Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Who do you want to be?
The popularity of MMORPGs (Wikipedia definition) continues to increase, and there's much you could investgate in the context of NMTs. They allow all sorts of uses, like social interaction, creativity, media consumption (the BBC's plans for a children's online environment are worth a look) and entertainment. To many, the freedom to be who you want to be, through the creation of an avatar, is what's so appealing. Don't like being a thirty-something teacher in the Midlands? Then become a teenage girl and live a life of non-stop partying. Or change your nationality, or personality, or even your species. The point is, you can become just about anything.
There's a fair amount of suspicion of videogames in general amongst those sections of society that aren't involved - even though these groups are often more relaxed about the far more passive experiencve of TV viewing. To be fair, though, there are some disturbing aspects to what happens when people are allowed to recreate themselves as they wish in a virtual world. The Sims Online used to have an unofficial online newspaper, the Alphaville Herald, which reported on all kinds of subversions of the game including evidence of organised crime, and brothels catering to virtually all sexual preferences. The site has now become the Second Life Herald, and it continue to report on the goings on of the more risqué areas of Second Life. It also includes interviews with characters / users and could provide you with lots of useful insights into the motivations of users.
The Register has a column today by a Second Life user which points to a more worrying aspect: the lack of racial variation in the so-called perfect world of Second Life. If you look at the whole column it provides some useful explanations for the lack of black inhabitants. This sort of consideration of the influence of social background on NMT usage patterns is important as it will allow you to write about issues relating to NMTs in a more sophisticated manner.
There's a fair amount of suspicion of videogames in general amongst those sections of society that aren't involved - even though these groups are often more relaxed about the far more passive experiencve of TV viewing. To be fair, though, there are some disturbing aspects to what happens when people are allowed to recreate themselves as they wish in a virtual world. The Sims Online used to have an unofficial online newspaper, the Alphaville Herald, which reported on all kinds of subversions of the game including evidence of organised crime, and brothels catering to virtually all sexual preferences. The site has now become the Second Life Herald, and it continue to report on the goings on of the more risqué areas of Second Life. It also includes interviews with characters / users and could provide you with lots of useful insights into the motivations of users.
The Register has a column today by a Second Life user which points to a more worrying aspect: the lack of racial variation in the so-called perfect world of Second Life. If you look at the whole column it provides some useful explanations for the lack of black inhabitants. This sort of consideration of the influence of social background on NMT usage patterns is important as it will allow you to write about issues relating to NMTs in a more sophisticated manner.
Labels: social networking, videogames
// posted by Gavin Luhrs @ 7:37 pm 
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