Jan. 27, 2020
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THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Tech bans in classes may impede learning Majority of students surveyed use electronic devices to take notes
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
Senior guard Jeremiah Gibson attempts to score at a Jan. 16 match against Louisiana College. The Comets won the game 82-59.
HEADS UP HIGH BHAVAN MEHTA | MERCURY STAFF
One professor said that the practice of banning tech in class may actually be ableist.
Men's basketball holds out hope for ASC Championship qualification after latest loss CALIS LIM
AYESHA ASAD
Mercury Staff
Mercury Staff
Walk into any campus classroom and you’re bound to see seats filled with students and desks filled with laptops or tablets for note-taking. But what happens when professors ban those devices? For Ameera Fatima, a business administration sophomore, a typical day in class involves pulling up the professor’s PowerPoint on her laptop to follow along with the lecture. Fatima said that having the PowerPoint on her laptop makes it easier to take notes at her own pace. “I usually just use (my laptop) for school and stuff, like taking notes from textbooks, PowerPoints. Most of my textbooks are online,” Fatima said. “But my phone is definitely a distraction if it buzzes. Mostly I use it for … texting people, scrolling through social media and stuff.” While some professors ban laptop usage in their classes, Fatima said that professors should let students have their laptops out. “Our laptops usually help more than hinder,” Fatima said. “My laptop would … be kept for seeing the PowerPoints up close. But if (they) want our phones on silent or anything like that, or put away, I would get that.” Aliya Arni, a biology junior and Peer Leader in the UTD Academic Success Coaching Center, said that using technology in class can both help and distract but that it’s more of an enhancement
→ SEE TECH,
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ith the final blare of the buzzer going off, men’s basketball faced a tight loss to Sul Ross. Despite the 68-65 loss, UTD still has a chance of securing a top four spot in the American Southwest Conference. The men’s basketball team currently has a conference record of 6-2, and with eight games left before ASC Championships, the Comets have a fair shot of improving on last year’s conference record of 13-3. The team ended its opening games with an overall record of 5-4 before the players hit their stride in the UTD Classic, securing two wins in the tournament, then winning the next two games as well. The team went on to secure three more wins against Letourneau, Belhaven and Louisiana College with only one loss in between until their latest defeat against Sul Ross State. Last season, the team earned the title of conference champs and not a single player has graduated since that victory, so the lofty goal of defending that title once again this year seems achievable, head coach Terry Butterfield said. “I think that the outlook among
our players is very optimistic,” Butterfield said. “We’ve learned to plug holes where there have been holes. Our preparation and intensity (have) been good. I think going forward, we’re in this thing, and we will continue to be in this thing.” That being said, this season still has had its ups and downs. The team has had to handle extended absences from four key players — like senior guard Curtis Allen — due to injuries. In spite of this setback, the team has tried to adapt accordingly and keep its chances of winning high. “All of the credit has to be given to the players because they’re keenly aware that we’re missing some pieces,” Butterfield said. “And they’re aware that we’re missing some impact(ful) guys. But they really haven’t let them slow them down to a large degree. Guys that have returned to the team this year have grown as players (and) are doing more to close the gaps for those guys that aren’t there.” With all the growth they have undergone this season, these players are high quality, Butterfield said. This standard, however, is not just limited to the court. These players
→ SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 8
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
Senior guard Jalen Weber tries to score against Louisiana College.
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Alumni tackle food insecurity among students ANJALI VENNA News Editor
TAKESH SAHU | COURTESY
Takesh UTD Food Supply enlists a team of over 30 volunteers to bring food to students.
Thirty to 40% of food is wasted in the US, according to the USDA, but a group of UTD alumni is making efforts to reduce local food waste and help hungry students. Takesh UTD Food Supply is a volunteer organization that redistributes leftover food to international students from South Asia. They take excess food from gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship, as well as Hindu temples, Indian restaurants and social events, and give it to the international students living in apartments near campus. The volunteer service began in March 2017, when Takesh Sahu, co-founder
of the volunteer group, and his four roommates were masters students at UTD. Co-founder Nishanth Rath said they noticed leftover food being trashed while volunteering in the kitchen of a local gurdwara. So, with permission, they filled five to 10 ziplock bags with the leftovers to share with friends. “In the states, you cannot keep the food stored in a restaurant or public space, you have to make fresh food everyday. We felt bad because back in India, people who used to work in the restaurants used to take (excess) food and give it to their own people,” Rath said.“That instigated this whole thought process.” Now, more than 30 volunteers make up this organization, Sahu said. To co-
ordinate the various activities, there are three groups, each with different tasks. “One group provides us the lead, where we get the food donors. Another group handles the operation, basically the logistics, from where to bring (the food) and by what time it should be brought,” Sahu said. “Then once we get the food, we share it with the third group of volunteers, who stay in the different communities where we place the food.” Communication between the volunteers and food recipients is done through a Whatsapp group with 223 members that rely on the deliveries, core volunteer member Sehjbir Singh
→ SEE TAKESH,
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Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
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THE MERCURY UTDMERCURY.COM Volume XXXIX No. 46
NEWS
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Jan. 12 • An intoxicated male was arrested after he was found staggering and swinging a traffic cone around outside Residence Hall North at 1:31 a.m. The individual had a fake Ohio driver's license, was intoxicated and was deemed a danger to himself and others.
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Jan. 13 • A student reported theft of his bicycle at Canyon Creek Heights North at 9:10 a.m.
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Contributors Hadley Archer Ayesha Asad Alesandra Bell Mansi Chauhan Jenna Cherrey Bianca Del Rio Ellis Blake Hidalgo Astrid Hernandez Ruhma Khan Roshan Khichi Calis Lim Bhavan Mehta Shelby Perez Ben Nguyen Elizabeth Nguyen Louise Nillas Cecilia Romero Andrew Sanchez Quinn Sherer Sarah Streety Pavan Tauh
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Mailing Address 800 West Campbell Road, SU 24 Richardson, TX 75080-0688 Newsroom Student Union, Student Media Suite SU 1.601 The Mercury is published on Mondays, at two-week intervals during the long term of The University of Texas at Dallas, except holidays and exam periods, and once every four weeks during the summer term. Advertising is accepted by The Mercury on the basis that there is no discrimination by the advertiser in the offering of goods or services to any person, on any basis prohibited by applicable law. The publication of advertising in The Mercury does not constitute an endorsement of products or services by the newspaper, or the UTD administration. Opinions expressed in The Mercury are those of the editor, the editorial board or the writer of the article. They are not necessarily the view of the UTD administration, the Board of Regents or the Student Media Operating Board. Readers are welcome to collect one (1) free copy of The Mercury from any campus stand. Additional copies are available for purchase at 25 cents each in the Student Media Suite (SU 1.601). The Mercury’s editors retain the right to refuse or edit any submission based on libel, malice, spelling, grammar and style, and violations of Section 54.23 (f) (1-6) of UTD policy. Copyright © 2019, The University of Texas at Dallas. All articles, photographs and graphic assets, whether in print or online, may not be reproduced or republished in part or in whole without express written permission.
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LEGEND VEHICULAR INCIDENT
THEFT
DRUGS & ALCOHOL OTHER MAP: UTD | COURTESY
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Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
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NEWS
Researchers develop eye healing model
Out with the old, in with the new Upcoming phases at Northside to feature smart home capabilities, interior aesthetic changes
ROSHAN KHICHI| MERCURY STAFF
BHAVAN MEHTA| MERCURY STAFF
Drug screening assays are possible applications of the research.
Residents will be able to control the lights, front door lock and thermostat through smart home technology called The Hub.
RUHMA KHAN
ELLIS BLAKE HIDALGO
UTD researchers hope to push drug research forward by developing technology that mimics the human eye, to provide some insight on how exactly the eye heals. Researchers in the department of bioengineering at UTD are working in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center on the project. Professor of bioengineering and principal investigator David Schmidtke said small ropelike bundles of collagen called fibrils and their aligned crisscross arrangement in the eye is believed to have an effect on the healing of injured eye tissue. “What we’re trying to do is create an invitro platform that can answer some of these questions,” Schmidtke said. “If we can mimic the structure of these collagen fibrils and then combine them with growth factors and grow cells on them, we can then see how important the alignment is to these fibrils.” The experiment employed the use of microfluidic devices, small plastic pieces with thin hair-like channels that allow fluid to pass
Northside recently announced plans to open a fourth phase as construction continues on Phase Three, the complex’s first phase to offer smart home technology in the student-targeted housing project. Phase Four is scheduled to open in Fall 2021, just one year after Phase Three’s opening this coming fall. Vice President and Principal of Northside developers Wynne/Jackson, Brent Miller said the rapid expansion was tied to UTD’s similarly fast growth. “The growth of UT Dallas is one of the fastest in the country and there was no purpose-built student housing at UT Dallas prior to Northside. The university had residence halls and there’s some older housing … but nothing recent, nothing you think of as purpose-built student housing,” he said. “The university wants more students living closer to campus. They have a better college experience when they live closer, and it’s safer.” Upon its completion, Miller said Phase Four will mark the end of Northside’s ex-
Mercury Staff
Mercury Staff
→ SEE EYE,
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pansion for the foreseeable future. “I think that’s the extent of what we call Northside as far as the residential and retail components,” Miller said. “I think what’s to be developed north of that is still uncertain. It’s possible that it would include some residential (areas), but I think that’s a few years away.” Coinciding with the construction of the new phases, a new DART station is being built near Northside. Despite the increased travel capabilities of tenants, Miller said the complex’s primary target consumers will be students at UTD. “I see the DART line as an amenity for those at Northside to not have to get in the car to go somewhere. They can easily walk to the station and go to City Line, or go to the airport and not have to move their car,” Miller said. “We definitely see it as a tremendous benefit for international students as well as out-of-state students.” Compared to Phase Two’s 900 beds, Phases Three and Four will add 370 and 675 beds to the complex, respectively. Vice President of Student Housing Op-
→ SEE NORTHSIDE,
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ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG| PHOTO EDITOR
Interior changes in Phase Three include wood flooring and a modern color scheme.
Nerve stimulation device aids rehabilitation after stroke Therapeutic implant undergoing FDA approval process after seven years of testing
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
Engineering and neuroscience professor Robert Rennaker said implantation of the device requires one incision. MANSI CHAUHAN Mercury Staff
CHIAMAKA MGBOJI | MERCURY STAFF
A UTD-developed nerve stimulation device may increase the success of rehabilitation after a stroke. A five-year $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Health is covering the three years of FDA clinical trials necessary to bring a new vagus nerve stimulation device into the market. Primary scientists include assistant professor of bioengineering Seth Hays as well as engineering and neuroscience professor Robert Rennaker. The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve located in the neck, and it exerts control over many organs including but not limited to the heart, lungs and digestive tract. Implanted and external vagus nerve stimulation devic-
es have been on the market for some time, but this new type aims to be more effective and less invasive. “We’ve done a lot of development leading up to this,” Hays said. “It shows that if you stimulate the vagus nerve when somebody is getting rehabilitation, the brain is more likely to change.” Hays said the device that they have developed doesn’t have a battery or leads, and goes directly on the nerve. There will only be one incision needed for the surgery instead of the two made by current methods. It’s less than a few square inches in area, and it will be compatible with a mobile app that patients and doctors can use. “Mostly what we’ve done over the last seven years is animal research, just trying to improve the delivery of the therapy,” Hays
said. “We also want to understand how it works, how do we see these brain changes.” Rennaker said the production of the new VNS device is cheaper and can be made through automation. The devices are created with a wafer, a thin slice of semiconductor, and then sealed between two layers of glass for protection. “I really wanted to do something that had clinical impact,” Hays said. “Stroke is a huge disease; it affects roughly a million people per year.” Hays said that the device electrically stimulates areas in the brain that then release neuromodulators, substances that affect the function of neurons. These neuromodulators enhance the changes in your
→ SEE NERVE,
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4
LIFE&ARTS
Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
ASTRID HERNANDEZ | MERCURY STAFF
Digitized detective campaign
Award-winning role-playing video game ‘Disco Elysium’ puts players’ investigative skills to test BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff
“Disco Elysium” is a top-down third-person isometric POV open world RPG that starts the player in the blackness of a void, guided by an “Ancient Reptilian Brain.” The player can choose to either begin feeling the emotions and sensations that come with being alive and wake up, or stay in the void, visiting such locations as “Nothingtown.” The beginning of “Disco Elysium” is just a small slice of the wackiness and choice the player gets throughout the rest of the game. In short, it’s a virtual Drunk Detective “Dungeons and Dragons” campaign, and the sheer amount of choice combined with excellently written dialogue makes “Disco Elysium” an amazing RPG experience. “Disco Elysium” was developed in four years by ZA/ UM, an Estonian indie studio inspired by various detective stories, other RPGs such as “Planescape: Torment,” artists such as Rembrandt and Jenny Saville and shows such as “The Wire.” Without spoiling too much, the player is a detective in an open world, with a vast amount of things to do. Most obstacles are overcome through skill checks, like a tabletop role-playing experience, with 24 possible skills to use and level up. The tabletop-inspired skill checks, complete with virtual dice rolling and the equivalent of a nat 1 or nat 20, can make the game tedious for those expecting a traditional RPG experience. “Disco Elysium” was originally written
as a tabletop campaign, so the gameplay is more akin to point and click rather than hack and slash. The art style, while unique and inspired, might look off to some, and constantly pressing tab to see what’s interactable might be tedious to those who are looking for the correct path forward. The open world itself is also contained essentially within 2 blocks in the city of Revachol, turning off players looking to explore a vast expanse. While that may not sound entertaining, the gameplay itself is more of a vehicle to the real meat of the game: its writing and variety of choice. For all intents and purposes, the player is only limited by where they can physically go and what they have on them. Dialogue options allow the player to roleplay as a large variety of characters, with given options allowing the player to play a competent detective or an absolute buffoon. Your skills also affect your dialogue options. In two different playthroughs, when talking to someone you’re given the chance to ask them out for a coffee. Given a high-leveled skill, your brain will chime in with the skill’s relevant expertise, in this case allowing you to sense that they do not like you. But without this skill, and with a different skill, you might be given the exact opposite impression, encouraging the player to ask out someone that is disgusted with them. These skill-inspired inner thoughts can even lead to extensive conversations with yourself, allowing you to contemplate whether your corpse will be riddled with bullets or ‘disco’ upon death.
DETOUR DOUGHNUTS ELLIS BLAKE HIDALGO Mercury Staff
CALIS LIM | MERCURY STAFF
Besides skills, the player also has access to a thought cabinet, a collection of thoughts that the player can come across and internalize throughout their adventure. Player character aside, all the characters in the game feel alive. While the dialogue option selections might be reminiscent of “Fallout,” “The Witcher,” and even other text adventures, the excellently written dialogue and variety of dialogue options depending on player skills and thoughts lead to almost entirely unique conversations depending on different runs. And unlike “Fallout” and others, there are no real major guides of all the reactions and dialogue options, or all the inner monologues caused by all the different combinations of thoughts and skills. This means that the player is forced to discover everything for themselves, solve the varied mysteries in Revachol, and do as many drugs as they like. Or they can do none of those things and take bribes from a union boss. Or they can become a paranormal investigator. Or even become a herald of doom from the void. Ultimately, “Disco Elysium” is a game about exploring all the options, plotlines and dialogue there is to discover. Unlike open world games such as the generic Ubisoft experience with endless tasks and mini to-do lists of boredom, “Disco Elysium” is filled to the brim with well-written characters, side-tracking and the ability to make the player character into anything, almost like a DnD campaign run by an amazing Dungeon Master. “Disco Elysium” is an adventure everyone should experience going into the Roarin’ 2020’s.
CALIS LIM | MERCURY STAFF
Jinny Cho, owner of Detour Doughnuts and Coffee, graduated from UTD with a biomedical engineering degree in 2016.
As the spring semester picks back up, most of us are going to have to readjust to the hectic schedule of being students. While we get back into the swing of balancing our school work, I was excited to be able to go to Detour Doughnuts for a quick break, all while supporting a UTD alumni. Tucked away in Frisco, Detour Doughnuts can be easy to miss. Quaint and casual, the overhead sign reading, “Coffee and Donuts” hangs over a deceptively small shop. Displayed under the counter, the array of donuts show off the shop’s commitment to seasonality and creativity. Despite being a normally picky eater, I felt particularly excited to try their variety of flavors including Rose Champagne, Dark Chocolate Raspberry and Everything Bagel. As I later tried their various flavors, a distinct lack of sweetness stuck out to me. As opposed to the flood of sugar accompanying most donuts, each donut’s flavor rang true to what was advertised. While I generally tend to enjoy sweeter foods, especially a traditional donut, I didn’t
find any donut bland; rather, each more than made up for a lack of sugar with its own unique flavor. Particularly, the Everything Bagel donut seemed to lack any kind of sweetness altogether. Instead, the donuts provided a welcomed texture change to a traditional everything bagel, replacing the chewy taste and texture of a bagel with the soft and pillowy texture of a donut. As I went through the rest of the menu, I came to find Detour’s commitment to strong, natural flavors consistent. Founder, owner and operator Jinny Cho maintains a busy schedule so she can have hands-on involvement in running the store. “I get up anywhere between three or four o'clock in the morning, then we make donuts and I talk to my customers and use Instagram a lot. Then we do the same thing the next day,” Cho said. “The most important part of this game is just being able to do that every day. You have to be able to get up at 4:00 in the morning every day and just keep going. We open at 6:00 and we make fresh doughnuts every day. (It’s) just one of those things that you
have to do. It needs to be fresh.” Born in Korea, Cho moved to Dallas when she was a child and said she grew up helping her parents run their doughnut shop. Later on, as a UTD student she said she came to know the area even better, making opening in Frisco an easy decision. “I came here when I was six to seven. I basically grew up in the Dallas area, Frisco and I grew up in Plano primarily,” she said. “I moved around everywhere, literally every single school district and the DFW suburbs. My parents moved to Frisco because they also have a store not too far away, and they wanted to be closer to their store.” As a mother, Cho said it’s important to find time for her family on top of running her store. Having opened Detour Doughnuts a year and a half ago, she said it’s becoming easier for her to find the right balance. “I have a two-year-old son. He comes in all the time and he wreaks havoc. Now he's tall
→ SEE DETOUR,
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5 SPORTS Chess team heads to President’s Cup Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
Players qualify for second consecutive year, reflect on importance of improving strategies before April match
ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF
The UTD chess team has over two months left to prepare for the 2020 President's Cup, where they will be competing against teams from Webster University, Texas Tech and Saint Louis University. ELLIS BLAKE HIDALGO Mercury Staff
Fresh off their qualifying fourth-place finish at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in December, the UTD chess team is gearing up to head to the 2020 President’s Cup for the second year in a row. Held at the Marshall Chess Club in New York, the 2020 President’s Cup will host UTD, Webster University, Texas Tech and Saint Louis University. Having competed against teams from all three at the qualifying Pan-American Championship, coach Julio Sadorra said their recent experiences will factor into their strategy going in. “Definitely, a factor here is playing style. So, if depending on our prediction they line up tactical players in the top boards, positional person on the lower boards, we will
adjust accordingly,” Sadorra said. “Recently we were just discussing this, we have to work on our strengths, take opponents out of our comfort zone. That can really help us with setting our lineups.” With the President’s Cup in April, the team has over two months left for preparation. In order for the team to ultimately succeed, Sadorra said it would be important for every player to fully commit to their training. “Before I became a grandmaster, I was the hungriest, I would do anything … so the least I could do, I think the most important thing I could do is to cultivate that hunger,” Sadorra said. “For this Final Four, I think all of them need to want it, considering the competition that we're facing. If you have that strong mind, it doesn't matter even if you're playing a world champion. Because if you know you put it on the table in training,
what have we got to lose?” This year, UTD earned a qualifying spot among 63 other teams. That number, Sadorra said, is indicative of a growing field of intercollegiate chess teams. “The competition has really gained in strength. Before it was just two universities fighting for the top spots: University of Maryland Baltimore County and UT Dallas. When I applied for a scholarship here, it was just those two and maybe a few others tailing behind,” Sadorra said. “In 2012, other chess programs sprung up and they started bringing in grandmasters from different countries. So we're competing against other grandmasters, you could even say super-grandmasters on the other teams.” UTD is headed to the Final Four for the 17th time, with the championship first having taken place 19 years ago. Despite having UTD’s record to uphold, Sadorra said it
wasn’t a negative source of pressure. “It’s an encouragement. I combine these achievements with my titles we won when I was a student,” Sadorra said. “Still yet to win Final Four, but I see it as encouragement. Despite the increasing number of grandmasters and strong competition, the fact that we're still up there in the top speaks volumes. It's a winning culture. Winners win.” Similarly, grandmaster and computer science junior Razvan Preotu said he didn’t feel any pressure coming from UTD’s record. Heading to his second President’s Cup, Preotu said it would be important for him and his team to continue improving before the competition. “It's constantly balancing school with chess,” Preotu said. “So, sometimes I even have to do some homework in between some games, or before the tournament, where if I didn't have the tournament I
could do later. Just lots of planning ahead.” Unlike other chess competitions, the President’s Cup limits competing universities to one team. Despite the national scale of the event, Preotu said he felt more pressure to compete at the PanAmerican competition. “I think that's common for most things though. When you start learning something, you find it fascinating and stuff,” he said. “So, it's a lot of fun and then once you get better at it, results are more important and start to become more important to you.” UTD’s record of success only pushes its players to work harder, said program director Jim Stallings. “You've heard people say many times, ‘You have to earn your stripes.’ In other
→ SEE CHESS,
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GETTING INTO THE SPRING OF THINGS What does February look like for the Comets?
WOMEN'S
MEN'S
Comets vs. Southeastern Oklahoma
Collin College Invitational
Singles Overall Score in 2019: 63-11 Doubles Overall Score in 2019: 34-8
Singles Overall Score in 2019: 72-15 Doubles Overall Score in 2019: 37-13
TENNIS Feb. 6
Feb. 7
BASEBALL
player spotlight:
#44 Michael Forster Junior Forward Scored 29 points and seven 3-pointers in last game against Sul Ross State Jan. 23
Feb. 8
SOFTBALL
Feb. 22-29
BASKETBALL
Comets vs. California Lutheran
Comets vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor
Feb. 22 Comets vs. McMurry
Overall Record in 2019: 21-21 Players to Watch 2020: Jacob Perry (senior shortstop) Blake birdwell (junior right-hander)
Overall Record in 2019: 17-21 Players to Watch 2020: Jessica Vlasek (senior utility) Elizabeth Brann (senior outfield/utility) Matee Simon (freshman outfield)
(last game before ASC Championship)
Feb. 27-29 ASC Championship (if qualify) Overall Record in 2019: 12-5 6-2 ASC
EMAAN BANGASH | MERCURY STAFF
6
Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
STAR WARS: CHANGE OF PLANS
NOOO DON'T SCAM ME UR SO SEXY AHA
COMICS
LOUISE NILLAS | MERCURY STAFF
O&B: SHOW AND TELL
CECILIA ROMERO | MERCURY STAFF
SARAH STREETY | MERCURY STAFF
DON'T TALK TO ME OR MY SON EVER AGAIN
I ONLY LIKE BAD BOYS
BIANCA DEL RIO | MERCURY STAFF
OK BOOMER
ELIZABETH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
WE LIKE TO PARTY HARD
ELIZABETH NGUYEN | MERCURY STAFF
NOTICE MIKU SENPAI
GATHER AROUND FELLOW RATS
JENNA CHERREY | MERCURY STAFF
CECILIA ROMERO | MERCURY STAFF
QUINN SHERER | MERCURY STAFF
OPINION
7
Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
A BUG, NOT A FEATURE
TL;PR
Public relations disasters continue to plague the video game industry BEN NGUYEN Mercury Staff
It’s 2020! And with the new year and new decade, it has come time for retrospection. In the last 10 years, the video game industry has been hit with some of the largest public relations mishaps and social media blunders in its history. Let’s take a look at the most significant bugs with video game PR: hype trains and corporate social media presence. Arguably the most infamous PR disasters of the decade were the various hype trains. For the uninformed, the first part of the hype train is in the name: the hype. It can grow in a number of ways, chief among them being false promises, a dedicated fanbase, E3 demos – often misleading demos of a game shown at the E3 press conference – or some combination of all three. One of the largest hype train crashes in recent memory was the failure of “Anthem” upon release. Bioware was a known developer of excellent RPG games and the thought of flying around in Iron Man suits in a Bioware game was exhilarating. Combined with an excellent E3 demo and promises of a Bioware story to go along with the multiplayer experience, this was a game that got a lot of people excited. The hype train was going light speed directly off a cliff. The second part of the hype train is the inevitable crash. The broken promises, game-breaking bugs and glitches, and in the worst-case scenario, just a bad game. The list of games released with gamebreaking bugs is too extensive to type out here, with the most notable including “Anthem,” “No Man’s Sky” and “Destiny.” In “Anthem’s” case, the game was somehow rushed with an over seven-year development period, and in the case of “Batman: Arkham Knight,” the PC release was so bugged that it was
removed from the Steam store with refunds for anyone who bought the game. All the marketing created expectations these sloppy games couldn’t live up to. A large part of the hype train and general video game PR is generated through social media, and for an industry so rooted in technology, developers still make big mistakes. First, as a part of the hype train, is false promises before launch, “No Man’s Sky” being a prime example. A randomly-generated universe to explore, exotic flora and fauna, space battles to rival “Star Wars” and a journey to the center of the universe. “No Man’s Sky” promised it all. Sean Murray, the face of “No Man’s Sky” developer Hello Games, was seen everywhere, from morning talk shows to “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. They essentially promised the original “Star Wars” trilogy, and instead released the “Star Wars” holiday special reenacted by high schoolers with a VHS recorder. A Sony partnership and subsequent corporate deadline forced an early release, and it was the internet’s favorite punching bag for a good few months. After later releases, Sean Murray and Hello Games would go radio silent, having learned the lesson of being quiet and letting the game speak for itself. But besides hype trains, community interaction on social media is still pretty rough for developers, with the worst mistake being treating the playerbase like idiots. The most downvoted post on Reddit – numbering in the tens of millions – is from EA regarding loot boxes in “Star Wars Battlefront II.” How could they possibly justify the inclusion of what amounted to a gambling system in a product for children? Simple. They wanted players to sense a feeling of “pride and accomplishment” for earning loot boxes and getting lucky, instead of playing the game and earning the skins and weapons through playtime directly. It’s like saying you can earn a sense of “pride and accomplishment” better by submitting
multiple assignments and maybe rolling for an A+ instead of just doing the work to get an A+ on an assignment. More recently, a “League of Legends” player complained about the design of a character, and the developer responded by saying they’d trust the “200+ collective years of game design experience” over the complaints of the player. Treating your players like idiots is just rude, and does not accomplish anything but bad publicity for a game. Speaking of bad publicity, some people may believe all publicity is good publicity. None of those people have witnessed the many atrocities of the video game industry, with one of the most bizarre being the antics of Acclaim Entertainment. As a veteran video game development company, their employees marketed many of their games in questionable ways. Notable examples included offering to pay for gravestone advertisement space, offering to pay traffic tickets for everyone in a town the day of the release of a racing game and offering to pay parents to name their baby “Turok.” Controversies like these only provide a short burst of exposure, leave a bad taste in peoples’ mouths, and lead to financial ruin, as Acclaim ultimately learned. Making a bloated marketing budget is no guarantor of success, especially when spent on terrible PR campaigns. So what did the video game industry learn? Considering their continued PR mishaps, probably nothing. But we as consumers can stop getting on the hype train. I know it’s tempting to believe in the promises, but it seems no matter the name in the credits, promises can and will be broken. The next time the hype train rolls into the station, or a game comes out with more bugs than a rainforest, save your money. Don’t preorder games, always wait for the reviews, and remember that PR in the games industry is generally a bug, and not a feature.
HADLEY ARCHER Mercury Staff
Subpar Chainsaw Massacre Why slasher films don't do the horror genre justice
Horror films are exactly as the name suggests. They do what most other genres typically avoid: they force the audience to face undesirable or horrific images. While the horror genre is an interesting one to observe, looking at its subgenres can be just as entertaining. Psychological horror, for example, is one of the top-tier horror movie subgenres. It makes use of the uncanny and leaves the audience’s head’s spinning after one (or more) viewing. Slasher films, on the other hand, are a hodgepodge of cheesy lines, poor decisions and questionable deaths and gore that lose their taste after one sitting. With these elements throughout virtually every slasher film, it’s hard to understand why they’re still doing well. Why do endless sequels release left and right? Why do people keep coming back to see these rushed products? The elements that make good horror movies are deeper than plot, cast or gore. Horror contains multiple elements: it’s personal, transgressive and antirepressive. Filmmakers morph their movies to include these three attributes in such a way that they tap into our fears and force us to face them. Take a look at “The Shining.” The fear presented is not just an alcoholic succumbing to madness and attempting to murder his family. Kubrick’s film helps define horror as personal, as it taps into universal fears like isolation. He exaggerates that fear with almost nonexistent sound, never-ending hallways and a gigantic snowstorm trapping the Torrances inside the massive hotel. Or, to define horror as transgressive, consider “The Human Centipede.” It pushes the boundaries of what is socially acceptable for public discussion, received the label of “torture porn” and outcasted within its own genre. The title alone can make people’s skin crawl.
The film forces audiences to witness an uncomfortable experience, as society trained us to believe that freaky imagery should be uncomfortable. Perhaps we bring up “Carrie” the titular character is constantly bullied, her urge to enact a bloody revenge grows, right up to the iconic scene at the high school prom — she cracks and kills everyone in the gymnasium. This buildup emphasizes horror being anti-repressive. This unburies the fear of lashing out at hardships, showing an exaggerated sequence of what will happen if we don’t keep our primal-based behaviors in check. Alternatively, slashers are scary on a basic level. They all boil down to a few key elements: a serial killer who murders a group of young adults, the “final girl” ultimately defeats said serial killer and/ or escapes, and the cycle repeats with a return of the killer and a new group of victims, with subpar jumpscares scattered throughout the story. In an essay titled “Slasher Films and Gore in the 1980s,'' James Kendrick states the killer is integral to “the slasher’s structural components, a fact embodied in the subgenre’s very name.” He is typically male, human or human-like and has a supernatural aspect to him that allows him to appear and disappear at will and is seemingly unkillable. This style of horror, although insanely successful and profitable, seems more like a quick and easy cash grab than anything meaningful. What ruins slashers is the need to create sequels — many of them — thanks to the success of the first movies in these franchises. Tropes are repeated in each sequel and remake, with forgettable victims, silly deaths and questionable plot convenience. “Friday the 13th,” for instance, has films lasting from 1980 all the way to the 2009 remake with nine sequels and a crossover in between. Each movie becomes more and more predictable with nothing new to offer, only providing a few twists that barely add any flavor. You find yourself cheering for Jason to kill everyone so the movie can end and you can relieve yourself
SHELBY PEREZ | MERCURY STAFF
from dull characters and a bland plot. There’s also “Candyman,” a slasher franchise not as well known or overdone as the Friday series, that still fails to create sequels that provide any real meat to the “Candyman” universe. The creators try to explain where Candyman comes from in its sequels rather than continuing forward, which ultimately turned the franchise into a silly joke with a remake on the way. Not all slashers are this way. There are films of this subgenre out there that don’t face these problems of repetitiveness and predictability. Take the “Scream” franchise. It follows the slasher tropes, mocks those tropes and becomes self aware and adds a little spice to the genre. At the time of “Scream’s” release, Freddy and Jason sequels were coming out constantly, but profit was progressively getting lower and lower. By creating an atmosphere in which the characters make fun of the slasher genre and seem self-aware, with a popular and attractive cast, “Scream” was able to reboot slashers, inspiring films like “Final Destination,” as well as leading the way for remakes of many notable 1980s slasher films. With this new influx of slashers, older audiences are exposed to a familiar type of film while newer audiences are presented with a modern take on what was popular years prior. By growing the fanbase with folks going down memory lane and those just getting into the horror genre, slasher creators keep the cycle of remakes going. All in all, slashers aren’t necessarily the best kind of horror film, despite how well they perform in the box office. They get repetitive, and lack creativity, making universal tropes with their plot and gore. Although there are some gems, there just aren’t enough slashers collectively to gain a high following other than to say, “Look, I survived watching a horror movie!” This kind of horror seems to be an experience for most ages to enjoy with the constantly remade classics such as “Child’s Play” and “Halloween.” However, similar to the killers in these movies, Kendrick notes “the slasher film continues to defy all efforts to kill it.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM NORTHSIDE!
SAMANTHA LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF
Jan. 27, 2020 | The Mercury
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ALESANDRA BELL | MERCURY STAFF
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than a distraction. “I feel like if you're going to be distracted, then you're going to be distracted anyway by something else,” Arni said. “I think that it helps, typing fast to keep up with what the professor is saying – or even just pulling up the lecture slides helps me focus.” Karen Huxtable-Jester, a UTD psychology professor and associate director for the Center for Teaching and Learning, said that she used to restrict laptop use in her class, but over time, began allowing and even encouraging laptop use for various class activities. “I would tell people it’s not the best way to take notes. You're much better off without that distraction. You're better off taking notes by hand and thinking about what you’re doing,” Huxtable-Jester said. “But I found that just simply having a flat out ban like that … was ableist, essentially, that I’m discriminating against people with disabilities who maybe need this accommodation.” Huxtable-Jester said that she noticed that students were often appearing to be distracted by laptop usage, though it was hard to tell simply by looking. “Somebody can be staring straight ahead and seeming to be very attentive, and they’re not paying attention at all because you can fake it,” Huxtable-Jester said. “Students still will be distracted just as always been the case, even when students used to read newspapers in class. When I was in school… somebody might actually have the newspaper wide open in class in some big lecture hall.” In a survey of 99 students conducted by The Mercury, 69.1% of respondents said that they used their smartphone, laptop, or tablet to look up definitions or follow their professor’s PowerPoint.
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are also very successful in the classroom. “It’s very difficult to find guys playing basketball that can meet the academic criteria,” Butterfield said. “But… because I get such high level kid(s), they’re really smart and they’re very driven and they have excellent priorities. I feel very fortunate to be able to coach kids like that.” In addition to having a major offensive role, senior forward/center Hans Burwitz serves as a leader on the team and tries to connect with each player, Burwitz said. “The best part about our team is the guys,” Burwitz said. “We have
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erations at Balfour Beatty Communities, Marty McBurney said the smart home technology in Phases Three and Four will link household appliances to a “Hub.” “The Hub will be able to control the front door lock, the lights in the unit, as well as the thermostat,” McBurney said. “So, say you went out of town and the temperature dropped to 35 degrees as happens
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words, you can't rest on your laurels. So that's part of that fighting spirit, you know?” Stallings said. “Yeah, we did that last year. Great. What are we going to do now? You really can't rely on those past successes, because every-
The survey also revealed that 62.9% of respondents said they use their technology for social media or texting. Fourty-three percent of students said that they use their smartphone, laptop or tablet in three to five class periods per week, and 27.3% rated their distraction level from electronic devices as a two out of five, with one being not distracted at all. A study conducted by Mueller and Oppenheimer in 2014 found that longhand note taking as opposed to laptop note taking boosted conceptual performance on quizzes, but had no effect on factual-recall performance. Meanwhile, a 2019 replication of that study found that relative to longhand note taking, laptop note taking did not reduce knowledge of the lecture material after a brief delay with no opportunity to study. Fatima, meanwhile, said that writing her notes down on a notebook makes her feel like she’s physically retaining the information. “I tried using my laptop to take notes, but it didn't work out as well for me because I learned better when I actually write things,” Fatima said. “Personally, I like writing things down.” Arni said that using either a notebook or laptop to take notes depends on the class. “I think for some classes when you can follow the professor and kind of condense your notes, then it’s easier to do it on paper,” Arni said. “But I think that if the professor goes really fast, and there’s a lot of information that you need to just strictly memorize for the class, then I think doing it with typing out your notes is just a faster, more efficient way to do it.” So, is technology usage in class more beneficial than harmful? Huxtable-Jester said that it goes both ways. “For me, the solution is to be more directive and say, okay,
‘Now’s the time for everybody to close their laptops and devices. We're all going to watch this video.’ Or ‘Now’s the time to close it because we're going to have a discussion,’” Huxtable-Jester said. “As opposed to people sort of thinking, ‘I’m going to sit here and work on my laptop while you're in the background and if you say something interesting, I’ll look up.’” Arni said that unless the student’s materials are on a laptop, she understands why professors tell students not to go on their devices, but she also thinks that staying focused is the student’s responsibility. “If the student thinks something is more helpful, or just keeping their laptop on, or whatever just helps them concentrate… then I think that (the professor) should kind of leave it up to the students (to decide) what they want to do,” Arni said. “Because in the end, they’re learning and it’s their grade.” Huxtable-Jester said that she didn’t want to dictate what students did and that students must resist distractions themselves. “If I'm in a faculty meeting or in a workshop… I wouldn't say, you know, ‘You're not paying attention, put your laptop away,’ because I wouldn't do that to a colleague. So I wouldn't do it to a student,” Huxtable-Jester said. “But I might say to all the faculty, ‘Let's all do this now because this is what we're here for.’” Fatima said that students who get distracted with tech use should limit their social media time because it takes away from studying time, and Arni said that sitting near a teaching assistant or professor may keep a student in check during class. “That way you know that what’s on your computer, everyone else around you can see,” Arni said. “So that’ll help you be more controlled and not do other things that you don’t want other people to see.”
a close connection and we always know how to mess with each other but not take it too far.” Burwitz has been playing with UTD for the past three years, and during his time here he said he has grown as a person. “UTD, with academics and basketball, really pushes you harder than most places, and it makes you a lot better for it,” he said. People like these seniors are not only good players, but also have personalities that are very conducive to a strong team representation, Butterfield said. “When I got here, I didn’t think I would be here very long,” Butterfield said. “I thought maybe three to five years tops — I’m
an east coast guy and spend all of my time on the east coast basically. Twenty years later, here I am. I stay because I get to work with a really high-level, high-character type of kid, and I love that.” Although basketball is the common factor that initially brought these players together, Butterfield said their relationship has become much more than that. “The basketball stuff is a whole lot of fun, but it’s those sorts of things that last forever,” he said. “The connections, the friendships, the relationships, the times that we had together and watching (them) evolve into grown men, to me, you can’t put a price tag on that.”
in Texas. You leave, it’s 70 degrees, and five hours later, it’s 35 degrees and your AC is on and you need to flip the heat. You’ll be able to do that from your phone wherever you are.” Alongside the technological additions, Phase Three will include various physical improvements. McBurney said the interior changes, including wood flooring and color scheming, were aimed at achieving a more modern look. “One of the other differences is an upgraded furniture package, as
well as wood plank floors in the bedrooms. So instead of having carpet, it’s wood plank all the way through, which is really nice because it’s a more luxurious type of floor,” McBurney said. “We’ve also updated the kitchens. Cabinetry is going to be completely different and more current, more modern with gray bottom cabinets and white upper cabinets.” Despite the new phases, Miller said the prices at pre-existing complexes will not be affected.
body’s preparing for you.” Despite appearing relatively calm in comparison to other sports, Stallings said that chess evokes emotions that often affect performance. “I think a lot of people outside of chess underestimate the part emotions play in the game. They think that you're just sitting there thinking
like a computer. That's all you're doing. That's not true,” Stallings said. “As different things happen or come up, you have emotions. That's why the coach instilling confidence in the players, that fighting spirit, is very important, and when those things do happen, they will be ready to deal with them.”
Rinthawa said. “Food is served irrespective of caste, religion and economic status,” Rinthawa said. “It’s basically done to bring equality to the people, so all people can sit together and have food.” Sahu, who makes close to 10 deliveries per week, said there are a few factors he considers when choosing what food to pick up. “First, how fresh is the food? Second, from where to pick up? Third from what time should it be picked up?” Sahu said. “Based on if we are available, the time frame and the quantity of food, we will come and get it.” Next, they decide which apartment complex to serve the food at and notify the group chat. Finally, the food is placed in the apartment of a volunteer from the third group, primarily made up of UTD students living in the various apartment complexes. “We have five to six communities (including) McCallum, The Pearl, Estates of FrankFord and Marquis at Waterview,” Sahu said. “We have a rotation policy. If we bring the food (to) one community today we make sure we bring the food to another community tomorrow.” Eight to 10 food items are laid out buffet style, and international students in need of food go to the volunteer’s apartment during a specific time and serve themselves. Food from the gurdwara includes rice, dahl, which is made of slow cooked lentils, roti, a type of flatbread, and sabji, a vegetable curry. However, they have served other food as well. Sahu and his volunteers taste the food to ensure it’s safe. “We accept all kinds of food. The only condition is the food should be very fresh. It shouldn’t be two days old or stale food,” Sahu said. “There is no restriction
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through them, Schmidtke said. Graduate research assistant Kevin Lam said he worked on developing a substrate, a surface for the chemical reaction, that would mimic the structure of the cornea and provide a surface on which to place the collagen fibrils. “In order to do that, we employed a microfluidic device that would attach over glass,” Lam said. “Then from that we infused a collagen solution.” A cold collagen solution was infused through the microfluidic device
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brain. The stimulation acts as a kind of boost the brain uses to help rewire itself. “The changes in your brain relate to the training you’re doing,” Hays said. “So if you’re getting rehab as training, you’ll see more rehab related changes, and that leads you to recover better after a stroke.” Originally, Michael Kilgard, associate director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center, started using vagus nerve stimulation paired with rehabilitation. The use of VNS for stroke was also developed originally at UTD, Hays said. “Kilgard showed us that the brain changes when you pair VNS with the presentation of sound,” Hays said. “That laid the groundwork for us to see if this relation would be beneficial for patients.” Besides stroke, VNS paired with any kind of rehabilitation may be beneficial for patients,
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enough that he can reach a doughnut hole, and so he'll be like, ‘Oh, I want those,’ and he just grabs it himself,” she said. “It's pretty cute. I don't have a whole lot of time, but I have to make time for sure.” Cho helped her family run their doughnut shop when she was growing up, and said her parents now help her run her own. She said the experience of growing up
PAVAN TAUH | MERCURY STAFF
Takesh Sahu's (left) food delivery service relies on volunteers like Sehijbir Singh Rinthawa (right).
on how much students can have. They can simply take whatever they want.” In 2019, Sahu said, 50% of the food came from two local gurdwaras, 25% from Hindu temples, and another 25% from other sources. One initial challenge was transportation as the group didn’t have a car. Instead they used ZipCars, Uber or the local metro train. Then in May 2017, when the volunteer service picked up steam, Sahu and his friends bought a car together. “To help the student community, we decided to get a car, and after that it was kind of flawless,” Sahu said. “When (South Asian international) students come here, the US, for the first time, the Indian Student Association helps us find accommodation,” Sahu said. “But when it comes to food, (the students) have no idea where to go to get food, how to order, they don't even have phone connection initially. We used to provide whatever we could.” Juggling their course work and making deliveries was difficult as masters students, Rath said, but once they restructured and created time in their schedules it became easier. The main obstacle is logistics,
Sahu said. Most of the logistics volunteers, who are UTD alumni, have full time jobs, making weekday deliveries difficult. “We have enough food, we have demand as well, but to bridge the gap between these two is very crucial for us and we have been struggling,” Sahu said. “The scale has increased on both the sides. Students expect (food) every weekend or every day. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide that service. For 2020, our goal is to bridge this gap, streamline everything and define the responsibilities.” As Takesh UTD Food Supply expanded, more people heard about their service. One woman from Little Elm, Savita Goel, contacted Takesh and asked to prepare food specifically to serve students. She cooked four dishes for 20 students. “We have come far, and are very fortunate we have really good support from the student community, from the volunteers, and from the DFW area,” Sahu said. “Service is not important, the important thing is in what way can we help to improve this society, the surroundings, the world. Even a small contribution is helpful.”
while the device was on a hot plate, Lam said. This formed an aligned collagen fibril on top of the glass substrate he developed. In normal wound healing, Schmitdke said, the keratocytes, which play a key role in maintaining the structure of the cornea, help repair injury, leading to recovered normal vision. In abnormal wound healing, scar tissue forms, impairing vision. The keratocytes are wedged between crisscrossing layers of fibrils in the cornea, he said. “It’s thought that in wound healing, that keratocytes get transformed,” Schmidtke said. “Whether you have normal wound healing, where you
get your vision back versus scarring … it’s thought that the topography or the structures of these aligned fibrils plays an important role.” Possible applications of the research, Schmidtke said would be to test the effects of certain drugs on eye healing. “Right now, it’s being used to understand some of the biology of the cornea. Assuming that it’s an accurate mimic, then potentially you could start doing some drug screening assays,” he said. “If the cells behave similar to what they would do in vivo, then you can start looking at how drugs affect the wound healing process.”
Hays said. Several kinds of neurological injury symptoms, such as pain and loss of function could potentially be improved in people using this technology. “This study tells us that if we use this approach on complicated motor skills, those improvements can filter down to improve simpler movements,” Kilgard said. While VNS devices are not currently MRI compatible, which can interfere with the treatment of stroke patients, they do offer better technology compared to other existing methods. “What’s different about the grant is the old devices look like a pacemaker. It gets implanted under your clavicle, and then a lead goes and gets connected to your nerve in the neck,” Hays said. “That’s expensive, batteries die, and then the leads break, they have issues in a whole lot of people.” Hays said there’s a lot that goes into submitting something to the FDA, especially when it’s implanted.
“We need to make sure it’s safe electrically, make sure it’s safe chemically and mechanically,” Hays said. “What we’ve done over the last year is get all that testing completed and get everything assembled. The intention is to begin clinical trials next year.” Hays said that it can take up to 20 years for a drug to go from development to the market. His team has been developing this device for about five years, which he says is an accelerated schedule in comparison. Rennaker said that the development of this device has been a unique, collective effort. Almost 600 students have worked in the labs, along with a dozen Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral researchers. “Now we’re getting to the point of moving forward to humans,” Hays said. “Stroke is really hard to crack, and what we’ve seen so far in these animals and these initial human studies has been really encouraging.”
working alongside her parents, as well as a desire to create her own doughnuts is what inspired her to open Detour Doughnuts. “Now when I think back to it, it was a lot of fun. I slept in every corner you could think of, I helped out quite a lot, made a lot of friends, even at the store,” she said. “That was good. I got to spend time with my parents, most importantly. They didn't just drop me off somewhere, I was there with them.” As Detour Doughnuts contin-
ues to grow, Cho said she hopes to take a step back from her handson approach. Besides spending more time with her family, she said she hopes more time off will allow her to be more creative in creating doughnuts. “I want to let (Detour Doughnuts) grow organically. I'm still in experiment mode,” Cho said. “There’s so many things that I want to make that I haven't had the time to make yet. I'm trying to give myself more time to make new things.”