[Air-l] Re: MUDs, MOOs, MMRPGs, etc.

[Radhika Gajjala]

thanks Dmitri

r

>Folks considering questions relating to MUDs, MOOs, MMRPG,
>and any other sundry acronyms relating to online virtual
>worlds (competitive or otherwise) should point their
>browsers to http://terranova.blogs.com/ where they will find
>a vibrant blog comprised of academics and thoughtful game
>designers. There is also a research rolodex on the right
>that lists the now hundreds of researchers doing work in the
>area. It's a great resource. The "embedded ethnographer"
>would probably be one of these people, perhaps Constance
>Steinkhueler at Wisconsin.
>
>And, by the way, let me plug experiments and surveys as
>worthwhile data collection techniques in MMRPGs. I do this,
>and so do two enterprising Ph.D. students, Nick Yee at
>Stanford and Fleming Seay at Carnegie Mellon.
>
>It's worth noting that nearly every researcher in this area
>is also a player, regardless of their primary research
>method.
>
>-Dmitri
>
>>>  >>I'm also interested in what people have found on this
>>>  >>As for the young generation of mush-ers, how active and
>big is it?
>>>  >>Even among my most online-active students, only a very
>few even
>>>  >>know what a mud/moo/etc. is.  They participate on
>message boards,
>>>  >>blogs, IM, but don't mud.
>>>  >
>>>  >From your analytical perspective would the MMPORGs (eg
>Sims online,
>>>  >World of Warcraft, Second Life and so on) be the same as
>MUDs?  I'd
>>>  >say that there would be plenty of people that don't know
>a MUD from
>>>  >a MOO but are active MMPORGers.
>>>
>>>  I agree - they follow similar logics - but several
>players dont
>>>  necessarily know this.
>>
>>I think first of all we need a distinction here between
>MMORPG games
>>that are ostensibly about scoring points/leveling/advancing
>(world of
>>warcraft, knights of the old republic, everquest) and
>simulation games
>>which don't have any of that and are more about
>>roleplaying/performativity (second life, there).  Correct
>me if I'm
>>wrong Radhika, you know I don't know much about history,
>but this
>>would be like the MUD/TinyMUD distinction, no?
>>There are already several people doing research in both
>fields:
>>*http://socialstudygames.com/ is a site where a bunch of
>ethnographers
>>come together to post about their work
>>*http://xirdal.lmu.de/ is a study of the quake modding
>subculture,
>>which is really interesting because of his research design.
>>*http://www.alex.golub.name/log/ Alex Golub is a UChicago
>PhD
>>candidate who is working on a project in Second Life among
>other
>>places and teaches a class on this topic
>>*there's definitely at least one other anthropologist who
>calls
>>herself an "embedded ethnographer" on an MMORPG but I can't
>remember
>>her name.
>>>
>>>  >
>>>  >Do you think that the non-text based and unarchived
>nature of the
>>>  >games might make them harder to study?
>>>
>>>  I would say you can study this -  a triangulation of some
>particular
>>>  methodologies would be useful - self-observation
>(actually playing
>>>  and making notes), participant observation, reading
>manuals, and
>>>  doing an observation of other players while they are
>playing and you
>>>  are not, doing interviews...
>>>
>>>  available static text transcripts are not necessarily the
>best way
>>>  even with text based moos really.
>>
>>Of course you can study it!  How do you think ethnographers
>work in
>>the offline world?  No, it's not any harder--in some ways
>as an
>>anthropologist it's harder to have your fieldsite online
>because you
>>don't have the same Going To The Field separation
>experience as other
>>people do and thus you find yourself typically living life
>half in the
>>field and half at school and not doing either terribly
>well.  I agree
>>with Radhika.  Go take notes while watching people fragging
>IRL at
>>cons, if what you want to study is Quake.  Observe your own
>>participation in the world.  Copy and paste text from the
>talk
>>channels.  Hang out in the world practicing some passive
>skill like
>>fishing or sitting around town so that you're a
>participant, yet you
>>can focus on chat.  You might also look at avatars and the
>way they
>>interact through emotes, and who follows who in groups. 
>The hard
>>thing about studying some MMORPGs would be that most of the
>activity
>>takes place within clan groups, which means that you would
>probably
>>have to qualify and maintain the requirements to be in one
>or maybe
>>several.  This is also true of some simulation games,
>surprisingly.
>>
>>Kathy Mancuso
>>Department of Anthropology
>>University of South Carolina
>---------------
>Dmitri Williams
>Assistant Professor, Speech Communication
>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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-- 
Radhika Gajjala
Associate Professor
School of Communication Studies
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403

http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik