In clarification of my argument on the MMO's systemic irrelevence.

When I gave the presentation a lot of people struggled to understand my somewhat long-winded theory of the MMO's systemic irrelevence. Here is a cut down version I think might be easier to understand...
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MMO’s are not “all about cooperation”, they are about keeping the player playing so the company can keep making money. Systems of cooperation, economy, socialization, etc, are essentially artifice for allowing players to get their fix of faux-satisfaction; their difficulty curves just the cure for the need for a more substantial fix. An MMO’s economic system is not there to facilitate the creation of goods (except maybe Eve online, but I’d just as soon argue they are simply better at hiding it...), it’s constructed to give maximum satisfaction for negating a system- you pay money so you can feel like you’re making money. Thus, just as existence within the ‘Matrix’ is irrelevant because the ultimate meaning of your life is the serve the purpose of supplying electrical energy to a world desperate from your own world of existence, so too is any existence within an MMO...
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In other news, the fourth episode of the Out of the Game podcast came out- it was a good one, but not quite as amusing as the first two episodes.
A Life Well Wasted also had its 3rd release, this time a discussion of the fundamental issue: "Why do we play?". As I've come to expect- it was 'fan-freakin-tastic'. I can't help but feel somewhat guilty for the plight of the indie developer... I often love to discuss the various merits of these game but ultimately fail to buy many (mostly due to my megre game buying budget and the freqent release of more attention grabbing titles...).

Anyways, I've got to get back to working on another assignment, this time for Australian Foreign and Defence Policy- an assignment which I may need to re-write because of the release of the Australian Defence White Paper! Way to go and invalidate my argument Kevin...

In the words of the venerable Shawn Elliot:

"We out, we out, we out..."

On Online Worlds

I've been writing a presentation on the nature of Massive Online Multiplayer worlds... but I think I may have gone beyond the scope of what is required... I didn't want to waste all that thinking, so here it is.

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(to frame it, I started the presentation as a response to two articles:

The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat
by Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer

The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games:
Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage
by Nicholas Yee

I dont directly refer to them in this, however, so you'll excuse me for not fully citing... this is mostly just my brain threading this stuff together over several coffees... that said, if you want copies of the articles, hit me up and I shall provide post-haste.

Anyway

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If the scope of interaction in MMO worlds such as the Sims online extends to activities which are traditionally not interpreted as ‘games’- such as decorating an environment (presumably without some sort of point allocation based on Feng-shui…)- are these worlds, or the worlds of more traditional MMOs, indeed games? Or are they something else? How about worlds like Star Wars Galaxies or EVE online, where interactions and collaboration scenarios can become complex and routine to such a point as for users to describe their activities as ‘a second job’?

I wish to propose two different perspectives which I came to on the nature of these worlds, and whether or not they are in fact games.

1)

These ‘places’ may not inherently be “games”, rather they are systems in which games might exist. For example, Second Life has no inherent ‘goals’. Actors are not necessarily ‘players’, rather they are simply individuals existing within a space, whose activities and interactions may or may not be related to pre-constructed or emergent gameplay. Like individuals in the ‘real world’ they can choose whether or not to involve themselves in traditional gameplay- such as playing soccer- however this is neither required nor intrinsic to one’s existence within the world.

2)

I could also propose that these worlds are indeed games; though they may be hidden behind the artifice of a make-believe reality, a constructed conception of open-ended complexity- the belief that the scope of action and interaction within the world is limitless, impacting and meaningful. These worlds are not open-ended but rather a form of faux-reality. Their rules of interaction are fixed and are formed towards the purposes of level progression and user retention. The purpose of these systems’ creation is not the function of the system, but rather the function of interaction as a means facilitate and prolong entertainment and/or enjoyment which might be derived from successfully negotiating a system.

An example being the economy within a world which does not exist in order to facilitate the production and dissemination of products and materials in exchange for wealth, but rather one which exists in order to facilitate the actualization of a demographics' fantasies of financial success in response to their probable inability to realize these fantasies in the real world. This model could be applied to social grouping systems, combat systems, property construction and/or maintence. Regardless, these systems are artificial and they are products designed to keep you paying a subscription (or increasingly, keep you making micro-transactions) by making you feel joy, or excitement, or a sense of achievement or fulfillment for having completed some arbitrary activity within the world.

These worlds are games which would have you believe that what they are is something more important than a game, something worth spending 40+ hours a week in, something worth investing emotion and effort in- and more importantly, something worth investing money in. Simply because they might obfuscate these goals, and naturalize them by representing them in terms of real world systems does not mean that they do not exist. To me, this is the same reason why people reject existence in the ‘The Matrix’…. But this perhaps goes beyond the question of whether these worlds constitute games and towards validating existence within these worlds.

This train of thought unfortunately has the effect of sounding like a value statement, both on the nature of MMOs and the nature of Games. It is not a bad thing to me if a MMO is a game, but the widespread obsession with MMOs such as World of Warcraft and Secondlife seem to be indicitive of, what is to me, a problematic convergence (obviously the gap is no danger of closing shut...) of social perceptions of worth regarding commoditized digital existence and real world existence.

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This is a topic which I think needs more thought... so check here in future for more on the topic.

p.s. again this is something of a 'first thoughts' release... so don't attack me too hard if I'm completely off the mark.

Procrastination as an Art

I honestly don't know how I can procrastinate for so long when I know how much it is going to hurt me. Take this for instance, I'm getting all Meta but procrastinating by writing about procrastination is pretty impressive/ridiculous. Even when I decide to start working, and sit down with word or power point open in front of me... I constantly find myself staring off into thin air or wandering off to the web- wikisurfing, reading webcomics (xkcd usually), or looking at all manner of random threads on Shawn Elliot's twitter (seriously, that guy is brilliantly insane). Or even worse I find myself jumping in for a quick few rounds of CoD4, TF2, or increasingly Empire: Total War (my Russian campaign has been going on since I picked the game up about a month ago... Spain has recently fallen except for their colony in the north-west of France... but that's neither here nor there...); those quick few turns inevitably turn into 2 hour affairs.

So this is me getting it out there. Slapping myself in the face with it; in the hope that I will acknowledge it and get the F**K over this worst habit of mine! Something tells me that it isn't going to work...

But yeah.

Currently I'm working on a presentation for one of my digital cultures classes, Computer Games and Simulation, about Network and Game Communities. Its bringing up some interesting points which I will definitely blog about when I get the chance.
Simultaneously I'm a working on that game theory/cuban missile crisis paper that I blogged about yesturday. Not making much progress unfortunately, so it looks like I'll be doing an all nighter... again... (seriously I don't know why I'm suprised)... and yeah I'll probably end up doing another one tomorrow night. At least once I finish that assignment I've got some time to chill... OH WAIT, I DON'T!! Yeah, I've got a paper to write for Australian Foreign and Defence Policy on the evolution of the Australian Defence Force, and whether it should move towards a primarily humanitarian intervention force. So yeah- fun stuff.

Ha... and after that I've also got a major research essay for sociology (Violence, Imaginaries and Symbolic Power) about the nature of violence in videogames.

I love University... but damn I hate it too.

Wish me luck my imaginary friends, I'm going to need it....

Shopping around for a title...

So today I spent a few hours burrowed deep inside Sydney University's Fisher Library, reading up on Game theory and the Cuban Missile crisis. Both very interesting subjects independently, but together they are driving me nuts. The simplicity of Game theory's models are great in theory, but when you are made aware of the huge amount of documentation of the three administrations ' decision making processes, the sheer chance and misconceptions- they seem increaingly insufficient and abstract... so I'm going to have a great time on this International Security essay.

Appart from the essay fun, it was my brother's birthday today, so I had dinner with him, his girlfriend and our families (make your own stir-fry on the bbq). Always an interesting affair...
This year I picked him up an iriver S10 (got on sale for $60-not sure about the value but it was there and I didn't have time to order something in), some sports/sweat-proof headphones, and The Dark Knight which I wanted anyways, so I felt as if i might as well get it for him for his birthday.

In addition to this I also went on something of a clothes shopping spree, at least by my standards, and picked up a new outfit. $350. Ouch. Still, I've got to give credit to the sales assistant at Broadway Tarocash- she really is one of the most persistant individuals I have every met. I swear I went into the place only planning on getting some pants and maybe a light jumper... instead I end up grabbing a 3/4 shirt, tie and belt as well... all of which she was nice enough to point out... not that she would have the slightest alterior motivation =P. It must have been something to do with the fact that I'm a weak male and she is an attractive young lady....


thats all for now,
night all.

So why am I writing this blog?

During highschool I loved to write. I spent my days thinking about writing, reading about writing, writing about writing, and just plain old writing. But back then I was working on a short story for a 4 unit english major project. My High School days a long gone (thank god) but in the time since everytime I start writing I fizzle out after a few days... writing seems to be a muscle best exercised regularly. So this is my attempt to get back out there, without destroying my already shaky attempts at a social/academic life balance.

Why should anyone care, let alone read this?

To be perfectly honest, I doubt anyone will ever read this. I haven't done anything (in)famous or revolutionary; I'm not relentlessly witty or insanely intresting... so chances are I won't even get a viewer on this page anyway. Frankly though, I don't really care =] . If someone WERE to read this... I guess I would answer:

I'm currently studying a degree in International relations and sociology, and have a long-standing obsession with PC and console gaming and gaming culture. I'm generally known by my friends as having something to say about anything, and I like to think I know something about everything (a little bit about a lot rather than a lot about a little bit)... so my rants are likely to span the topics of philosophy, politics, international security, sociological abnormalities, videogames, other media, and what ever else comes up. Beyond my ranting, I enjoy releasing creative writing pieces (usually short fiction), so its likely I'll be putting those here in the event I ever get around to writing it.

Falling asleep here... I'll write something more in the next few days.. Its a busy few weeks ahead (2 major essays and a presentation!) so this will be a slow spot for a while.

Night all.

In the begining there was nothing...

but soon there shall be light... I'll write something once I've done these assignments...