I almost hate to post this, as I don’t want to spread the bad PR, but it has other value as well. A woman in Japan who, apparently was married online to a man and then abruptly divorced from him without her consent logged into his account and killed off his avatar. (From msn.com).
I was a part of the WoW roundtable session last week at the GLS, and I was asked a question that made me pause for a moment. I was telling a story about players’ narratives about the developers of WoW, but I began by making it clear that this was a player narrative and that I had no information directly from Blizzard. I also added in that I had tried to contact Blizzard, but had been unsuccessful. It was at this point that I was asked why it seemed so important for me to verify what the players had to say about the developers with the developers. I didn’t have an immediate answer. It had simply been a reaction for me to try to get into contact with someone from Blizzard.
If what one is looking at is player narratives, then I agree, verification is not needed. Still, this makes me wonder…Do developers know or care about these player narratives? Do they effect the way in which games might be edited (or patched)? I also wonder how player narratives might compliment or conflict with the narratives developers might tell? Any thoughts?
(Image of Brain Age screen from Google Images)
I received a Nintendo DS and Brain Age 2 for Christmas this past year, and I have been playing it religiously since then. Anecdotally, I see a difference in myself; not a major one, but I feel like I am able to focus better and calculate faster than I could before. Interestingly, a short while later, I ran across this article, Keeping Your Brain Fit, from U.S. News, about the possible benefits of activities like my new morning ritual of Brain Age 2. The article is not centered on video games per se, but it does discuss them, with the adviso that most of these games have not been tested in relation to increased brain functioning.
(I could not find a picture that really shouted DKP, but I thought this one was nice anyway…from google images)
In my past research I found that DKP (Dragon Kill Point) systems are more than just micro economic systems. DKP also supports the political legitimacy of the leaders within raiding guilds, and builds a rational means of reciprocity within a guild community. This is significant as guilds are a major source of cultural reproduction and learning within MMORPGs. After the jump is the abstract for a paper I have on up on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN): Read the rest of this entry »
(image of Counter-Strike from gamasutra.com)
Playing video games for cash is not exactly new, but the connection with gambling almost immediately discussed in an article I recently read on the Yahoo! Games page about Tournament.com immediately caught my attention.
In the article, Tournament.com founder Marcus Pearcey claims that his website, in which players pay an entrance fee to participate in games to win money, is not a gambling site because, “Gambling rewards a player based purely on luck, while Tournament.com is a service that rewards players based on their skill.” Despite this view, according to the article, 14 U.S. states have banned this sort of gaming. Read the rest of this entry »
(image from redoctanegames.com)
I found this interesting article in the New York Times on the educational aspects of Guitar Hero. Now, this game was not made to teach people how to play guitar, however according to this article it can be helpful and is inspiring some people to take up this instrument which has waned in popularity since the 1960s. “The game teaches rhythm, and, Mr. Lange [the guitar expert at Red Octane] said it teaches “independent hand usage” both being necessary skills to play an actual guitar.
(WoW night elf, found through google images)
I recently read the article Knights of the Faculty Lounge by John Gravois, and while the main focus of the article was not video games per se, the author does take note of the medievalism running through many of today’s popular MMORPGs (WoW, EverQuest, LOTR, etc.).
The article has two particularly relevant points to current games research: 1) the sometimes uneasy relationship between “serious” academics and “enthusiasts” (or in our case gamers), and 2) the long history and appeal of the never-ending quest themed medieval narrative structure. Read the rest of this entry »
(image from frenchculture.org)
A friend im’ed this link to me about another one of Jack Thompson’s battles in his crusade against video games. This one is concerning the lack of enforcement of the rating system for video games, and in a letter to Bill Gates, Thompson threatens to hold Microsoft responsible if Halo 3 is sold to kids in stores or via the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »
[image yoinked from original story]
The next time I am in Japan (ok, it will technically be my first time) I am going to buy a cell phone. I just found this article on msnbc about cell phones in Japan that have games that can be played similar to Nintendo’s Wii system. Can you just imagine sitting on a bus with the guy next to you swinging his hands around?
I had to post this…it is just that cool.
Before the Burning Crusade expansion to World of Warcraft end game raids required 40 people to engage them. Many raiding guilds grew large and powerful off this content and on my own server there was at least one powerhouse guild that was clearly influencing the population, right through the opening of the gates to Ahn’Qiraj, which was an event that only this one guild was able to accomplish.
