Multiplayer MMOs

Online multiplayer MMO's potential value to those who want to game and stay anonymous is that you can have fun meet new people and not have to worry about people judging you. It allows you to do whatever you want in the game as you please while keeping your identity safe. It allows people that normally wouldn't be accepted in the real world to be accepted in the virtual world. It can also help people with their social interaction and communication skills. I believe that it is a paradox because if you can communicate through a game than you should be able to communicate in any other situation. Yea you wont be looking at the person face to face through the came but you still get that vocal communication through the game. It's a big contradiction

anonymous

The who question of can a person socialize while being anonymous almost seems like and oxymoron! Yet it brings about a while new area of study in our daily lives. People who game and choose to remain anonymous still need love and the feeling of belonging. Maslow says that a person must have there basic needs met first in order to feel belonging but how often are things left out such as a meal when in the pursuit of friends or trying to get a connection with someone. The idea that a person wants to socialize while not being known is also more on an elementary level. People had to get to where they are by their experiences, Some who remain anonymous must have, for the sake of my argument, had a negative or bad experience. Gaming and remaining unknown would be there way of testing the waters to see if there will be a repeat social interaction. In the article where its says that there is a greater social connection because the individuals don't have to put up with awkward moments such as farting that in its self seems like a paradox to me. A paradox as defined by dictionary.com is self contradiction. How can people have social interaction without the awkward moments? Gaming makes that possible but how do the people who participate move forward in their personal life towards making friends or having normal social interactions. Assuming that a normal interaction for people is meeting face to face. I found it interesting in the same article that when some people met they did say that it was awkward because they had nothing to talk about until the topic of the game came up and then the meal seemed to go fine. I think that people who meet face to face and can talk about the game and still have the awkward moments stand to gain the most out of the gaming experience.

The Basic Human Need

Anyone who has taken an introductory Psychology class understands the basic premise behind Maslow's hierarchy of needs: There are several categories of things human beings must secure to survive, thrive and realize their dreams.

Just above the survival level of needs which includes, food and water we have Safety and above that Love and Belonging. These two levels are necessary for survival nearly as much as food and water. You'll notice that Love and Belonging are placed in the center of the hierarchy. In this position, social interaction serves as a gateway to Self Esteem and Self Actualization. It has been demonstrated that people use other's opinions of them to shape their own identity. If everyone tells you, you are a loser then eventually you begin like a loser. Similarly, if your social peers praise you and never give you negative feedback, your self opinion grows. Sometimes the latter can be just as much a problem as the former as many ego maniacal moviestars and celebrities have shown.

In order to create a more positive vibe, I had you read the short article on "Six Wonderful Things About Games". This short article summarizes some positive aspects of gaming which are by no means conclusively decided, but open to debate.

The second Article, (depending on the order you read them) "Nobody Farts in World of Warcraft" brings up some fantastic material which is expanded upon, and partly contradicted by the Chronicle Article entitled "The End of Solitude" In "Nobody Farts" the idea of Anonymity is brought up in conjunction with words like "Meritocracy" and "Egalitarian" which are all used to explain the virtual environment of World of Warcraft. There is clear evidence that today's society is by no means either a meritocracy or truly egalitarian, two subjects we will return to later in the course. We are however living in an "anonymous" society where social interaction, as evidenced by this course, is facilitated by means which can hide out identities. There is a freedom in not being exposed to public scrutiny as the article points out. In games like World of Warcraft players choose a face to show the public that best fits what they feel, represents them while maintaining true anonymity at their computer. The female Night elf, Druid you meet while playing, may in reality be a 40 year old man who is volunteer fireman in your community. Often people you meet virtually are from different countries altogether.

The Chronicle article took a different tack entirely regarding modern society and technology. As someone who lived alone for almost ten years without a television I can appreciate the importance of solitude. People would often ask me if were lonely, to which I would reply "No". Growing up in a rural area, often by myself, i was perfectly comfortable in my own skin. In fact i am still a little uncomfortable in large crowds. In this article the author highlights the importance of protecting one's "private self" from public scrutiny which is often a problem for young people today who are constantly texting, and Facebooking each other. Many people feel the need to engage in this very shallow type of interaction with their peers in order to stave off "loneliness", which I, and the author, would term "Solitude". Far from being a bad thing, Solitude allows one to know who they are without the constant feedback from others. It is unhealthy to have a self image based entirely on how others perceive you since you then lose all grounding in your "Self".

In his article, William Deresiewicz discusses the Romantic ideal of the self being "validated by a congruity of public appearance and private essence, one that stabilizes it's relationship with both itself and others". This will serve as an apt definition of a balanced social life, one that promotes healthy interaction and allows for self exploration.

This is where Massively Multi-player gaming comes in. As you may come to realize in the coming week, MMO's, like World of Warcraft, allow players to present a "public appearance" in the form of a custom Avatar while maintaining the integrity of the "private essence" behind the keyboard. The Avatar serves as an "incarnation" or surrogate self which becomes the focus for social activity. Instead of putting the details of your life on display as you would via My Space or Facebook, your Avatar allows you the freedom of only revealing what you wish, to whom you wish. Perhaps this is why online gaming communities often foster real life, long term relationships between players who share a common experience. This doesn't mean that it is healthy to socialize only via your online games, it does mimic what a balanced social life might look like.

For Friday please take a look at the following for Friday:

Video Games and the Economy

Welcome to the New Gold Mines


Be sure to have researched an online game you will participate in for next weeks class. There will be a journal prompt every day which i would like you to compile in a text document and then send at the end of the week as your second week project. Please check to blog site for the assignments every day as there will be a separate journal assignment and forum assignment. The assignments will also be posted as text documents on the college portal.

"Real"

I think that the realness of a game to the point where it meshes with a persons reality is not out of the question . I think this is especially true in younger children as I have worked with children between the ages of 6 and 12 who will talk about video games that they play at home and they talk about acting out the moves and they reference the characters as if they were real people they interacted with daily. I think that to a child the realness of a video game can be equated with how real the easter bunny or santa clause is. I think that the realness is there and that the fantasy can interject itself into reality. I think in a sense its like dreaming... I can speak from experience that I have woken up from a very vivid dream that seemed so real that for a brief moment I may confuse details of it with reality.



Going in a little different of a direction though I think that a person can also assume the persona that their character has. I think that a person could feel empowered as their character or a range of other emotions. I think that sometimes for people it's nice to escape who they are and take on this alter ego and even take it to maybe a bit of an extreme and interjecting this persona into their everyday life. And whose to say that one persons reality and conciousness is wrong and anothers is right.

The Brain and Consciousness

I believe a person can perceive a video game as reality, I do not believe that everyone gets stuck in this Alternate reality. I believe that there are a few factors of how much you perceive the game as being real. The first being the person's personality; say someone who has a typical addictive personallity trait they are more likely to get to the point where they have to plat to the next level or even until they have completed the game. I also feel that depending on how interested and how much the person wants it to be reality is a great factor of making it an alternate reality. For example my little cousins that i baby sit occasionally, they are very interested in which i think are monsters, or maybe just men in fighting attire, and fighting them. They are highly addicted to the game Gears of War, they dont just play the game. They also are always drawing pictures, play fighting each other like they are the game avatars themselves, and they even tell me these stories about the game lkie they are telling stories about their friends. Comparing them to me, I cant even get interested enough to play the game with them. So yes I do agree that someone can get so into a game the believe it's their reality. I also think that someone has to believe or fantisize about the game being real to be able to be interested. The reality of people being so addicted to a game to the point the believe it''s their reality is true people get to this point and I feel it could be very dangerous because of the increase of violence.

The brain/gaming

The brain my preceive that the game is real in some ways but not in a physical way. I think that someone who really gets into a game, who say they get in the game so much that it feels like their there. Yes the brain may think that its real. I don't really know a whole lot about this if i had more knowledge about it I may have a different or better opionion on it. I do believe though that it all depends on the person. I say this becuase when I play videogames I don't really get in to it as my fiance or borther does. All I do is play the game. So yes in ways the brain may see a game as being real and not real. I think it depends on the person.

A New Reality

All of the evidence examined through this course so far suggest that as we use our senses to experience video games we are in effect tricking our minds into believing that we have actually physically experienced the events within the game instead of only mentally. The Wii phenomenon is a good illustration of this. There are fishing games, hunting games, jogging/aerobic games, cooking games and everything and anything between. All of these games are essentially simulation games, allowing the user to receive as close of an actual experience as possible within their electronic confines.
Logic would demand, then, if our video game experience does indeed translate into a alternate reality, that gaming must change the mind in a lasting way because it has expanded the mind's reality. Some of the emotional effects experienced by gamers occur because of their increased realm of experience.
Another aspect of the effects of gaming on players conundrum is that gamers can become overly involved with their game of choice, even obssessed. Quite often the angry, emotional outbursts displayed by serious game devotees are somehow related to some sort of perceived attack on their game playing, be it a simple interruption or a case of another family member using the desired computer or game platform. This particular effect is more a result of obsession that could potentially occur with many different habits.
Many people have experienced that faster heart rate and feeling of excitement when playing a game. For many people, that excitement is the very reason that one might play a game! It is also further evidence that games have a long term effect on the mind. If the body is physically affected, it is bound to be different in some minute way, good or bad.
As we progress further into the video game explosion, we are bound to see some changes in people, ultimately affecting our society. Players are thoroughly immersed into their game of choice more and more as our already outstanding graphics and sound technologies advance further and further, and it comes as no surprise when people begin to display the behaviors they are cultivating outside of their game also.
Although this behavior repetition can be a positive thing in some cases, (think Wii Fit) it could be a dangerous prospect for some games uch as the Grand Theft Auto Series. The key to managing this risk is the answer to many of our problems in our American society: we need to learn to practice moderation.