Blog 6: Virtual Collective Action

Blogdett's model for virtual protest is made up of 4 essential ideas, degree of virtualization, legality, cultural homogeneity and the limitations on participation. The degree of virtualization is a measurement of how much of the collective action takes place virtually. Some protests are planned and executed entirely virtually others blur the lines with the planning and execution of the protest occurring both virtually and in the real-world. Legality is the degree to which the protest adheres to the law, actions such as DDOSing are gray areas. Black Hat hacking of networks is definitely illegal and risky for the people involved but frequently has wider impact. Legal actions such as the purposeful violation of game EULA's may result in a response from game developers but will not result in real-world legal penalties. Cultural homogeneity is the measure of how similar the people involved are in ideals. The limitations or participation is a measure of how accessible these virtual protests are to the population. Potential roadblocks to people who would like to be involved are access to a computer, a game subscription and most importantly awareness of when and where protests are taking place. Generally virtual protests are born inside games, image-boards and within chatrooms. For people to take part in these protests they must frequent these places or be in the same social network with someone who does.

Starting in 2006 4Chan's Anonymous as well as the Patriotic Negras began an annual July 12^th raid of Habbo Hotel a Kidworld. The raids started as a protest against the perceived racism of the moderators of Habbo. The virtual action was for a large coordinated group of 4Chan users to crate avatars resembling a black man with an Afro wearing a suit. The protestors then blocked the entrances of a pool in Habbo and spammed messages that said “Pools closed due to fail and AIDS” the Habbo moderators quickly caught on and stopped the protests but the Habbo raids have lived on, obtaining status as a meme in their own right. Looking at the Habbo raids through Blogdetts model, the degree of virutalization was total. Some planning may have occurred between ringleaders in the real-world but the action was completely virtual and there is no reason to believe planning happened offline. The Habbo raid was legal, it was a violation of the EULA and resulted in many avatars being banned but no legal action. The raid was very culturally homogenous, executed but a small group of people who frequent 4Chan and involved with Anonymous. The limitations of participation were very low, requiring a personal computer as the only financial obligation. Habbo is free and easy to use and the actions taken were simple. The biggest roadblock to someones participation would be having knowledge of the raid taking place at all.

GG

DPS-GAMER

Blog 5: Content Creation in Virtual Worlds

One distinction that Ondrejka makes very clear in his article is the difference between crafting and creation when it comes to user created content in virtual worlds. Ondrejka defines crafting as “the process of advancing your character, or “leveling” through the repetitive creation of game objects.” At first glance crafting and creation would seem to be the same thing. Users create in game items which they then have the agency to sell, or auction off. The crucial difference between crafting and creation is that crafting systems are built into games and can be leveled up. Players cannot be truly original, all they must do is gather a certain set of raw materials, walk to the proper area of the game and click the “craft” button. This leads to interesting situations where frequently the raw materials for items are worth many times what the finished products are worth because players repetitively build items in pursuit of advancing their crafting level, not obtaining the item. Creation is a totally different process, players are given tools to make totally original items. There is no “leveling” process. Every player is given access to the same tools and players are limited only by their skill and imagination. Anyone can craft high level items in WoW or LOTRO, all it takes is the ability to gather a list of materials. To create a helicopter or a sex toy in SL requires individual skill and imagination, there is no “recipe”. Ondrejka, goes on to state that if we are to truly create the metaverse users must have the ability to create not craft original content. There is no possible way a teams of developers can create a world large and interesting enough for all of humanity to be entertained consistently without allowing users to design parts of the world.

My experiences with content creation in SL have been very limited. I have used to basic tools to create a few different basic 3D forms. The amount that users have the ability to create is pretty astounding. Users can create 3D forms as well as clothing, animations, textures, atmospheres, environments, sculpture, high quality snapshots and machinima. It is exciting to me that along with the more utilitarian world building tools there are tools that can be used to create what might be considered “fine art”. As a photographer and filmmaker the idea of creating this sort of content within SL is very exciting. Unfortunately from the small glimpse I have seen of SL I don't think I will be taking up content creation within SL as a hobby anytime soon. In the real world we have the exact same tools for content creation as within SL but generally far more refined and dedicated versions of those tools. For 3D modeling and the creation of objects we can use VectorWorks and Auto-CAD software. This software has the disadvantage of not appearing in a persistent world but has the advantage of allowing its users to create content with a higher level of refinement and polish that is still instantly shareable anywhere in the real world via the internet. The same goes for Machinima (film) and photography within SL. The content appears in-world and is shareable but the limitations of SL as a tool for creation stand out when compared to the huge array of dedicated physical and software based tools for film and photography that exist in the real world. The power of the interwebs paired with dedicated tools allows for superior creation of content along with instantaneous sharing of that creation.

Second Life has taken some very important first steps in realizing the metaverse. What holds me back from jumping into content creation in SL is that in its current state the tools available are inferior to the tools available elsewhere. The true heavy hitters of content creation have only now started to trickle into SL. Professional architects, industrial designers and artists of all stripes will gradually move into creating things in virtual worlds such as SL when the virtual worlds can offer everything that is offered in the real world along with the added bonus of their content appearing in a persistent world. Ondrejka, addresses this in the section of his article about computing power and Moore's Law. “Raw processing speed will continue to increase at approximately the eighteen-month doubling rate predicted thirty-five years ago.” That incredible sustained rate of progress has allowed us to realize the functional graphical metaverse that is Second Life. With the improvements in technology that are predicted we can look forward to a larger, seamless and more refined virtual world that will attract a wider variety of people.   

GG

DPS-GAMER