alastor2433's Journal

Final Blog for Second Life
It's difficult to sum up my experiences with this class in a single blog. But, seeing as how my grade is dependent on it, I suppose I am obligated to try. Alright, here it goes.

I think the reading that I took away the most from was the "Atmospherics" reading by Rushkoff. Basically, I think it's the one that most applies to web design work, as a big part of web design is creating a general look and feel that is memorable and different from other sites.

To be brutally honest, I came into this class hating Second Life and the very notion of multiuser virtual worlds. As an online semi-celebrity, I have often been plagued by what I refer to as the "internet stupid factor," which is essentially people using the anonymity inherent in forums and virtual worlds to act like jerks, or, in Second Life terms, to "grief." This has long turned me off from online gaming, and Second Life, with its... let's say unique... user interface was long considered by me to be the worst of the lot (although I know it is not technically a "game" in the strictest sense, before this semester I lumped it into that category).

This class, at least to some extent, caused me to change my mind about the nature of virtual worlds. There is honestly some potential here, which is visible from both a creative and a marketing standpoint. However, and I mean no personal offense to the many people that have kept tabs on the class that actually worked in Second Life, if Second Life wants to be a part of this potential, its user interface has to improve dramatically. As it stands now, only the, and I hesitate to use the term, "nerdy elite" can really take the time to learn to make Second Life work the way it's supposed to. If it is to become more accessible as a means of communication, it needs to be easier for the non technology inclined people to use without hours of extensive training.

That said, I truly enjoyed this class. I learned a lot, and there are some memories created by it, particularly the SLeuth launch party, all of us hanging out this morning eating breakfast tacos, seeing my artwork get wildly promoted in Second Life and Youtube, and getting to help design a Web site with four of the most talented people I have ever had the good fortune to work on a group project with, that I will carry for a good long while. This was officially my last class at Trinity, and I think it was a good note to end on.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.
(Also, I have no idea what "recumbent" means. I chose it as my mood randomly.)

Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: OST to Tales of Symphonia

Discussion of the project and Second Life in general

Upon reflection of my activities for the class during the past month, I have come to two key realizations. The first is that in some way or another, graphic designers will always be in need for something. The second is that I’m not cut out to do very much else. I’m happy that, if nothing else, I was able to contribute my artistic talents to this project. Hopefully, the presence of my custom logo and the various pictures for the survey managed to give the Sleuth3D project a distinct look and feel (as well as get my artwork out where people can look at it, but that’s strictly a bonus).

This of course leads into a discussion about how distinctive looks and themes are important from a marketing perspective. For example, the foremost thing that separates us from the various other Second Life related social networks out there (other than the infinitely superior survey- Dina, if you’re reading this, you rock, and let nobody tell you otherwise) is the detective theme. I personally find this theme to be remarkably clever, and I think the class has made good use of it. This is important because it sets us apart from the other services. It makes us unique. It makes us special. Most importantly of all, it makes customers remember us.

The nature of Second Life, and three dimensional virtual spaces like it, increases the potential for businesses to have this kind of unique charm. The ability to build and create things in a three dimensional environment, in the blink of an eye, even in just a virtual world, is not something any developer, designer, or business owner can dismiss easily. As for Second Life itself, however… well, I don’t think it is capable of bringing this idea to its full potential just yet. It’s broken a lot of barriers in terms of user-created content and communication, mind you, but its general inaccessibility to new users and constant bugs, quirks, and so on prevent it from being as influential as it could be. Ultimately, Second Life should be seen as a stepping stone to the next breakthrough in online communication, and not the breakthrough itself.

As I am particularly verbose when communicating solely via the written word, and the intense sleep deprivation actually has me convinced me that this is a good idea, allow me to end this blog entry by discussing an episode of Futurama that is near and dear to my heart. In the beginning of the episode, Fry and the Planet Express crew decide to surf the internet. However, as this is the thirtieth century, and technology has reached a point hitherto unfathomable by man, they surf the net by donning virtual reality equipment (specialized helmets, gloves, etc.) and actually wondering around a virtual landscape referred to collectively as “The Internet.” While the satirical nature of the show inevitably meant they’d focus on more negative aspects, such as pop-up ads and filthy chatrooms, the idea of exploring the internet as a real place, as opposed to a series of browser windows, is not without merit. It is my belief that if we ever manage to reach this level of connectivity within a virtual space, programs like Second Life will have officially done their job.

The idea of a three dimensional internet was also used in Chappelle’s Show, as well as the latest iteration of the game series Sam and Max. I went with Futurama chiefly as a matter of personal preference.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Kingdom Hearts II OST

My digital workspace

After a little bit of messing around with the Firefox browser, I have enabled both my laptop and desktop at my apartment (the two computers I tend to prefer to use for work) to, as soon as I open Firefox, open my G-mail account, with tabs available for Moron County (my own personal site, which I keep as one of my home pages on principle), the Google groups news feed, the class website, the collective class blog, and the groups page for the Virtual World Promotions class.

This is the ideal setup for my home desktop and laptop, as I tend to prefer them to the computers at Trinity just because I prefer to have more control over the machine I’m using. However, for circumstances when I have to use machines at Trinity, such as at the Comm lab, I have tailored my Google homepage to include links to various Google Reader blogs pertaining to Second Life. There are also tabs which lead to my e-mail and the group calendar.

Thus far, I have chosen Second Life insider, Second Life Herald, Clickable Culture- Second Life, and the official Linden Blog as my news feeds in Google Reader. The Linden Blog seems like a good source for official Second Life news, which is a must. The Second Life Herald seems to be updated frequently, and has some interesting stuff. As for Clickable Culture and the Second Life insider, well, quite frankly, I needed more Second Life blogs and their names sounded cool. There will likely be more news feeds added as I gain mastery over the Google Reader system and as the situation warrants.

Exam Summary #3: “Atmospherics” from Why We Listen to What They Say

Title: “Atmospherics” from Why We Listen to What They Say

Author: Douglas Rushkoff

Full Citation: Douglas Rushkoff (1999). “Atmospherics.” Excerpt from Coercion: Why We Listen to What They Have to Say. pp. 65-98.

Summary by: Grady Phillips

Key Concepts and Buzzwords:

Themes
Musak
Sensory stimuli
Passive Coercion
Gruen Transfer

Summary:

In this chapter of his book, Rushkoff discusses how stores develop aesthetic themes as a form of psychology to increase the interest of shoppers in their wares by citing individual examples such as Niketown in Manhattan, as well as more general examples such as malls, restaurants, and department stores. Essentially, these stores use a combination of architecture, pleasing audio (referred to as “musak”) and artificial environments to evoke psychological reactions in their customers, disorienting them and coercing them to take advantage of their services.

As sinister as this sounds, however, most store and mall designers view themselves as the customer’s advocates. They see this thematic manipulation as a response to consumer behavior that already exists; a sort of passive coercion. As Rushkoff puts it on page 91, storekeepers are “leaving a glue trap where [they] know a mouse is going to walk instead of baiting a trap that is intended to draw him in.” Customers tend to sense when they are being manipulated against their better interests, and react negatively; the answer, therefore, is to keep manipulation in their interests.

Rushkoff concludes this chapter with a monologue about a family in Times Square, to discuss a real life example of these processes at work. Essentially, the numerous shops and their utilization of this practice have created a commercialized environment that has a profound impact on people passing through it, which Rushkoff refers to as the Gruen Transfer: a subtle form of communication in which advertisers reach their audience on a subconscious level.

Potential Relevance to Class Project:

The most obvious relevance that this article has to our specific project is in the virtual space we are building within Second Life. In order for the in-world component of the project to be successful, it will have to be aesthetically and thematically pleasing, in keeping with the project title “Sleuth.” We are off to a good start so far; the marketing team’s idea of finding detective costumes is a good one, and the building archetype we selected as a class could easily be made to fit a post-modern detective agency schematic.

Another way in which lessons can be utilized from this article is within the accompanying Web site to this project. While it is not a physical, three dimensional space, like the Second Life building will be, it is still important for it to be thematically unique and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. At the risk of sounding egotistical, I feel that we are also off to a good start with this based on the logo that was designed. Hopefully, the rest of the web design team and I will be able to make a site that is accessible, aesthetically pleasing, and thematically interesting.

Exam Summary #2: “Public Relations” from Why We Listen to What They Say

Title: “Public Relations” from Why We Listen to What They Say

Author: Douglas Rushkoff

Full Citation: Douglas Rushkoff (1999). “Public Relations.” Excerpt from Coercion: Why We Listen to What They Have to Say. pp. 131-161.

Summary by: Grady Phillips

Key Concepts and Buzzwords:

Visibility
Historical Foundations
Cultural coercion
Augmentation

Summary:

Rushkoff opens with a discussion of Kathie Lee Gifford and her dealings with the Rubenstein and Associates Public Relations firm after the infamous sweatshop incident. The most significant aspects of Rubenstein’s tactics that Rushkoff discusses are the correlation between the improvements in his client’s images and the actual genuine good work that his clients do as a result of the public relations campaign. In Kathie Lee Gifford’s case, her need to redeem herself after being associated with sweatshops turned into being one of the foremost speakers against sweatshops.

Rushkoff spends much of the chapter discussing the similarities between public relation campaigns and cultural domination throughout world history. The first step in either one is to learn the myths and beliefs of one’s audience or targets and gain their trust. The second is to find logical gaps in those beliefs, while the third and final step is to replace or redirect those beliefs, using facts to augment what the target audience already knows.

Rushkoff goes on, however, to warn that it is difficult in this age of investigative journalism to create a public relations campaign revolving around an image that does not have at least some concrete backing. As exemplified with Rubenstein’s clientele, there needs to be an element of truth behind what people say to bolster their own image. If a public relations campaign is based on empty promises, it will inevitably do more harm than good.

Potential Relevance to Class Project:

Obviously, we will need a decent public relations campaign in order to make “Sleuth” as prominent as it is capable of being. However, we cannot base this campaign on false promises or mislead the public in any way. The ethical ramifications are mind-boggling, and we will inevitably gain the public’s ire. For this reason, the idea tossed around earlier in the semester of basing part of our advertising on a hoax (such as claiming someone found their ideal mate using “Sleuth”), while amusing, may not be a particularly good idea.

Instead, we should focus on telling the public what we are capable of, and what “Sleuth” is intended to do. In order to do this, we first need to figure out exactly what “Sleuth” is about ourselves, which we’ve made good progress with so far in the weeks leading up to the break. Essentially, the most valuable lessons to take from this chapter of Rushkoff’s book are to be honest (yet positive) about what we do, and to supplement our good publicity with actual aid to the Second Life community.

Exam Summary #1: “Aesthetics and Gratifications: Sexual Practice in Virtual Environments”

Title: “Aesthetics and Gratifications: Sexual Practice in Virtual Environments”

Author: Nick Nobel

Full Citation: Nick Nobel (2006). “Aesthetics and Gratifications: Sexual Practice in Virtual Environments,” student paper authored for the course “Games for the Web” in May 2006.

Summary by: Grady Phillips

Key Concepts and Buzzwords:

Sexuality
Emotion
Uses and Gratifications Theory
Sexual Semiotics
Roleplaying

Summary:

In his term paper, Nobel analyzes the relation between online activity and real-world actions via people’s online sexual practices. Nobel defines sex as “a simplified form of human behavior that relies heavily on emotions.” Nobel also points out that sexual behavior in an online environment is dependent completely on choice, while a variety of social circumstances impact sexual behavior in real life.

One of the main theories that Nobel focuses on in relation to online sex is the uses and gratifications theory, which basically states that audiences actively choose their media for very specific needs. Therefore, in the case of online sex, it must be assumed that something in virtual worlds facilitates this practice. Here Nobel implies the idea of sexual semiotics- the notion that certain visual and oral stimuli enhance sexual gratification. Another note is also made of fetishes, and how certain aspects of the online world may facilitate this aspect of sexual intercourse.

The main questions that Nobel tries to answer in his study are why people use online games for sexual gratification, what types of activities do they engage in, and how and if these actions affect their real lives. The most prevalent theme in the answers to this study revolved around role playing, which is huge aspect of sex in a virtual world where the mechanics of sex do not exist and are in the imagination of the player. However, different players that engage in this activity treat it differently than others. Some look for serious relationships while others do not; some act similarly online to how they act in real life while others do not, and so on. Ultimately, the concept and definition of sex and relationships in virtual worlds is shaped by the personal preferences and attitudes of those who engage in it.

Potential Relevance to Class Project:

Since we have recently expanded from a pure dating service to a sort of social hub, this article is not quite as compellingly relevant to our project as it was, say, at the beginning of the semester. However, there are numerous lessons from it that we can take away. The first is that there is certainly a presence of sex in online worlds, particularly Second Life, and that there is therefore a potential market for dating service to facilitate and aid in this behavior.

The second is that this type of behavior is based on personal preference. There is no concrete, profound definition of online sexuality. How it works and how it is perceived in the online community is based on each individual user’s concept of the subject, and how they impose this concept on others, including both their partners and third parties. Therefore, when designing the dating aspect of Sleuth, it is important to make the criteria and survey fields as broad as possible, while still leaving the process concrete enough to facilitate easy searching among Sleuth’s potential users.

Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: Tales of Symphonia OST

Virtual Worlds versus Internet
Although like the vast majority of our class I have far more experience using the traditional Internet than I do using virtual worlds, I can see some advantages that a virtual landscape like Second Life would have. One example I can think of can be seen in the guest lecturers we’ve had over the past couple of weeks. Although the lectures could have been accomplished using a traditional online chatroom or forum, it would have lacked a certain personal touch that the discussions within Second Life had. Even if it was in a virtual world, there was still a very real sense that the guest lecturers were in the same room with us; one that would be very difficult to emulate with a two dimensional interface.

The main advantage that virtual worlds like Second Life have is visualization. In the example listed above, we felt closer to the guest speakers because we could actually see all our avatars together in the same room. Essentially, visualization bridges gaps between what we can perceive and what digital media can provide, making it easier for us to immerse ourselves. It’s this same prospect that has turned people like Irving Wladawsky-Berger on to Second Life, and what makes the program so attractive to advertisers. The ability to see and interact with something in the way that Second Life could potentially allow (see the next paragraph for why that “could potentially” is there) creates a new level of visualization that traditional web browsers can’t easily provide.

However, there are some issues with this. The main problem at this point is that while traditional web browsers don’t provide the same level of visualization, they are much faster and easier to use. The point and click interface has been a tried and true method of retrieving digital information for at least twenty years now, possibly longer (I admit I don’t know my computer history as well as I should). As for Second Life, even if one takes into account that the interface simply requires getting used to, was clearly not designed with speed and accessibility in mind. The issue between virtual worlds and the traditional online experience is therefore one of aesthetics versus accessibility. Does the user care more about the information he’s searching for, or the process by which he acquires it?

Personally, I think that until virtual worlds like Second Life learn to balance aesthetics and accessibility better, the majority of its users will inevitably fall to traditional web browsers for most of their information needs, treating Second Life as little more than a hobby or interesting diversion. For day to day activities, speed and efficiency is just ultimately more important than aesthetics and visualization.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: What is Love? (don't ask)

Assignment 3: the dating thing
So, the first thing I did for my part in this Second Life dating service project was to chat with people I know who have actually used online dating services in the past. For obvious reasons, these two have requested to remain anonymous, and this blog will honor those wishes. Both are male, and both used the “e-Harmony” dating service, made popular by its whole “28 levels of compatibility” thing, as well as those commercials with the creepy old guy in them. One of these guys used the site solely for the sake of entertainment. He knew from the beginning that he wasn’t actively seeking a love interest or companionship, and withdrew from the program in less than a week (or whenever it was that it was actually going to start charging him). The other actually received free membership from a friend and, incidentally, was under a great deal of pressure from this friend to use it. He found a girl that he dated for a couple of months, but ultimately, the “lifelong compatibility” promised by the commercial was never delivered.

Although I realize that these two are hardly the best examples of people that have participated in online dating, their stories did make me think about a few things from a sociological perspective. One common theme in both of these conversations was the participant’s demand that I keep their identities confidential (note that I was planning to anyway). The fact that they actively told me to do this from the beginning of my conversations with them, and have continued to tell me to do so no fewer than three times apiece, is indicative of their desire for the majority of the planet not to know that they’ve participated in online dating. This, I believe, is a reflection of the stigma that online dating tends to have in our society, particularly in media. Nearly every sitcom that exists currently has had the cliché “main character goes on a blind date set up on the internet; havoc ensues” episode. And they certainly exist in comics:

http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980103

On a serious note, the news is also always full of news reports on the perils of online dating, such as stalkers, pedophiles, and crazy people. While these are legitimate concerns, many people tend to associate online dating as a whole with these kinds of people and behavior, interpreting the media itself as the issue, rather than the problems in it.

I’m not entirely sure this stigma will be an issue with our plan for a Second Life dating service. After all, despite what I’ve spoken of above, online dating is still going strong. There is clearly a market for this sort of thing, and it goes unfettered by what the mainstream opinion is. However, it’s still an important thing to consider. If this project is to be as successful as it could be, we should probably find a way for it to fall outside this stigma while still finding a way for it to reach people that would find it useful.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Weird Al

Second Blog Assignment
NOTICE: Although anyone that knows me personally will probably figure this out around the third paragraph, I would like to point out that I do not necessarily endorse, like, or care about any of the things I am about to mention. I bring these examples up solely based on their creative potential, and not out of any endorsement for the ideas and products that they represent. I feel obliged to add this notice because, and I say this without remorse, the show “Two and a Half Men” is one of many examples of everything that is wrong with television today. Thank you.

===

I’m not going to lie. I’m having an incredibly difficult time with this assignment.

Admittedly, public relations and promotional campaigns have never quite been my thing. This, along with audience research, is an aspect of the communications major that I have devoted very little time to mastering, preferring instead to focus on the more creative and theoretical aspects. That being said, after perusing certain online articles pertaining to Second Life, I feel far more equipped to discuss the methods we could use in this promotional campaign, as opposed to what the campaign could potentially promote. Given my general lack of expertise in most things, I find that the decision of what our campaign is about (whether it is a commercial campaign or something to raise awareness of a specific issue) is better left to someone else.

I do, however, have some fairly interesting ideas about how to go about this campaign, regardless of what it ends up promoting. One of the first major sources I looked at was “Opus Flamand’s Sense of Women” from New World Notes (http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/02/opus_flamands_s.html#more). Essentially, Flamand takes un-staged screen-caps of female avatars in Second Life doing promiscuous things and digitally repaints them in an effort to “show a side of Second Life occluded from the media.” Flamand is planning to incorporate these pictures into an art book, which he plans to sell in the real world. As a cartoonist, I find the digital art aspects of this to be fairly neat, and I believe that a creative project of this sort could be used not only to raise awareness of any number of causes, but also be used as an effective PR campaign in both the real life and within Second Life itself (such as in a gallery or something).

Another idea that intrigues me, which I know will be mentioned in at least one other blog, is the concept of machinima, or animation done by filming video games (I don’t think that’s the formal definition, but it works for the purposes of this blog). With the ability to create avatars and places that can look like just about anything, as well as the ability to code just about any kind of animation, Second Life provides a lot of machinima potential. One example I’ve found is an article on 3pointD.com that spoke of a promo aired before the Super Bowl (http://www.3pointd.com/20070204/cbs-airs-machinima-spot-ahead-of-superbowl/). The promo was essentially an ad for CBS’s Two and a Half Men filmed completely within Second Life. The attention this commercial received both illustrates the potential for this kind of ad campaign, and the gradual (though not complete) acceptance of this kind of media by mainstream culture.

Machinima could also be used to raise awareness of certain issues. I came up with this idea when I read an article in Reuters about newly elected Congress representatives using Second Life to promote their agendas (http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/01/02/congressional-democrats-agenda-gets-sl-stage/). While this isn’t machinima per se, I believe, based on the accuracy with which the various Washington landmarks were recreated in Second Life, that machinima could potentially be used in this matter. Streaming audio, combined with the reconstruction of various landmarks and avatars, could recreate important political events via Second Life, and raise awareness of the issues they represent to an audience that the original event would not normally reach.

Current Mood: Fluffy
Current Music: "Tales of the Abyss" soundtrack

Buying things and roleplaying
In my exploration of Second Life, I found numerous stores and locations based on real life things. I started off mostly by searching for the things we talked about in class (things sponsored by Adidas, Toyota, IBM, and so on). These stores are pretty much just like what one would expect. The Adidas store, in particular, simply lets one pay lyn-dollars to get special clothes that mirror real life products.

The Toyota and IBM stores, however, I found to be somewhat interesting, if not necessarily my cup of tea. The IBM place I found lets you actually purchase “computers” for your house or room in Second Life, which from what I’ve read serve as ways to watch streaming media, as well as a way to communicate with others on Second Life. Toyota, naturally, is selling digital cars within Second Life that look like cars that they market in real life. The interesting thing that I noted about all this, and I think one of the readings may have shaped this, is that a lot of this stuff is irrelevant. There are other, less expensive ways to view streaming media in Second Life than by dropping real money on a fictional computer, and you can communicate with other players via IM in Second Life without purchasing anything at all. Also, you can fly and teleport pretty much anywhere in Second Life on a whim. Buying a car (or, quite frankly, getting a vehicle at all) seems, at first glance, to be irrelevant.

Then I started thinking about previous classes I’ve taken revolving around virtual worlds and what people do with them. Well, okay, the only other class besides this one. One of the more interesting things I remembered from that class was the concept of role-playing, and how players do it to sort of enhance their gaming experience. Then it occurred to me that this may be related to the appeal of getting these extraneous things in Second Life. Maybe part of the appeal of getting a computer or car or special clothes in Second Life is that you can set your avatar apart from others, thus enhancing the role-playing experience by giving your avatar a personality of his or her own.

Also, admittedly, even with the gifts of flight and teleportation, driving around in one of those little cars looks pretty fun.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: People talking in the Comm Lab.

1st assignment: second life
WARNING: This blog entry, and many of the ones that will follow it, reveals me to be the major nerd that I am. Although I don’t think that will be a huge problem, considering the class I’m doing this for and the circumstances under which the blog was set up, bear in mind that I will be, in the vernacular, “geeking out” a lot more than I usually do for the sake of COMM classes. So, any and all ladies that I’m trying to impress are encouraged to stop reading now.

Unless you LIKE geeks. Then go for it.



If you already know me, have read this blog in the past, or have ever talked to me, you pretty much already know that I’m a cartoonist. My interest in cartooning, storytelling through comics and animation, and, to a slightly lesser extent, my interest in Japanese anime/manga and its influence on western culture, pretty much define what I want to do for a living and, quite frankly, how I look at the world. It also gives me an excuse to draw people, which, thanks in part to that stupid Titanic movie, is somewhat fascinating to the fairer sex. But that’s neither here nor there.

Like most things, I firmly believe that these interests can be utilized in Second Life. Admittedly, my previous searches for groups and events like this in Second Life have been less than fruitful (searching for “comics” and “cartoons” using the search function brought forth results that were either irrelevant, juvenile, or… well, the exact OPPOSITE of juvenile), although I’m more than willing to blame this on my profound lack of expertise with the Second Life interface. I think there is a great deal of potential for cartoonists to be able to use Second Life to meet fellow cartoonists and spread knowledge about their work.

Some of the ideas I’ve come up with are not unique to Second Life. For example, Second Life is hardly the only way to meet new people on the internet. Cartoonists can easily meet one another in forums and message boards. Meanwhile, an aspiring cartoonist with a little-known web comic, such as myself, could easily raise awareness of his work using the methods above, as well as online advertising. However, using Second Life for tasks like these adds a unique new dimension to this stuff that could easily grab the attention of potential readers more-so than a common ad would.

Here’s an idea that I think would work well for Second Life. A popular pastime of online cartoonists (one that I’m unfortunately never able to take part in due to time and financial constraints) is to attend and sell stuff at comic and anime conventions. This is one of the ultimate ways that a cartoonist can spread awareness about his work and meet fellow cartoonists in a social environment. My thought, and this may already exist and I’m just too dumb to find it, is to have comic and anime conventions that take place entirely within Second Life. People could dress their avatars as their favorite characters just like the way people dress up at conventions (if that happens to be their thing), and could use lyndollars to buy and sell specially made inventory items related to their comics. Such an online convention has a lot of potential: cartoonists could reach a new and unique audience, and cartoonists that aren’t able to do these things due to, say, a busy class schedule, would finally have the opportunity to participate in this kind of thing, even if it isn’t real in the strictest physical sense.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: FLCL soundtrack

Testing
This is the same blog I've been using for all my other classes that require it. I haven't used it in a few months, so I'm posting to it now to see if it still works.

I have no reason to suspect it won't, but this is also a decent way to eat up five minutes.

More to come.

Current Mood: I don't know :P
Current Music: People discussing their avatars in Second Life.

Update on Participant Finding Progress
Thus far, I've had a remarkable amount of luck finding participants. I've already found and interviewed someone through Everquest II, and have also done a brief interview by e-mail with Vindicators leader Scott Adams. I am also attempting to set up interviews with a woman that responded to the thread posted on the World of Warcraft servers as well as four or five other people that I have met through WoW and Everquest.

On the forum front, I am still waiting for replies from the moderators at the oldergamers forum and the Ctrl+Alt+Del forums before I actually start posting. I don't want to risk placing my thread on these forums without their permission in fear that the resulting unfavorable public opinion may cause problems for my studies down the line.

I have been interviewing largely through e-mail, with questions custom-tailored to each individual participant based on my knowledge of them from their forum posts or my interactions with them in-game. If necessary, I will contact some or all of these participants later on, when I have refined my questions and research-gathering methods.

My Forum Posting
Title (if necessary): A Study of Age Relations in Online Gaming

Hello. My name is Grady. I am a gamer and communications major at Trinity University in San Antonio. I am conducting a study for Dr. Aaron Delwiche's COMM 3344 class "Games and the Web," also occasionally refered to as "Ethnography in Massively Online Games," which will analyze the interactions and tendencies of MMORPG players of different ages. Essentially, this is a call for people to volunteer for brief interviews so that I can get a basic idea of how gamers of different ages interact with one another. Controversial subjects such as sexuality and other adult behaviors will generally be avoided, as my primary focus in this study is gameplay habits and social interactions. All interview participants must be at least 18 years of age, or have parental consent. (side note, I may leave the parental consent part out of the post to oldergamers.net, since I'm assuming they're all well over 18)

Those who wish to participate in the study should feel free to contact me at oldyounggamer@yahoo.com. From there, we can discuss how best to facilitate interviews (completely by e-mail is fine; I also have an active Everquest II account and am working on getting a World of Warcraft account; I'm also open to talking on MSN Messenger, AIM, GoogleTalk, or Yahoo! Instant Messenger) Please note that anonymity is guaranteed, and interviews can be terminated by the subject at any time.

I am aware that researchers of online games have a bad habit of gathering information, then leaving without any sort of feedback to their subjects concerning the nature of the study and its results. Rest assured that this study will not be conducted in that manner. I, along with the rest of the class, fully intend to post our research findings and papers online when they are complete, and I personally will contact each of my subjects on completion of my project as best as I am able. If you wish to learn where/when the project is expected to be posted, or have any questions about the class or other projects related to it, feel free to check here for more information:

http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/worlds/faq.html

If you would like to participate in my study or have any further questions, the e-mail being used for the study once again is oldyounggamer@yahoo.com.

Thank you all for your time, and I look forward to hearing from each of you.

-Grady

Forums for sample gathering.
Here are the forums I have found thus far. One is specifically for older gamers- the purpose of this speaks for itself, while one is for the parents of gamers (in hopes that I can get permission to interview younger players, or at least some second or third hand information if the IRB doesn't give me permission). The last is the Everquest II general discussion forum. I wanted to find a place where gamers congregate and age is not a factor in the interest of gathering a non-biased research sample, and think that this forum is as decent a place as any to start.

http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3473.html - Parents
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board?board.id=Non-Gameplay - General Discussion
http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20 - Older gamers

Questions only
Bah, I knew I forgot something last night. Hopefully this will be available to everyone early enough to be of use in the class.

One of my favorite "parlor" games, which I think could be easily translated into EQII or any other online game, is "questions only" from "Whose Line is it Anyway?". Basically, players are divided into two teams. One person from each team must start a conversation (the topic of which is agreed on in advance), and speak only in questions. The first person to pause for more than thirty seconds or say something that isn't a question is out, and replaced by someone else from the team. The last team to have anyone standing wins (this part I just made up because, on the show, there were only two people to each team and they did it with a time limit- I guess we could do something like that too).

Getting a research sample
I'll admit that I'm somewhat lost as to how I'm going to gather a sample here. But, at any rate, here is my basic plan. Hopefully any and all kinks in it will be worked out as we go.

Admittedly, my project's topic has been a mystery to everyone, including myself, up to this point, so I guess I'll start by detailing that. My goal is to analyze the interaction between gamers of different age demographics. As of this point, my plan is to divide the age groups into four distinct categories: young to adolescent gamers (16 and under), young adults and college-aged gamers (17-22), gamers in their mid-twenties to early thirties, and gamers that are thirty-five and older (I'm looking at you, Carbonela). With one obvious exception, which I will get to in a minute, I think it will be relatively easy to find a sample of these age groups. Since age is the only real criteria that I am using, I imagine I'll be able to find willing participants just about anywhere in the game, starting with any willing participants in the Vindicators and working my way outward to other participants on other servers (I may take PVP servers into account as well, and monitor how and if age affects frequency and attitude towards such practices as ganking and betrayal). I also plan to check just about every Everquest II forum that I can get my hands on. I have also discovered a multitude of other forums, including "The Older Gamers" (http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=41)that could also hypothetically contain good people for my sample. I also plan to branch out beyond just Everquest II. My roommate has generously granted me permission to use his World of Warcraft account and his computer to conduct research as well (my computer, as I've elaborated several times, can't handle modern videogames), and I may, through contacts, be able to get some research done in Guild Wars as well.

One of the biggest hurdles to my research is the ethical taboo of interviewing gamers under the age of eighteen. My plan here, as per Dr. Delwiche's encouragement to do so, is to send a copy of my research proposal to the Institutional Review Board in hopes that they will grant me clearance to interview players under 18 (I will have to, as per my agreement with my roommate, restrict in-game interviewing of minors to Everquest II- not a major obstacle in my opinion). If I am not able to get clearance from the IRB, there are other ways I hope to get these statistics. The Older Gamers forum which I mentioned earlier, for example, has a parent section. Hopefully, using resources such as this, I can get permission from the parents of minor gamers to interview them or, at the very least, get some second or third hand information that will be useful for my research.

eXistenZ: Reactions, Critiques, and Basic Confusion
I cannot honestly say that I was impressed with the movie "eXistenZ." Don't get me wrong, it's hardly the worst movie I've ever seen- that is an honor reserved exclusively for "The Village." But basically, the movie struck me as somewhat pointless and alarmist and, while the dry and wooden acting could be argued as the characters doing their best to play NPC's, it was still dry, wooden acting.

Sorry about that. Movie critic is my backup career if the cartoonist gig doesn't work out. Let's get to the stuff that actually pertains to the class, shall we?

Cronenberg, clearly, has a somewhat negative opinion of gaming and game content. This point is driven home pretty much throughout the course of the film. People are utterly dependent on games- the main characters come to see them as superior to reality, and the girl programmer, whose name eludes me for the moment, is even prepared to give her life to protect her game pad (incidently, why did they make those things so disgusting?) and the prototype game housed within. The goals of the game all seem to center around violence and aggression- a waiter must be shot for no immediately discernable reason, there is explicit violence and gore, and it is revealed later that everyone in the movie is actually involved in an elaborate deathmatch. Admittedly, this is fairly true to how most videogames actually are (kill ten goblins, get quest item, repeat...) and is somewhat difficult to argue with.

How Cronenberg interprets gamers, however, is totally open for rebuttal. The players all seemed to have a really difficult time discerning between gameplay and reality (to quote the waiter- "We're still in the game, right?"), which may reflect Cronenberg's paranoia about the behavior of gamers in general- psychopaths in waiting that cannot tell the game world from the real world. I disagree with this both because of my personal experience (I have been playing videogames since I was six, and haven't had any problems distinguishing them from reality since I was twelve... I mean eight. Eight) and because of my intense hatred for Jack Thompson, a lawyer from Florida that has made similar claims about the Grand Theft Auto series of games.

To be perfectly honest, I had no clue why the assassins were attempting to kill the programmer. I mean, I know why they were in the end- it was all a game- but I'm not entirely sure what the movie was trying to convince us they were doing during the first hour and a half. I figured they were trying to protect reality, but they seemed to be going about it in an entirely confusing way (what was all that Death to the Empress nonsense?) for no discernible reason. I did get, however, that the entire movie appeared to take place inside a church, and that the religious undertones thereof can be linked back to the movie's implication of the great, zealous stake that gamers put in the virtual worlds they partake in.

Reactions to Dr. Steinkuehler's Discussion
Since I've gotten more accustomed to the idea of the MMORPG as a communications tool as well as a time killer, and now that I actually have an idea for the paper and am now seeing our discussions in a light other than "WHEE! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT VIDEOGAMES!", I found myself far more interested in the specific content of the guest lecture than the environment in which it took place in (barring particularly amusing distractions, such as the alcoholic guards and dancing frog). I am somewhat disappointed that I was unable to ask a question; although I've gotten a bit better at social situations within EQII (I now group with people regularly), speaking to prominent guest lecturers and professors is still as intimidating for me in game as it is in real life.

Although I didn't get to ask it, the main question I wanted to ask Dr. Steinkuehler (the one about in-game social distinctions) was asked, and I found the answer to be quite interesting. There's a lot of things that Steinkuehler brought up that I can use for my paper topic. Of particular interest to me was the discussion of the concept of the "Third Place" and its social implications, as well as the concept of avatars and how they reflect us as the players (which I think was discussed near the end).

Basically, this discussion gave me a lot of ideas for refining my paper, which I plan to discuss further on this blog over the next few days.

Steinkuehler Questions
I don't know whether we're supposed to e-mail these or put them in the blog, so I'm using the blog for now.

My first question for Dr. Steinkuehler would be why she chose the Lineage series of games for conducting her research, and what specifically about the games appealed to her. For the second question, I would probably ask her opinion on social structures in game (she mentions in the "New Third Place" article that social structures outside the game are irrelevant in game), such as those determined by things like guilds or level gaps.

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