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I have never really understood the appeal of MMOs as single player games, despite Parc's interesting work. (if I recall correctly, the motivation they uncovered is exhibition of skill, while maintaining social distance).
I like the idea of players polishing each other. As you say, we are all humans, and many of the same rules apply. But we still have the cloaks of anonymity that allow people to operate outside of typical RL norms. Some people choose transgression, and others choose progression. Typically these things are mutually exclusive.
Life c. 2000: The Massively Single-Player Game
Jason Wall sent me a note explaining that World of Warcraft (you've heard of it?) is doing even more to encourage the formation of ad hoc raiding groups. Back in the day, he notes, the only way you could get raid-level gear was by being in a raid-level guild and by raiding, a lot. Much was said ...
Sending them positive vibes with my post. :-)
My Cup Runneth Over
Holy hellions, Batman, 2012 is off with a bang. Too bad about SWTOR and the LEGO Universe, but Guild Wars 2 might actually ship this year, and there are some other exciting things brewing. Tera Online might emerge unscathed from its legal machinations and make its promised launch date of May 20...
I think encouraging people to think about the [possible] spiritual aspects is a great part of any game we might choose to create. Ted, it's cool... but it's also cool for me to acknowledge that I was born with 400 or so eggs that all had the potential for life. Yet I hsve borne one child and will probably bear no more. I have used a lot of birth control and therfore avoided many a conception. But those possibilities, as you intimiate, are interesting... in games we can explore them in the ways we can't in real life. I think maybe we should... if only as thought experiments...
Where Are All the Sex Games?
Ha, got your attention, eh? But this is actually an important topic, of the 'reality is broken' variety. Like the fact that we're obsessed over sexting and other digital phenomena related to sex, yet we have done little to improve sex education in this country. In fact, we have vilified and cu...
@Stabs Excellent point. But also part of the education would be about helping them improve their creep meters, which are already surprisingly well developed in today's kids.
Where Are All the Sex Games?
Ha, got your attention, eh? But this is actually an important topic, of the 'reality is broken' variety. Like the fact that we're obsessed over sexting and other digital phenomena related to sex, yet we have done little to improve sex education in this country. In fact, we have vilified and cu...
Also business diversity, character creation, resource management, dungeon keeping, identity permutating, etc. A sophisticate's games.
What Really Worries Game Designers: GDC 2011 Closing Commentary
This report comes from Travis Ross. As I walked around GDC this week I was hard not to feel the power of the FTP/Microtransaction business model. Yes, companies like Intel, Sony, Crytek, and Ubisoft dominated the expo floor, but companies like Zynga and Playdom pushing behavioral metrics like AR...
Games may fade, mechanismms/dyanmics might stay the same...
What Really Worries Game Designers: GDC 2011 Closing Commentary
This report comes from Travis Ross. As I walked around GDC this week I was hard not to feel the power of the FTP/Microtransaction business model. Yes, companies like Intel, Sony, Crytek, and Ubisoft dominated the expo floor, but companies like Zynga and Playdom pushing behavioral metrics like AR...
@Mike. You may have hit the nail on the head. True happiness might just be about variety of experience. Certainly it's about Maslow-type needs fulfillment, of belonging, self-actualization, contributing, being needed, creating.
Virtual worlds sometimes give people the first tangible, merit-based encounter with this kind of openness to possibility. Sure, if they can find it elsewhere, wonderful. But what about when they can't (due to disability, social awkwardness, cultural limitations, overwork, etc.)? Then that world becomes sanctuary, and that's not always a bad thing.
I say that if people think they are finding happiness, then they likely are. If that happiness comes at a cost of other important aspects of one's life? Yes, problem. But life is a constant balancing act, and moderation is the oft-lauded middle way.
McGonigal: Reality is Borked
Jane McGonigal's book just game out. Very good; very important. Yours truly gabs about it here. Ian Bogost has a very insightful piece here. The conversation seems to be refining down to the conclusion that society is not as good as it could be, and that games do things better.
@Mike Don't know if you remember this thread?
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/06/the_new_love.html
My contention is that virtual plus real experiences are additive...
McGonigal: Reality is Borked
Jane McGonigal's book just game out. Very good; very important. Yours truly gabs about it here. Ian Bogost has a very insightful piece here. The conversation seems to be refining down to the conclusion that society is not as good as it could be, and that games do things better.
Loved your article, btw, Ted. Do wonder if the fact that I take soma daily (for various broken head things) means I have sold out. Confess I don't care all that much, but do know I am constantly seeking more and varied experiences, some of which will occur online or in some other virtual space, many of which do not. Cooking Mama replaced by actual cooking, for instance... so much more satisfying, on multiple levels. I think that's the end game.
McGonigal: Reality is Borked
Jane McGonigal's book just game out. Very good; very important. Yours truly gabs about it here. Ian Bogost has a very insightful piece here. The conversation seems to be refining down to the conclusion that society is not as good as it could be, and that games do things better.
I think part of this issue relates to the fact that happiness varies in definition and duration, from a sense of well-being in a moment to a sense of well-being over time. I agree with Mike that well-being over time is probably a confluence of factors, some of which are physical and some, arguably, virtual. But I have no doubt that games produce authentic happiness sometimes, though certainly this varies depending on what motivates a player most. Is their thrill the zen of the grind, the massive collective woot at raid's end, or something perhaps more about creation, achievement or even transgression?
I will tell you that my big MMO research project stunned me with the power of players' statements about the impacts of games on their lives. Not just that they were amused for a while, but that play in the game had some transformative aspects. Not for everyone, no certainly not, but for those open to the experience, yes.
What was always particularly touching were those comments that declared vehemently that life changed utterly when the universe of online games opened. Words like love, acceptance, joy, and feeling valued for the first time in their lives. Czik's famous book about flow began its life as a book about the 'psychology of optimal experience'. Flow was the discovery: happy=good, consistent flow - not happy = constantly interrupted or never achieved flow.
I agree that we shouldn't/couldn't engineer happiness (outside of pharmaceuticals), but I think it's quite lovely that we have sandboxes in which people can find their solace, fulfillment and sense of belonging in whatever guise they choose.
McGonigal: Reality is Borked
Jane McGonigal's book just game out. Very good; very important. Yours truly gabs about it here. Ian Bogost has a very insightful piece here. The conversation seems to be refining down to the conclusion that society is not as good as it could be, and that games do things better.
I'm reminded that it's frequently the small things that jump out as meaningful years later. I often capture things that seem linked somehow, though I frequently don't know how. I cast a super wide net, then focus, synthesize and disseminate. That's how I'd describe the method simply.
Virtuality and Methods of Understanding
Inspired by Mark Chen's project summary and ensuing discussion, I have been thinking that we should collect on our collective experience and document some of the ways we achieve insight in an area as rapidly evolving as virtuality. In the associated comment thread, Richard and I discuss method...
Numbers... patterns...
http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/the-perfect-ten-weird-staples-of-every-fantasy-mmo/
World of Warcraft is just numbers
Of course, we kind of knew that already, but Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation touches on WoW's number-centric play brilliantly. I've been playing Cataclysm almost every day since it's release last month (minus some traveling days). At first, the abundance of "new" kept me going for a long while. No...
If I were properly prescient, I would have known that Jane McGonigal's book was launching...
Go Jane
Prediction Time Again
It's that time again... the persistent rush at the beginning of each new cycle of time to reflect and predict. Well, we like that sort of thing around here. Sometimes we're right, sometimes wrong. But we're always trying to draw out our inner oracles... My 2011 (and onward) predictions: - our...
Jon Stewart's take on 'effects':
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/01/11/jon-stewarts-moving-monologue-on-the-tucson-shootings/
'wouldn't it be nice to be able to draw a straight line of causation?'
Jared Loughner: MUD Maniac
The Wall Street Journal reports that the rampage killer Jared Loughner was a gamer. As usual? Recall Mr. Cho, whose killing of Hokies was followed immediately by angry denunciations of the game industry for programming him thusly. It turns out that the only game in his troubled mind was Sonic ...
Oh dear, I was totally waiting for this.
My response was going to be 'but doesn't everyone play videogames by now?' along with my requisite 'we were finding inspiration to kill each other long before books/tv/videogames'!
But this? MUDs? Has thrown me for a loop.
Jared Loughner: MUD Maniac
The Wall Street Journal reports that the rampage killer Jared Loughner was a gamer. As usual? Recall Mr. Cho, whose killing of Hokies was followed immediately by angry denunciations of the game industry for programming him thusly. It turns out that the only game in his troubled mind was Sonic ...
Mmm, 5 years?
http://www.videosurf.comwww.videosurf.com/video/life-like-walking-female-robot-62356652
And Dean, realized I can answer your question better. While I mention control as a benefit, I wouldn't want complete control. Spontaneity, mystery and surprise fuel romance. They would all have to be complexly modeled and integrated into the AI.
SE vs. AE
While wandering through Mass Effect 2, I was struck with the vitality of the world. Circa 2004, the main attraction of a multiplayer environment relative to single player worlds was that single player worlds felt dead. Multiplayer, on the other hand, had vitality but also the annoyances of dea...
@Dean
The key, I think, is the equivalent of a romantic turing test that will tell if an android or bot is sentient enough to overcome my cynicism. If it appears substantially real and elicits romantic response in me and is sincere, what do I care if it actually is physically 'real' or not?
How far off are these kinds of choices? 10 years?
SE vs. AE
While wandering through Mass Effect 2, I was struck with the vitality of the world. Circa 2004, the main attraction of a multiplayer environment relative to single player worlds was that single player worlds felt dead. Multiplayer, on the other hand, had vitality but also the annoyances of dea...
Isn't it highly possible that our universe itself is such, or some combination thereof (a handful of 'real' people, the rest NPCs)? Did you know that Philip K. Dick's middle name was 'Kindred'? Yet he was the guy most in doubt of the reality of our apparent SE.
I'd take AE as the whole kit and kaboodle might just be a big illusion anyway, and I don't need real people if AI is just is good. But that's gonna take a while:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_ai_essay_airevolution/
Yes, I have thought about this, kind of a lot. Would I take an android boyfriend that mimics Keanu Reeves, perfectly? Yes, yes, I would. I can turn off the body odor and snoring, you see, shut him down when I want control of the remote, and I wouldn't have to feed him, etc. Unless I want to.
SE vs. AE
While wandering through Mass Effect 2, I was struck with the vitality of the world. Circa 2004, the main attraction of a multiplayer environment relative to single player worlds was that single player worlds felt dead. Multiplayer, on the other hand, had vitality but also the annoyances of dea...
Don't disagree with any of the comments, thanks!... (and certainly agree that sitting is needed for marathon gaming).
I should probably clarify that I was blogging from elated self, not pragmatic self. It's certainly just one step along the way... to the holodeck?! ;-)
A Kinected World
Call me a fan girl, but I think a little revolution snuck up on us while we weren’t looking. [nepotism alert: I do work at Microsoft, but not currently in games. However I have been hearing about Kinect for a long time, under the codename Project Natal, whispered around the usability labs with...
We can do a six point reality/virtuality scale like the Kinsey folks did for sexual preferences. Bartle 1 is a completely physical reality person, Bartle 2 eschews Facebook and Twitter, barely emails. Bartle 6 is the so-virtual-they've-lost-their-jobs-and-are-wearing-Depends types. I think most people in the U.S. are 2-3.
I also think we have no idea what virtual ubiquity means. Or maybe we do, as it's likely everything we perceive as real is some kind of virtuality, at least if you believe The Holographic Universe guys and loved the Matrix.
Symbols in Virtual Worlds
Commenter Dave wrote to say that he's interested in a discussion about Call of Duty's policies toward user-created images. Quoth Dave: Recently a gamer asked a CoD developer if using a swastika as an emblem ingame would be ok. The developer said no and it would result in a ban. Original quest...
Wow, Richard, I like that notion of reality/virtuality as a continuum. I think of it differently, as modalities: some more expansive, some more limited, each augmenting the other.
Symbols in Virtual Worlds
Commenter Dave wrote to say that he's interested in a discussion about Call of Duty's policies toward user-created images. Quoth Dave: Recently a gamer asked a CoD developer if using a swastika as an emblem ingame would be ok. The developer said no and it would result in a ban. Original quest...
Just because it's not physical doesn't mean it's not real. We've been virtual since the telegraph. (Suggest The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage) Before even. Myths, stories, epic poems - don't they all transport both speaker and listeners (oral histories) or readers to 'new worlds'?
Look, Salman Rushdie said it:
"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return." (Imaginary Homelands)
Symbols in Virtual Worlds
Commenter Dave wrote to say that he's interested in a discussion about Call of Duty's policies toward user-created images. Quoth Dave: Recently a gamer asked a CoD developer if using a swastika as an emblem ingame would be ok. The developer said no and it would result in a ban. Original quest...
@Tom: More importantly, it will mean that we can try out mistakes before we act on them. Hope your cache is updating. :-)
An Exodus Recession?
The economy continues to move slowly and economists seem as uncertain as ever about the causes and what to do. Months ago, I began to wonder – could this possibly be the first “exodus recession”? In my first book I sketched out the idea. Suppose economic activity moves from the real world into...
I certainly feel like several economies (physically) existing as one! Dichotomies abound when a multitude of identities are in play.
An Exodus Recession?
The economy continues to move slowly and economists seem as uncertain as ever about the causes and what to do. Months ago, I began to wonder – could this possibly be the first “exodus recession”? In my first book I sketched out the idea. Suppose economic activity moves from the real world into...
Mark's also a phenomenal artist.
Please Welcome Guest Author Dr. Mark 'Danger' Chen!
Mark and I have collaborated on a number of things these last few years, and now that he has finished his doctoral work (woot!), I invited him to guest author and summarize his work for us. Mark is another virtual worlds researcher who relies on traditional anthropological methods to understa...
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