Play’s Republic

This past weekend, Prof. Ted Castronova hosted the Second Ludium, this one on “videogames and public policy.” It was an extraordinarily interesting experience for various reasons, not the least of which was the outcome: A Synthetic Worlds Initiative-sponsored Declaration of Virtual Worlds Policy, comprising 10 planks relating to the future of virtual space. It is, in all senses of the word, a political document.

In addition to the inimitable Prof. Castronova, there were all sorts of extraordinary persons in attendance, including Randy Farmer (now of Yahoo!, but a pioneer in multi-user graphical games), Richard Bartle (co-author of the first MUD), Mia Consalvo (author of a new MIT text on Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames), Sarah Robbins (the ubiquitous Intellagirl), and so on. For the most part, I kept my mouth shut and listened, which seems, at least, not to have caused any harm: Prof. Thomas Malaby, the amiable and erudite UW-M anthropologist with whom I was initially teamed, went on to be elected spokesperson for the Virtual Worlds Policy. Prof. Malaby is currently at work on an ethnography of Linden Lab, and is interested in issues of online governance; his first book was on gambling and contingency in ancient Greece (by now, if you were in CCTP-688 last semester, as I rambled on interminably about Plato and Heraclitus, Ajax and Achilles, Homer and Odysseus, agon and agora, you understand why I was so pleased to be part of his little retinue). He blogs for TerraNova, and is a voice from which you’ll be hearing more in the future.

I’ve written several pages of thoughts on the experience, which (if I can get through a particularly sticky part of my dissertation) I’ll share with you presently. In the end, though, it was a thoroughly enlightening, satisfying experience.

So much to point to, so little time. I’m heading to Ludium 2 on Thursday: For the nonce, here’s a really interesting note from Wired on the illusion-shattering nature of Voice Chat. We’re reminded that the willing suspension of disbelief takes more effort than some would suppose.

Yesterday’s The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy article about WoW gold farmers in China:

“The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer” by Julian Dibbell

If ever there were an interesting opportunity for political, historical, and rhetorical analysis of videogames, here it is. Wired has an photo-essay on “Lost Arcade Games of the Soviet Union.” See the accompanying article, too. A synchronic comparative analysis of Cold-War-era superpower videogames would be thoroughly original research that would make a very handsome thesis.

Digital playgrounds like the ones mentioned here are incredibly popular with the kids these days. Neopets and the Cartoon Network are also sites that are incredibly popular. The catch with this are the masses of commercial messages being targeted at children through these tools. It’s particularly concerning considering how susceptible children are to advertising messages. On the other hand, this type of digital play is probably a natural evolution with the growth of the internet. What to do?

Doll Web Sites Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play
NY Times
By MATT RICHTEL and BRAD STONE
Published: June 6, 2007

Presleigh Montemayor often gets home after a long day and spends some time with her family. Then she logs onto the Internet, leaving the real world and joining a virtual one. But the digital utopia of Second Life is not for her. Presleigh, who is 9 years old, prefers a Web site called Cartoon Doll Emporium.

A note about this post: Soon after publishing it, I received an amiable email from the author of the blog to which I refer below. He’s suggested I read his whitepaper in order better to understand his argument. I’ll post an update presently.

Let this link stand as a reminder that there is a palpable need for scholars of literature and film to help others (within the games industry and without) understand how to talk about narrative. We need to do a better job of sharing all of the work that has gone into reader-response models; the thinking we’ve done about mediation; the different rhetorics of expression. We need to think about making critical anatomies of gaming; a Gates of Horn for Diablo; a Mirror and the Lamp for Quake. I admire the author (and his readers) very much for applying themselves to the project, to be sure, but it seems that the time has come for scholars of story to begin taking games and simulations more seriously. Soon, no one will.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the looming death of the Sim franchise (the Urbz expansion pack, for example, was already DOA). But here’s a new twist that is both appalling and ingenious:

Of course, we needn’t even think about the possible dissolution of the play frame, and concurrent intrusion of the real world: The Sims H&M Fashion Stuff expansion set shatters the play frame with VISA- and Mastercard-accepting glee. With a nod towards biological rhetorics of the ludic, it’s all about Play as Preparation… for shopping.

Must-Have Fashion Items for Your Sims from H&M! The popular European fashion retailer that is taking the US by storm with its trendsetting contemporary fashions is now coming to The Sims 2! Your Sims can choose from cutting-edge men’s and women’s clothing including dresses, jeans, and other outfits, complete with accessories—all inspired by real H&M designs.

A few years ago, during an unfortunate lapse in judgment, some academics were referring to experiences like this as “prosumer:” Essentially acts of creatively-empowered material consumption. The card-carrying Party-member in me was dubious then, and is even more dubious now.

I’m wary of the play value—and would be anxious about giving this to my neice, for example—but this is clearly the future of online retail.

FEATURES: The Go-To Place for Hot New Trends—Design your own H&M retail environment, or use new store-themed items to build an intimate H&M boutique for more sophisticated citizens.

Read more or buy it for your H&M-loving self.

Fresh from the UK’s Eduserv Foundation, here are some presentations on Second Life and education from their 2007 symposium. Some good material here, including information on the University of Edinburgh’s presence in virtual space and IBM’s place there, too. Plus: Lots of PowerPoint.

http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/symposium/2007/presentations

(I’m not sure how long we, the students of last semester, will be able to keep on posting to the class blog, but I figured I would make a quick entry while I have access.)

The men’s magazine Maxim has released its “Hot 100 List” for 2007, ranking what they believe to be the 100 most attractive women around. Interestingly, they chose to put a synthetic girl - a Second Life avatar, to be precise - at #95. Next to her entry, Maxim writes:

“Second Life—a 3-D virtual world that’s imagined, created, and owned by its online residents—was launched in 2003 and now boasts nearly five million inhabitants around the globe. Never taken part in the nerdfest? Isn’t she reason enough?”

Many people seem to think it’s absurd to put a synthetic girl on the list, but it begs the question - how real are the “real” girls, anyway? After any photo is edited, retouched, and digitally enhanced, that’s not a real human being we’re even looking at. It’s a digital representation of a human being, in the most positive possible light. Why, then, is that so different from an image of a Second Life female avatar?

Of course, some might point out that Miss #95 could in fact be a middle-aged man in a stained undershirt eating Cheetos in front of his computer in Topeka. But that would break the veil of suspended disbelief, so I won’t go there. Instead, I’ll share this link to an image of lovely, virtual, virtually lovely Miss #95.