Reflective Commentary

Reflective Commentary

Our video for Networked Culture is about second life, virtual existences that are an extention of our own. Second life to me is a means of escape, to get away from problems and stresses that I may have
and take on a new personality for a few hours or so. Seeing as how I mostly play adventure games I looked at Sonic The Hedgehog, an anthropormorphic hedgehog that defies animal convention by acting human with extrodonairy abilities that I could never do in reality. The premise of our video is to show that second life helps people by immersing themselves in order to escape reality for a while by either a single player or a co-op play using virtual interaction. The end result was Zamanur and I trying to find out if immersion benfits us. Immersion is a key word I would use as it defines the virtual paradigm, a set of ideas that can be applied to video games in this instance so you can create oppourtunities that you were not afforded in reality.


Immersion is a way of inteacting with others to improve or enhance a gaming experience as
"Participants in engagist media can make choices that are denied to them in the real world due to finances, physical limits, laws or personal reticence." (Harrigan, P & Wardrip-Fruin 2010) So by saying that in reality we are resricted by everyday problems in the simulated world second life removes improbable means so the individual is able to achive feats that they could not otherwise do and with more than one person a unity takes place that collaborates the two, almost binding them creating a bond. In the case of Zamanur and I we used collaboration within video games to show a comparison of the lone and co-op experiences of the two and how breaking from reality can help people in various ways.

Looking into why people use second life has shown me that as well as myself there are people who use virtual existences for other purposes such as chatrooms, MMORPG (Multi Media Online Role Playing Games), Social Media and other various games or sites that require avatar based actions. This is heavily embodied in multilayer games which involve other people and helps them by " . . .  capturing a sense of interpersonal connection as well as internal organisation." (Bayum 1998) I understand this to mean perople sometimes connect in different ways and by using broken boudries as a guide take on a life of their own which they may feel is greater as it may give them a sense of direction lacking in their real life.


We also looked into how video games bring people together as a general theme and outline for the project as a whole. We also looked at how the effects of video games and second life has been nurtured for several years and now seems to compete with our real lives in terms of time and effort.Yee believes that "Their transformation into work platforms and the staggering amount of work that is being done in these games often go unnoticed" Yee is saying that we live in a time where we want things fast and mostly easy with little or no admiration for the time and effort put into the making of the games themselves. This is a point Zamanur and I tried to make in our video as we try to look beyond the surface of the gameplay style and just enjoy the experience.Yee goes on to say that "Users spend on average 20 hours a week in online games." and that players of online games describe ". . . their game play as obligation, tedium, and more like a second job than entertainment." This I believe shows the real immersion of second life and how it really is becoming synced to everyday uses and how we are starting to have a dependency on them, especially over the last few years.

In terms of the video I was actor and editor, this gave me the oppourtunity to control aspects of the film for my part to create a balance in medium in relation to Zamanur's half of the video. Sonic Generations (2011) was a game that tried to mediate and cater to both old and new Sonic The Hedgehog fans. As I grew up with both the retro styles and the modern three dimensional design of the Sonic franchise I felt I could connect the two as paradigms for the state of mind I was in at the beginning of the video. In terms of research I felt I looked more into game and news reviews over professional research, not because of malice or disrespect but because as an avid player of second life and virtual mechanics I felt I coul relate more to for example a Sonic 4 Episode 2 (2012) forum over extensive research as I felt  they knew from experience what games were and are about, whereas the more professional approach looks more into theory and behaviour. In gereral I used both amateur and professional research to gain a hopefully successful conclusion.

Summation Of This Project

In conclusion of  Networked Culture looking back on the project as a whole I feel I have developed skills and a mindset that I can bring into other projects and work in the future. At the start of this project Zamanur and I both looked at second life from one perspective however at the end of this project I believe Zamanur and I have gained a better understanding of the virtual existences we and others share all over the world. The question we asked ourselves was Does Immersion benefit us in general? And can the experience of that be enhanced? I believe we have drawn the conclusion that second life is not so different to aspects in life including the main premise of working together to achive a common goal, the fun you can have, that little distraction that can change your behaviour and reabilitate yourself with a more stronger, resilient attitude. So to anwser the question does it benefit us? I would say yes it does aswell as enhance us to be better people and enjoy the premise of entertainment.

Bibliography:

Harrigan, P , Wardrip-Fruin, N (Eds) (2010) Second person: Role-Playing and story in Games and Playable Media, Cambridge, Mass & London: MIT Press

Jones, S,G. (Eds.) (1998) Cyber society 2.0: revisiting computer-mediated community and technology, North America,: SAGE Publications Inc.

Dimps, Sonic Team (2012) Sonic 4 Episode II.

 

Yee, N , (2006) Labor of Fun How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play (accessed online pdf) http://www.nickyee.com/pubs/Yee%20-%20Labor%20of%20Fun%20(2006).pdf
2006 Sage Publications
Date Accessed: 8/12/12

Sonic Team, (X Box 360 & PS3) (2011) Sonic Generations

2nd Life Video

 

 

This is the final video Zamanur and I made about second life and virtual existences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjqFksKBT0U&feature=youtu.be

The Digital Divide ( Where We Are )

"The digital divide is most commonly defiined as the gap between those individiuals and communities that have, and do not have access to the information technologies that are transforming our lives." (Dickard , Schneider, 2002) The divide itself covers two types of people in this era of the digital age and these two are Digital Immigrant and Digital Native.
Personally I relate more to the Digital Native as I grew up with technology surrounding me such as Computers, Mobile Phones, Television and various others things and even to this day I still am surrounded by similar, more updated technology such as HD Television, the Playstation 3, the Internet, the Android Tablet and so on.

Figures from a census called "A Nation Online" in 2002 stated that "143 million Americans, or about 54 percent of the population are using the Internet." So ten years ago the Internet consumed over half the lives of people living in America and since then has risen. It was estimated that there was"2 million new Internet users per month"overall showing growth in bridging the gap between the two groups of digital users and non digital users. However due to this growing figure of Internet users it was said that "The rationale is that Americans are gaining access to computers at an acceptable pace and as a result the role of government can be curtailed." This is saying that as more people use the Internet the role of help and control is being reduced and is deminishing."

In general the Internet has had a profound and positive effect on not only America but the world over the last ten years or so,  Online distribution has not always been a positive experience this became clear on 11th September 2001 as a tragedy struck America as two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York. This may have been a pivotal reason as to why the Internet became popular as a worldwide media as people were filming and uploading videos of the crash from their mobile phones and video cameras. I watched a documentary online about 9/11 and how "the footage from more than 100 different eyewitnesses" (0.00.11) was used to tell the story of true events. This has become a key of using visual evidence that has connected millions of people all over the world through the online distribution of media. The reactions to the destruction such as "OH MY GOD!" and " We've got to get out of here!" capture the essence of the situation and it's reality and if it was not shown or recorded visually I believe it would have weakend the impact of those people.

Back in 2002 Some people such as Arrison who at the time was director for the Center for Technology Studies at the Pacific Research Institute spoke out against the divide stating that "the digital divide is not a crisis that places citizens in urgent need of more government help." Arrison also said that we have a "Mercedes Divide" saying that "many of the Internet's so called 'have-nots' are really 'want-nots.'" Overall the digital divide is seemingly based on choice as to whether you wish to be involved within the current era or dwindle into the past.

References:

Dickard, N and Scheider, D (2002) The Digital Divide: Where We Are A status report on the digital divide from 2002
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today
Date Accessed: 27/11/12
Arrison, S (2002) The Digital Divide: Where We Are A status report on the digital divide from 2002


TDPUK (2011) 102 Minutes That Changed America - 9/11 September 11th - [ Full Documentary ] (2001)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ZmMtXQ3gM
Date Accessed: 27/11/12

Copyright ( Reading )

Copyright is content that is owned by an artist, company or establishment that have sole ownership of it and if used for public distribution by others without permission it is deemed illegal and the owner can take action against that person or group. Music and Film are among some of the most copyrighted material there is as it has a large content these include sound, lyrics, diaglogue, scenes, logo's and so and so fouth. A subject of copyright that is not really focused on is Reading for the simple premise that it is not really convienent to copy or plagerise a book/ text yet from an online perspective it could be said that copyright has been overlooked.

An example of this would be Kindle and online fraud that was going on last year where people were hacking and downloading eBooks and putting certain content on Amazon whilst at the same time setting up fake accounts giving the fake book good ratings online so the people paying for the books on Amazon "ended up buying dud content." This is a way of  bypassing fake content and selling it on to others more schemeatic than copyright breach but it shows how content can be manipulated and distorted so you are not getting what you paid for. Kindle broke copyright regulations with it's Kindle Marketplace where "people who do not own the copyright" were uploading the books for sale anyway. This is mainly due to flexible publishing and PDF distribution making traces and evidence harder to find.

Books from an analogue standpoint are being considered a rellik of the past as WIRED magazine have said "what was once previously considered a common human resource, distributed among the minds and libraries of the world is now being fenced and deeded." this from a consumer standpoint makes it harder to source the material desired as it's a dying breed of media based on the lack of interest from the current generation onward. Some also say this maybe why David Cameron wishes to close public libraries in certain areas of the country for financial reasons for the economy. Overall the point of publishing books and written texts and documents have not really been effected by copyright problems and therefore it seems posession of written media still lies with the big main publishing companies.This is not to say it could never be broken like Music or Film but in general it seems unlikely that it will.

References:

Metcalfe, B  (4/4/11) Amazon's incorrect priorities when it comes to copyright enforcement on the Kindle
http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2011/04/amazons-incorrect-priorities-when-it-comes-to-copyright-enforcement-on-the-kindle/
Date Accessed: 25/11/12

Barlow, J. (1994) 'The economy of ideas', Wired, 2.03, March [Online]. Available at:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas.html?pg=1&topic=
Date Accessed: 25/11/12.

 

 

Democracy (Beijing Massacre)

On the 4th June 1989 there was a protest in Beijing, China that lead to military action and the "massacre" of  many of these civilians. This is a post about how we use technology to uncover dark events from the past and discover the truth. The website Wikileakes stumbled across and released exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, documents and information of the events that took place the morning of June 4th 1989 that were the opposite of accounts documented by the Chinese Government. The Cables which were the documents found by Wikileaks stated "10,000 to 15,000 helmeted armed troops moving into the city, some of whom were carrying automatic weapons." I think this is conveyed that Chinese military soldiers were armed with the intention of opening fire on these demostrators and willing to show no mercy for their actions.

The BBC from a broadcasting perspective would argue that it was in Tiananmen Square where most of the violent shootings and rioting happened and that most of the protestors "were naive about the savagery of the situation" As technology has progressed over time we use more visual mediums as evidence of an event and the video I watched showed footage of the anarchy in the square and the sounds of rapid gunfire. Visually it gives you the experience of what it was like so in that respect technology has given us access to parts of the story but as seen by Wikileaks most did not know what fully happened.


The Beijing massacre is a contraversial subject as China was and is a communist country therefore most if not all political and environmental decisions made are up to the government. This means that what you saw and heard through media sources for example  radio, television, newspapers e.c.t had to be  taken as the account of what actually happened. One man that had spoken about the massacre was a former BBC correspondent in Beijing James Miles who said in 2009, 20 years after the massacre that "He had conveyed the wrong impression" "Protestors who were still in the square when the army reached it were allowed to leave after negotiations with martial law troops [ . . . ] there was no massacre on Tiananmen Square but there was a Beijing massacre." it seems as though different accounts have been made and with the use of technology you can backtrack events to compare stories to interpret your own views on what happened.This means that technology has broadened our perspectives on certain  political subjects as we have a variety to look at more than what we would have seen over 20 years ago.

References:

Moore, M  4/6/11 (8:00 am  BST) Wikileaks: no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square, cables claim
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html
Date Accessed: 20/11/12

taozhuo 17/11/06 BBC News -  June 4 1989, Tiananmen Square Massacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBnHMpHGRY
Date Accessed: 25/11/12

Identity: ( Phone Hacking Scandal )

Identity is a key part of your databody online, as this is a profile that allows others to gain insight into who you are digitally. Over the last few years a scandal has been kept behind closed doors and away from prying eyes which has been a main news headline over the last year or so and that was the ''Phone Hacking Scandal'' utilised by News Of The World to target certain Celebrities and even MP's to track their information digitally and illegally through use of phones and other media in order to gain headline news stories.

One main aspect of the aftermath of the scandal was The Leveson Inquiry, The inquiry was a series of interviews and accounts of the people involved and it's soul purpose was to hopefully draw a conclusion as to who and what was involved and why things ecsalated the way they did. Scotland Yard have recently looked into the hacking of computers and online behavior as reports claimed 142 allegations of online theft. Sue Akers, Deputy Assistant Commissioner stated that
''70 different "storage devices", such as computer hard drives, were being searched for evidence". This inquiry particularly relates to the death of Milly Dowler as it was hacking and online tracing that got her killed. This shows that identity online is a risk when it should be a simple formality in a safe and relatively controlled environment.

As a result of this we can see technology in the wrong hands has a profound effect on the way society reacts to mass problems in real life. To ask ourselves the question Has The Leveson Inquiry helped to raise awareness of technology? most would agrue that it has, Peter Hunt news correspondent for BBC news states " Long after the publication has been recycled, the words uttered by several of the victims of media malpractice will linger." Hunt is saying quite simply the aftermath of The Leveson Inquiry will leave a blueprint so to speak on online resources and the hackings effect not only the people doing it but also the victims who have to live with that knowledge.

To summarise the Inquiry hacking leads in certain cases to more than just the removal of data as seen with Milly Dowler the effects of hacking could lead to worse fates. In my opinion hacking people's phones, computers and other variable forms of media is a key reason as to why we should be aware when giving information online, as you could be the next victim.

References:

Rayner, G  (16/11/12) Scotland Yard investigating 142 complaints of computer hacking, Leveson Inquiry told (2012)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9684369/Scotland-Yard-investigating-142-complaints-of-computer-hacking-Leveson-Inquiry-told.html
Date Accessed: (18/11/12)

Hunt, P  (24/7/12) Leveson Inquiry: Hearings end after eight months (2012)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18964165
Date Accessed: (20/11/12)

                        
 
 

Second Life

Second life over the last 7 years or so has impacted the way we as people use the internet. Prior to this we had avatars in video games, Avatars are characters made from pixels inside the game to edit and shape into the form we desire, With second life however we can use these characters to represent us on social media websites and online games using movement and creativity. For my first post I decided to look at Facebook, this phenomenon has changed the way we use the internet and also how we interact and communicate in a virtual environment.

Facebook uses a range on social tools such as online chatting, games, messenger and in a sense a blog that allows us to vent our feelings in a constructive way and communicate to one another. A main focal point within Facebook is the gaming section of the website. One game in particular over the last 3 years or so has been a focal point for most Facebook users is Farmville. Farmville is a game where players (users of Facebook) can create and live in a virtual farm where you can buy land, grow crops, work on your farm, work on other users farms, buy cultivated machinary for your farm and so on and so fourth. It all sounds very simple and on the surface it appears to be however some people would disagree with that statement and dare say Farmville is a way of extorting a virtual existance so people can keep living in this way.

One man that would agree with this is Michael Arrington, The founder of Techcrunch blog who criticised Farmille and stated that "For about £30 you can purchase 70,000 "farm coins." so straight away I think Arrington is saying users of Farmville can use tangable means to buy virtual indulgences which is where we cross the border between virtual and reality and thus getting to the stage where you are paying what's real to keep what isn't.

Some however may disagree with that statement and believe that Farmville has had a " Meaningful effect" that has allowed  them to develop certain traits.An example of this is Johnny Minkley, a computer expert who believes the game " has  a certain "stickiness" to it because of the nurturing element involved." So in this instance Johnny is saying 2nd life games such as Farmville contain learning experiences that we can put to good use such as caring for others.

References:

Arnott, J  11/11/2009  Farmvile: Who knew bordom could be a cash crop? (2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/nov/11/game-theory-farmville-facebook
Date accessed: 30/10/2012

Vaidyanathan, R 25/3/2010 BBC News Magazine  Down on the Farmville (2010)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8585999.stm
Date accessed: 10/11/2012