![]() In Uru, the addition of the avatar gave the player a specific, customizable identity and a sense of embodiment (Taylor 2002). At the same time, the first-person viewpoint also created an ambiguous identity and a feeling of anonymity. The first person viewpoint enabled the Myst series' hallmark "faux" virtual reality effect (the game consisted primarily of still images), which enabled players to feel a sense of immersion, a primary goal not only of games, but of traditional virtual and "presence" research (Rheingold 1991 Pearce 1997). ![]() One of the unique ingredients that made Uru "the perfect storm" (as one of my colleagues has called it) for MMOG research was the transition from the first person perspective of the prior Myst games to the introduction of an avatar in Uru. The majority of demographic studies concern medieval fantasy role-playing games, which make up the most popular MMOGs, and which tend to skew about 80% male with an average age around 25 (Yee 2001 Castronova 2001 Steinkuehler 2004 Taylor 2004 Whang and Chang 2004 Whang and Kim 2005). When compared to other online games, this is something of a demographic anomaly. Players within The Gathering ranged in age from about 14-72, with the majority being in their forties and fifties, and 50 percent were female. Due to their experience with Myst games, these players were particularly adept at what have been described as "Mensa-level" puzzles (Duke 2005), as well as having developed a sense of "spatial literacy" - the ability to read and interpret meaning and narrative embedded in virtual space in a particular way. Uru attracted a somewhat unusual audience for an online game, mostly longtime fans of Myst, which had been the top-selling PC game for eight years until it was surpassed by The Sims in 2001. One key finding was that players arrived to the game predisposed to certain emergent behaviors, based in part on past play patterns and in part on demographics. Uru provided a rare opportunity to track emergence between gameworlds and observe how it mutated to accommodate new contexts. In terms of game studies, emergence generally refers to complex behaviors that arise out of simple rules, and that are unanticipated by the designers (Salen and Zimmerman 2003). was to examine the relationship between game design and emergent social behavior. The goal of the study The study was done as part of a PhD research project at the SMARTlab Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London. formed inside Uru Live, then immigrated into other virtual worlds. The primary subject of the study was a "Neighborhood" or "hood" (the Uru version of a guild) called "The Gathering" that initially Group and avatar names have been changed to protect the privacy of study subjects. ![]() In addition, I employed techniques of visual anthropology (primarily screen-shot documentation), conducted in-game interviews, and studied supplemental communications (such as forums and e-mail lists). Building on prior research in emergent narrative (Pearce 2002), I conducted an eighteen-month, in-game ethnography, using a technique of "participant engagement," which entailed playing with study participants as a full member of the group. Brought together by both a common gaming experience and a shared trauma, these players formed what I have come to call the " Uru diaspora," a distributed game community dispersed across several games, which continues to thrive in various forms throughout a number of virtual worlds. This event, variously known among players as Black Monday or Black Tuesday (depending on their time zones) precipitated the widespread immigration of an unknown number of Uru players en masse into other games, bringing with them Uru culture, building "ethnic" Uru communities, recreating Uru artifacts, and eventually developing their own unique Uru-inspired culture. On February 9, 2004, Uru: Ages beyond Myst, a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) based on the classic best-selling Myst series, closed its servers, leaving an estimated 10,000 players refugees. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |