Extraordinary Gaming Moments

My housemate is an avid player of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, a fee paying dungeons and dragons style game with a massive amount of players. Recently a friend of his who also plays advised him to login to the game: something strange was happening...
A well respected character who had been playing for a long time and was something of a celebrity, named 'Buffed,' had leapt from the tower in the center of town and landed splat in the middle of town. It was not however, the character's normal user. It was his best friend, who had got the password to the man's character from the man's wife, and come on to tell the World of Warcraft community that the man behind the character had actually died. The friend had chosen to tell the community by killing his friends character in a spectacle of suicide. Around the body of 'buffed' a number of players gathered, sharing stories of escapades with 'buffed,' such as hunting goblins in the forrest. It was, in a way, a real virtual funeral, and I would argue that in many ways this was a very real experience. Certainly it is interesting to wonder what the man's friend felt as he leapt from the tower in his friends avatar. Two worlds are merging... (see Sammyjo's virtual mortality post).

Blog awards 2005

This came out last month, but for those of you who haven't seen it, it's really interesting...

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/21/1111253920074.html

Sammyjo

For anyone doing a case study on Communities at Play

Well, I've heard of Virtual Reality, so I guess you'd have to classify this as a case of Virtual Mortality...

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/30/1111862451076.html

Sammyjo

Communities of Interest - Case Studies

As the first two weeks of case studies are (mostly) published, I just though I'd share all the relevant links so you can have a look at the enormous variety of studies that are online and awaiting comments. I've taken the liberty if mixing internal and external Curtin students with those studying through Open learning Australia so you can all benefit from each others work and contributions. The following studies have been up all this previous week:

Chai Yen Lin
Taking the position that for some making friends is an interest, Lin examines Freindster, Fakester and trust issues within social software. Lin's blog is open for comments.

Cho Chun Neng
Does aggressive and abusive argument constitute Rhiengold's 'sufficient human feeling'? A closer look at a newsgroup discussing English football team, Manchester United. Chun Neng is calling for feedback at Team Ochre's blog

Samantha O Hare
Samantha examines the individuals perspective of community at the rec.arts.theatre.musicals newsgroup. She is taking comments on the site and conducting a survey of responses to be published on Team Ochre's Blog.

The following case studies are now up for this week and are all awaiting comments.

Danny Burke
Danny Burke undertakes a debate with himself about the merits of newsgroup communities focusing on the use of the Macromedia animation tool Flash. This is in the form of a blog, so you can comment directly.

Nurhidayaty (Ida)
Ida looks at a bulletin board community focused on babies and parenting. You can comment on her presentation on the Team Scarlet blog here

Lynne Harding
Find out about the 'Great Spelling Wars' which led to the emergence of a community on the Cybermind discussion list. Lynne is open for comments.

Marius Johannessen
A study of the web-based community deviantArt, "a central location for artists to display their creations for feedback and public exposure. " There's even a flash summary Comments here at the team Aqua blog.

Shan-Chun Bella Chou (Bella)
Bella looks at The Thing! Comments on the Team Aqua Blog.

Roshan Weddikkara
Roshan explains and analyses Metafilter - a fascinating example of community blogging. Comments on the site.

Nicola Wright
Nicola has taken the unique approach of building a discussion forum about discussion forums. You can contribute just about anywhere in her presentation!

Elizabeth Spiegel
A broader look at communities of practice with an invite to mail any comments to Elizabeth.

Mohammed Chowdhury (Arif)
Again with a broader approach, Arif looks at the elements which go to make up communities of interest. Comments can be submitted to the Team Blue blog


Whoah! With a few more to be posted, there are already a huge variety of studies in only the first two weeks. I have to say that so far I'm very impressed with the academic and technical effort that has gone into the presentations. Thanks folks, the variety has made this assignment a pleasure to be assessing. I'd encourage everyone to explore these varied links over the next week and contribute wherever you can.


Have fun,

Stew

Case Study: Communities of Interest

Hi everyone,

Well, here's my Case Study...(I sure hope that this is the sort of thing that we were supposed to do).

I've elected to put it in html (on a website). Most of the case studies I've read as part of this exercise have been presented as websites, and the total 'ownership'
(both of the content and the medium it's presented in) appealed to me.

Just to give my case study some context - I found that there was SO much that could be explored in a case study that it was impossible to do an indepth study of everything in the word limit given. Therefore I've tried to go in deep on a couple of things, and really just make a passing reference to some of the other ideas that I would have explored if word-limits permitted. (NB: This isn't a criticism of the word limit Stew, just wanting to explain why I've done what I've done).

Also, there is some interactivity. Please do feel comfortable giving me your feedback... Not just directly on the Blog, but also through my site. Anything that comes through I will collate and publish here (no names however, so feel free to be honest!)

So finally, here it is...
http://www.users.bigpond.com/sammyohare/virtual_communities/


Be kind :)

Sammyjo

Half Bakery

Has anyone been to the site www.halfbakery.com? Its a really interesting form of community and the first one i've really found myself interested in joining. Its tagline is Birth of a Notion and its about putting up those strange or not so strange idea you sometimes have. I'm thinking of using it for my Communities at Play Case Study because its about playing with ideas. If anyone's got any thoughts on this please put them up and i'll make an effort to do so on yours if you post them. I don't think thats breaking the rules is it Stewart? But anyway, check it out. There's ideas on just about anything you could possibly search for.

A Few Questions...

A few folks from Team Ochre indicated that they'd like me to continue posting questions to the blog so here goes (From Monday's lecture)

Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online - Catherine M. Ridings & David Gefen

In this reading, Ridings & Gefen claim that 'information exchange' is the No. 1 reason people join virtual communities:

What does this suggest about the place of community in the 'information economy'?

Do you think this reason is a primary factor in the formation of 'real' communities?

A survey of current research on online communities of practice – C. M. Johnson

What is a community of practice?

How do you think it differs from what we have termed 'virtual communities'?

"Virtual communities are defined as designed communities using current networked technology, whereas communities of practice emerge within the designed community via the ways their participants use the designed community."

Do you think this distinction is a valid one?

What examples can you think of that demonstrate emergent practices in the formation of community?

Bridging Temporal and Spatial "Gaps": The role of information and communication technologies in defining communities – Paul Baker & Andrew Ward

"While we may join a virtual community because of an interest we have, unless that interest affects us in our daily lives, in our lives as physically instantiated and geographically centred individuals andcitizens, there is no good reason to believe that we will long continue an active membership in the virtual community."

What are your thoughts on Baker & Wards' conclusion?

Which communities do you think have 'physically instantiated' effects?

Which do not?