Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Journal #9

After reading Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, I noticed far too many similarities between the story he told and the world we live in today. The use of Xbox and the Xnet were an interesting parallel to our current world. After the attacks of September 11th, the world changed how it sees itself. America changed in the name of Homeland Security. We were all compliant with the changes thinking they were serving the greater good, something our society tends to strive for. After the devastation was cleaned up and our minds were rid of the thoughts of another attack, we start looking at the changes we have made and wonder; what are we risking?
The many things we have had to endure has become more of a threat that security. Everyone has to go through an extensive security check before entering an airplane, including old people and children. I understand wanting to check everyone, but do you really think the generation that fought World War II would try to blow up a plane full of innocent people? The government started saying they were listening in to phone calls that could be possible threats. How would they know which phone call was a threat unless they checked them all? The government, in the guise of security and safety, has taken away many of our rights of privacy without opposition. The reason people are afraid to stand up is they are afraid to be called a terrorist. If someone were to oppose, they would be immediately labeled a terrorist trying to hide something, when that something is his/her privacy! There was a big problem years ago with being considered a communist and people would do anything they could to avoid being “black listed”.
This kind of behavior is not new; people have always been afraid of being labeled as anything outside of the crowd and seen as a threat. Sometimes when we think the government is on our side, they could be taking advantage of our willingness to comply with new rules even when those rules are taking rights from us. Governments use the public’s fear against them when they want to have more power. Governments and people of power always want more and get it in any way they can, even if it takes lying to the public about things like nuclear weapons. The Bush campaign flat out lied to the American public when they knew there were nuclear weapons in Iraq, seeing as how the American public was ready for revenge, we cheered our leaders on to take out Iraq and eliminate where the terrorists are being harbored. Turns out there were no nuclear weapons and we were all taken advantage of.
We really have to be careful of what is really being used as a safety precaution and what is just another reason to peer into the lives of innocent civilians. If we do not keep an eye on what our government is doing, we will allow them to have even more control over us and they will be seen more of a threat than an ally. Doctorow really made this story believable with his many references to things we have in our world now. His story is a bit horrifying, but I could see it really happening today under the circumstances we are under now. Hopefully we can get this government to work with us like it was originally designed, rather than victimize the public.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Journal #8

In Charles Stross’s Halting State, the not too distant future is eerily believable unlike other stories we have read in class. The reason behind that would be that most the stories we have read were written in the 1980’s where technology was just starting to boom, but Halting State was written in 2007 where many of the gadgets and technologies mentioned and dreamed about in the 1980’s has become reality. The idea of a crime committed in a virtual world being taken into the real world and pursued in real life may seem like an impossible feat, but with some of the immersive online communities available today, this could definitely become a true case.
The game of Second Life is based on the economy of the game engine; the whole point of playing Second Life is to create a monetary gain. In Halting State, the game Avalon Four is the most popular game of the time and, like Second Life, has a way of turning the virtual money into real money (SecondLife.com) With a game as immensely popular as Avalon Four, the game company responsible for the creation, Hayek Associates has a real issue on their hands when, “the game loses players by the millions and everyone's stock prices take a nosedive” (Wagner). The game economy starts to crash, in turn making the real life stock crash. The relation between Avalon Four and games like World of Warcraft and Second Life are incredibly similar. I could see World of Warcraft becoming the real life version of Avalon Four because of the Orcs and how immensely popular the game is.
Online communities have grown significantly since the early days of chat rooms and have now become large groups in three dimensional worlds (Meadows). As Meadows has mentioned, “An avatar is an interactive, social representation of a user”, therefore makes the player responsible for what the avatars do within a virtual world. If an avatar goes against the rules of the game, the user is at fault and should be punished. In today’s games when a player would do a malicious act to ruin the game for others in an unfair way, the user would be banned from playing and if real money were to be attached to the virtual money, the company could refuse the payout. In Halting State, however, there is a mole within Haytek Associates, who is giving away info on how to hack into Avalon Four. This mole is causing the stock of Haytek Associates to plummet.
The story behind Halter State can be seen as somewhat a reflection of what our future may develop into. The gaming world has become so embedded within our normal society that when a crime is committed in the game itself, the real world reacts to it. Today there are problems and “crimes” committed within the virtual worlds and if they are serious enough they are dealt with by the company that makes the game. The reason much of the crimes committed in virtual worlds today are not taken as serious is because these virtual worlds are still considered “games”. Once something has the title of “game” no one would take problems in the virtual world as seriously and they can laugh it off and ignore anything that may be a potential problem. Once a game becomes so immersed within our society that it looked at more like another way to communicate instead of a game and has millions and millions of users, crimes committed in that world will be reacted to in our world. Like Meadows says, “Maybe the more freedom we have, the more rules and roles we need to invent.”

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Journal #7

When playing Second Life, some play to get monetary gain and some play to become what they are not in real life. Second Life allows a person to create an avatar to be whatever the person wants. They can escape the everyday routine where the player essentially can be a god of sorts. The player can create buildings, businesses, gain money, and even fly! Second Life can almost be seen as a do-over in real life, if the player has made a few mistakes in life, he/she can use what they learned and apply it to their “second life”. How many times have you said, “If I only knew what I know now”? Within Second Life, you can solve problems in a different way or avoid the whole situation altogether. Second Life is unlike other online games, unlike most there is no violence. This allows players to communicate successfully regardless of how much time others have spent playing. This game is entirely based on the principle that money is the core commodity in a society. A player can have a minimum wage job in real life, but can be largely successful within Second Life.
Second Life also eliminates the need of human contact by creating the illusion of other people through avatars. “This is why some people prefer Second Life and systems like it to the real world. Their intimacy and interaction with others can be more easily controlled, and they feel more protected” (Meadows, 36). Meadows points out the fact that people tend to feel more secure interacting with others through an avatar rather than talk in person. I have even ran across this in middle school using AIM, people would act tough or obnoxious, but in person would never act like that or back up that kind of behavior. “Most of the Internet is a collection of avatar villages” (Meadows, 23).
Online games allow people to act out in ways they are not allowed to in real life due to social stigmas. This can be seen as a way of releasing tension that builds up in a society like ours where an angry person is portrayed as having some “anger issues” rather than just being treated like an emotion. Games that are based on society, especially online interactive games allow the release of emotions that is still deemed “okay” by our society. Some players do, however, tend to go a bit far and use the online world as an excuse to go completely insane (reference videos below).
Online games can be perfect for some and problems for others. The gaming community has always been misunderstood when it comes to how truly involved we all get with our games and avatars. “Ultimately, avatars are about the advancement of personality within a kind of fiction that is both social and personal” (Meadows, 23). A person’s avatar becomes an extension of their own personality and it represents them in a virtual world, some being more realistic than others, nonetheless still linking us to our emotions. Avatars allow us to act on a more primal level with one another, our true emotions and thoughts can be shown without consequence and there is a degree of security in knowing the people you are talking to have no idea where you live or what you look like, in essence giving you the option to act kind or act completely insane. When we sign up to be apart of an online world, we get the freedom to act however we see fit in a society that is different from the one we wake up to every morning. We ultimately have to opportunity to reinvent ourselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBVmfIUR1DA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1Qcflxak0