Communities at Play

And finally, this should be the complete list of Communities at Play case Studies...

John McClaren

John's look at the MMORPG Project Entropia.


Thomas Larsen

Thomas chooses the First-Person shooter community of Medal of Honour: Allied Assault to ask the question Geek Factory or Virtual Community?


Mike Price

Mike takes us back to his experiences in the primordial ooze of Aardwolf MUD.

Shaun Choo

Shaun is one of a few people who chose to examine Blizzards highly successful MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

Sharn Anderson

An examination, of the Anime themed role-playing game, Gaia.

Sam Field

Sam discusses the gaming nature of the Halfbakery, a community "which uses words to plays with ideas."

Gerald Sim

Gerald takes a broader look at the MMORPG phenomena, particularly at the way online actions spill into the real world.

Farhana

Farhana leaps into the virtually violent world of Counterstrike: Counter-Terrorism Action!

...and finally, two more World of Warcraft case studies from Steve Perriman and Bryce Wojtowicz.

There are a few studies missing from this list which don't appear to have gone online yet, but this is pretty much everything. On the whole the case studies have been a pleasure to read through, especially given the diverse topics!
This will probably be my last post to this blog so I'd like to take the opportunity to thanks those who have contributed their time to keeping this 'experimental' format going - you will have your opportunity to give your views in the self-reflection so don't hold back! :-)

In the meantime,

have fun,
Stew

Online gaming and RPGs

I am not an online gaming maniac either...the only games i play online are the word games on yahoo. ;)

Althought, i just love those video clips we saw today in class, its more about the graphic for me, than the game or the community behind it. I totally agree with charles. For me, the simulations are very fake and unrealistic. And also the fact that most of the gaming communities are engineered and if they wanted to form a more natural form of bonding..as a community they have to go outside the boundaries of the software to do it is like going against the norms of Online gaming VCs.

But then again maybe i feel like that because i haven't really got myself involved in an environment like that. But, like Mike mentioned in class about his friend who actually had a high level of emotional involvement, for them online gaming and RPG will mean a different thing. They would probably die for their mates online and feel heartbroken if their online partner went off with someone else...hehehe...weird.

I agree with what Stew was talking about in class today. I think we would understand the full impact and of VC only when we are fully part of it. I didn't think i understood what its all about because i was analysing what my day to day experience was on the VC. And to this day i still don't agree that its a VC. but like he said, to the people who are in there 24/7 will have a different experience. They will give all they have and they will feel like they belong, that they are important and have a "presence" with the VC.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for now.
cheers

The Last of the Social Studies...

OK folks - my apologies for being a little behind the ball over the last few weeks, I can only offer the cries of a demanding infant as my excuse. Here are the last of the social community online presentation along with (hopefully all) of the Communities at Play studies. I am sure that you are all busy with your final assignments but if you can comment please do - in many cases interesting reactions have already begun to appear on the blogs.

Social Communities

Elizabeth MacLintock

Liz immerses herself in the (slightly murky) waters of online introduction sites.

Kym Badger

"This research presents information on two general Community systems created by the Microsoft Network. MSN Groups and MSN Spaces."

Claudia Valenzuela

Claudia looks at the Couch Surfing Project, "a social network designed to assist travelers worldwide who are seeking inexpensive accommodation".

Shabana Aishath

Shabz has been hanging out at Habbo Hotel, a social/play community for young people built on the Macromedia (or should I say Adobe?) shockwave technology.

Mamiko Aiko

Mamiko evaluates Meetup.com, a software tool designed to facilitate offline community.

Ying Tan

Ying examines yet another portal site, Hi5, concluding that trust is still a critical issue.

Syahrani Rahim

Yahoo 360 appears to be Yahoo's answer to the 'personalised services war' that brought up the EPIC 2014 link. Will it knock the competitors for six? Syahrani thinks so.

Belinda Wilkinson

Belinda offers another perspective on tribe.net.

Trevor Allison

Trevor takes another peek at social network analysis via Friendster.

As far as I can tell, that's all of the Social Community studies. If I've missed yours please email me and I'll correct that error! Next post is Communities at Play...

An engineered VC..

Hi scarlets, & Shaun

Very interesting presentation - the World of warcraft.

Personally I have never played or been part of an engineered VC. This is the first time I have read about a gaming VC ( i know, i am a latecomer!!!)...I don't know why, but I have never been that curious about online gaming.

But i guess by reading your presentation, you have instilled a tiny spark of curiosity and interest in me. Now I want to know more. :P but since I don't have any personal experience I am at a loss to say more about it.

However, from my involvement in the HabboHotel environment, I can only begin to compare. Some of the reviews I've read on HabboHotel described it as an online gaming software. However, like you said, it is a very different kind of virtual community. In a way I can (almost)say that it is also a kind of engineered VC as well. The amount of control and limitations enforced on the members is a way of getting them to do what the program/software/moderators wants them to do. Act and behave in certain ways and following certain rules.

I may not be talking about the same kind of engineered VC you have talked about in your presentation but I think this is definitely a start. I am sure by the time I sit through a couple of presentations I will come to a better understanding.

cheers,

EPIC 2014

In the Year 2014, the New York Times has gone offline.

The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned.

What happened to the news?

And what is EPIC?

While discussing in last weeks tute the rise of social software and the ongoing merger of individualised tools and services on the web, this animation came up and I promised to post it to the blogs. It's a 'future history' of personalised services - not precisely relevant to VC's - but entertaining nonetheless. (Kudos to Syahrani Rahim for finding this earlier in the semester)

Meanwhile, I'll post on Monday with the last of the social community case studies...have a good weekend,

Stew

My case study presentation for 2morrow

Hi Scarlets.

Here is my case study on Social Community: The HabboHotel.

Hope you enjoy my presentation. Internals, see you all in class.

cheers

Fakester issue

Yeah I felt strongly about fakester and the true identity of the person involved in the communication at the other end as well. However, sometimes for just a second a thought cross my mind like a "whisper" :) I was reading Lin's response to Charle's post about fakester, and that "whisper" was there. only this time I am able to put it into words. I was thinking it was not so bad. I cannot believe, me being learning about virtual communities and what works and what does not, am thinking such thoughts. Maybe it is not right but then again maybe it is right. I think some of the social softwares actually encourage the use of fake identities.

I have been looking at Habbohotel software for my case study. And the members are encouraged to create a creative and colourful identity(little avatar!). And yes! I have one too! :P
However, the point is that even if I have a fake identity, when i go and talk to other Habbos, i don't feel fake and I really don't have to make up stories about me to impress others into accepting me into that environment. And by listening to other conversations they feel just normal everyday conversation to me.

Maybe I have been hanging around online too much and am going crazy. Then again i realise, maybe I had a preconceived notion about being fake and having a fake identity. But when I live in one, I am beginning to feel something different. Can't pinpoint what it is at this point but i can definitely feel that it's not so bad. :)

Social Communities? More case studies...

Greetings all!

For those on campus it's week 1 of our look at social communities, whilst for OUA students, it's already week two (fewer breaks!) So, I thought I'd let everyone know what is already out there:




Stanley Carter



Stan uses his blog to take a critical look at social networking tools. As always, comments welcome..



Mai Kato



Mai takes on Friendster, including some interesting background on the beginnings of social networking software.



Seik Kun Chia



'J' claims it is the individual perspective which determines whether MSN Messenger constitutes a genuine community.



Desloehal Djumrianti (yanti)



Yanti looks at tribe.net, an online ad-driven portal which seems to want to be everything to everybody.



Muhamad Akbar



Muhamad uses an interactive slideshow to discuss Kaskus.com, a localised Indonesian discussion board.



Also, a couple of 'community of interest' projects that didn't make the last post:



Igor Palmer



Igor looks at AOK, (The Association of Knowledgework)



and...



Michael Bennet



Michael discusses the emotional investment that music brings to a community on his WebCT student homepage - Net 24 students won't be able to view this :-(



Finally, for those still working on thier 'communities at play' project, Trevor has started up a blog that looks at online gaming (with a clear explanation of what all those gaming acronyms mean)




Please take the time to comment on these projects as it is this feedback which drives the learning in this course. Also, keep an eye on the other blogs to see new projects as they are published...they are coming thick and fast!



This guy walks into a bar - Ouch!