September 2011
71 posts
WoWza. Second Life is crazy.
So, guess who was completely freaked out by that movie in class we watched last week?
It made me wonder what planet I’m living on and what’s going on with the people who inhabit its minds.
The video blew my mind to be perfectly honest. It made me deeply consider the impact that technology is beginning to have on our society. The person that definitely hit me hardest was the man who was...
Reaching the Peak of Inflated Expectations
If a serious game is designed with a purpose to do work it does not mean it is not, or should not be, entertaining (Bloomfield, 2007). The future of research if carried out in a virtual world may have all the traditional feature yet may be simply a more interesting way of surveying. Society may not yet be at the “peak of inflated expectations” because “most of us are still too unfamiliar...
SL 2.0 --> REAL $?$?#$?!
After watching the Life 2.0 documentary about users and their avatars in their double life, what I found the most interesting about this virtual society was that cyber money can be traded in for real life money. Most virtual online games are just what they are categorized as, games, but with this MMORPG, players are practically business people who earn some sort of profit for playing a...
Life 2.0
When I was younger, my mother used to always scold me for playing too many video games. She told me that I needed to go out and get fresh air, and interact with other kids if I wanted to live a healthy and happy life. Now that I am older, when I look back I see how much of my time was consumed sitting in front of a screen doing something that really brought me nowhere in life. ...
What is Life 2.0?
Ever since last week in class I could not stop thinking about the documentary that we watched entitled Life 2.0. My focus for this post will be on this idea and theme that was depicted in the film.
Life 2.0 spoke on the “virtual world becoming the new reality”. I find nothing more stranger than this idea that the internet is now becoming the way we “live” our...
The Economy Of Second Life
After watching the documentary Life 2.0, there was a lot of things that stuck our to me as interesting and that caught my attention. However, the one aspect of the documentary which really interested me was that of the vast and ever expanding economy of second life. Of course, in the documentary this is shown through the perspective of Asri Falcone. Asri owns her own clothing and real estate line...
The 2.0 Life
The video we watched in class was interesting but so incredibly sad.
As I talked about in my post last week, games like Second Life give people opportunities to escape from their real lives. Life 2.0 shows three prime examples of this.
The portion of the documentary that discusses the couple falling in love was extremely creepy, but also understandable… in a way. Right in the beginning...
Virtual Baby Lives, Real Baby Dies?!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/korean_couple_addicted_starve_virtual_geeJRZbBHuJMa5du26gT6O
^READ THIS ARTICLE! It covers the story of a couple who neglected their real life baby for their Second Life baby, so much so that it died of starvation. Another extreme case of how virtual reality takes over the mind.
Real? Life 2.0
Ever since the first few minutes of the Web 2.0 documentary began to play in class, I’ve had trouble focusing on anything else since. I am shocked, perplexed, intrigued, and even a bit envious to some extent.
Prior to this doc, I knew a bit about Second Life, including the extremes the users go to within the virtual world, and how it often transcends, and sometimes blurs the lines of reality. On...
Wow at WoW!
I want to focus my post around the “Tom Sawyer” effect that was mentioned in Bloomfield’s article. A couple years ago I was very sick and had to stay inside for a whole month. I lost 45 pounds of my healthy and fit 180 pounds I weighed at the time. During this time I picked up World of Warcraft. It was fun at first. I had a great time learning the basics and when I got to...
Building in Second Life!
After watching Life 2.0 in class, the video was really eye-opening to me. The one part that suck out to me the most was probably the woman who would sit in her basement in her pajamas all day making outfits, buildings, and other sorts of products to be sold in Second Life. My first reaction was “Wow, what a loser…”, watching her sleep all day and just sit in front of dual...
So instead of SL, I should be using xtube?!
“Fantasy will always be more interesting than reality”
I missed class last Thursday and didn’t get to watch Second Life 2.0 with everyone, but I did found some information on the topic. My question, however, is can these types of virtual worlds lead to depression, or is it depression that brings people to become obsessed with online ‘gaming’ if you will? Considering that...
Business and Economic research in virtual worlds
I think there is amazing potential for research in virtual worlds, not only is it very easy to collect data in these worlds, but so much is happening at a fast pace. I have first hand experience since I have played WoW and had my own very successful business in the game until blizzard sued the company I worked with for 6 million dollars which I will explain more later on. Bainbridge mentions how...
Abandoned Life... Second Life
Abandoned Life… Second Life
The documentary Second Life 2.0 really struck a weird nerve when I watched it. I couldn’t grasp the fact that the people featured in the film were actually so caught up in an online universe. To me these people seemed crazy, to themselves they seemed to be regular people leading two lives ( or for the matter of the documentary, leading a life that was started...
Life 2.0
Before this class, I had never even heard of Second Life. As I began to tell some of my friends about the course, however, I found out that a lot of people actually know about it. In fact, when I first downloaded SL, someone on my floor saw and said, “Don’t do it dude, you’re totally gonna get sucked in.” I’ve had my fair share of experience when it comes to MMORPGs,...
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Life 2.0 Compulsions
For awhile now we have been slowly introduced to another reality which many of us thought of as just a game. Of course many of us have known about games such as Everquest or Warcraft and even Second Life, but to think that people give up their first life to play a second life would sound crazy. I’ve played my share of MMORPGs and seen people on the forums admit to playing every spare moment they...
definitely not a game
“Economist Edward Castronova argues that an increasing fraction of human life, economy, and culture will take place in these novel environments, so they need to be studied as important phenomena in their own right (Bainbridge 474).” The article, “The Scientific Research of Virtual Worlds” discusses how virtual worlds are a good environment for researchers to explore issues about cultural...
Enormous potential for research in the Digital...
Majority of the articles discussed the enormous ability of research in the digital world, deviant ways and different means. The following video shows us the heightened research capabilities accrued by Apple in the Iphone 5 concept http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsBwnv_dAg
The most interesting aspect that struck me was the Holographic concept that produces the imagery primarily on a flat surface....
"that's why its called the web ...because you get...
So, after watching Life 2.0 I feel that this whole SL thing is a lot more serious then I originally thought. Its obviously not just a simple computer game anymore… but rather a lifestyle or alternative universe. I was dumbfounded.
The documentary was exceptional and I really enjoyed how it was produced. I felt that the way the three stories were portrayed really gave insight onto...
Get A... Life 2.0
After viewing Life 2.0 in class, I was in utter disbelief – so much so that it has been on my mind from the moment we left class. I wanted to share what I saw with my friends in order to see their reaction. With only a film preview to go off of, they got the gist of it. As predicted it was a mutual WTF moment.
In my opinion, this film gives credence to the overall power of the Internet. This...
LIFE 2.0
I watched this movie today and had to remind myself that these people were not actors. The line between virtual and real is gone for some of them and very blurry for others. It seems that people get really selfish when it comes to online “obsessions”. In these examples these people were out for themselves, and I am still not not sure what to make of the guy who was the 11 year...
junkie whore > picture perfect pin-up
For this week’s readings, I was most intrigued by Lauren Bans’ article “Same Shit, Different World: Second Life may be an online utopia, but its social politics look awfully familiar.” Unlike other online platforms like EverQuest or World of Warcraft, Second Life is not a structured game with any type of objective. Instead, it serves as a virtual reproduction of the human world; it functions as...
IS THIS REAL LOIFE?!?!!!
After reading each of the articles, the one article that stood out to me was Lauren Bans’ “Same Shit, Different World: Second Life may be an online utopia, but its social politics look awfully familiar.” Bans starts off the article explaining the double life of Sue Hoogestraat’s husband Ric. He clearly seems like an active user and his avatar in Second Life is...
Fresh Start
In the reading, A Social History of Virtual Worlds by Sanchez, he talks about how Ultima Online changed the way video games could be sold. Instead of just paying for the video game once, the player pays the original box price and then pays a monthly fee of $9.99. Now, many people may think that’s a bit ridiculous. But it’s exactly what some people may need to make their day more...
Week 4 Blog
The readings assigned for this week displayed the sheer power that the Internet has brought to the world. The fact that I can get any piece of information whenever I want still amazes me to this day. The ways in which the Internet has advanced communication is absolutely mind blowing. During my experience with the Internet, communication started with AOL Instant Messenger, was then...
Entirely Fictitious & Undeniably Real
Once upon a time there were games called Muti-User Dungeons (MUDs). Games with graphics had not yet been developed so, within the context of the current existing games, MUDs were considered very high-tech. However, they were also limited. A MUD could only provide detailed explanations for whichever virtual environment the user resided. If the user was in a field, the MUD explained that...
SL: Still strange concept, to me
Out of all of the articles we had to read this week, Bans’ article had me not only paying attention, but interested in looking into both the racism and “cheating” aspects of Second Life. This may sound condescending to those who choose to participate in Second Life to make friends and use it for hours on end, but if those people are so open to new ideas such as in-world...
Unreal emotions?
The role of a virtual realm such as Second Life is to allow users to embrace a world where full customization and interaction are possible. The extent to which one can edit his or her own Second Life is much greater than one can in his or her offline life. This freedom influences users to take advantage of various options that would never be able to be explored in real-life. The openness and...
Excuse me for the language.
I cannot believe that there is a lot of racism in Second Life. The times have changed and I felt as though people would adapt to the changes. No matter what you look like, this guy up top wouldn’t judge you! You’re just an a$$hole in his eyes no matter what the color of your skin is. I really though it was crazy that people would be out to get you in Second Life if the color of...
Hatred is wrong.
What’s the difference between the online and the offline worlds? What’s the difference between all the different versions of online worlds? There are so many questions and so many blurred lines between the diverse types of worlds people may choose to participate in. The articles this week discuss the different types of experiment qualities that online worlds hold. Some are dubbed as games,...
Signed, Anonymous
The readings this week were really interesting but the one that stuck out at me the most was Bans’ Same Shit, Different World. Specifically, the part about the fantasy romance between Thomas/Tommy and Jessica caught my attention. Both lied about their real identities by acting as younger versions of themselves or using their children’s photos, got involved in an online relationship, and then...
Hiding Behind Technology
’Real-Life’ appearance can only be controlled to a certain extent. For example we can change our hair color, eye color with contacts, skin color ( tanning ), eyebrows, put makeup on our faces, and we now even have the option of getting surgery to reduce our weight. Unfortunately, we cannot always control our personalities, life situations, and body type. After reading this weeks...
Don't hate my avatar because it's beautiful...
…HATE IT BECAUSE IT’S HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH YOUR SPOUSE!
Bans article, Same Shit, Different World, is one of the most interesting articles I’ve read to date. The exposure of virtual racism, stereotyping, and countless number of crimes, which spill over and mirror real life transgressions, is almost astounding. The keyword here being “almost.” After all, when provided with...
Woman in Virtual Worlds
After reading the first chapter of T.L Taylor’s book, “Play Between Worlds”, I saw the world of gaming culture in a different way. Having played some video games in my day, I know of the close friends one can make from countless hours of playing with teammates. I did not, however, know how conventions operated or what they were like. Taylor gives us an inside look to a...
Virtual doesn't mean fake.
One of our readings this week really stuck out to me. Bans’ Same Shit, Different World brings up a lot of interesting topics about the line between the real world and the virtual world. If you think about it, virtual worlds relatively haven’t been around for that long, but they have already become so prevalent in the lives of so many people. The appeal of having the option to be whoever you want...
Exploring Emotions on SL
“Second Life is so popular in part because it offers members clear advantages over the real world (Bans 3).” In a virtual world you can be anyone that you want and studies have shown that people may even be at their best when they are in a virtual world. A person can literally make their appearance look exactly the way they want it and that avatar may or may not resemble the person who created...
Money can be made on SL
In this week’s readings the theme seems to be that everything goes in the virtual frontier of the internet. A place where fantasies have no limitations to the imagination and/or the amount of money a person can make from playing. The readings Play Between Worlds and Same Shit Different World point out that regular people beside companies are profiting from online games. Games such as...
Response 2
While we may be using Second LIfe to gain an understanding and knowledge of virtual worlds for this class, there is in fact various other types of virtual worlds which also exist, each with their own unique and distinct characteristics. Second Life for example is a 3d virtual world but does not contain any sort of game elements or objectives which must be completed. Therefore, when in Second Life,...
Avatar Creations
Before this class, the only online “identity” or “avatar” I have ever made was on the Sims. In that community, I always made avatars of myself in different phases of my life. One sim would be modern day “Jill” which would involve my Sim finding a job, going to school, and living alone. Another “Jill” sim would revolve around trying to find a...
The pros and cons of internet use.
“At the same time, many question whether relationships formed this way can ever be as real as those formed face to face.” Baym page 31
I believe that both the quote above and the cartoon express a concern that many have about the way some people choose to use the internet today. Some use it solely because their profession necessitates them to, and others use it for recreational...