More MMO Story Stuff

I’ve been trying to come up with something really interesting for my final post on the class blog, something that would give people an excuse to procrastinate even in the face of finals week, but my brain keeps going back to the same nerdy place: Stories in virtual reality. Worse yet, I don’t have anything specific to talk about this time. Just a bunch of miscellaneous odds and ends I’ve encountered through the course of the quarter. Then again, these little link saturated posts are the best (worst?) time wasters in the world, and keeping things brief might not be a bad idea considering my own obligations.

First off, for those of you who are interested in role playing, or interested in pointing and laughing at the people who partake in it, I have stumbled across a few detailed guides on how to act out the various races in WoW. Inside you’ll find the answers to burning questions like “How strong should my broken Rastafarian accent be when I’m role playing a troll?” Even I will admit that this stuff is incredibly nerdy; just a half notch beneath lightsaber practice via broomhandle on the nerdometer, but there’s also an anthropological feel to them, given their cultural focus.

Not all role players take themselves dead seriously though. Prof. Boellstorf mentioned machinima, and there are some mildly amusing ones set in WoW.

Finally I was wondering if anyone has read ANIMA: A novel about second life? It was another one of those things I just happened on, and I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. It’s difficult to judge from the wikipedia summary, which makes it sound interesting but possibly too complicated for its own good. Given my fixation on this stuff, I’m putting together the syllabus for an independent study course next quarter examining the various fiction involved with virtual realities. If anyone has stumbled across specific articles that seem relevant to this, or know of books and movies that deal with virtual reality (aside from the really obvious ones), please tell me!

Social Networking Sites - New Way of Delivering the News??

I’m not big on gaming at all, and never have been, (except like Mario Kart and Tetris – which is totally from YEARS ago!) so the topics discussed in class are really new and interesting for me. I do feel out of the loop sometimes, but the discussions definitely do help clarify a lot and I do get a better understanding of online gaming. I may not be big on games, but of course like everyone else in the world today, I’m always on Facebook and Myspace. (I hate to admit it, but it is so true!) It’ really interesting how it is not only used for “social networking” purposes, but these sites have expanded into things like sharing news and starting discussions about things that are going on in the world. I personally think it is a great way to get information out there. To tie this into our class discussion from last week, our modern technology has greatly evolved and it isn’t like the telegraph anymore - which would take days to deliver - but with our high speed internet today, we can deliver and share information instantly.  

So, I was online reading the news and found this article on social networking sites and how it has been an effective way to share breaking news. 

For example, there was a guy who took a picture of the recent emergency plane landing in the Hudson River on his iPhone and uploaded it onto his Twitter account. He was on a ferry and got took the picture to share with his “friends” because he thought it was newsworthy. He got so many views of it after it was loaded on the site, that it even caused the server of TwitPic to crash!

I’m personally not that big on TV so I never really watch the news. I am so dependent on the internet, so having the news online and the news being shared on sites like Facebook is actually really helpful for me, and I’m thinking it is the same way for many other people as well. I think sooner or later, it is not just going to be just TV news, newspaper, radio, magazines and online news, but these sites are going to be sources that people rely on for the news.