Online Gaming

Prior to this course, I was completely unaware of the online gaming culture. I am amazed by the virtual world surrounding MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games). I am fascinated that so many people become addicted to virtual games. These addictions cost many people large amounts of time and money. Unfortunately, they can even cost people their jobs, relationships, and sadly, even their lives. The following is a link to an article about a young Dutch boy that committed suicide over an MMORPG. The boy was upset that one of his friends hacked into his account and ruined his gaming identity. Isn't it tragic yet interesting that a game can have such an impact on someone’s life?! http://forums.gamernode.com/showthread.php?t=2061

It is critical that more research be done on what effects these MMORPGs can have on someone's REAL life. Research has shown that these virtual communities can become a person's primary social outlet, and the community they are most comfortable with. In the case of Second Life, many people have spent thousands of dollars on their online identity to have a superior lifestyle in their virtual world. The one problem that I see with the addictions is that the users will confuse their online identity with reality. In Second Life there are concerns about how much sexual content there is and how prevalent sexual interaction is. Can you believe that this may be some users' preferred medium of sexual expression? Here is a news clip that discusses the problems with sex in Second Life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJw1rhg_5do

This is a Johari Window

The general idea is things that you know about yourself, things you don’t know about your self things others know about you and things others don’t know about you. Each side or topic intersects with another and becomes OPEN, BLIND, CLOSED, or UNKNOWN. Meaning open to self, blind to self, closed to others, or unknown to both self and others (I think this is the best one cause it shows there is still stuff to learn about your self and for others to learn about you ; - D )

Here are some personal examples: TESTING

Open: I am a girl!
You can tell this by looking at me or by my name…D’Lonika.

Closed: I am from a single family home
You cannot tell this unless you ask.

Blind: I can be over opinionated.
I’m not really blind to this I just don’t care…hehehe.

Unknown: I…HAVE…NO…IDEA..HAHAHA :-D


Here is a funny link that will show you more about the Johari Window
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMYgUokFog

Who doesn’t have the internet?

Digital Divide: the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without. It’s the unequal access by some members of the society to information and communications technology, and the unequal acquisition of related skills. The digital divide exists between groups of various genders, incomes, races and locations.[1] The term global digital divide refers to differences in technology access between countries. (Definition provided by wikipedia.org)



America as a society doesn’t always realize how blessed it truly is. I know I don’t. During the summer I moved into a new place that was fully loaded: electric, water, cable, fully furnished, and internet. I was juiced. But then the internet started acting up. I know a lot of people have experienced this problem but I thought never to this degree. The internet would not work from 9 am to 6 pm pretty much when the sun went up the internet stopped working, like peek hours or something. I thought this was hell on earth.

Recently I learned about the digital divide and found that not everyone has internet or even a computer. You would think I would figure this out after spending two weeks in India were you have to go to a little shop that houses computers and you pay for minutes used on the internet. Could you imagine how much money Americans would have to spend for using the internet if they were charged by the minute?

I mean we use the internet at out homes, jobs, in cafes (mainly Starbucks), in our cars even in the elevators. Wooo…could you imagine how much your bill would be? I’m getting chills right now.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

What is a Virtual Community?


I had the same question when I first heard of a virtual community; in fact I didn’t even know that a community could be virtual. The first thing I did was I went to my handy-dandy wikipedia.org and it gave me all the dish. According to them a virtual community is also know as an e-community or online community. It allows people to interact through different communication technologies such as: newsletters, telephones, email, online social networks or instant messages rather than face-to-face interaction.

It’s funny that they would say newsletters because I don’t really know anyone who writes a newsletter at least not on paper. Since the Blogs came on the since I don’t believe I have seen a paper newsletter. My friends went to Italy for a six month long internship and not once did they send physical letter to there friends and rarely did they send letters to there families. Instead they sent emails to everyone letting them know about their blog. We became a community by posting comments on the messages and pictures that they would send. I think I’ll do the same thing when I move after all there is only so much you can put on Facebook before it begins to look cluttered.


While I was looking up Virtual Communities on YouTube I came across this guy talking about online communites. I thought some of his comments were hilarious. My favorite quote was, “I have the power to turn my computer off; I cannot turn my friend off “ if you want to see more CLICK HERE!
He talks about how his friends on the internet know him better than anyone he actually knows for real I thought that statement was interesting, if he can know people for real than how real are the current relationships that he has with the people he talks to on the internet?

Let me know what you think.

Virtual Communities

Virtual communities occur when enough people carry on a public discussion long enough via the internet. These discussions must include human feeling to form webs of personal relationships. How a community forms is without definition, but some identified aspects include the need of sufficient time to form relationships, the need to develop shared culture and norms, the need for veterans to give newcomers the history of the community, and include emotional ties which are lacking in a group.
The good thing about VC is that they are not confined by physical location as are offline communities. Unfortunately, with the positive comes negative. In VC a member has the ability to disengage without consequence. There is no need for members to work through differences, thus they may not respect the norms of the community, because there is no accountability for one’s actions. Also, members may become so involved in their online communities they can ignore their real life obligations. This can have negative effects on family, work, and offline social groups.
Certain types of governances and policies can be put in place to try and avoid the violation of norms within a VC, but they are in no way legally enforced. The worse that can happen is that a person can be shunned, or kicked out, by other members of the community. For example, Mr. Bungle in LambdaMOO was kicked out of the community after performing act of online rape. It was simple however for Mr. Bungle to return to LambdaMOO under a different name, and had he not said anything, no one would have known.
Ideally VCs should be a pleasant and welcoming place for a person to go and express themselves openly and comfortably. Unfortunately, just like everything else, certain people have to ruin it for everyone else.

The Third Place

Applying Oldenburg’s idea of “The Third Place” to myself I found that the internet does not really apply. The Third Place is characterized by having a neutral ground, being level, having conversation as the main activity, being accessible and accommodating, having regulars, being able to keep a low profile, and as acting as a home away from home. In my world only a few of these characteristics exist in regards to the internet.
The only way that I use the internet for fun is when I sign in to my MySpace account. The rest of the time I spend online (which is actually most of the time) is doing research or something else for school. However, as far as MySpace goes, it is accessible and accommodating, it is neutral ground, and I can keep a low profile, but that is about it. Its accessible because I can sign on anywhere because of internet service on my cell phone. It is accommodating because it is free and allows anyone to sign up. It is neutral ground because I can sign on when I want, as often as I want, and I am able to keep a low profile because I can say as much or as little as I want. But that’s it. Its hardly fun for me anymore, other than looking at friends and relatives pictures, and I wouldn’t consider myself a regular.
The idea of “The Third Place” seems more applicable to perhaps my relationship with my boyfriend. I can apply more of the characteristics, it brings me more enjoyment, and he is my home away from home. That is just not something that the internet brings me. I am grateful for it though. It allows access to knowledge, assignments, and contacts for my group projects. I can complete an entire research paper without having to live the confines of my own home, but it is not my fun place. Sorry Oldenburg, your theory does not apply to me.

My Thoughts about Online Rape

After reading the article about how rape occurred in a living room in LambdaMOO, I first felt the implications of how rape can occur online. Mr. Bungle (who was really students consisting a whole dormitory floor at NYU) utilized a VooDoo doll to trap fellow LambdaMOOers in the room and make them do horrible things to themselves, as well as to him. By VooDoo doll I mean something that gave Mr. Bungle control over the functions of other people in the room.
The women in the room were traumatized over the ordeal, more so than the man who was involved, and to me this makes sense. Other than the rare occurrence, women are typically the victims of rape in the Real World. Take our class discussion on this article for example. The opinions on whether or not a person can be raped online were divided…between male and female. The men in the room did not consider the advances online to be anything comparable to rape, but the women felt what was done and said in the living room was disturbing enough to make a person feel victimized.
Another perspective entirely comes from people who have actually experienced rape in the Real World. The idea of being raped online may seem to be an inconsiderate, as well as ludicrous, belief. Online you can walk away anytime you want? You are never in a position where you have to endure such torment? Just leave and go to a different chat room, website, or whatever, right? Wrong. People spend a lot of time online chatting with online friends or playing games. For someone who has spent time and money on an avatar for their favorite game to just quit and start over somewhere else because someone is harassing them is not an easy thing to do. If the person physically gets up and walks away from their computer the only thing that solves is them not having to see the rape occur, but anyone else around can still see it. That can be equally demoralizing. In the case of LambdaMOO, physically walking away from the computer was the only option, but utter disbelief may have kept the victims from averting their eyes.
I really don’t know whether any laws should be created to attempt to keep people from performing online acts of rape, because I have to say that I would like to think that people have more common decency than to do so. Rape is a disgusting act. Don’t do it. End of story.