Comments on: Serious Play http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/ A group blog about computer narrative, games, poetry, and art. Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:43:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: noah http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/comment-page-1/#comment-108536 noah Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:29:31 +0000 http://grandtextauto.org/?p=1428#comment-108536 <i>This just in...</i> The archived webcast videos are now available for Serious Play: MMO Gaming, Real Money, and Social Worlds Which occurred Thursday, February 8, 2007, 4:00-6:30pm Atkinson Hall, Auditorium The videos for each speaker are linked below and can also be found at http://crca.ucsd.edu/view_event.php?id=39 Featured Speaker: Julian Dibbell Author of Play Money and My Tiny Life "Play Money: Gold Farms, Polar Bear Rugs, and the World-Historical Relevance of Game Studies" http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/Dibbell.rm Graduate Research Presentations: William Huber (Visual Arts Department) "Complicit Play in Virtual Worlds" http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/Huber.rm Ge Jin, aka Jingle (Communication Department) "Chinese Gold Farmers: a feature length documentary on real money traders in MMORPGs" http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/GoldPanel.rm Guest Respondent: Raph Koster President, Areae Former Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment Lead designer for Star Wars Galaxies (SOE) and Ultima Online (EA) Presented by Calit2, CRCA, and the Sanford Berman Chair of Language, Thought, & Communication This just in…

The archived webcast videos are now available for

Serious Play: MMO Gaming, Real Money, and Social Worlds
Which occurred Thursday, February 8, 2007, 4:00-6:30pm
Atkinson Hall, Auditorium

The videos for each speaker are linked below and can also be found at
http://crca.ucsd.edu/view_event.php?id=39

Featured Speaker:

Julian Dibbell
Author of Play Money and My Tiny Life
“Play Money: Gold Farms, Polar Bear Rugs, and the World-Historical Relevance of Game Studies”
http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/Dibbell.rm

Graduate Research Presentations:

William Huber (Visual Arts Department)
“Complicit Play in Virtual Worlds”
http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/Huber.rm

Ge Jin, aka Jingle (Communication Department)
“Chinese Gold Farmers: a feature length documentary on real money traders in MMORPGs”
http://rpvss.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/calit2/CRCA/GoldPanel.rm

Guest Respondent:

Raph Koster
President, Areae
Former Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment
Lead designer for Star Wars Galaxies (SOE) and Ultima Online (EA)

Presented by Calit2, CRCA, and the Sanford Berman Chair of Language,
Thought, & Communication

]]> By: ErikC http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/comment-page-1/#comment-107055 ErikC Sun, 04 Feb 2007 08:02:32 +0000 http://grandtextauto.org/?p=1428#comment-107055 I am afraid I don't know Final Fantasy very well and it's cross cultural consumption makes for fascinating study, but primarily I am interested / concerned in definition here: how (in game studies) a game can qualify as a cultural artifact, rather than as an artifact which comes from a particular culture. In anthropology/archaeology, a distinction has to be made between works of an artist, and what is actually a culturally expressive/symbolic artifact, and IMO we seldom make the distinction in game theory. From their viewpoint, a work of art has to reveal something about the culture and not just be maverick artistic genius, as they are trying to discover the cultural not individual mindset. So I don't believe, for example, that a MMO is a cultural artifact just because many people play it, and for it to be one I imagine it would have to in the minds of players actually shape their perception of their/another's culture. I am afraid I don’t know Final Fantasy very well and it’s cross cultural consumption makes for fascinating study, but primarily I am interested / concerned in definition here: how (in game studies) a game can qualify as a cultural artifact, rather than as an artifact which comes from a particular culture. In anthropology/archaeology, a distinction has to be made between works of an artist, and what is actually a culturally expressive/symbolic artifact, and IMO we seldom make the distinction in game theory. From their viewpoint, a work of art has to reveal something about the culture and not just be maverick artistic genius, as they are trying to discover the cultural not individual mindset. So I don’t believe, for example, that a MMO is a cultural artifact just because many people play it, and for it to be one I imagine it would have to in the minds of players actually shape their perception of their/another’s culture.

]]> By: William Huber http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/comment-page-1/#comment-106897 William Huber Fri, 02 Feb 2007 22:16:59 +0000 http://grandtextauto.org/?p=1428#comment-106897 Hello, Erik. I'm not completely clear on your question, and you'll have to forgive me for translating it from "WoW" to Final Fantasy XI, which is the MMO that I've chosen to study. Insofar as FFXI is authored and produced in Japan, however, perhaps it is easier for us to see it as "Japanese," as cultural production in a line with other cultural productions. (If we then are able to see FFXI as a Japanese cultural artifact, then an inability to see WoW as one could be a consequence of our embeddedness in the same cultural context that produces it, inclining us to naturalize its distinctive cultural characteristics.) Whether the <i>visual interface</i> to a game or another is specifically cultural is too broad a question for my tastes: WoW clearly allows users to modify the interface to a certain extent, though the game-mechanics almost certainly motivate some interface decisions in favor of others, and those mechanics are clearly authored. The game in toto is itself an interface to a database, of course. I don't understand quite what you mean when you say that players "inherit" an MMO, either. Is this, generally, a case of a disagreement over the MMO-as-space v. MMO-as-artifact/text? Hello, Erik.

I’m not completely clear on your question, and you’ll have to forgive me for translating it from “WoW” to Final Fantasy XI, which is the MMO that I’ve chosen to study. Insofar as FFXI is authored and produced in Japan, however, perhaps it is easier for us to see it as “Japanese,” as cultural production in a line with other cultural productions. (If we then are able to see FFXI as a Japanese cultural artifact, then an inability to see WoW as one could be a consequence of our embeddedness in the same cultural context that produces it, inclining us to naturalize its distinctive cultural characteristics.)

Whether the visual interface to a game or another is specifically cultural is too broad a question for my tastes: WoW clearly allows users to modify the interface to a certain extent, though the game-mechanics almost certainly motivate some interface decisions in favor of others, and those mechanics are clearly authored. The game in toto is itself an interface to a database, of course.

I don’t understand quite what you mean when you say that players “inherit” an MMO, either. Is this, generally, a case of a disagreement over the MMO-as-space v. MMO-as-artifact/text?

]]> By: noah http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/comment-page-1/#comment-106882 noah Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:13:10 +0000 http://grandtextauto.org/?p=1428#comment-106882 ErikC, I'll ping William and see if he can drop by to respond to your query. In the meantime, a quick clarification: William's talk will be about Final Fantasy XI, one of those "not WoW" MMOs that we can sometimes forget because of WoW's large shadow. I understand it's one of the most popular MMOs in Japan, where people often play via consoles rather than PCs, and unlike WoW the servers aren't regional (so players from around the world, using different languages and platforms, are on the same server). ErikC, I’ll ping William and see if he can drop by to respond to your query.

In the meantime, a quick clarification: William’s talk will be about Final Fantasy XI, one of those “not WoW” MMOs that we can sometimes forget because of WoW’s large shadow. I understand it’s one of the most popular MMOs in Japan, where people often play via consoles rather than PCs, and unlike WoW the servers aren’t regional (so players from around the world, using different languages and platforms, are on the same server).

]]> By: ErikC http://grandtextauto.org/2007/02/01/serious-play/comment-page-1/#comment-106875 ErikC Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:17:58 +0000 http://grandtextauto.org/?p=1428#comment-106875 I'd like to know how William sees WoW as cultural artifacts/artefacts given that people 'inherit' WoW as an interface, and communicate in a lasting way, outside that socially inherited interface. In my view, culture does not exactly mean society, culture is an ongoing transaction involving changing and infusing material artifacts/artefacts, with social agency. Unlike traditional games, the interface viewed as a cultural (rather than artistic) artifact is a moot point. I’d like to know how William sees WoW as cultural artifacts/artefacts given that people ‘inherit’ WoW as an interface, and communicate in a lasting way, outside that socially inherited interface. In my view, culture does not exactly mean society, culture is an ongoing transaction involving changing and infusing material artifacts/artefacts, with social agency. Unlike traditional games, the interface viewed as a cultural (rather than artistic) artifact is a moot point.

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