Aim of Page: Discuss Games in relation to New Media - for example, Games and New Media? ... Also other related topics that you may find relevant.
7th Generation Consoles Promoting Active Lifestyle Through Interactive Gaming
With the current generation of the leading consoles; Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, the idea of gamers being people who steer away from physical activity has decreased. This was clearly evident through the introduction of the Nintendo Wii which mixed traditional gaming forms with physical movements through the use of the Wii's Sensor Bar and their wireless remotes. With this new console came the release of games which would promote fitness and outdoor activities such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit as well as their sequels and other similar games. Since 2006 the Wii has been known for this fusion between gaming and physical movements, until the end of this year when the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 reveal their newest developments; the Playstation Move and Xbox's Project Natal. Although the Playstation Move is very similar in design to the Wii's features (controller design, sensor apparatus) they announce: 'Innovation. Immersion. Imagination.Videogames will never be the same again.' -- Playstation, 2010
But still, the people at Playstation should be applauded for their attampts to promote a healthier more active lifestyle. However, there are high hopes for the Xbox's Project Natal: 'You Are The Controller'which as the title implies is gameplay without controllers. Although the Sci-Fi dream of creating a digital environment is still far away, this new technology allows people to directly interact with the console (the game's programs being able to sense where the player is) and even scan the features of their own physical equipment to use in-game. In addition to the positive health promotion of these new systems, consumers are now given the chance to socialise with friends via facial and voice recognition which replaces the conventional avatar. These new features also allows people to share things they have found with eachother such as clothes shopping online and because of the facial recognition users are able to visualise themselves in the items more accurately and display the image to their friends (Xbox, 2010). Because of this technological evolution Xbox are able to announce: 'The only experience you need, is life experience.'-- Xbox, 2010
One form of new media that gets overlooked often is interactive leisure software or if you want to be blunt, computer gaming. In relation to gaming, Gill states that “If you want to survive in new media you have to want to learn continuously…And to keep on innovating (2007, 39). Ironically, gaming is the source for most inspiration for the direction of technological innovation (pay close attention to Amanda Evans writing about "Supersonic Broadband" and Lauren Young about super computers emerging in the next couple of years) and advances within new media. It is only when a game is developed that surpasses current computer technology that advances have been demanded.
In contemporary society gaming is becoming more accessible and accepted, helping define new media terms such as interactivity and 'produsage'. Producers are becoming “increasingly reliant on the participation of gamers as content creators” (Bruns 2007, 2). Bruns is a well known theorist who uses the term of ‘produsers’. This term entails the integration of the roles of producers and consumers. Bruns makes this clear by stating four domains in which ‘produsage’ can be described; one of them being “fluid movement of produsers between roles as leaders, participants, and users of content” (Bruns 2007, 3). With this trend, however, comes complication for both producers and users of computer games.
People who grew up in the 1980's or 90's see computer games as part of their childhood nostalgia. Gaming is relatively new in the new media world, only emerging in the last couple of decades. It is one aspect of new media that is not analysed specifically as media and more likely to have been studied from an anthropological perspective (Marshall 2006, 281). There is a large debate over when the first computer game was created as it is hard to define the term itself. Only in the last couple of decades have computer games begun to fit into modern society and even create separate cultures, particularly through Massively Multilayer Online games (MMO's). These concepts draw relevance from the week four and five lectures on the World of Play, particularly to the week for reading on The Daedelus Project
"Crysis is often used as a benchmark in computer tests, as Crysis at the highest settings and resolutions required processing power from computers that was unfeasible when it was first released. In its time the game was so demanding on previous computer hardware that the catchphrase "Yeah, but can it run Crysis?" was frequently added to graphics card reviews." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis]
Bruns, A. 2007. Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation. In Proceedings Creativity & Cognition 6 Washington, DC. Marshall, D. 2006 'Computer Games' in Cunningham, S and Turner G (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia. Crows Nest Australia: Allen and Unwin
Tom Stallman
Gaming for Health
Nowadays people always give a lot of excuses for themselves less or not to participate in physical activities and this has influenced their health indirectly. It is not easy to get people motivated and involve in physical activities. However, combining gaming attributes into our lives and get us involve in physical activities, this seem more effective than before. People are more easily to get motivated with the reward system. Therefore, a lot of business and designers start to invent new services or products in this new area.
People always love new ideas and interesting products. In order to encourage and motivate people to have a healthy lifestyle, several implications should be included while creating a new service or product for the consumer in this gaming for health industry:
Learn through play - For example, there are two health clubs, In Motion and XrKade have combined the worlds of exercise and video games to promote healthier lifestyles. Participants can learn more about healthy lifestyle knowledge while playing game.
Streamlining healthcare - For example, Movipill has been invented to encourage patients to take their medications at prescribed times. Award will be given for those who take their medications on time.
Easy implementation - How easy is it to implement is an important key to succeed in encourage people to participate in healthier lifestyles. In order to follow the change of the technology world that everything must be fast and easy to implement, reward mechanics are more intuitive for everyday individuals than complex health-related processesTherefore, Switch2Health came out with a wearable techonology which can track an individual's fitness achievement and provides incentives to them.
Positive Feedback - Most of the time our action are influenced by positive feedback such as reward or prizes to continue fostering specific behaviours. For example, kids able to gain rewards such as virtual money for their mobile gaming system every time when they measure their blood glucose level with the Didget blood glucose meter.
Different approaches have been used to improve and encourage people lifestyle with gaming techonology. However, gaming might get people especially teenager addicted just like drug. This has to be careful and pay attention to it all the time while inventing a new service or product.
It's surprising that I am even interested in this topic, as the most experience I have ever had with gaming was playing Crash Bandicoot on Playstation 2 (which I was awesome at, by the way). However, the transformation that gaming has undergone from the old Crash Bandicoot days is quite remarkable not only for the gaming community, but for the legal and financial communities as well. Real dollar values are being placed on gaming accounts, objects, characters and real estate with the virtual worlds - also known as 'virtual property' (Bartle 2004, p.2).
In the reading for this week, Bartle (2004) outlines five major pitfalls of virtual property and the issues these have caused for the gaming community. And they are valid, for as he points out the concept of virtual property is plausible and exists in other aspects of our society. Take for exmaple shares in the stock market. Like gaming accounts, you are not paying for a tangible 'thing' but rather you are investing in something that gives you a return or a benefit (Bartle 2004, p.1). Unfortunately however, this concept is not transitioning so easily to virtual property and there exists a tension between the real world and the virtual world. As Bartle (2004, p3) states, "As a player of virtual worlds, you don't own anything, your character owns it. What's more, you don't own your on character, either - you don't even own "your" own account".
So, how does one regulate the fair trade and selling of accounts and other virtual property? This is a question that I hope to investigate further.
...From this... "Crash Bandicoot" (Inns 2006)
To this..."World of Warcraft Accounts for Sale" (Raluca 2009).
As online gaming worlds have become more and more expansive, a direct connection between virtual currencies and real world currencies has begun to make an impact on real world economies. In 2009, internet users bought $2.2 billion worth of virtual goods, and it's projected that this number will increase to $6 billion by 2013 (Indivik 2010). In Gaia Online, a user can buy real world items from the in-game virtual marketplace for less than they would in an actual store (Lamm, 2009). In Second Life, users can sell virtual goods for virtual money (known is Linden Dollars), and eventually redeem this Linden for real world currencies (Lamm, 2009). There's even a thriving black market in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Everquest - though it's forbidden for the users to exchange virtual goods for real world money due to intellectual property issues, a huge amount of users take their transactions to auction sites outside the game such as eBay (Becker, 2002).
Businesses are beginning to see the potential to cash in on these online economies. This year, Honda used newly released Facebook game Car Town (similar to the ever-popular FarmVille) to advertise their latest car. Clickable billboards for the Honda CR-Z were placed next to the users' garages, so they would be viewed each time the users began the game, and a virtual version of the CR-Z is available for users to purchase - including unique abilities setting it apart from the rest of the cars in the game (Indivik, 2010).
For those of us that don't take part in online economies, it seems bizarre that people would spend their own real life money on an online game, and even more bizarre that people are actually making money off the trading of virtual goods. However, judging by the sheer amount of revenue (as well as the growing interest in advertising by more and more businesses) it seems likely that this is something that's going to expand exponentially within the next few years, and become just another part of our economical landscape.
The UK newspaper, The Daily Mail, published an article about online gaming posing the question, “Can online games be as addictive as heroin?” Although a controversial statement, I think there is validity to the comparison. In week’s 4 and 5, we discussed Second Life and how organisations have broadened their businesses to create domains in the virtual world. People are using real currency in trade for virtual currency to purchase land, buildings, add-ons, etc. During the discussion, we also talked about the users of Second Life and the world of play. There has been a considerable amount of questioning as to the detrimental effects of Second Life on the users social life and even mental health. For many, people turn to virtual worlds for escapism form the real world, to live out their fantasies. In this sense, the comparison is linked to the idea that people turn to drugs to escape from the real world. Although drugs and games are, in literal terms, two very different things, there are undoubtedly similar characteristics in usage. Howard Rheingold, writer of the book, The Virtual Community, referred to his experience with a virtual world, stating "I was hooked in minutes."
I think the future of Second Life is that there isn’t much more of a future. I think that everything that can be achieved on Second Life has been and that, without new possiblities, it is fazing out. However, as with the nature of new media, I believe that a new technology in gaming will take its place and people’s addiction will shift from the old to the new. As long as technology in gaming continues to advance and images become more real and opportunities broaden, I think gaming addiction will continue to be an issue.
Every day “Facebookers” are bombarded with updates of people’s new applications. Some of these games, such as Farmville and Café World, have become crazes and even addictions whereby some players can’t extract themselves from their laptops, PC’s and mobile phones. Played at the basic level, these games are free. However, if players wish to achieve the highest scores and rankings, they must pay for the privilege by using their credit card. This was referred to in the tutorials regarding the World of Commerce. Organisations are increasingly finding ways of making money online through the field of gaming. I expect that, as long as people continue to pay for the privilege of gaming at a high level, commerce in gaming will continue. More games will be created that will broaden the market potential for players, increasing capital.
Gaming Addiction cont’d: the effect online worlds have on the real world
I wanted to expand a little on Sophie Greenly’s entry on gaming addiction in this wiki, and look further into whether or not claims that gaming can be harmful to people’s real lives can be substantiated. This year, a 33-year-old mother of three was taken to court with charges of child cruelty and animal neglect after becoming immersed in an online game called SmallWorlds. She allegedly got just two hours of sleep a night in order to spend more time playing, refused to feed her children hot food (due to the time consuming preparation) and let her two dogs die of starvation (Matyszczyk, 2010). In a similar story last year, a couple in South Korea allowed their baby daughter to starve to death while they spent up to 12 hours a day at internet cafes. The couple favoured PRIUS (a game similar to Second Life), and cared for a virtual daughter within the game (Phillips, R. 2010).
These two cases (and others like them) raise some questions on very divisive issues. Can online worlds infect an otherwise normal person’s real-world interactions to the point of danger, or does the existence of an online world simply act as a release for some (in extreme cases) who are already detached from reality?
There have been plenty of debates (as well as moral panics) on the subject of video gaming – specifically the link between violent or aggressive behavior in the real world and violence in video games. Despite the popularity of these claims – especially directly after a catastrophic event involving particularly male youths, such as the Columbine Massacre – the vast majority of scientific research into this concept has shown no real evidence of a link in video gaming and increased aggression (Ferguson, C. 2008).
I personally think the same could be extrapolated in relation to online gaming and social isolation. It’s far easier to blame an outside source like an internet or gaming addiction for such an inhumane act as neglecting ones’ children. What’s often ignored is the fact that there are countless other cases of parents neglecting their children for myriad of other reasons; I think it’s unreasonable to suggest that online gaming is swooping in and turning otherwise doting parents into monsters.
There is a common argument of what came first, the chicken or the egg? The argument is whether new media is transforming audiences, or is it audience demand that is causing producers to find new ways of communication. Either way, society today is becoming seemingly more media and technology literate. With this literacy comes new business and cultural models, where consumers enter the process of production and innovation (Banks 2010). One type of new media that gets neglected often (see above) is the social aspects of gaming consoles such as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
The feedback given by consumers is becoming so common and frequent that the production of games is becoming democratised. Sal Humphries, quotes David Weinberger as [seeing] “a potential democratising of cultural knowledge production...associated with ‘user-driven content’ disrupt the centralised authority, power and control of traditional media industries” (Banks 2009, 77). The relationship between consumer and producer is constantly changing in the industry, generating the concept of co-creativity. However there may be a “face-off between these domains in which the gaining of value for one side necessarily means a loss for the other” (Banks 2009, 78). One case study, performed by Banks, was to analyse the relationship within co-creativity by mixing the two professions and creating Fury.
Just after programmer John Banks’ finished his time at Auran, a Brisbane based game developer; he was approached by the management to analyse the relationship between gamer and producer. Auran’s CEO, Tony Hilliam quoted that “We need to involve them; we need their input. It must be their game.” (Banks 2009, 79) The CEO of a major developing company was looking to promote the co-creative relationship. The end product would be a better constructed game: Fury. Banks was involved with testing Fury as well as interviewing the hard-core games testers hired by Auran. However Banks was more concerned with whether “Auran’s professional creative’s were disrupted and unsettled by the need to negotiate with the expertise and knowledge of gamers.” (Banks 2009, 79) After a lengthy experiment, Banks reported with mixed results. Three weeks prior to commercial release, Tony Hilliam stated “We’ve been receiving a lot of feedback… [assessed] that feedback…shortly announcing some wide-ranging changes” (Banks 2009, 81). This is an example of a CEO relying on the democratisation of the creation of a game as well as the co-evolution of professions. Only two months after the game was released saw the loss of 50 staff from Auran over a project that cost $15 million. The co-creative process had failed.
The underlying issue was the fact that the developers had ignored the feedback from the hard-core gamers. However the World of Play and collaboration concepts do not stop (or start for that matter) at gaming. Throughout the wiki, various people have written co-creation without realising it. Look for the articles related to apple products and other phone applications on the Technology and Music pages.
Banks, J. 2009. Computer Games: Co-creation and Regulation: Co-creative expertise: Auran games and fury - A case study. ed. S. Humpries, 77-81. Brisbane: University of Queensland.
Tom Stallman
Re: Can we own Virtual Property?
To build on from my post a while back, I've just read an interesting article written by McKenzie Wark, an Australian-born writer and scholar. To combat some the downfalls of virtual and intellectual property, he played on the idea of the 'gift' economy with his most recent book. By traditionally selling the book, War was conforming with the norms of the publishing industry. But Wark was also sharing his novel in a rather intriguing way - he also offered his book on a flash stick where readers could literally take a text file version of his work (Wark 2010, 2). He argued that '...there isn't anything particularly noble of self-sacrificing about the gift economy. Everyone who makes something...wants people to pay attention to it. One way is to give them your work, which entails an obligation: to treat the work as something more than just stuff...it is about the possibility of social relations" (Wark 2010, 2).
I think that this is such an innovative way to look at the dilemma of intellectual property. I would have thought that a novel way of sharing his novel (pun is definitely intended) would be to release his book under a creative commons license - but this is something that his publisher just could not cope with (Wark 2010, 2). So instead Wark went with the flas stick idea and it flourished. He called this 'living in contradition: commodity and gift, thing and information, legal relation and social relation' (Wark 2010, 3).
This also works with the concept of a 'hybrid' economy, as Wark and his publisher were still able to make an income off a resource that was both commerically available and free - but I really like the implications this will have for my topic. Is this a good solution to the problem in the gaming industry - where gamers can choose to engage in the alternatives and live in the contradictions? I don't pretend to have the answer to this and don't want to, rather I would love to join in on what has been an ongoing conversation about these issues for some time.
Aim of Page: Discuss Games in relation to New Media - for example, Games and New Media? ... Also other related topics that you may find relevant.
7th Generation Consoles Promoting Active Lifestyle Through Interactive Gaming
With the current generation of the leading consoles; Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, the idea of gamers being people who steer away from physical activity has decreased. This was clearly evident through the introduction of the Nintendo Wii which mixed traditional gaming forms with physical movements through the use of the Wii's Sensor Bar and their wireless remotes. With this new console came the release of games which would promote fitness and outdoor activities such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit as well as their sequels and other similar games. Since 2006 the Wii has been known for this fusion between gaming and physical movements, until the end of this year when the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 reveal their newest developments; the Playstation Move and Xbox's Project Natal.
Although the Playstation Move is very similar in design to the Wii's features (controller design, sensor apparatus) they announce:
'Innovation. Immersion. Imagination.Videogames will never be the same again.' -- Playstation, 2010
But still, the people at Playstation should be applauded for their attampts to promote a healthier more active lifestyle. However, there are high hopes for the Xbox's Project Natal: 'You Are The Controller'which as the title implies is gameplay without controllers. Although the Sci-Fi dream of creating a digital environment is still far away, this new technology allows people to directly interact with the console (the game's programs being able to sense where the player is) and even scan the features of their own physical equipment to use in-game. In addition to the positive health promotion of these new systems, consumers are now given the chance to socialise with friends via facial and voice recognition which replaces the conventional avatar. These new features also allows people to share things they have found with eachother such as clothes shopping online and because of the facial recognition users are able to visualise themselves in the items more accurately and display the image to their friends (Xbox, 2010). Because of this technological evolution Xbox are able to announce:
'The only experience you need, is life experience.'-- Xbox, 2010
By Jayce Silvallana References:
Xbox. 2010. You Are The Controller. http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/projectnatal/
Playstation. 2010. PS3 Peripherals. http://au.playstation.com/ps3/peripherals/detail/item303194/
Wii. 2010. Wii Sports. http://us.wii.com/wiisports/
Wii. 2010. Wii Fit Plus. http://www.wii-fit.nintendo.com.au/flash_video/trailer/trailer.swf
Gaming...new new media.
One form of new media that gets overlooked often is interactive leisure software or if you want to be blunt, computer gaming. In relation to gaming, Gill states that “If you want to survive in new media you have to want to learn continuously…And to keep on innovating (2007, 39). Ironically, gaming is the source for most inspiration for the direction of technological innovation (pay close attention to Amanda Evans writing about "Supersonic Broadband" and Lauren Young about super computers emerging in the next couple of years) and advances within new media. It is only when a game is developed that surpasses current computer technology that advances have been demanded.
In contemporary society gaming is becoming more accessible and accepted, helping define new media terms such as interactivity and 'produsage'. Producers are becoming “increasingly reliant on the participation of gamers as content creators” (Bruns 2007, 2). Bruns is a well known theorist who uses the term of ‘produsers’. This term entails the integration of the roles of producers and consumers. Bruns makes this clear by stating four domains in which ‘produsage’ can be described; one of them being “fluid movement of produsers between roles as leaders, participants, and users of content” (Bruns 2007, 3). With this trend, however, comes complication for both producers and users of computer games.
People who grew up in the 1980's or 90's see computer games as part of their childhood nostalgia. Gaming is relatively new in the new media world, only emerging in the last couple of decades. It is one aspect of new media that is not analysed specifically as media and more likely to have been studied from an anthropological perspective (Marshall 2006, 281). There is a large debate over when the first computer game was created as it is hard to define the term itself. Only in the last couple of decades have computer games begun to fit into modern society and even create separate cultures, particularly through Massively Multilayer Online games (MMO's). These concepts draw relevance from the week four and five lectures on the World of Play, particularly to the week for reading on The Daedelus Project
"Crysis is often used as a benchmark in computer tests, as Crysis at the highest settings and resolutions required processing power from computers that was unfeasible when it was first released. In its time the game was so demanding on previous computer hardware that the catchphrase "Yeah, but can it run Crysis?" was frequently added to graphics card reviews."
[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis]
Bruns, A. 2007. Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation. In Proceedings Creativity & Cognition 6 Washington, DC.
Marshall, D. 2006 'Computer Games' in Cunningham, S and Turner G (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia. Crows Nest Australia: Allen and Unwin
Tom Stallman
Gaming for Health
Nowadays people always give a lot of excuses for themselves less or not to participate in physical activities and this has influenced their health indirectly. It is not easy to get people motivated and involve in physical activities. However, combining gaming attributes into our lives and get us involve in physical activities, this seem more effective than before. People are more easily to get motivated with the reward system. Therefore, a lot of business and designers start to invent new services or products in this new area.
People always love new ideas and interesting products. In order to encourage and motivate people to have a healthy lifestyle, several implications should be included while creating a new service or product for the consumer in this gaming for health industry:
Different approaches have been used to improve and encourage people lifestyle with gaming techonology. However, gaming might get people especially teenager addicted just like drug. This has to be careful and pay attention to it all the time while inventing a new service or product.
Vahn low (19 August 2010)
References
PSFK. 2010. Future Health: Gaming for Health. http://www.psfk.com/2010/08/future-of-health-gaming-for-health.html (accessed August 18, 2010)
Can we own Virtual Property?
It's surprising that I am even interested in this topic, as the most experience I have ever had with gaming was playing Crash Bandicoot on Playstation 2 (which I was awesome at, by the way). However, the transformation that gaming has undergone from the old Crash Bandicoot days is quite remarkable not only for the gaming community, but for the legal and financial communities as well. Real dollar values are being placed on gaming accounts, objects, characters and real estate with the virtual worlds - also known as 'virtual property' (Bartle 2004, p.2).
In the reading for this week, Bartle (2004) outlines five major pitfalls of virtual property and the issues these have caused for the gaming community. And they are valid, for as he points out the concept of virtual property is plausible and exists in other aspects of our society. Take for exmaple shares in the stock market. Like gaming accounts, you are not paying for a tangible 'thing' but rather you are investing in something that gives you a return or a benefit (Bartle 2004, p.1). Unfortunately however, this concept is not transitioning so easily to virtual property and there exists a tension between the real world and the virtual world. As Bartle (2004, p3) states, "As a player of virtual worlds, you don't own anything, your character owns it. What's more, you don't own your on character, either - you don't even own "your" own account".
So, how does one regulate the fair trade and selling of accounts and other virtual property? This is a question that I hope to investigate further.
...From this... "Crash Bandicoot" (Inns 2006)
To this..."World of Warcraft Accounts for Sale" (Raluca 2009).
References:
By Katherine Buckley, August 19 2010.
Commerce and Online Gaming
As online gaming worlds have become more and more expansive, a direct connection between virtual currencies and real world currencies has begun to make an impact on real world economies. In 2009, internet users bought $2.2 billion worth of virtual goods, and it's projected that this number will increase to $6 billion by 2013 (Indivik 2010). In Gaia Online, a user can buy real world items from the in-game virtual marketplace for less than they would in an actual store (Lamm, 2009). In Second Life, users can sell virtual goods for virtual money (known is Linden Dollars), and eventually redeem this Linden for real world currencies (Lamm, 2009). There's even a thriving black market in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Everquest - though it's forbidden for the users to exchange virtual goods for real world money due to intellectual property issues, a huge amount of users take their transactions to auction sites outside the game such as eBay (Becker, 2002).
Businesses are beginning to see the potential to cash in on these online economies. This year, Honda used newly released Facebook game Car Town (similar to the ever-popular FarmVille) to advertise their latest car. Clickable billboards for the Honda CR-Z were placed next to the users' garages, so they would be viewed each time the users began the game, and a virtual version of the CR-Z is available for users to purchase - including unique abilities setting it apart from the rest of the cars in the game (Indivik, 2010).
For those of us that don't take part in online economies, it seems bizarre that people would spend their own real life money on an online game, and even more bizarre that people are actually making money off the trading of virtual goods. However, judging by the sheer amount of revenue (as well as the growing interest in advertising by more and more businesses) it seems likely that this is something that's going to expand exponentially within the next few years, and become just another part of our economical landscape.
References:
- Indivik, Lauren. 2010. Honda Takes Social Gaming for a Test Drive. http://mashable.com/2010/08/29/honda-takes-social-gaming-for-a-test-drive/ (Accessed 30th August, 2010).
- Lamm, J. 2009. The Top 5 Websites Where Users Can Sell Their Virtual Items. http://www.articlealley.com/article_974260_81.html (Accessed 30th August, 2010).
- Becker, D. 2002. "Everquest" spins its own economy. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-823260.html (Accessed 30th August, 2010)
image: http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BF162_SOCGAM_G_20100808195403.jpgBy Samantha Oldham, August 30 2010.
Gaming Addiction
The UK newspaper, The Daily Mail, published an article about online gaming posing the question, “Can online games be as addictive as heroin?” Although a controversial statement, I think there is validity to the comparison. In week’s 4 and 5, we discussed Second Life and how organisations have broadened their businesses to create domains in the virtual world. People are using real currency in trade for virtual currency to purchase land, buildings, add-ons, etc. During the discussion, we also talked about the users of Second Life and the world of play. There has been a considerable amount of questioning as to the detrimental effects of Second Life on the users social life and even mental health. For many, people turn to virtual worlds for escapism form the real world, to live out their fantasies. In this sense, the comparison is linked to the idea that people turn to drugs to escape from the real world. Although drugs and games are, in literal terms, two very different things, there are undoubtedly similar characteristics in usage. Howard Rheingold, writer of the book, The Virtual Community, referred to his experience with a virtual world, stating "I was hooked in minutes."
I think the future of Second Life is that there isn’t much more of a future. I think that everything that can be achieved on Second Life has been and that, without new possiblities, it is fazing out. However, as with the nature of new media, I believe that a new technology in gaming will take its place and people’s addiction will shift from the old to the new. As long as technology in gaming continues to advance and images become more real and opportunities broaden, I think gaming addiction will continue to be an issue.
Sophie Greenly
References:
Hugpages. http://hubpages.com/hub/SecondLife-addiction. Last accessed 23rd September 2010.
Rawsthorne, T. Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313794/Can-online-games-addictive-heroin.html. Last accessed 23rd September 2010
Rheingold, H. The Virtual Community.
Addison-Wesley.
United States of America. 1993.
VTOReality. http://www.vtoreality.com/2006/a-friendly-warning-on-how-addictive-second-life-can-be/24/ . Last accessed 23rd September 2010.
Facebook Gaming
Every day “Facebookers” are bombarded with updates of people’s new applications. Some of these games, such as Farmville and Café World, have become crazes and even addictions whereby some players can’t extract themselves from their laptops, PC’s and mobile phones. Played at the basic level, these games are free. However, if players wish to achieve the highest scores and rankings, they must pay for the privilege by using their credit card. This was referred to in the tutorials regarding the World of Commerce. Organisations are increasingly finding ways of making money online through the field of gaming. I expect that, as long as people continue to pay for the privilege of gaming at a high level, commerce in gaming will continue. More games will be created that will broaden the market potential for players, increasing capital.
Purchasing Credits on Farmville
Sophie Greenly
References:
Image, Google Images: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/farmvillecredits2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/farmville-facebook-credits/&usg=__4EmEd9m5v8hEqViwhFRcJrpn0AU=&h=406&w=640&sz=119&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=tt-ppFCnCwBF3M:&tbnh=137&tbnw=216&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfacebook%2Bgame%2Bcredits%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D620%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=591&vpy=262&dur=116&hovh=179&hovw=282&tx=109&ty=76&ei=9hWbTJPhO4K6vQPOs9HhBA&oei=9hWbTJPhO4K6vQPOs9HhBA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0
Gaming Addiction cont’d: the effect online worlds have on the real world
I wanted to expand a little on Sophie Greenly’s entry on gaming addiction in this wiki, and look further into whether or not claims that gaming can be harmful to people’s real lives can be substantiated. This year, a 33-year-old mother of three was taken to court with charges of child cruelty and animal neglect after becoming immersed in an online game called SmallWorlds. She allegedly got just two hours of sleep a night in order to spend more time playing, refused to feed her children hot food (due to the time consuming preparation) and let her two dogs die of starvation (Matyszczyk, 2010). In a similar story last year, a couple in South Korea allowed their baby daughter to starve to death while they spent up to 12 hours a day at internet cafes. The couple favoured PRIUS (a game similar to Second Life), and cared for a virtual daughter within the game (Phillips, R. 2010).
These two cases (and others like them) raise some questions on very divisive issues. Can online worlds infect an otherwise normal person’s real-world interactions to the point of danger, or does the existence of an online world simply act as a release for some (in extreme cases) who are already detached from reality?
There have been plenty of debates (as well as moral panics) on the subject of video gaming – specifically the link between violent or aggressive behavior in the real world and violence in video games. Despite the popularity of these claims – especially directly after a catastrophic event involving particularly male youths, such as the Columbine Massacre – the vast majority of scientific research into this concept has shown no real evidence of a link in video gaming and increased aggression (Ferguson, C. 2008).
I personally think the same could be extrapolated in relation to online gaming and social isolation. It’s far easier to blame an outside source like an internet or gaming addiction for such an inhumane act as neglecting ones’ children. What’s often ignored is the fact that there are countless other cases of parents neglecting their children for myriad of other reasons; I think it’s unreasonable to suggest that online gaming is swooping in and turning otherwise doting parents into monsters.
References:
Matyszczyk,C. 2010. Game-obsessed mom reportedly neglects kids, starves dogs. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20016173-71.html (Last accessed 23rd September 2010)
Phillips, R. 2010. Gamers' tot 'dies of starvation'. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2878357/Gamers-tot-dies-of-starvation.html (Last accessed 23rd September 2010)
Ferguson, C. 2008. The School Shooting/Violent Video Game Link: Causal Link or Moral Panic? http://www.tamiu.edu/~cferguson/shooters.pdf (Last accessed 23rd September 2010)
image: www.gettyimages.com
Samantha Oldham
Co-creation in new media
There is a common argument of what came first, the chicken or the egg? The argument is whether new media is transforming audiences, or is it audience demand that is causing producers to find new ways of communication. Either way, society today is becoming seemingly more media and technology literate. With this literacy comes new business and cultural models, where consumers enter the process of production and innovation (Banks 2010). One type of new media that gets neglected often (see above) is the social aspects of gaming consoles such as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
The feedback given by consumers is becoming so common and frequent that the production of games is becoming democratised. Sal Humphries, quotes David Weinberger as [seeing] “a potential democratising of cultural knowledge production...associated with ‘user-driven content’ disrupt the centralised authority, power and control of traditional media industries” (Banks 2009, 77). The relationship between consumer and producer is constantly changing in the industry, generating the concept of co-creativity. However there may be a “face-off between these domains in which the gaining of value for one side necessarily means a loss for the other” (Banks 2009, 78). One case study, performed by Banks, was to analyse the relationship within co-creativity by mixing the two professions and creating Fury.
Just after programmer John Banks’ finished his time at Auran, a Brisbane based game developer; he was approached by the management to analyse the relationship between gamer and producer. Auran’s CEO, Tony Hilliam quoted that “We need to involve them; we need their input. It must be their game.” (Banks 2009, 79) The CEO of a major developing company was looking to promote the co-creative relationship. The end product would be a better constructed game: Fury. Banks was involved with testing Fury as well as interviewing the hard-core games testers hired by Auran. However Banks was more concerned with whether “Auran’s professional creative’s were disrupted and unsettled by the need to negotiate with the expertise and knowledge of gamers.” (Banks 2009, 79) After a lengthy experiment, Banks reported with mixed results. Three weeks prior to commercial release, Tony Hilliam stated “We’ve been receiving a lot of feedback… [assessed] that feedback…shortly announcing some wide-ranging changes” (Banks 2009, 81). This is an example of a CEO relying on the democratisation of the creation of a game as well as the co-evolution of professions. Only two months after the game was released saw the loss of 50 staff from Auran over a project that cost $15 million. The co-creative process had failed.
The underlying issue was the fact that the developers had ignored the feedback from the hard-core gamers. However the World of Play and collaboration concepts do not stop (or start for that matter) at gaming. Throughout the wiki, various people have written co-creation without realising it. Look for the articles related to apple products and other phone applications on the Technology and Music pages.
Banks, J. 2009. Computer Games: Co-creation and Regulation: Co-creative expertise: Auran games and fury - A case study. ed. S. Humpries, 77-81. Brisbane: University of Queensland.
Tom Stallman
Re: Can we own Virtual Property?
To build on from my post a while back, I've just read an interesting article written by McKenzie Wark, an Australian-born writer and scholar. To combat some the downfalls of virtual and intellectual property, he played on the idea of the 'gift' economy with his most recent book. By traditionally selling the book, War was conforming with the norms of the publishing industry. But Wark was also sharing his novel in a rather intriguing way - he also offered his book on a flash stick where readers could literally take a text file version of his work (Wark 2010, 2). He argued that '...there isn't anything particularly noble of self-sacrificing about the gift economy. Everyone who makes something...wants people to pay attention to it. One way is to give them your work, which entails an obligation: to treat the work as something more than just stuff...it is about the possibility of social relations" (Wark 2010, 2).
I think that this is such an innovative way to look at the dilemma of intellectual property. I would have thought that a novel way of sharing his novel (pun is definitely intended) would be to release his book under a creative commons license - but this is something that his publisher just could not cope with (Wark 2010, 2). So instead Wark went with the flas stick idea and it flourished. He called this 'living in contradition: commodity and gift, thing and information, legal relation and social relation' (Wark 2010, 3).
This also works with the concept of a 'hybrid' economy, as Wark and his publisher were still able to make an income off a resource that was both commerically available and free - but I really like the implications this will have for my topic. Is this a good solution to the problem in the gaming industry - where gamers can choose to engage in the alternatives and live in the contradictions? I don't pretend to have the answer to this and don't want to, rather I would love to join in on what has been an ongoing conversation about these issues for some time.
Katherine Buckley, September 24, 2010
References: