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.
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