Surprising from 11/14

The readings this week talked about how little time people actually spend working together in Wow. Though the dynamics of the game encourage people to work together most of the player’s time online is spent alone doing smaller quests and leveling up. The graphs were most surprising part of this reading because they showed how small the margin is between the rate of leveling up in a group or “clan” compared to a person playing alone. So group action isn’t as important as one might think in a group based game. Also, the depth of interaction in Wow is very small people aren’t as inclined to seek out new people. They seem to find a certain person in the group that talks to the other group members. They just want to talk to the clan’s leader. Though you can have bigger battles in a large group you still only get a percent of the experience because of how many member are fighting for the same points.

Need Help Building? from 11/28

If anyone needs help building in second life I have been pretty successful in figuring  out the building engine. My SL name is Benprout Klees. You can look me up or just send me an email and I can help you learn the basics. You do have to pay to upload your own textures but it’s only 1o lindens. Building isn’t as hard as you would think and it is a great tool for modeling and prototypes.

Fish Sticks from 10/12

This week I would like to take a look at how having a 3-D avatar affects chatting. I noticed it after meeting a few people. I realized that I was talking to people who’s avatar I liked. It was all based on appearance. As shallow as I thought that was I saw that how they were dress changed what I would talk to them about. So can you judge how a conversation will go based on how someone’s avatar looks. I tested this question in Second Life. I went to my usual hang out, Free Planet, and tried to hold conversations with different people. I tried to just be generic with my conversation so that I wouldn’t lead them on to talk about the same things with each people. I found that most people represented themselves (or at least attitudes) very closely. The Goth people talked about Goth clothing and Goth clubs. The girls in dresses would talk about clothing also but it would be high end on-line fashion. The people who looked like they were from Brazil were from Brazil or at least couldn’t read enough English and broken Spanish to tell me different. This turned into a pattern you can pretty much gauge a conversation on how someone looks. So, it is more like real life than a chat room where you would just go by an name like Hooky678, or PRINCESSmoday7.

This little test seemed to show that there are many people are playing inside the rules of Second Life because they are bringing their avatar to life with personalities. Most people aren’t just running around like a mad man shouting weird things and harassing people. Avatars change this chat room like virtual world into some thing that seems to really exist. I think that people approach Second Life just as they would a real social situation. Your avatar gives you more of an identity in a large chat. This identity is something that you wouldn’t really want to totally ruin. I think that in a small way it makes people act more real. The internet is a faceless place, but bringing in the use of a 3-D avatar makes IM-ing and chat rooms more personal.

Cheaters are Explorers

It’s funny how cheating has almost always been a part of video games since I was young. I remember books like Nintendo Power or the walk through for Super Mario 3. These cheats and codes have been such a part of the video game experience that I consider cheating, if cheats are available, are a part of the game play it’s self. Someone designed these cheats or never took them out of the game itself, so it was intended for people to use these in the game. This thought would really make cheaters more of an explorer. This is true if the cheating is more spoilsport cheating than cheating to  accomplish something. Cheats also add to the overall value of the game because it give the game more variation on the  actual game play. When I do really play a game after a while I will look up cheats or walkthroughs just to see what is possible in that game. Most of the time I am using the cheats to get past parts of the game which I consider to more annoying or just weaker parts of the game. Time is very precious to me at this point in my life so if I can still see the end of GTA San Andreas and not have over a week of my time invested in the game I will probably take the quick rout and not the glory for a game I didn’t find all that fun to begin with.

WHAT?! from 9/25

I have no clue what this final group project really is! I feel like the assignment details were very vague. I need examples of what other people did in classes in the past. If you don’t have an example from that could you make one up. I won’t use it I just need this assignment’s details to be crystal clear. Our group really needs the direction. I feel like a lot of these assignments have been very vague and it really seems like there has been little instruction on these presentations and projects.

I really don’t like my project that I decided to do for my final and I think that I did a poor presentation on it because I had no idea what second life was and what others had done to give me a baseline of what you were grading for.

I wanted to research an online game for the x box that uses it’s own controller. It’s name is Steel Battalion.  It is not player created or changeable in anyway. It’s a lot like Halo and Mechwarior mixed together. People play against each other on non-changeable battle fields. I think that this game is really revolutionary because of the way you control it.  It is worth looking it up because you just have to see the controller for yourself. It’s huge! My point is I don’t really know what is going on in this class. Help?

Sterio Types from 9/12

Stereotyping in video games just seems like artist being lazy with character design. They do a good enough then it’s on to something more important. In virtual worlds where interaction is based on the character’s physical appearance this issue of laziness becomes an actual problem. If there is no good representation you will either look stupid or you will opt for a different design. Since most character design is based off a template character this starts some people off with that stereotype and since not everyone is an artist, characters sometimes are not easily changed by the user. So, not knowing their lack of willingness to represent exactly what they want, they are unknowingly promoting these stereotypes. Another thing is, on-line autonomy. If no one knows who you are it is easier to lie and present false hoods about themselves, also the good enough factor is a big part of this unknowing slip into online racism. If you think that just because you are going to an Arabian Nights party you should dress like Lawrence of Arabia. This is the good enough factor. Just as long as you give people the idea that you are being an Arab with a big sword and turban you have done your part. Like a crappy Halloween outfit. Creating things on-line is hard so it’s no wander people take what they can get and make it work. I think this school of thought should be considered heavily when looking at how a race is represented.  How does the Asian stereotype in cartoons effect the other worlds of fake race.

Further Thought on BillBoard 1.0 from 9/13

My first thoughts on the billboard idea proved to be insufficient to stimulate deep investigation into second life’s advertising potential, so upon reflecting on this subject I realized that I might be thinking inside of the box. As the other Ben talked about the use of art in SL I thought that creating art as an way of advertising is the main point I was going for (ie: building the billboard) hang on, I need a beer to finish this. So why not make things that have some sort of contact information on them and just give them away. Everyone like free stuff and it seems there is always sharing going on between all sorts of people. I would really like to start by creating something simple that could be used for display like lawn gnomes or pink flamingos. Next I would like to make larger things to give away. I’m thinking larger works of abstract art. Then finally I propose I do my billboard. Only this time have 3D objects on the billboard.

485 post 2 from 8/31

I am still in a daze about Virtual Worlds. My first response to people who I see playing those games is that it seems like they are waisting their time. I am currently trying harder to get around that thought and take part in some VW myself. I am no longer waiting on the funds to build my super-computer. Now I am participating and finding the appeal of graphics instead of flesh in my relationships. Now I just gotta get some cash in second life so I can upload all sorts of crazy stuff!

Cats post 1 from 8-29

This is the first time in history that we can sit in our houses not seeing the light of day for weeks and not be considered anti-social. Through games like WoW and Second Life you can have the thrill of meeting another human-being from comfort of your desk chair.

Though, I grew up in a time that video games were more popular than the pope and all that every one talked about was when the new Mario was coming out I don’t consider myself to be nerdy or a geek. So, I had no prior exposure to any kind of virtual world before this class. So as a virgin I approached second life. I started with the training and after a few lessons I was very mobile with all sorts of cars and magic powers that allowed me to fly. Okay, so that was fun but what now? What could make this game really worth playing? Well I was asking myself this question as I was changing my appearance to look just like me I noticed another avatar that was wandering around in the training grounds. It was then I realized why this game was fun. It’s exciting to meet people no matter how real or unreal you deem them.

Even-though the other people I talked to didn’t respond to me I still thought it was fun. This world is real because people believe it is. It’s another world where advertising is everywhere and graffiti artist still tag buildings and police can’t seem to catch them.

to exactly

Second Life Politics

I just now got into Second Life, but i didn’t really have much time to go through the tutorials yet, wonderful internet at home is giving me some problems.

Once i’m officially in the world, i want to spend some time checking out the political aspects of Second Life. I checked out some screen shots of a few politic landmarks. I found it kind of neat how they even made an avatar of a few politicians. I guess my basic question is how effective the campaigns are in Second Life. I’d like to see how voter response changes because of their interaction in SL. When i get in there, i’m going to visit a few politician’s virtual offices and see if they’ve seen any kind of support interest or possibly if people that would not have known about that particular politician’s views and campaign goals.

Also, I think it would be kind of fascinating if someone made a virtual poll. Like maybe make a big announcement in SL about an ‘election day.’ Hold it in a public place, make some poll booths and hold a virtual election the same way they would hold a real one. They could hold it a few weeks before the real election, then compare the results. If the correlation was close enough, political analysts could use SL to make real world estimates on how the elections will progress.