolk with the family when we decided we were hungry. My wife wanted a burger, and I had been craving barbecue for a while, so I decided it was finally time to try Doumar’s.

I’ve been meaning to go to Doumar’s for quite some time now. As a resident of Hampton Roads for 25 years, it seemed almost heathenish that I hadn’t already.

But I had never really spent much time in Norfolk until recently. I realize it’s a weak excuse.

A Norfolk establishment, Doumar’s has been in its current location since 1934.

Before that, the business was ice cream stands at the Ocean View amusement park since 1904, when Abe Doumar invented the first waffle cone.

His waffle cones were such a huge success that in 1905 that he designed a cone-making machine in front of the shop, which is still used by his grandson, Albert

Doumar. It looks like a museum piece with an information sign sign above it. I had no idea it was still in use until I saw Albert come outside and fire it up.

In 1933, the stands at the Ocean View amusement park were destroyed by a hurricane. Abe’s brother, George, rebuilt the business and moved it to its current location on Monticello.

Besides barbecue and waffle cones, Doumar’s is famous for its curb service.

We pulled into the parking lot, and a waitress quickly came out to our vehicle. I didn’t know this at the time, but turn your lights on if you want quicker service.

If you don’t want to sit in your car, there’s an old-fashioned lunch counter within the dining area and you can order beer inside. I guess the city of Norfolk discourages people drinking in their cars, even if you’re parked outside a restaurant.

Fascists.

After examining the menu for a few minutes, we turned on our lights, and the waitress was right back with us. For drinks, I ordered their homemade limeade. The

fresh fruit made it delicious and refreshing. My wife got an ice cream soda, which is basically a root beer float, but with your choice of soda. She chose pineapple, which turned out to be pretty tasty.

I got the minced barbecue sandwich with cheese, lettuce and tomato (I know, it’s practically sacrilege, but I don’t do slaw, even on barbecue). It was decent, not the best barbecue I’ve had, but certainly not the worst. I recommend the hot sauce, a mustard-based sauce, reminiscent of Carolina Gold. I would have preferred Tabasco, but the variety was nice.

My wife ordered a cheeseburger (I stole a bite), which was pretty much on par with most fast food burgers, both in price and taste. It was better than McDonalds at least. The fries came a la carte.

Aside from what we ordered, the menu is pretty basic. Egg sandwiches with various meats for breakfast, hot dogs, BLTs, Tuna salad and a steak sandwich pretty much round it out. At least until you get to desert.

Aside from their waffle cones, they have

a list of sundaes with various ingredients that all sounded fantastic. I ordered a basic, single scoop waffle cone, and my wife got the banana split.

When I got my waffle cone, I was a little disappointed. It was small… really small. I don’t know what I expected for $1.20, but it wasn’t this. I looked at the menu, and realized there was an option for a “big cone” with two scoops that I hadn’t seen.

To make matters worse, the people parked next to us had gotten the big cones.

I looked at theirs, and then looked at mine.

My head said I’d made the healthier decision; the last thing I need is more ice cream. My heart however, (or maybe my stomach) knew I’d made an unforgivable mistake.

In a matter of seconds, my ice cream was gone. I looked at the people next to us, enjoying their big cones, and my regret continued to grow. I grieved for the ice cream that could have been. I mourned the scoop that got away.

And then I saw the second spoon in my wife’s banana split, and forgot all about it.

The banana split, by the way, is awesome. One banana, split (duh); one scoop of vanilla, topped with strawberry goo; one scoop of strawberry, topped with pineapple goo; and one scoop of chocolate, topped with walnuts. A gigantic pile of whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry topped it off.

My wife protested vocally when I grabbed the other spoon and dug in, but I knew, in spirit, she was grateful for rescuing her from the giant pile of empty calories. They will sing songs of my gallantry.

I try to tip well, so I wound up spending $25 on the whole trip. That’s not bad, considering we ordered some of the most expensive items on the menu.

While it’s certainly not gourmet cuisine, it’s definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area, and have the munchies. But please, learn from my mistakes. Order the big cone.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | D2

MACEANDCROWN.COM

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

The Well-Travelled Geek; India Part 2 By:Jason Kazi Advertising Director Mace & Crown The first day of school was full day orientation. They talked to us about what to expect while in India. The most interesting part was a discussion on stereotypes. One of the Americans had mentioned that people assume Indian’s have body odor. Obviously due to the lack of space and the amount of people in the country, there is no way to have good body odor all the time.

In “India Part 1,” I mentioned that many Indian people chew paan. As a matter of fact, my host mother insisted on buying me a chocolate paan, a sweeter variety. Paan is betel leaves with areca nut, lime paste and other things. It is considered to be good for the digestive tract and for those of us with annoying halitosis.

For lunch, AFS India and Amity School Pushp Vihar provided us with bread, which we ate with chole (chickpea curry), diced cucumbers and tomatoes. We also had some samosas (potatoes and peas in puffed pastry) with mint chutney and tamarind sauce.

Throughout the day, AFS also gave us one hour of free time in the computer lab with frequent snack and lunch breaks. Later in the evening, we had high tea with school representatives, as well as the American Center in Delhi. We were entertained by some dancers, singers and speakers from both Amity and the Center.

We were required to give an introduction to the crowd that included the host parents and family. Unfortunately, my host mother had some outstanding circumstances and she was not able to make it.

On my way home, we went through a neighborhood where all of the middle class family’s maids reside. There were cows, goats and pigs on the roads wandering around.

Most of the city roads were not like this.

Once we returned home, my host mother and I went to the market and bought some necessities. I was surprised they didn’t charge more because a “white person” was there. The markets in India are like the markets in Bangladesh. Except cleaner and dif-

By: Kimberly Joy Ward Staff Writer Mace & Crown Satirizing the anime trope of a reverse harem, “The Wallflower” takes many of the stereotypical characters and situations to its furthest logical extreme. Giving a commentary on how beauty is perceived and treated in society. The premise follows Sunako, a girl who has sworn not to perpetuate societal norms, and four obnoxiously attractive males as they all live in her aunt’s mansion.

The concept of reverse harem describes a situation that implies one girl deal with a group of attractive guys, usually due to unforeseen circumstances; thus, hilarity ensues and the female protagonist explores her options, usually settling on her favorite. As a trope, this category of romance seems to deviate from the classic love triangle into a love web.

Within “The Wallflower”, the episode plots often parody the classic scenarios. The conflict usually stems from rabid fan girls, the boys’ lack of money or Sunako’s eerie presence. Most of the situations result in a character arc, even if there is a running gag

ferent items like meats, fishes and vegetables are sold in the same area.

The next day, for breakfast, I had toast with pineapple jelly. In the mornings, I’d skim through the Hindustan Times and the Times of India newspapers. The papers are very nationally focused with limited news about international affairs.

At school, we were introduced to the Hindi alphabets, both natural and romanticized. There are 11 vowels and 36 consonants - and I thought the Bengali alphabet was long. After that, we climbed three flights

of stairs to the Indian Music Room. We learned the specifics about sitar, a guitarlike Indian musical instrument. We learned about the different scales and octaves.

The musician played some recognizable Western tunes on the sitar, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In the music room, we had to sit cross-legged with our shoes off, but there was a carpet. Afterwards we recited some Hindu poems and prayers. It was funny to hear everybody’s American Hindi accents, including mine.

One of the highlights of my day was the

food, of course. Specifically, Indian egg rolls which are not like Chinese egg rolls. It’s basically a paratha flatbread with eggs, ketchup and onions.

After tiffin, the power went out. This is very common in Bangladesh but less common in India. Thankfully, it rained earlier so the weather had cooled down, making it slightly bearable. We worked on building some basic sentences and ended the day with more Hindi poetry.

After lunch, I bought a pair of dress pants for the school uniform. Additionally, I went

The Wallflower

that Sunako never changes.

The developments in character progressively oscillate toward significant depth in personality. Clashing ideals define the personalities more readily, so the character arcs work as set-up and relationships as paid off.

Although this establishes a sense of humanity in the characters, it could be better utilized with a more serious tone.

Suspension of disbelief is sacrificed for the sake of comedy, eventually taking away from the depth of the characters. Often seen in “The Road to Womanhood” segment.

The segment relates to the situation in the narrative. Informing the audience about etiquette, and furthers the character development.

However, this segment is simply played for laughs. Part of the acknowledgement of existing within an anime, “The Road to Womanhood” allows the characters to not so subtly break the fourth wall, which happens in later series out of this segment. Random lines in one of the boy’s dialogue do not make for a successful break of the fourth wall character.

As a parody that uses satirical elements, “The Wallflower” uses a contrast of comedy,

drama, social commentary, and to some degrees romance to entertain the viewer. Many traditional dramatic moments start with social commentary and end with morbid comedy, bizarre comedy or situational irony.

The animation expresses the narrative through a collage of different artistic styles.

There were a couple of animated stick figures and paper doll scenes placed between more realistic anime scenes. These mismatched scenes of animation fit the tone and themes really well.

The protagonist has two forms: one form she resembles a faceless chibi (a small, cutely-deformed caricature) character and the other is fully drawn character. Transforming between the two forms illustrates the perception placed upon her, yet no matter what form she usually acts the same.

Due to the flaps (mouthing and facial expressions of the animated character) or rather the lack of flaps due to strange animation helps compel the story by adding more contexts and freeing the dubbing company from dialogue. Nevertheless, Funimation dubs and does a Funimation job. Most notably, Vic Mignogna voices Takenaga, Greg Ayres voices Yuki, Chris Patton voices Ran-

maru and Josh Grelle voices Kyohei, all very accomplished voice and character actors.

The most interesting aspect of “The Wallflower”, the thematic debate about the proper behavioral response to the defined concept of beauty.

As protagonist, Sunako often brings up societal pressures to conform, the suspension of strife to achieve and keep beauty and the constant comparisons to others are not worth the trouble. This leads her to a life without mirrors, cosmetics, and extensive hygiene regimens: “if I don’t look in the mirror, I don’t have to compare myself to all those other girls,” said ?

As a counterpoint, her happiness depends on people in a different way; she obtains happiness when people leave her alone, yet her strange behavior tends to attract attention, not defer.

As complimenting characters, the boys present their rebuttal by not worrying what other people think. However, their problem with society is not an internal struggle of worth, but rather an external one of objectification. The society that worships beauty prefers to treat them as items of sexual tension, passion, obsession, self-worth and

to the gym with my host mother. The gym was like an American gym, but there was no air conditioning and it was in a ground floor of an apartment building. The funniest part is that the women do work out wearing a full sari and flimsy flip-flops.

In the evening, I went on the computer, called my family at home, cleaned up my host brother’s computer and watched him do his homework.

One of the cooler parts of the trip was meeting Rani Hong. She was a victim of child labor at a very young age. Eventually, she came to America where she started advocating anti-child labor laws in Washington State, and even passed some national laws. She has appeared on CNN, The Today Show, The Oprah Show and other media outlets. She was a very inspiring lady to hear stories from and she actually married a Vietnamese former child laborer who currently runs the Tronie Foundation.

In the afternoon, we practiced more Hindi vocabulary and script writing. Whenever I try to write the Hindi script, it ends up looking a lot like the Bengali (Bangla) script.

To end the day, we recited some dohas (Hindu prayers/hymns).

We often had morning assemblies. One of the morning assemblies was with the eighth graders. They informed us about the news of the week, gave us some good quotes and amused us with a book review.

After the assembly, we had Havan. Havan is a Hindu prayer or chanting ceremony. The priest came to the plaza within the school and was sitting there. We, along with some third graders sat around him cross-legged. At one part of the ceremony, we had to throw potpourri into a fire which was being fueled by ghee (butter). The priest also threw marigold petals at us. At the end, he fed us some misht, or sweet meats. The prayer ceremony lasted for one hour. My feet had fallen asleep after sitting so graciously for one hour.

For lunch, I went to McDonald’s with my brother. Unlike what you may think, McDonald’s in India is completely different from American McDonald’s. I had a Spicy McPaneer sandwich, an iced coffee and fries.

Hang on tight. This is to be continued.

idolization. They cannot afford the luxury of ignoring their rabid fans and living a normal life, each coping in a different way; this fact poses a negation to their rebuttal.

The conclusion of this debate end with a flimsy message: “be yourself no matter what”, which not only avoids the question but has neither substance nor consequence.

As a parody, “The Wallflower” succeeds.

As a satire, “The Wallflower” passes, ever so slightly. I like the premise, but follow through leaves a lot to be desired. The ethical debate proposes an interest question with a fascinating string of points and counterpoints, but ends on a very weak note. The manga is definitely stronger, yet the anime is more visually interesting. There are a lot of weirdly placed fan service, yet fan service makes sense in this twisted universe. The pacing is decent, and the fight scenes are thrilling as well as hilarious.

“The Wallflower” is very entertaining.

With a few major faults, but it is the only anime that has an Asian girl in Nazi uniform wielding a chainsaw labeled death.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | E1

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

MACEANDCROWN.COM

TECHNOLOGY EDITOR: ALYSE STANLEY | ASTAN023@ODU.EDU

NINTENDO

“Animal Crossing” Producer Talks About Mobile Integration By: Noah Young Assistant Webmaster Mace & Crown

“Animal Crossing” may soon receive integration with mobile platforms as part of Nintendo’s plans to bring small scale and promotional games to mobile devices.

The creators of the series intend to implement this change because they see “Animal Crossing” as more than just a life simulator, but also a means of communication. They

plan on making an app that would allow people to interact with the game and each other, though the app itself would not be a completely separate game.

While many believe the series is a perfect match for smart phones, the producer, Katsuya Eguchi, said, “a lot of people have the same sort of idea, but contrary to what it seems like, there’s a lot to do in ‘Animal Crossing’…Whether it’s the buttons or the stick on the 3DS, we really use [the hardware] to its fullest to get the maximum

amount of joy, so I personally don’t agree with the sentiment [that ‘Animal Crossing’ would work on mobile devices].”

The app would allow people to interact with the game, while still requiring the players to own the game itself.

“The game is really enjoyable for people across gender and all ages, so I feel if we were to be able to do something that supports playing on a Nintendo device, something that relates to the information content of the game, something that brings players back

to the main game, if it’s something that can work as a catalyst to get players back into the game, it’s something we might look into,” Eguchi said.

The next entry in the “Animal Crossing” series will also focus on going back to the core of the game, rather than just reusing things from previous games. Eguchi believes that reusing elements in each game of the series will keep it from growing and lead to the series becoming fatigued.

Eguchi stated that an “Animal Crossing”

game on Wii U would be built to have its own play style built around the experience of playing on the home console.

Whether a new “Animal Crossing” can be expected on the Wii U is uncertain, even to the producer. What he does know is that for the next one the team will do their best to make it a fresh and fun experience. With a possible “Animal Crossing” app to look forward too, fans can still anticipate a refreshing addition to the series.

Goat Simulator isn’t so Baaaaaad By:Sean Burke Webmaster Mace & Crown

“Goat Simulator” is an insanely inaccurate and janky piece of software that would never see market if it went through an actual publisher.

In a world where simulation games have carved out a substantial niche in the indiegame market, and in the same world where game developers elevate the need for hyperrealistic visuals, controls, and physics over actually fun mechanics, it is refreshing to see a game so unrealistic christened with the moniker of “simulator.”

However, it should be clearly stated that “Goat Simulator” is not a simulator. Never have I ever seen a goat don a jetpack and fly over small town only to be stopped by construction equipment that happened to be in the way. Never has a goat had the super-human strength to head-butt a crate or a person into the next county. A goat has never possessed a tongue with the adhesive property

of a black hole, and I’m positive a goat has never used this tongue to whirl a pickaxe around while chasing innocent bystanders.

And a goat certainly hasn’t made me laugh so hard in my life.

“Goat Simulator” is the most fun I’ve ever had with a video game. It is in all sense of the word, exhilarating. There is a sense of wonderment and maybe a bit of scotch woven into the very fabric of the game.

The game subverts all conceptions of modern game design and keeps only the most necessary. The game works much like a 90’s skateboarding game. There is a rudimentary combo system and a vast array of “trick shots” to perform throughout the single level.

Objectively, as a modern game, the controls stink, the animation is crazy, the graphics are deplorable, the structure is nonexistent, and the sandbox environment is small.

And yet the game forces you to look into its strange goat eyes and enjoy yourself. The mechanics are serviceable enough, and the game is so aware of its own terribleness that

it achieves a certain humor.

“Goat Simulator” will not be the greatest game of 201. It won’t be in the public eye for more than a month or two, and it likely won’t be a blockbuster hit, but it will be an enjoyable experience for anyone who sees or plays it. At a mere 10 bucks, it is well worth the hours of enjoyment I have received and I am certainly eager to let anyone play my copy if only to hear them laugh aloud as they explode a gas station with a head-butt and then ragdoll across the map.

As a final note, every word that someone will say negatively about “Goat Simulator” is likely to be met by a statement of odd reverence or strange satisfaction in the same sentence. And that is the point. Games have been ruled by a sense of self-seriousness for too long. We have gotten away from a plumber saving his girlfriend that was kidnapped by a turtle. “Goat Simulator” wants to make games fun again by being overtly ridiculous and delightfully broken.

SEAN BURKE | M & C

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | E2

MACEANDCROWN.COM

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

How Sony Plans to Play Out 2014 By:Rashad McDowell Staff Writer Mace & Crown

Sony stands poised to take the console war into its next climatic battle with over 100 games scheduled for release in 2014. Gamers couldn’t be more excited with the tempo at which Sony is pushing games for its next gen system, PlayStation 4.

The company’s reveal of its next generation hardware and the hardware and software decisions that went along with it earned Sony much praise. The excitement for the PS4 outshined Microsoft’s Xbox One by a long shot.

Titles such as “Watch_Dogs” and “Destiny” have already encouraged PS4 owners to place preorders well in advance of their release dates. With big hits such as “Infamous Second Son” already out on the market, the cash grab is still in full effect for Sony.

The 100 game schedule is just the tip of the iceberg for Sony’s attempt at 2014 domination. In the same announcement for how many games were on the books for release, Sony also mentioned that it was partnering with over 1000 game developers. Of that number, 200 were said to be licensed in North America alone.

The news is encouraging for indie developers, who are finding themselves on the

receiving end of much love from Sony. The embrace of so many developers has given Sony the ability to pander to all sorts of gamers. Titles like “Octodad” and “Transistor” are just a few to name that have come out of the indie scene. By relying on the major developer companies and the highly creative indie scene, Sony is looking to turn up the heat on Microsoft for the foreseeable future.

Nothing speaks to this goal more than Sony expanding its set of development tools.

A GameMaker: Studio-native solution for the PS4 was released for free to all SCElicensed developers. Developed by SCE and YoYo games, the native will make it easier for developers to create 2D games for the PS4.

Another SCE development tool, Authoring Tools Framework, was released as a free open source as well. That tool was responsible for titles such as The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls.

Sony’s eye is on the future and the view must be nice. Having sold over 6 million consoles to date, demand for PS4s and PS4 games is peaking. Sony’s decision making has been stellar to date and it will be interesting to see how many more smart decisions the company has up its sleeves.

The console war isn’t done yet, but Sony is doing a great job of rolling in the largest artillery.

Super Giant Games

No Demo for the Dogs By:Seann Barbour Staff Writer Mace & Crown Ubisoft’s highly anticipated upcoming open-world hacking game, “Watch_Dogs,” will not release a demo according to Game Director Jonathan Morin. “Doing demos takes time. The focus is on the game,” Morin explained.

Centered on vigilante hacker Aiden Pearce as he fights against a conspiracy in futuristic Chicago, Illinois, “Watch_Dogs” has experienced a long development process that has mystified fans. A cross-generation game, “Watch_Dogs” was originally meant to be released last fall alongside the new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. However, just weeks before the expected release date, the game was pushed back.

Fans have been skeptical of the game ever since, and the most recent trailer announcing an official release date of May 27 has done nothing to calm them. Many fans noted that the graphics in the new trailer ap-

By: Noah Young Assistant Webmaster Mace & Crown With the success of the 3DS game “Bravely Default: Flying Fairy,” Japanese game developer and publisher Square Enix is prepared to return to more traditional games.

Square Enix has long been synonymous with the Japanese Roleplaying Game (JRPG) genre. As Enix, the company created the “Dragon Quest” series, and as Squaresoft it produced the wildly successful “Final Fantasy” series.

While many of the tropes and clichés of the JRPG were introduced by Square Enix,

peared to be of a lower quality than the ones used in previous trailers and screenshots and many message boards have been filled with fans wondering if Ubisoft has been purposely misleading its audience about the game’s capabilities.

While many fans still remain optimistic about the game, citing the unique gameplay feature of being able to hack nearly every electronic in the city as their major reason of interest, others have abandoned the game, believing that Ubisoft has betrayed their trust. A playable demo could have done quite a bit to put such fears to rest, and it seems that Ubisoft has missed an opportunity to shut down some bad press acquired with previous release delays.

Of course, lack of demos is nothing new for this generation of games. While the Xbox 360 required demos or free trials for all games on the Live Arcade, the Xbox One has dropped this policy. It seems that many publishers are not eager to publish demos of their games in this console generation.

While in the past, demos for a number

of games were often offered on special promotional discs or packaged with complete games, now demos are mostly found as digital downloads. While one may think that this switch to internet distribution would make demos more common, demos have actually been becoming progressively rarer.

There are still some companies packaging demos for lesser known games, but this practice has almost entirely disappeared from the gaming industry. The recent “Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes” was heavily criticized for being an overpriced demo for the upcoming “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.” Many consumers felt that the single mission that comprised “Ground Zeroes” could easily have been released for free download to promote the main game.

While the lack of a demo for “Watch_ Dogs” may be frustrating to some fans and worrying for others, this by no means a special case. Perhaps as a result of the rising cost of game development, demos appear to slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.

UBISOFT

Square Enix Returns to Its Roots such as teenage heroes, turn-based battle systems and a linear, melodramatic story, the company has moved away from traditional JRPGs in recent years.

As the genre has declined in worldwide popularity, Square sought to shake up the formula. “Final Fantasy XII,” released in 2006, took the first steps down that road, adding a real-time element to combat and borrowing a number of design philosophies from Western RPGs. “Final Fantasy XIII,” released in 2009 in Japan and 2010 worldwide, took that concept even further.

However, while the series was once the gold standard of JRPGs, more recent titles have been heavily criticized. Fans criticized

“Final Fantasy XIII” in particular for being too restrictive and relying on flashy graphics over substance in gameplay. Many older JRPG fans felt betrayed by the game, while newer fans were confused as to why the game was built so counterintuitively.

So, when Square Enix announced “Bravely Default,” a 3DS game developed

by Silicon Studios that harkened back to the days of the classic, SNES-era JRPG, fans rejoiced. The game was released in Japan in 2012, and quickly topped the Japanese sales charts. It wouldn’t see release in the West until December 2013, but when it finally arrived it was to a torrent of critical praise and commercial success. In the United States,

the game sold 200,000 copies in just three weeks.

The success of “Bravely Default” was something of a wake-up call for Square Enix. Company president Yosuke Matsuda has admitted that perhaps trying to build a global audience was the wrong way to go about things. According to Matsuda, trying to appeal to each region of the world caused developers to “lose focus,” which in turn damaged the quality of the final product.

Now that “Bravely Default” has proven that there is a mass market for JRPGs, Square Enix is eager to focus on it. Of course, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

The growing popularity of Atlus’ “Persona”

and “Shin Megami Tensei” titles, as well as Namco Bandai’s recent focus on pushing its “Tales of” series in the West, has already proven the existence of such a market.

However, neither Atlus nor Namco Bandai has filled the demand for old-school, traditional JRPGs. Matsuda announced that from now on Square Enix will focus on making what he describes as “heavy” JRPGs. Rather than focus on mass market, the company will produce games with an emphasis on filling a niche market, thereby tightening the developing focus.

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | E3

MACEANDCROWN.COM

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Xbox Puts a Gamer in Charge

By: Symmion Moore and Alyse Stanley Staff Writer & Tech Editor Mace & Crown

There’s a new head of the Xbox division at Microsoft and his name is Spencer, Phil Spencer.

Phil Spencer was previously the vice president of Microsoft Studios. When Spencer was with Microsoft Studios, many of the famous franchises were born such as “Fable,” “Forza,” “Halo” and Spencer’s favorite “Gears of War.” Now in charge of the Xbox division, he overlooks and leads the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Video and Microsoft Studios. He’s been with Microsoft for 25 years and has had a huge focus on Xbox.

“They’re putting a gaming person at the head of the division in me, as the head of Xbox. The Xbox brand has always been a

gaming brand,” Spencer said, in a phone interview with gaming website, Joystiq.

While he acknowledged that Xbox One owners use their consoles for more than just gaming, he reiterated that he wanted to keep Xbox focus where it’s historically been: with games.

In an interview with the Larry Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox Live, Spencer explained that he wanted the Xbox One to have the “stamp of the gamer,” and that previous marketing and hardware decisions did not reflect this goal. He candidly admitted that Sony’s commitment to gamers could possibly be why the PlayStation 4 is performing so well.

When the Xbox One was announced, there was not much emphasis on the gaming aspect. It was more on how a family can use it for things that do not pertain to video games. Commercials emphasized how the

Xbox One can be hooked up to a user’s cable box so that they can watch cable using the console, watch the latest sports events or relax and watch Netflix.

CEO of Microsoft Staya Nadella revealed that merging Xbox video game divisions under one leader is part of the company’s larger strategy of expanding the brand.

“Combining all our software, gaming and content assets across the Xbox team under a single leader and aligning with the OSG team will help ensure we continue to do great work across the Xbox business, and bring more of the magic of Xbox to all form factors, including tablets, PCs and phones,” Nadella said in an email to her employees.

Now that Spencer, a gamer himself, is involved directly with Xbox he can hopefully set the console on the right track and put a much bigger focus on games.

MICROSOFT

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Come Join Our Team!

Gourmet Coffee Shop Inside Norfolk Sentara Heart Hospital is Seeking Several Part Time Baristas for a Newly Renovated Shop Experience a Plus • Previous Fun and Fast-Paced Work Environment • Competitive Tips • Apply in PersonPayatandEspressOasis in the • Heart Hospital

espressoasis.com

April 9th, 2014  5:00 – 7:00 pm Food will be served!

Public Health Networking Fair Don’t miss your chance to network with public health organiza8ons 5:00 – 7:00 pm throughout Hampton Roads!

Lester Hall Room 104

Some of the aRendees will include:

What are your plans for the future? Have you thought about Graduate School? You are invited to take a few minutes check out opportunities to start an exciting future in public health through the

Master of Public Health (MPH) Program.

Public Health Panel Event 6:00 – 7:00 pm Lester Hall: Room 135

Learn from a panel of public health professionals how they got their foot in the door!

The panelists will include: ² Myra Barnes-­‐Eley, MPH – EVMS MPH Alumni, Director of Clinical Analy8cs at Amerigroup/WellPoint ² Donald Buckley PhD, MHA – President Emeritus of Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Peace

² Robert D. Bradshaw MD, MPH – 28 years of service as an Air Force medical officer, board cer8fied in both Family Medicine and Public Health and General Preven8ve Medicine. ² Benjamin Dobrin MSW, PhD -­‐ Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Work, Virginia Wesleyan College. Chesapeake Police Department, Auxiliary Officer, Dive Instructor for Underwater Search and Recovery Team, Marine Patrol operator.

This degree can be completed in as few as five semesters. There are four concentrations to choose from - Health Management, Health Promotion, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health. For more information about the EVMS/ODU Master of Public Health (MPH) Program, including application requirements, please visit our website at www.evms.edu/mph .

If you have questions about the EVMS/ODU MPH Program, or would like to schedule an appointment or phone conference with an advisor, please call the office at 757.446.6120 or email us at MPHINFO@evms.edu. We would be happy to discuss how an MPH can help further your career plans in the field of Public Health!

Brian C. Martin, Ph.D., MBA Associate Professor

Director, Graduate Program in Public Health Eastern Virginia Medical School martinbc@evms.edu

Deanne Shuman, BSDH, MS, PhD

Professor Interim Associate Director, Graduate Program in Public Health Old Dominion University dshuman@odu.edu

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | F1

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR: ELLISON GREGG | photo@maceandcrown.com

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Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | F2

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OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | G1

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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SUNDRY

EDITOR: JONATHAN KWOK | layout@maceandcrown.com

CROSSWORD

Sudoku

ACROSS 1. Rectum 5. Arab chieftain 9. Plateau 13. Gave temporarily 14. Elector 16. Winglike 17. Fabricated 18. Lacquer ingredient 19. After-bath powder 20. Mixes 22. Anagram of “Streaming” 24. Essence 26. Hair net 27. A painkiller 30. Sags 33. Pupils 35. Worries 37. Paraphernalia 38. Stealer 41. Type of whiskey

42. Talk 45. Less wavering 48. Trim 51. Oval 52. French farewell 54. Whip 55. Standing firm 59. Hex 62. Atop 63. Banana oil, e.g.

65. Chocolate cookie 66. Recent events 67. Rhinoceros 68. Warbled 69. Dispatched 70. Away from the wind 71. If not

DOWN 1. Charity 2. Tidy 3. Unchallenged 4. A type of hormone 5. Night before 6. Infiltrator 7. List components 8. Prompt 9. Bullfighter 10. Dash 11. Sodium chloride 12. Circle fragments 15. Severity 21. Certain 23. Top of a house 25. Fluff 27. Requests 28. Anagram of “Spite” 29. Greatest possible 31. The outer area

32. Infections of the eye 34. Female sib 36. Arid 39. French for “Summer” 40. Tumbled 43. Opposed 44. Children 46. “What a shame!”

47. Discard 49. Fertilizer ingredient 50. Japanese hostess 53. Up to 55. Flows 56. Type of sword 57. Scattered 58. Heredity unit 60. Focusing glass 61. Balcony section 64. Caviar

MazeintheMace

Wednesday 04.09.2014 | MACE & CROWN | G2

WORDSEARCH

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