Redefining the Written Word

Today on Sashay’s blog, she posted about a project called Ineradicable Stain which proposes to tattoo one word of a complete text on the body of volunteers – for a total of 2095 people. [Of which i sent my official request to participate this afternoon]

The project is aptly timed with my reading of Espen Aarseth’s Cybertext. The project states that the text in its entirety will only be offered to those who participate in it, and as each person passes away, the text will alter. It interests me in the face of Aarseth’s work on traditional views and definitions of textual narrative as we looks to define Cybertext and Ergodic literature in the digital age. The project answers nicely to a point he raises [chapter 4] about intent of the text versus the perception and actions of the reader and how the format of the text plays into the reader’s idea of what the narrative is. (among much more theory that i haven’t processed yet)

The project also interests me as a creative expression that marries my love for words, tattoos and supports something that pushes the boundaries of predetermined norms in art and literature.

Support WiFi

As mentioned in my earlier post, wireless in the park would rock! Please sign this petition and support it.

Thanks!

Summertime Fun

Summer has started and its looking pretty good so far. Over the last few years – with the exception of my vacations out east, summer has been spent indoors toiling away at some quest or raid. Glad to be playing with people in my own time zone once again – those early saturday mornings…(friday nights?) setting the alarm for 3am to start a raid was starting to wear on me. Nonetheless, my time has been split between EQ, L2 and Horizons. (not to mention school, the girls and a social life).

I remember wishing i had a laptop so that i could just play in the park, but then there was always that little thing called an internet connection that stood in my way. So now im set up for wireless and alas! i still cant play in the park!!

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With absolutely perfect timing Mike just posted a response to my unasked question. Now if only i can get some wireless happening at the park next to my house we could be in business!

Horizons

Recently I started playing Horizons, yes forever on that quest for the game to replace Everquest. Horizons is a nice mix of successful elements from other games. Although the player population is relatively low, the game design has succeeded in weeding out many bad apples who like to ruin the game for others. (with smack talk, griefing etc.) The game requires alot of dedication, and caters to a particular type of player. The atmosphere of the chat environments is friendly and constructive. There is no one general chat window, but player created channels that anyone can join. There are always the standard windows such as guild chat, marketplace etc, but players have the ability to create more topic specific channels. Last night i noticed there was even a Quebec channel! Although this keeps chats and in essence players seperate, you also get to talk about the topic at hand (no more selling in an OOC channel)

There are a few things that is nice about this game, tradeskill system, player generated economy and mainly its overall purpose. Unlike most mmorpg’s that have come out over the last year or two, the game is not mob oriented nor pvp oriented. The gist of the game is this: Mobs do not drop any items other then materials used for tradeskills, therefore the economy is purely player driven since you can only get armor, weapons spells etc from other players who make them. The goal of the game is to build towns and cities using these collective resources. You want to build a house, you will need people from every element of tradeskill to build that house; this creates a cooperative community.

A player can be a tradesman and level to capacity within the trade, be a significant member of the game and never pick up a sword or cast a spell.

Career paths are interchangeable – you can play a cleric for 20 levels, then decide you want to be a warrior, you simply find the appropriate NPC and request the change. You then start out as a lvl 1 warrior with lvl 20 cleric abilities, as time goes, you can be a lvl 20 cleric, lvl 39 warrior and a lvl 19 shaman if you chose – having the abilities of all three classes up to your level ability. This allows for some creative hybridity.

Lastly, something that has been brought up on this space, as well as many others that are concerned with gameplay, is how Horizons deals with death. You do die in Horizons (as i candidly found out last night mining at the bottom of a lake!) but you dont lose experience or levels or gear. You gain death points, which, as they accumulate you lose abilities until you regain them. Interesting concept since dying too often will affect the game play, but imo, death is not that important a role in Horizons as it is in most MMO’s.

There’s alot more to talk about when it comes to character selection and creation, but ill get into it another time.

More Sad News

As i’ve gotten older, it has been harder to find a radio station that plays the kind of alternative music that i have always loved…thanks to the internet (and the radio tuner on media player) about a month or two ago, i finally found a station that i love. WOXY Cincinnatti Ohio. Sadly, internet broadcast is expensive and their costs far outweigh the income free radio brings in… so they were supposed to end their online broadcast on may 1st – luckily they are still on the air … for now.

They still have their fingers crossed for some corporate sponsorship, but then with corporate money tends to come mainstreaming… which i cant imagine which i option is worse – the end of the station or the mainstreaming of it….

When good things go Bad

It is time to bid a sad farewell to one of my favorite stores…Torrid. Although they are still in business, their original business model of rockabilly/punk rock/alternative clothes for plus sized women seems to have been revamped to cater to a more…. mainstream population. With a softer more … girly pink look, and new categories like Club and Career, Torrid.com has turned into every other store … No more plus sized models (except for one wonderfully airbrushed beauty queen for a cover model) The clothes are now displayed on perfect mannequins … I always liked the real models, cause you could see how a shirt really fit on a plus sized body… now, the mannequins have flat bellies and perfect boobs… /sigh

So, guess its back to the drawing board. So long Torrid, was nice while it lasted. Maybe someday, someone will start something and stick to it because it was the cause that counted not the [excessive] profit.

p.s. torrid was a successful alternative store before they went mainstream, it was not a change brought about because they were losing money – i can only assume it was to make more.

EQ2

Applications for EverQuest2 Beta opened today, and after much net congestion, three hours later, i FINALLY got my application in, although that meant that i had to install a better video card on the fly heh.

For further info check out the official website.

Avatar Abstract

Classes are done and the weather is nice, and finally, I have some time to work on my game studies work – that is essentially, for myself… It has been very hard to write for myself, seeing as I am so used to trying to fulfill someone else’s criteria to finish a paper on this or that subject – It is nice to actually work towards writing something that is purely about what I want to say.

So, here is an abstract that i have been working on the last few days. It speaks to my avatar research that I started doing in my Research Methods class – and will, i hope, develop over the next few years [Honour’s and Master’s i hope]

Keep in mind, it is not my finished abstract – but the gist of it. – any feedback would be greatly appreciated – would you want to read a full paper based on these few paragraphs?

Five years after its introduction, EverQuest is one of the longest running massively multi-user online role playing games. Still being played by an estimated 400,000 players, EverQuest maintains its impressive presence. Beyond its unique game design revolving around quests, role playing opportunities and intricate fantasy storylines, there are other factors that play into the game’s longevity, notably player-created characters represented through avatars and the communities created by players outside of the predetermined game structure.The relationship between an individual and their avatar is one of the player-constructed elements that create a level of depth within the pre-determined game world of EverQuest. This relationship can only be created and sustained by the individual player, from the initial process of the avatar’s physical creation to the long term commitment required to the avatar in order to progress within the designed game world. The relationship between the player and their avatar plays an important role in determining how emotionally invested one is to the overall game experience. Therefore, it can be said that the game experience is partially dependent on these player/avatar relationships. The question then becomes how do varying degrees of the player/avatar relationship influence the overall gaming experience?

The primary factor considered throughout this research is the player’s role in identifying with their avatar within the game of EverQuest and its impact on the overall quality of the game play. Identity issues in virtual worlds have been commonly approached via socio-psychological perspectives, exploring the impact of virtual identity on the individual’s perception of ‘everyday’ self. [Kolko, 1998; Stone, 1991; Taylor, 2002; Turkle, 1995]. While it is important to understand how virtual identity affects everyday life, so is the insight into how it functions within an MMORPG as well as the effects virtual identity has on the game play.

Because of the participant observation I have engaged in within the game as a high level character, I have observed that the relationship with one’s avatar appears to have an important impact on game quality. This hypothesis was further reinforced by way of interviews I conducted with other long term players. By combining the results of the various research methods, I have worked towards formulating a deeper understanding of the link between the player/avatar relationship and its affect on the perceived idea of game play quality.

This research has the potential to affect many communities – from social theorists interested in exploring another facet of virtual identity, social communication and construction of community in video games, to game designers and programmers looking to improve the current state of MMORPG’s. Most of all, this research has the potential to influence the individual’s perception of a game, quality and understand what their role is in making the game successful in terms of both commercial and personal success.

Kelly Boudreau

Concordia University

Copyright 2004, all rights reserved

Technical Issues

I am having so many technical issues with Blogger, that as much as i like the simplicity of the system, i am thinking of shopping around for something else with less problems. Every time i log in there is something glitched in my page… /sigh

The nature of knowledge

I’ve been on an odd hiatus, supposedly studying but in reality dithering away time, trying not to study, procrastinating busily. It is odd how deadlines of this nature affect me – I can be in my office all evening and emerge after 5 hours without having accomplished anything truly concrete and yet somehow feel like I’ve been productive.

Anyway, I haven’t thoroughly reviewed the many new entires here yet — Kelly has certainly been thinking a lot of deep thoughts again. I’m looking forward to catching up to her soon, when this final exam in classical social theory is done done done on Monday night.

In the interim, considering studying for an exam is all about acquiring knowledge, it seemed only fitting fro me to put an entry here to this excellent chewy article about the links between Kant, Hegel and Durkehim, in particular through Durkheim’s idealist conceptions of human knowledge as a collective representations that functionally preserve morality and therefore social order.

After all, that’s all studying is about, really – reading and hopefully absorbing concepts created by others then applying them to the reality of the questions on the final exam.

And Kelly? I will do my best to catch up next week.