In Memory of Dr. Kim Gregson...

Ah, I just learned the news today, and I wish there was a better forum to post this, but I need to tell this story...

My most influential college professor Kim Gregson passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer, and it's hitting me more than I would have imagined last Thursday when I saw all her grinning Alaskan Disney cruise pics. We'd been out of touch lately, but the news prompted me to go through old correspondence when I came across a letter of recommendation I wrote for her tenure that got me bawling for a little while. It's been on my mind since, and I feel the need to share my wonderful story to commemorate this great woman.....

Few would have realized it, if they knew anything about the strong professional relationship Kim and I formed, but we got off to a rocky start. My first class with her was Quantitative Research my sophomore semester, where we used video games as a conduit to practice research skills.


The class was unusual (taking turns between playing Katamari Damacy in class, counting out how many overly-sexualized images versus non-sexualized images of women we saw in video game magazines, and writing my thesis on the addictive properties of MMPORGS...) but always interesting and engaging.... and just, fun. Then tragically, a fellow IC student and co-worker of mine passed away right before finals week.

As a result, many of my finals suffered and my final paper for Kim’s Quantitative class never got past the rough draft stage. Some of my other professors were willing to look past this but Kim wasn't.

At first I was outraged. Hadn't I shown how good of a student I was the rest of the semester? Didn't I always get As, do the extra credit assigned, and participate in class? Why did I end up with a C for the semester? But as the pain and confusion of death subsided, I was able to think about the resulting situation critically.

I realized the truth was that yes, I did deserve such a grade. Kim gave me ample time to work things out. The final project had been assigned at the beginning of the semester; she had been providing mini-assignments along the way to help us with it; and even offered to allow me to hand in just a completed rough draft of the paper. She went out of her way to give me chances to succeed and I let her down. I did in fact deserve a C.

But thankfully that wasn't the end of the story.

One of the final group papers my two friends and I had written in Quantitative had been accepted into a conference, and she applied for all the grants to let the three of us all go at no charge to us.

And though I expected it to be a little awkward, it wasn't. Kim knew I was good student, she had decided I had potential.

Within two semesters, I was back in her class again - two of them: Qualitative Research and a three mini-course series on filmmaking she hosted via teleconference with the students in L.A. (how cool).

During our Qualitative class together, she was approached by religious studies professor Dr. Rachel Wagner, who was interested in studying religious imagery in video games. Kim immediately thought of the work we were doing in Second Life and asked me to join in on the project. (See Kim's take on one of our in-game presentations here.)

She hired me as a research assistant, and we worked together for six months to produce a great research project that we presented at two panels for the April 2007 Joint Conference of the
National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in Boston.

Dr. Wagner's work featuring our research was eventually published in Eric Mazur's 2010 edition of God in the Details, in a chapter entitled "Our Lady of Persistent Liminality: Virtual Church, Cyberspace, and Second Life." All thanks to Kim.

Needless to say, during this time our bond grew not only professionally, but she became a dear close friend and mentor.

The Park School needed such a person in the department who was willing to take risks with unconventional material, who could stay on top of the current trends in media and technology, and had so much invested in the well-being of her students. Kim was certainly such a person. She was always innovative in her coursework, which is crucial when you work in such an ever-changing field as communications. She was always available to her students, and she set high standards that she insisted we (and knew we could) meet.

Overall, Kim has been one of the professors who made the greatest impact on me at my time at Ithaca College and beyond. Kim was an amazingly intelligent, caring individual who was an extremely valuable mentor to have, and I will miss her life dearly. I am not religious and don't believe in afterlife, but Kim, where ever you are... I hope you've found your Second Life :) And forever, thank you.

*Edited from original. Original post with comments on Facebook.

Jr. Faculty Focus: Rachel Wagner

Dr. Wagner's research is featured in Ithaca College's KnowLedges (Volume 8, Number 1, Fall 2007)!

Excerpt (author unknown):

Rachel Wagner, assistant professor of philosophy and religion, began teaching at Ithaca College last August. She is currently conducting research (in collaboration with Kim Gregson of the Park School and television- radio grad Austra Zubkovs ‘07) on religious ritual in Second Life, a virtual world entirely created by its users. 

How would you describe the relationship between virtual reality and religion?
In Second Life, users are building religious structures like churches and temples, playing Catholic priests, holding and attending masses in real time. There are even virtual Bibles and medicine kits. These are humanly created transcendent experiences and spaces. 

What kinds of questions are coming up?
It really makes you think. Can good or bad karma be accumulated, or worked out, in a virtual world? If your avatar sins, is it you sinning? What does it do to a person to have multiple identities-the you in this world and the “you” in Second Life? 

Full article: https://www.ithaca.edu/hs/knowledges/fall2007/rwagner/ 

A Brave New World

Shout out to Maura Stephens for her "Brave New World: Metaverse Classroom" coverage in IC View, our Ithaca College alumni magazine!

Excerpt:

Second Life is no computer game. It’s a “metaverse,” or alternate universe. It exists online, and its population is growing daily. There is no predetermined way to play, and you don’t win or lose. Users do enjoy a “virtual life.” 

Kim Gregson, associate professor of television-radio, early on recognized the metaverse’s educational potential; now Second Life is an integral part of her Qualitative Research Methods class. And with the support of dean Dianne Lynch, the Park School and Ithaca College are taking full advantage of Second Life and related digital media. 

Millions of people have registered since the program went public in 2003. They spend their time “in-world” in any way they choose. They can explore, own property, build houses, and buy clothes for their virtual selves. This open-endedness makes Second Life an exciting prospect for participants and, increasingly, businesses, entrepreneurs, and institutions of higher learning. 

After Gregson’s students create accounts, they are set loose, first to observe, later to interview the inhabitants of Second Life — a huge and diverse pool of people from around the world. Austra Zubkovs ’07, a TV-R major who was in Gregson’s class in the fall, cites the ease with which students can access research subjects. 

The promise of 3D virtual realities has existed since the inception of personal computers and the Internet. As technology expands and broadband becomes more available, the ability to create and maintain a virtual world with thousands of active participants at a time has been realized. The possibilities are endless, Gregson says. “Everything is created by the users, and students can study everything.” The introduction of in-world banks was one example. The in-world currency, the Linden dollar (after Linden Labs, the company that developed Second Life), can be converted to and from U.S. dollars, with ATMs located throughout Second Life. What role do banks play? How do they function without a government? These are some of the questions Gregson’s students ponder. 

Second Life is being used for things that would be impossible or costly in real life. There is a large-scale model of a heart, complete with murmur, for medical students to explore. The International Spaceflight Museum and Second Life Planetarium both hold universally accessible educational events. And Zubkovs, with Gregson and assistant professor of philosophy and religion Rachel Wagner, is documenting religious items found in Second Life. (The research was presented at the 2007 Pop Culture Association conference.)

Read full article: https://www.ithaca.edu/icview/stories/brave-new-world:-metaverse-classroom-845/

Partying with Pixels

Shout out to Vanessa Schneider once again, for her "Partying with pixels" coverage on our “Virtual Worlds: Real Connections” event The Ithacan: Brink!

Excerpts:

Tonight’s IC event, “Virtual Worlds: Real Connections” was basically just one big Second Life wine-and-cheese party. Henry Jenkins, a professor at MIT, and James Gee, a professor at the Univesity of Wisconsin–Madison, were the night’s main guests. Unfortunately, Jenkins missed his flight. But Gee was great — more on him later.

The event was held in the physics lab, and students and faculty demonstrated the game on eight projection screens around the room. The space is perfect for this kind of thing. The designer, Michael Rogers, said the lab has a pretty great soundsystem, too, and one night he projected The Matrix on all eight screens and blasted the volume. That got me thinking, and, at the risk of sounding totally geeky, this lab would be perfect for a Halo party.

While playing, I spoke with Joan Falkenberg Getman, the senior strategist for Learning Technologies at Cornell, and Gee. Gee told me he’s been playing World of Warcraft since it came out, and there’s a group of about eight faculty members and a bunch of students out at UW-Madison that play it all the time. 

We talked a bit about PMOGs (which, you may recall, I talked about last week), and he raised an interesting point: That PMOGs are really just “awareness” tools — they alert you to your Internet use, and point out what and how often you are using. PMOGs make you aware of the Internet structures you work within every day. So why not track your e-mail use and, as with some PMOGs, get points in a game for it? You’re going to be e-mailing all day anyway, might as well make it fun. 

What was really great about the evening was the enthusiasm about the potential for using these online networks as educational tools. Professors from Cornell and IC, with little knowledge about Second Life, were willing to take 10 minutes to learn about it and even give the avatars a try. One of the Cornell business professors is now figuring out how to set up business classes that would teach accounting, stats and so on in a game that mixes Second Life and, what he called, “World of Bizcraft.” 

Senior Austra Zubkovs, who has been doing research on religion in Second Life, talks about the virtual world to Shelley Semmler, v.p. of institutional advancement, at right. 

Read full article: http://theithacan.org/blogs/brink/2007/04/17/partying-with-pixels/

Living a Second Life

Shout out to Vanessa Schneider for her "Living a second life" coverage on our class in The Ithacan!

Excerpts:

At a recent “playdate” for Qualitative Mass Media Research Methods, a 24-member class studying the virtual community, students were asked to interview Second Life “residents” who participate in one of the world’s many subcultures.

Kim Gregson, an assistant professor in the television-radio department who teaches the qualitative research class and is an authority on video game technology, introduced Second Life to the classroom during a first-year seminar on digital identities.
“What I saw from just their exposure in the freshman class is that there were lots of different kinds of people doing really weird stuff,” she said. 

So Gregson, aka Kim Chihuly, brought it to her research methods course this past spring. During this semester’s class, one of the first projects was to observe other Second Life residents. Rather than studying people in, say, the cafeteria at 8 a.m., Gregson said she thought Second Life could introduce the class to different people from all around the world. 

As Snotrag Steiner searched for vampires, resident Austra Soleil, senior Austra Zubkovs’ avatar, searched for a religious experience. For the past several weeks, Zubkovs has been exploring churches and attending religious services in Second Life.
“For some reason, I just automatically assume people are creepy,” she said. “I got to get over that.” 

As part of a research collaboration focusing on the role of religion in Second Life between Gregson and Rachel Wagner, assistant professor in the philosophy and religion department, Zubkovs is gathering virtual religious objects, including Bibles and Buddha medicine kits, and exploring groups of virtual temples, like the Drak Yerpa Hermitage. At the Pop Culture Association’s annual spring conference, Gregson and Wagner will present their research, display Zubkovs’ objects and play a slide show of religious builds on the Park School island.

Read full article: https://theithacan.org/accent/living-a-second-life/

Conducting an In-Depth Interview

This was a pretty straightforward article. Some suggestions the article made about in-depth interviewing were

• create open-ended questions
• have some pre-planned questions while being flexible enough for natural flow of conversation
• seek clarity, interpretation, and understanding
• listen, and keep discussion conversational
• remember to record the responses, your observations, and your reflections
• watch out for nonverbal cues
• release the feeling that you need power or to be in control

The author then examines the seven steps of interviewing

1. Thematizing - clarifying your purpose. What do you want to find out?
2. Designing - make a list of issues, and then some specific questions and follow-up questions. Make an interview guide containing facesheet, actual questions, and post-interview comment sheet.
3. Interviewing - three parts: establishing yourself to the interviewee, put respondent at ease, and then listen and observe as you conduct your interview. Do so by using active listening and audio recording, and you must be patient and flexible.
4. Transcribing - use the audio tape to write out every question and response exactly as they occurred, and then include your notes in highlighted text.
   
5. Analyze - figure out the meaning of the interview. Find common themes, patterns, etc
6. Verifying - use triangulation to check the validity of your information - compare it to past interviewees, past research, have someone fresh read over your data, etc
7. Reporting - share what you have learned; write a report!

As I said above, this article was pretty straightforward. Having participated on Newswatch16 as photog for the reporters who interview people all over Tompkins County, and having conducted some interviews before myself, these are pretty much the same techniques I have encountered. I never needed to write down the entire transcript before though, it having been mostly on video and for video, but in Second Life that shouldn't be too hard since it's all text based. Also, I'm not sure I've ever made an exact interview guide, although I can certainly see its usefulness when conducting multiple interviews at a time. Overall, this should be helpful at least as an overview when we conduct our interviews in Second Life.

New Avie

My new character :D

ps. Why do clothes have to be so completely clingy? In real life, a tshirt would not form to your cleavage, it would just spread out across. This needs to be fixed. And let's not even get into pants...
pps. After you take a picture, the character does an action where she puts her hands to her head as if literally filing the image away into her memory. Right after, she smiles. That's what I caught (after a few tries) in the last picture.

Guns, cars, and more crappy lag

So we tried a few more places today again in class - we went to a junkyard to buy some free weapons and vehicles, and then tried to go to a combat sandbox to shoot and ride them (respectively). EXCEPT I GOT KICKED OFF THREE TIMES! This seriously is so frustrating. I like playing at home much better where I really can just quickly reboot (although still that can be annoying, but it's something I've come to accept).

Here's a picture of me freezing the very first second I log on.
Sure, this usually happens when you first log on, as things take time to rez. BUT THIS LASTED OVER FIVE MINUTES and I eventually just had to restart. Gah!

Back to a girl!

I've finally converted myself back to a girl, but a different one than I was before. I didn't try as hard to make it look like "me" although I still want it to have the basic similarities. I'm thinking of possibly changing her again sometime soon, but not right now.

I explored random places, including an Asian styled place. Was sweet and serene, not too many people around. Here I am at the little lake there, it had various pose balls all around. For some reason I am completely fascinated with using the pose balls and then taking pictures, I have near 35 so far.

There was a picturesque bridge with some pose balls for couples kissing and cuddling, and I tried one out but right after I took the picture, I went to Photoshop to convert it to a jpeg and when I returned a guy had taken up the male pose in the cuddle! I was a little taken aback, and was about to take a photo of that, but he moved before I could do it. He said hi or something but I was a slightly too creeped out to respond. I know it's a videogame, but personal space!

Here's the bridge picture I took first. After all that I went to a casino because I really wanted to try out those camping chairs. I've seen that some of them kick you off if you turn idle for a long time, but I have to do some reading, so I'll try to check it every once in a while. I looked at a couple casinos and some had really nice payouts and the idle was turned off, but they were all full. I finally found an empty one that's paying two Lbucks every fifteen minutes, but if you play the slot machine a few times you can win upgrades, and you were allowed 10 idle cycles before it kicked you off. Using only ten Lbucks I upgraded mine to 5 Lbucks every 8 minutes AND I got the idle to turn off. Sweet :)

Edit: woot, I won 85 dollars! I let it go while I went to bed and apparently it stayed connected for just over two hours. Not too bad for a night's sleep. :D

Today we went to a couple cool places in class: a recreation of Rome, the Spaceflight center, and a beta-phase "real-life" hotel. Out of the three, Rome was my favorite, although I feel like if lag was less I would have enjoyed all three much more. Will have to check them out when I get home. Here's a picture of me as a boy, at the Spaceflight center sitting on a large molecule!I think it's very cool that people have built places like these in the game. I can't even imagine how complex it really is, or how much time it took to build. I'm guessing it was a team of people, not just one person? I have no real idea though, I sure there are some determined people on here.

For an online class, I think the hotel setting might be best. It was filled with chairs and tables. Although I guess in SL it doesn't matter if you stand four hours on end, hah. However, like I said above, it's really hard to completely enjoy these areas when all of us go to one place because even with only a third of us at a place at one time the lag was still crazy. Maybe if we were all at our own home computers it would be at least only one server being overloaded and not our own connection too.

As for playing a guy, I really don't see too much of a difference in how people treat me. I know I dislike it more, I personally prefer playing a character in my own image.

Another note: I've been hearing some dissidence in class about playing the game. I think it all boils down to access and lagging problems that are causing such a negative impression of the game. I think most people aren't trying too hard to play outside of class--although some certainly are. But that's what they need to do, because when I play at home connections speed is much faster, and sometimes a simple reboot of the game refreshes the connection well enough. But here, rebooting is not as feasible thanks to the school's computers.

Ok, class is ending. Hopefully I can play a lot more this week then I had been able to next week.

Opposite gendered avatar

Making my avatar into a boy has been very frustrating. I was having the worst trouble making his face not look girly! Finally I enlisted the help of my boyfriend in creating my character, and we tried to make the avatar as similar to my boyfriend as possible-- to varying success. Some aspects captured his essence - like the general body shape (although SL really makes some body parts weird when manipulated) as well as his goatee and glasses. Hair was a huge problem - his real hair is a dark, dirty blonde.. one not very easy to find in SL. Even his hair style was difficult to find even though to me, in real life, it just seems a regular, simple hair style. In the end we settled for brown hair in the closest resembling style we could find. I did find a pretty cool, very typical of my boyfriend, outfit though. Here's a picture of him leaning up against a bar:
You can't really see, but those are imitation Birkenstocks on his feet like those he always wears. In this picture though, his feet are kind of sinking into the ground...

I want that emoticon wand!

Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life , was a lecture and discussion with Philip Rosedale and Cory Ondrejka, two of the creators of Second Life. They discussed the basics of SL, mostly concentrating on the different aspects of how it is fully user-created. I'm not sure if I really learned anything completely new from this video, although it was interesting to watch, but mostly it seemed like just a clearer, more straightforward account of things I've heard in bits before.

One of the more important ideas discussed was about how the possibilities for a new consumer financial market are both very real and rapidly expanding. The ability to combine single prims to create whole complex structures eliminates the creative difficulties of the ideas such as C++ and other Visual Basics languages and allows for a creative form to be more readily accessible to people without specific computer programming training. The intellectual property concepts within Second Life have a possibility to redefine the creative marketplace and further affect the real world intellectual marketplace.

Another topic discussed was the system of full server-side storage that allows for great protection from outside intrusion that other massive online communities often lack. Meanwhile, within the community, there is promotion of the feelings of "brotherhood" in allowing either copying or manipulation of most of the produced goods while still granting the original creator technical intellectual property rights to their creation. Also with in the topic of security, he talked of their form of "parental control" which is a policy that separates those users who self-admit to being 13-17 years of age into a separate area and then encourages them to report anyone who seems to be an "adult" and vice-versa in the main world. Anyone reported for violations is required to submit valid form of ID, such as faxing in a drivers licence

Reve & Misty's Love Nest

My adventures in Limantour 108, 100, 23 - Tierra del Suenos Reve & Misty's Love Nest.
I found this place while trying to teleport to a store, and I ended up spending the rest of my play time there tonight. Here is where I first found myself. I played with a few (ok, a LOT) pose balls and here are some of the PG rated ones I found.How pretty! All multifaceted textures. I made this little cylinder to sit on, so I could take a picture.These were taken near the hot tub... :PI explored the huge a house a little, and went around to the other side where I discovered almost a whole other universe--a huge pool, waterslide, a bar, a dance floor, more pose balls... So of course I took a billion more pictures, but it's taken too long to post these already. Also the owner, Reve, came out to talk to me and told me they had built this all themselves. Incredible. I thought I had saved the convo, but I think I didn't. He didn't seem upset at all that I was "trespassing," as he probably would have in real life. Ok, I am le tired.

SL in class

So today we were put in groups of four and were told to chat with each other without talking out loud in class. We were told to click on the bench and just sit there and chat, but it wasn't long before someone was up exploring the other areas - including doing mysterious cannonballs in the little pond that was in between our benches that she couldn't figure out how she did them. Also, periodically a tornado would fly by us, that was pretty cool. Soon, we were all in the little pond checking it out. Josh made a box, I showed off some dance moves, one girl kept doing her cannonballs.
The conversation at first felt a little forced and awkward, since we were only going along the questions we were told to talk about. It got more fun as we strayed from the questions and started trying out the actions available to us.
I think the hardest question of the three was "What's the strangest thing you've seen in SL so far"... because so much of it is strange! Why people have that weird obsession with looking like foxes I have no clue. Does that have to do with the Furry thing Kim was telling us about? Maybe that could be a good research topic.. Also, I've seen quite a few S/M people being led around in chains. One couple started like having sex in the store I was in. But that's another topic.
I'm excited for the "fashion show" on Friday because I think my character looks pretty like me. There's issues with the skin and makeup, but with the hair, outfit, and clothes I think it looks very similar. We'll see how that goes.
Alright, until next time.

Second Life Play

Oo, last night as I was exploring using the search tool I happened to check out a casino. While there, there was serious lag causing my computer to freeze, which I took as my cue to get up and go to bed, forgetting to bother to turn the game off. When I woke up and checked out the computer this morning, it seems I had won $130L in a drawing done every half hour or so based on the number of people in the area. Sweet. Just wanted to post it up here before I forgot. :)

Videogame third spaces and educational tools

Although I have some problems myself with the somewhat cheesy concept of "great, good third places," I would think that of all videogames, Second Life most closely does follow this idea. The fact that there is no seeming purpose to the game besides to mix and mingle and hang out, and the fact that the avatars themselves act as a leveler of the playing field, I would say that SL closely resembles this concept. I'm sure there are some limitations - the Lindens are clearly ranked higher than the average person (although they don't usually do very much authority exertion), the most popular characters usually have spent at least a few dollars buying high quality hair, skins, and clothes, and that just the whole limitation of internet and game access in general - but the fact is there are some sometimes hidden limitations to Roy Oldenburg's original concept as well.
As for educational value, sure there are many opportunities for education within SL and some people go out of their way to offer such opportunities, but by and large the "goal" (whatever that really means in this context) of SL does not seem to be educational. In the areas created for education, it does seem to be more comprehensive than the example in the article where they just use a website with forums, as the creation of the avatars can make it seem more like you are actually "attending" a class rather than just discussing one on a text-based forum. In this setting, I'm sure it would have been determined that people were less likely to switch back and forth from "writing voice" to "conversational voice" that often and that most people would use the latter, since the concept of SL gives a more conversational feel to it.

Second Life Play

So, I've played Second Life most of the weekend and it's given me mixed emotions. On one hand, I love playing dress up - which is mostly what I've been doing - but on the other hand I largely feel like that's the only thing to do, and that once I've exhausted most of the main shopping areas that I'll be bored. I realize there's probably more stores and boutiques than I can imagine, but I feel it'll get old after while.

And I'm reluctant to talk to some of the people around me. Random IMs and hellos seem awkward to me, and for some reason I can't help but think.. I dunno. I've tried to make myself talk to a few, and one was a very nice veteran player who was making a card for new people about all the free shopping areas.

That's when I got started on my huge shopping expedition. I bought five dollars worth of Linden money, which was like near 2000LD. I went to some really cute boutiques, including an imitation American Eagle Outfitters store called Nylon Outfitters where I actually got a shirt that is an exact copy of a shirt I actually own. Hah. I don't really like using other people's skins though for some reason, maybe I would like them more if I could modify them slightly. I found a few good hair styles but most of the ones I've seen are these out-of-reality volumptuous boufant porno hairstyles.

The assignment we were given to try to look as close to ourselves as possible is proving to be quite a challenge when it seems most of the styles in the game are unrealistic. But I did give myself some little love handles despite my secret wishes to have the perfect fake body like a lot of the other people.

Oh, another problem: MANY CRASHES. And a lot of waiting time when things get stuck and all you can do is wait it out. I realize why it happens, usually due to a highly populated areas, but still it makes for a very annoying playing experience.

I did try my hand at bingo though, after I spent all that money shopping. Didn't win anything, however. Still an interesting experience.

Ok, that's all for now. Until next time.

The system is down.

I don't think AirNet would let me connect to Second Life today. Three of us were out of luck. I tried connecting it to the network with one of the broken computer's LAN lines, but it realized that I wasn't the right computer and I think the proxy settings blocked me. I'll have to try playing some when I get home. Luckily, I've played this in the past for about a month, so I have a bit of an idea what to do. Only getting to watch other people play is a little bit frustrating because I want to be manipulating my character too. And expescially that one kid.. he keeps saying rude things to non-classmate people in the game, all while he's being projected on the class screen. Come on, be respectful because there are still real people behind the characters. That's all I really can say right now. I'll write more when I play later tonight.


Edit: I made a character here at home tonight, so much easier than at school. I just did it with the tools, but I think I may need to contribute a few real life dollars if I want to look at all reasonable. Here's me so far:

People observation assigment

Unfortunately I'm doing this project at 9:30am on Friday in the Pub.. which means there isn't too much action going on. But after class yesterday I had the first cast of NewsWatch all day (which gave my probably the worst migraine I've experienced in a long time), so it's the only time I have available before class. There's still enough people to analyze, and maybe it's better with this not-so-busy crowd, since qualitative research usually is in smaller groups anyways.

My mind is having a hard time not thinking quantitatively though.. I was too quick to count how many are female (eleven) and how many are male (twelve), plus or minus a few who walk in and out. Or how many girls have their hair in pony tails (six). But maybe that's ok to do that too? There is a post in view of the corner of my right eye and I keep wanting to crane my neck around it to see the one back right corner I'm missing, but I'm trying not to look like I'm staring at people. But really anywhere you sit in the Pub there's going to be a post somewhere and I think I've got a good view over all.

Right now, most people are sitting by themselves, although a couple tables have people in twos. There is one group of four of people who work in the food court. A girl's giving a small tour right this second, to two older men and what looks to be a daughter each. A bunch of people have all looked over, she's the only really loud noise in the room. Pretty boring over all though. The traffic is starting to pick up as it approaches 9:45. Lots of people with bookbags. LaVincita has been pretty busy the whole time, but people don't seem to be sticking around with their food. I've seen a few people I recognize. Ithaca's like that- there's usually a few people you always recognize in any given group any where on campus, but there's plenty of new faces too. I like that about this place.. it's small enough to be cozy, but room enough to meet new people everywhere. Although the cliquishness is a feature I hate, but that's another topic. The group of food court workers has left. There's about 27 people now, which sounds small still, but with the pretty steady flow of people in the pathways it's really starting to pick up. Nothing like lunch time. I think a lot of people are still trying to do homework rather than the mealtime activities of eating and socializing. People seem to be wearing mostly lightweight long sleeves, although a few girls are still holding out and wearing tank tops. I guess it's a bit warmer than yesterday, which in Ithaca always makes people go crazy. The area I'm sitting in has been filling up: there's only about seven empty tables out of eighteen, but most are still just one to a table with the exception of a pair of girls to my right. Who are talking a lot. Pretty much the only people who are walking into the Pub from the main walkway are heading straight to LaVincita. The TV's on ESPN but I don't seem to see a single person watching. I think it's more there just for picture-white-noise. The largest group now is a group of three. There's about 32 people now. One just joined the group of three, bring it to four. Two people are on the phone. I'm starting to run out of things to think to look for. Two more people just sat at a table next to me. They know the table of that one pair of loud girls, but I think they have their own business to take care of. Almost everyone who walks by on the main path tends to look into the pub.. I wonder what they're thinking.. maybe to see if they know someone, maybe thinking if they too should get some food or a coffee from LaVincita.. I know those are the things I tend to think when I walk by the pub. The smell of coffee is really getting to me now, even though I don't like to drink it. I may have to grab a snack. I wonder how many other people who are doing their homework right by me are wondering the same thing. I really like to get into people's minds, apparently. There's a loud group of professors/staff standing in the back left corner behind me who are really loud and distracting. But ok, they just broke up. There's about 17 people in LaVincita, about 43 now in the main Pub. And it's starting to seem more regular that the people who leave LaVincita are finding seats in the main Pub area instead of just walking through. Everyone seems to say "HEYYY!" really loudly before they sit down. The general noise level is up a bit from the last 45 minutes, but it still allowed for concentration. Movement has come to a lull now for the minute. I'm seriously going to need some french fries when the food court opens in 12 minutes.. the smells have just been too tempting. Actually this food craving is starting to take over my brain and making it hard to concentrate on people. Numbers have actually dropped to 38 now with only about four in LaVincita. The food court people are sticking food in the coolers (that one's not a hunger related observation). I wonder what the differance in their shirt colors mean, becase I'm sure they signify something. One is in a dark blue collared shirt, I feel that one's more in charge of the stocking and that type of work. There's two in white shirts with the dark aprons and one in a light blue shirt and dark apron. Interesting. Something I didn't notice until just now: all the 18 other people who are sitting in this section with me right now are all white. I didn't notice this fact until a little Asian girl just walked in. I can't completely tell about the people in the farther section, but they look to have a variety of ethnicities. I doubt this geographic separation is anything but coincidence, but it's true that IC largely is a white shcool. There's fewer people sitting along now, with the majority at least in pairs.

Ahhh it's 10:30 and the food court is opening..

Mini-Zork

I just wish I had a walk-through guide! I'm not a huge fan of games I can't figure out on my own, unless there's a walk-through guide I can have handy. Bur I can't find one easily on the internet although I'm still looking.. Right now I'm stuck at ten points, and am inside the house with bunch of stuff in my inventory (too much to pick up the sword - should I drop stuff? How do I know I don't need something else? I don't like making these decisions..) and can't figure out how to either go down te chimney or to open the gate. I have a rope, I could tie it to something to olwer myself down the chimney.. but it doesn't seem to like that idea. Someone has a jeweled egg and some have found and been killed by.. whoever.. but I am just stuck about what to do myself right now.

I think this definitely fits into my definition of a videogame.

Reaction to games so far and a better definition for videogames.

After the readings we have done this week, I'm not quite sure my opinions have changed, but maybe it's because I've already taken Quant and have already had to ponder these questions about what a videogames is. But that's ok.

But, I still generally prefere the definition I used earlier to the ones found in the latest reading. Which is:

A videogame is an entertaining, interactive activity in a digital format that a person engages in. They can be found on a computer or on a console. These can include text-based games or graphic-based games and come in a variety of categories such as puzzle, action, role-playing, etc. There is an importance in specific rules and specific endings, but some games bend these boundaries.

Now I would certinaly at that there is usually some kind of conflict/competition/specific goals. But I do not think the words voluntary or inefficient ar necessary, even if they tend to be features of a game, I do not believe they are necessarily part of the definition of a game. Further, I do not think that rules or endings are of the utmost importance, because I know plenty of things I would consider videogames where the rules are bendable and those that can literally be never-ending. Perhaps I should also take a look again at the world "entertaining," because that is a subjective term, but I think I meant more that it is intended to be entertaining.

So, to clarify, I would change my definition to say:

A videogame is an interactive activity, intended for entertainment, in a digital format that a person engages in. They can be found on a computer or on a console. These can include text-based games or graphic-based games and come in a variety of categories such as puzzle, action, role-playing, etc. There is an importance in specific rules and specific endings, and some games bend these boundaries, but there almost always must be some kind of conflict/ competition/ specific goals.

Now, using this definition,
Which have been videogames:

• All the old school games (PacMan, Tetris and Pong) - have clear-cut rules, goals, and definitely intended to be entertaining.
  
• Samarost - has rules and goals, if not completely clear-cut, and is intended to be entertaining and artistic.
  
• The Goat in the Grey Fedora - probably my favorite of them all. Not only are the rules clear and there is a specific mission you are put on, but there are objects you pick up along the way and there is a specific story line. While those last two are not required in the definition of a videogame, they certainly help one to be more entertaining.
  
• PASH - much like the Goat in the Grey Fedora, but much less well put together. There are many times where you have to wait for the character to move around and times when it's not compeltely clear where or what you have to do. However, the basic themes are the same, in which there are definite goals and ways with which to accieve these goals.
  

Which have not been videogames:

• Opniyama - this was definitely an online activity, but without goals and rules and an ending it lacked some of the necessary features of a game.
  
• Endora's Dream - There was no: goals, rules, and was more of an online toy than any kind of game, kind of like an etch-a-sketch.
  
• Mr. Picassohead - Again, no goals. Some could argue that since there are specific pieces that there could be semi-rules, but it really was more like an online art canvas.
  

CNN.com on Videogames as Third Spaces

Hey here's an interesting link I found on CNN.com, about how massively-multiplayer online games are the new pubs and cafes. Can anyone say "third space"?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/09/06/online.games.sociability.reut/index.html

Rough Definition of Videogames

A videogame is an entertaining, interactive activity in a digital format. They can be found on a computer or on a console. These can include text-based games or graphic-based games and come in a variety of categories such as puzzle, action, role-playing, etc. There is an importance in specific rules and specific endings, but some games bend these boundaries.


This will be edited as time goes on.

What is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is mostly concerned with the feelings, moods, reactions, and basic nature of test subjects. They are not interested in the "average" viewpoint, but in specific individual people or groups. As C. George Boeree says, it is to "capture life as lived."

Qualitative research is often criticized by those who think quantitative research is much more reliable. They complain that there is much room for bias in such research, as data and results are often mixed together in the report and seen as the researcher's opinion rather than those of the test subject. Further, the results are open ended; each new person talked to has the possibility to change the results. There is no definitive answer that can be concluded as in quantitative research.

Reaction to the first three games

Pong: Clearly the very first videogame made. Very simple, this version didn't even have a way to end. I don't particularly care for playing against a computer in this type of way, as if it were an actual person or something because for some reason I feel that it's inevitable that the computer will win eventually.

Space Invaders: One of my old school favorites. Hurts your arm though, hitting the space button repeatedly. Increasing levels, gets harder in reasonable increments. The computer you're playing against isn't in the form of a competitor but spaceships, which feels much more like I can compete?

Pacman: Everyone clearly seemed to like Pacman best, with shouts ringing out around the room the second the page loaded. I personally was never too huge of a fan, but that's probably just because I never got really far without the ghosts eating me. Does get your heart pumping though.

CSCP, "Third Places," and Online Videogames

Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist, tells us that within society there is a "third place" outside of the first and second places of home and the workplace. He says that this "third place" exists when people gather together at a certain neutral local and interact on a level playing field regardless of social status.

A team of researchers from The University of Melbourne has used this concept as a way to understand the new trends in online videogaming and computer supported cooperative play (CSCP) illustrated by Microsoft's XBox Live. In particular, these researchers focused on how identity management and voice communication promote this socialization.

For this study, the researchers gathered together five groups of three experienced videogamers to play games on XBox Live for one hour and encouraged to interact with players who were completely unaware of the study. Afterwards, in a group discussion, players voiced their reactions. Test subjects preferred playing people to playing the computer but wanted to be matched with players of a similar ability and wanted to know at least a general identity of their anonymous competitors. The question of the voice channel produced interesting results: although many of the users thought that the voice channel was an excellent innovation, many were reluctant to actually use it either due to difficulty of use or the lack of contextual cues to determine who you are talking with at any given time.

Overall, the research concluded that identity management is important in such large-scale CSCP games to promote the trust and security found in real-world "third places." While many gamers do agree that voice communication is one helpful way of facilitating this, easier technology and programming may make such a vehicle more useful.

Test post

Just making sure this works :)