ROLLAND REY CASTRO: March 2008 Archives
Open Source Software will definitely be the new trend for software companies looking to liven up older or aging programs. It seems AOL has decided to Open up its Instant messaging platform to developers in hopes of making great upgrades. I think this is a unique proposition because developers will be able to create more compatible features for the program and users, regular ol' users, will be in the blue about the situation and give great accolades to AOL for providing the upgrades not the OSS developers. It is not just AOL, but my only complaint about the open source community as well. I feel credit is not given properly and AOL and other companies who use similar tactics will use open source as a way to (obviously cut costs) but to also gain marketing momentum for its partnering sites. Of course I could be wrong, but I haven;t seen a reason for AOL to open up its chat client in the first place.
Searching on the site I could not find any proper numbers on how many hours MMORPG players spent playing in one setting but I did find how many hours per week were spent playing the game a week. It seemed that the mean amount of hours played were about 21.9 with players under the age of 23 tending to play 2 hours more than players over the age of 22. This was taken from here.
The reasons for people joining the game were usually because of the game being introduced somehow. From the study, males were more likely to have found the game by themselves or through a friend as compared to women who found themselves introduced to the game by family members or partners.
Players tended to commit to many activities while playing MMORPGs. On average players spent 3.5 hours weekly looking up game specific information and 3.55 hours reading posts from other players or posting themselves on forums. Players who were in guilds spent about 2.7 hours per week reading or posting on their specific guild site while they spent an hour related to guild maintenance tasks. This was taken from here.
Reading some of the stories made me chuckle because I saw many a time where I was in the same situations as many of the players who gave their stories such as the “Trek” example. Other memorable moments for players included Solitary achievements, where a character overcomes extreme situations, PvP (Player versus Player) achievements, where players remembered great competition, Team achievements and so on. I believe what makes these events even more memorable is multiple inclusions of events which makes the memory even greater.
People should bother studying the information provided by the Deadalus Project because it gives insight on a culture not many people know exist, but clearly does from those who play. When over 10 million players are hooked on these types of games, this occurrence makes a statement about our society.
But sadly the case is that MMORPG players carry stereotypes that slate non-players of the game and critics (who have usually never tried a video game of this degree) to un-sympathize with players by calling them addicts (which some actually are). The stereotype usually make these people out to be unsocial, unaware, and oblivious to life. All the while I feel this is very untrue, as I believe these players maintain sharper skills in socializing and have better understandings of those around them. The one article especially described the gender bending partaken by males (from the study here) and how they had a better understanding of women, and themselves as a gender.
Looking at the research done by this group concludes that they know a certain subset of people who use these games to fulfill multiple outlets despite what the demographics say. These games are just as much as any organization. They involve structure, a common goal, socializing, self fulfillment and self value. The only difference is that this organization is built on people behind avatars.
Here are the questions the interviewees were asked (Some questions were tweaked to accommodate certain games or language barriers)
Name?
How long have you been gaming?
Do you consider yourself a gamer?
What video game were you most addicted to?
What aspects of the video game drew you in or rather, how was it introduced to you?
What aspects of the video game kept you hooked?
Do you believe that socializing in the game contributed to the addiction?
Give examples of your experiences and explain.
Do you believe that socializing outside the game contributed to the addiction?
Give examples of your experiences and explain.
Here are the five interviews:
Eric - http://rollandcastro.googlepages.com/Eric.mp3
Game of Choice: Everquest
Classification: “I wanna make friends” - The socializing factor included meeting friends through the game to progress.
Current Status: Not Addicted
Jason - http://rollandcastro.googlepages.com/Jason.mp3
Game of Choice: Call of Duty 4
Classification: “Join me in” - Usually observant, but when a friend picks up a controller he will usually join the session. Cannot resist the proximity of players.
Current Status: Addicted
Jessica - http://rollandcastro.googlepages.com/Jessica.mp3
Game of Choice: Tomb Raider Series
Classification: “In the Family only” - Not usually keen on games, will play games introduced to her by close friends, family, or lovers. Requires a strong in game bond with characters and and out game socializing factor to help progression.
Current Status: Not Addicted
Berker - http://rollandcastro.googlepages.com/Berker.mp3
Game of Choice: Oblivion
Classification: “Help me out” - The player who wants to beat a game badly, loves it death but cannot comprehend certain aspects of the game which hinder progress, will seek outside socializing (off and online) to complete objectives.
Current Status: Not Addicted
Thomas - http://rollandcastro.googlepages.com/Thomas.mp3
Game of Choice: Final Fantasy Series
Classification: “I feel for the characters” - Creates emotional ties to the character which, in turn, makes progression an obligation.
Current Status: Addicted
All games by the subjects maintain some sort of story, whether it’s the players making a name for themselves competing or players seeing the progression of the characters. All games played by the participants also involved interactions with other real life members of society, offline and online. It seems game could potentially be very addicting if there are both in game and out game socializing.
So here is a question to pick your brain:
Would MMORPG’s be as addicting as they are without the implementation of chat or communication structures
I found this article by the LA Times and was amazed to see such a shift in our culture:
”48% of teenagers bought no Cd’s at all in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Music downloads continue to grow, though, with iTunes leading the way.”
The shift from physical media products that we could grasp with our
hands to the digital manifestation is almost scary because I now know
what it feels like to be our parents and see cell phones change the
mobility of communication technologies. Its not like it’s sudden, but
looking back at
history makes everything seem like it was thrown out yesterday, or for
some it literally was (cough cough HD DVD owners cough).
I feel this is very much happening, even moving away from forms of digitalized recording such as movies, audio and written records. Money is becoming even more transparent. You hear commercials all the time saying "Don't hold up the line with cash, use the plastic!" I see this push as a form of more precise recording. every bank will have information stored in their databases sometimes it makes you wonder if physical forms of data will be banned. Or will there be a niche for salesmen who call themselves data laundrers. It might happen if people want to pursue the illusion of privacy.
So I was up playing World of Warcraft last night with my level 20 (now 23) Human Rogue and started questing in the Redridge area. I hooked up with a party of 20+ guys who knew what they were doing and we stormed this keep chock full of orcs. None survived. With the leader dead, and victory recorded in our quest logs I met two peculiar Female Night-Elf Hunters. Twins to be exact, these ladies (most likely young girls) maintained the same equipment and pets.
My curious noob self had to ask “Can I join your guild?” They replied with laughter and stated that they were in a small “family only” guild. On that blunt of a note, I waved them good byes and thank you’s and at the corner of my eye I saw the Boss NPC’s respawn, the Twins and their pets took up arms, and I left as fast as I could because I knew they were going to die without a full party (whatever I am a rogue).
But it made me think about the debate of World of Warcraft not being an actual game. And I agree that WoW is not a game, it is a social utility. I didn’t have to probe in far enough to find out that a family is using the environment provided by blizzard to emulate family activities which, back in my day, would be Monopoly or Scrabble. From this instance I would love to figure out how many families actually play MMORPG’s tither like this because it just seems so weird in the social interfacing sense. What I encountered was a group of relatives who, even while in the same house or environment used computers in-between their interactions. I am not scared of this new form of family social activities but it is fascinating to see how families can or possibly will evolve in the future.
And I’m not surprised. This is the information age; Apparently everyone knows everything so discussions between parents and teens are left for dead. I constantly imagine this scenario where a teenager has sex and the following day uses a source such as WebMD to quell her worries because the teen feels that he or she may not “exhibit” the symptoms described. Besides the scenario, “hooking-up” is probably more prevalent than it ever was a couple of years ago, especially with the push for abortions, condoms and other facets of sex to make intercourse seem like normal, should be happening, behavior. But I as I believe the Internet plays a role in the new trends, I think television has been the real culprit by pushing raunchier media and reality shows in an effort to gain its viewers back. I feel media is pushing the hook-up culture (one person flinging with multiples of people) harder than anyone else. Reality TV with its new season of Flavor of Love 3 persuade viewers to think that relationships do not work, and poses the question "why waste the time?"
Or it could be just how our culture is. Maybe people are done with this one person for life rule. The shows are just a response to what is really going on but in the end there is no remedy for the past culture of lovers. Failure has become evident, recorded on television, and fed to our future generations who then relay the same experiences back to media.
It really is one of those "Which came first, Technology or Culture?" type of questions.
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