Ever been inspired to go places because of something you’ve seen in a movie? Perhaps not, but it does happen: take World War II period piece Australia, which was backed by a $1 million campaign by the Tourism board of Western Australia. Or on a smaller scale, consider the sustainability of organised tours of the sights of western Austria that tie in with vintage musical The Sound of Music.

It’s not just film either: you may be inspired by the works of Charles Dickens to visit London, and a love of Bob Marley may inspire a trip to the Caribbean. So, what about video games? Studies into the way they alter our behaviour are nothing if not controversial, but surely they have the same power of suggestion as any movie, piece of literature or song? Could we see concerted efforts in the future by tourists boards to capitalise on games that feature real world destinations? Here are some they could have already exploited:

New York

As Seen In: Crysis 2, Deus Ex, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid 2, Modern Warfare 3 and countless others

Probably the most famous city in the world, New York doesn’t seem like it would need much of a tourist boost. In fact, it mostly shows that video games are inspired by travel: the majority of the games in which it features manipulate our love of the city by destroying it in some way (virtually all the above involve someone damaging a major landmark, especially the statue of liberty).

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Hi I wanted to Thank Karen for letting write a post about why I always like to add videos to my post. Now right off the bat you may think about increasing your bounce rate and I never really knew or cared about how long someone stays on the site  but it does seem like an easy way to increase the time someone is on your site. But what I like about it is maybe I think I haven’t really got my message across or I’m trying to cast a certain mood on the post. Videos let me add one more dimension to my message , it hopefully adds to the emotional impact I’m trying to have people reach.

Sometimes if I’m pumped up I will add a song from youtube that I just heard on the radio, this is cool because you often get to add videos that just came out and people haven’t seen yet . I like vodpod because it’s easy to grab the code off there especially when the  song has been blackedout on youtube.

I also recently noticed vodpod gave me my own little video vault . I don’t spend much time on there and all that but Vodpod does have a community on there of mostly young hip music buffs. Karen is down with the music scene so vodpod seems like a great spot to launch a video to get feedback on. Check it out Vodpod ‘s a cool site.

The main point I’m trying to get at is  I found adding the right video especially if it’s a song that inspired me to write the post adds some extra flavor and hey if it helps your bounce rate all the better.

Ideally videos that YOU made using camtasia uploaded to youtube with your links in the sidebar then used tubemogul would be better but adding music videos has worked for me so  give it a shot Thanks everyone

John Sullivan

PS now this post may seem silly and common sense but the reason I wrote it is because I don’t see many people doing it

Peace

So there I was browsing through BlogEngage and voting on some interesting article, when I came upon a post with an animation on YouTube titled Pigeon: Impossible, which had me in stitches.

I tried to explain this funny short to a friend of mind and they just didn’t get it, so they asked me if I could put it on my iPod to show them, hmmm, now I wasn’t sure if this was possible, so I searched the net and after several websites claiming they knew how it could be done, but they didn’t seem to work, I found myself on a website with a download of a Free YouTube to iPod Convertor.

Now I did have my doubts on whether this would actually work, but I shouldn’t of!

The program is so easy to use just download it, install it and run it, yes it’s that simple, then all your need to do is copy the URL of the video on YouTube and then add the downloaded and converted video to your iTunes, easy!

The output files are saved in MP4 or 3GP formats into the program’s folder in My Documents, and they retain the name of the source video. They are ready to playback on your iPod, PSP, BlackBerry or mobile phone.

So I’ve tried it and it works, I’ve got the funny video on my iPod and my friend loved it. I probably won’t use this a lot, but it will certainly help on tuition videos that are on YouTube, I mean sometimes it’s just easier to have them on my iPod and watch them when Ive got a bit of spare time and this isn’t always when I’m connected to the net.

I saw this the other day over at The Daily Dust and just had to use it for this weeks Music Monday…

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

Ok, I know I’m posting my Musical Monday a bit late today, but here it is, lately I’ve been playing the new album Junior by Royksopp quite a lot, so this weeks selected track is the opening track from the album Happy Up Here.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

It’s time for another Music Monday, so this week I have chosen 7th Sin by my good friends Lisa & KMP

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.