The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 1 to 9.
The power of the next click...
https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/chatroulette
<b>P2P cameras and microphones hooked up to form a network of people who don't know each other, and probably don't care; a series of people in different states of undress, peering at the each other, hands poised on the 'Next' button to search for something more. Chatroulette, the next big fad on the internet, is here in a grand way, making vouyers out of us all. This post examines the aesthetics, politics and potentials of this wonderful platform beyond the surface hype of penises and pornography that surrounds this platform.</b>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In his
futuristic novel <em>1984</em>,
George Orwell conceived of a Big Brother who watches us all the time, tracking
every move we make, every step we take, and reminding us that we are being
watched. The Internet has often been seen as the embodiment of this fiction.
There are many who unplug computers, look over surreptitious shoulders and wear
tin-foil hats so that their movements cannot be traced. While this caricatured
picture might seem absurd to funny, there is no denying the fact that we are
being stalked by technologies. As our world gets more connected and our
dependence on digital and internet objects grow, we are giving out more and
more of our private and personal information for an easy trade-off with
convenience and practicality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As a reply to
the question “Who watches the watchman?” several Internet theorists had
suggested as a reply, a model where everybody looking at everybody else so that
there is no one person who has exclusive powers of seeing without being seen.
In this utopian state, people would be looking at each other (thus keeping a
check on actions), looking after each other (forming virtual care networks) and
looking for each other (building social networks with familiar strangers).
After about 20 years of the first emergence of this discussion vis-à-vis the
World Wide Web , comes an internet platform that produces a strange universe of
people looking at.for.after each other in a condition of extreme vouyerism,
performance, exhibitionism, surveillance and playfulness. It is a website that
the Digital Natives are flocking to because it changes the way they look at
each other. Literally.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Chatroulette! is
a new MMORPG (Massively Multiple Online
Role Playing Game) that uses a Peer-2-Peer network to constantly pair random
people using their web cams, to look at each other. You start a Game and you
begin a series of ‘lookings’ as people look back at you. Connect, cruise,
watch, interact, boot – that is the anatomy of a Chatroullete! game. If you
like what you see, you can linger a while or begin a conversation, or just
‘boot’ your ‘partner’ and get connected to somebody else in the almost infinite
network. In the process you come across the unexpected, unpredictable and the
uncanny. In the last one month of betting my time on Chatroullete!, I have seen
it all and then some more – masturbating teenagers, strip teasing men and
women, animals (including a very handsome tortoise) staring back at me, groups
of friends eating dehydrated noodles and giggling, partners in sexual
intercourse, graphic images of human gentilia, clever advertisements, pictures,
art, musicians performing, dancers dancing, conference delegates staring
bemusedly at a screen, ... the list is endless and probably exhausting. A growing community of
users now dwell on Chatroulette! to connect in this new way that is part speed
dating, part networking, part performance, part voyeurism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The verdict on
the blogosphere is still not in whether this is a new fad or something more
long-lasting. Irrespective of its
longevity, what Chatroullete! has done is show us a new universe of social
interaction that Digital Natives around the world find appealing. The possibilities of cultural exchange,
collaborative working, love, longing and learning that emerge around
Chatroullete! are astounding. For Digital Natives the appeal of
Chatroullete! is in forging viral and temporary networks which defy the
Facebook way of creating sustained communities of interaction. This is the
defining moment of virtual interaction and online networking –A model that is
no longer trying to simulate ‘Real Life’ conditions online by forming permanent
networks of ‘people like us’. Chatroulette!
marks the beginning of a new way of spreading the message to completely random
strangers, enticing them into thought, exchange and mobilisation through the
world of gaming. The potentials for drawing in thousands of unexpected people
into your own political cause are astounding. It might be all cute cats and
sexual performance now, but it is only a matter of time when Digital Natives
start exploring the possibility of using Chatroulette! to mobilise resources
for dealing with crises in their personal and public environments. The wheel
has been spun. We now wait to see where the ball lands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/chatroulette'>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/chatroulette</a>
</p>
No publishernishantCyberspaceDigital ActivismGamingDigital NativesCybercultures2012-03-13T10:43:41ZBlog EntryThe Elements of Role Playing Games
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/the-elements-of-role-playing-games
<b>This article, the first in a three part series addresses the definitions of role-playing games (RPGs) and their elements, the integration of elements from other genres facilitating to what might lead to the hybridization of genres and the relation between online and offline games as well as solo gaming with respect to the ‘Alone Together’ phenomenon. </b>
<p></p>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game">What are RPGs? </a></h3>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.rpgfan.com/editorials/old/1998/0007.html">RPGs</a> include a broad family of games where a player assumes the role of a character who interacts with the game(s) world (often imaginary) in some manner. It is to be noted that even an empire building game, which technically belongs to another genre has mild elements of role play where the player is a ruler and certain elements of characterization that follows are noticeable in the Caesar series designed by Sierra. The in-game character from generation (character generation is prominent among most RPGs, particularly fantasy based, and this marks the beginning of a particular route or path that a player wishes to take) to growth and development along various pathways and strands in multi-pathed RPGs would be an interesting read and is duly examined in the third and final part of this series. Role-playing games examined here are not table top games or board games but simulations, which sufficiently justify the basic RPG elements as well as the incorporation of other generic elements from turn based gaming, real time strategy, and simulation.</p>
<p>The ideal examples used are ‘<a class="external-link" href="http://dragonage.bioware.com/agegate/?url=%2F">Dragon Age: Origins</a>’ (DA: O) and ‘<a class="external-link" href="http://www.kingarthurthewargame.com/main.html">King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame</a>’ (KA).</p>
<h3>What are some of the key elements of RPGs? </h3>
<p>Interviews given by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.develop-online.net/features/529/Bleszinski-Looking-ahead">Chris Beleszinski</a> from Epic Games and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/07/bioware-muzyka/">Ray Mayzuka</a> from Bioware echo similar statements on the future of shooters (both first person{FP} and third person{TP} shooters), on the lifting of the pillars of RPGs, and the merging of genres, which may inevitably lead to some form of hybridization of genres. The key features among many of RPGs are (also described as the three key pillars, with the fourth pillar being a new addition/merger):</p>
<ul><li>Combat/Conflict: Some of the new RPGs such as Mass Effect, DA: O and KA have options of combat centred on the choices that are made. In KA allies and enemies and such other categorizations depend on the ability of the character. All RPGs have some form of conflict which may present itself in the third person form in DA: O or in the slightly merged Real Time Strategy (RTS) form in KA.</li><li>Progression: Progression is hard to define since there are different levels of progression often simultaneously operating in RPGs. It may be based on Quest/Plot progression without which the game (most if not all) do not progress (for example, finding Dr. Young is imperative in Batman: Arkham Asylum. This quest cannot be overridden or bypassed as is possible in others with a more flexible quest progression system, such as DA: O or KA). Progression may also include character progression in terms of statistics such as health, agility, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, and mana/magic. They are the six main attributes that defer among character classes. Depending on the fantasy game there are considerable differences or overlaps in their attributes (refer the RPG terminologies listed earlier). Progression could also mean levelling in a war game where there are no identifiable characters but cities/towns or some similar collective.</li><li>Exploration: Another main feature of any RPG almost always present in a shooter (FP/TP) also reiterated by developers such as Bioware and Epic Games in their RPG shooters is Exploration! This is most notably found in Dungeon Crawlers (with non-persistent characteristics being the best example), which contributes to replayability. Exploration often contributes to the immersiveness of the game environment in conjunction with storytelling. Exploration is also linked to quest and character progression in that the game does not sufficiently progress without a minimum amount of exploration meanwhile some content/areas are always hidden and accessible only through certain quests and characters. For example - in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.t-o-m-e.net/main.php?tome_current=0">T.O.M.E</a>, an ASCII based game which follows Tolkien’s fictionalized world of LOTR, it is nearly impossible to locate ‘Sauron the Sorcerer’ in the dungeons of ‘Angband’ level 99 without first finding/defeating ‘The Necromancer of Dol Guldur’ in the dungeons of ‘Dol Guldur’. In the LOTR world ‘The Necromancer’ is the disguise Sauron uses to conceal his presence from Middle Earth. In fact Greg Zeschuka developer (and co-founder) from Bioware, mentions ‘developing of vast parts of content that an ordinary player might never see in an <a class="external-link" href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4146/building_experiences_the_bioware_.php">interview to Gamasutra</a>. Almost 30 per cent of the content including sub-quests and related content are available but generally not explored by a casual gamer (the distinctions between casual gamers and hardcore gamers is problematic, but in this case suffices to say that the casual gamer would be an ordinary player who spends a few hours a week gaming compared to the hardcore gamer).</li><li>The Story (The Narrative) as the fourth pillar of RPG: Releases such as Mass Effect 2 and DA: O are by the developers own definition catering to a new RPG (shooter) and a more traditional RPG (in terms of classical role-play). The narrative is one of the elements of an RPG that has in recent releases strengthened enough to be termed as a key pillar particularly by prominent developers such as Epic Games and Bioware whose efforts are to create immersive game worlds, which respond to a player’s actions and characterizations.<br />Another feature important to gameplay but which do not possess such commonalities is social interaction. Although focus is given to social interaction in RPGs, there is no identification of social interaction as a relevant feature. This may manifest in two phases, one is the ‘alone together’ phenomenon and the second is the emulation of social interaction through choice (moral) in games such as DA: O.</li></ul>
<h3>The Playing ‘Alone Together’ Phenomenon</h3>
<p> The ‘Alone Together’ phenomenon refers to gaming on and off MMOs in either solo play or in small manageable teams. These phenomena are noticed in MMO Games and multi-player games. ‘Alone Together’ elements are also imported into the offline gaming scene. This is not a new phenomena, rather it is something which has gained more prominence with MMO releases and offline/LAN games trying to incorporate these elements for better gameplay. DA: O has a specific in-game function where you can login and post screenshots/character profiles and achievements online through the game. This is also noticeable in newer releases of T.O.M.E (v2.35 and 3.00 alpha 19 release). Fan content and MODs were usually put up on the Games official website or fans sites, a few games incorporate these modifications as custom maps and thus incorporating fan content into the game. The incorporation of this element in DA: O suggests the merging or the blurring of lines between genres, explored in the following sections.</p>
<h3>Unification and/or Merger of Genres <br /></h3>
<p>Ray Mayzuka and Chris Beleszinski echo similar sentiments. Genres are ‘almost a vestige of the past’, says Mayzuka, and Beleszinski echoes this as he says that the future of shooters is lodged with RPG. Mayzuka stretches this to predict a future, which may no longer subscribe to traditional classifications and have borrowed elements from multiple genres. The rising importance given to story and narrative technique by game developers such as Epic Games and Bioware are telling, since generically opposite developers (Epic works on shooters, while Bioware is renowned for its RPG) are working towards similar goals—goals which focus on creating games which are more realistic and require the addition of elements that traditionally remains the exclusive domain of one genre. Traditionally, Shooters and RPGs have been simulating the same experience (fighting) from two different perspectives, the former focuses on the action and combat, and the latter focuses on development and story behind warfare. The inclusion of the story in shooters enhances its immersiveness. Beleszinski states that the content is there for a purpose just like a script and as such the feedback by the in-game character contributes to the immersive environment for the player/reader. Feedback becomes one aspect of the immersive environment, one that responds and reacts to the player as and when the game is played. The player creates the game as it is played and takes part in the process of authorship of that playthrough. This element of authorship gives an amount of independence and moral choice that allows the player to create the narrative as the game progresses and this among many elements contributes to the immersiveness of the game environment (by environment I mean the game world including all its design aspects as well as the programming aspects which create this world).</p>
<p><em>The second part will review the debates around narratives and gameplay and focuses on the 'Demands of the story' and the 'Demands of the Game' derived from</em> <a class="external-link" href="http://www.costik.com/gamnstry.html">Greg Costikyan’s ‘Where Stories End and Games Begin</a>’.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/the-elements-of-role-playing-games'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/the-elements-of-role-playing-games</a>
</p>
No publisherarunGamingRPG2011-08-02T05:58:06ZBlog EntryThe Attention Economy - A Brief Introduction
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attention-economy
<b>This post examines attention economy as a brief prelude to a paper and monograph to be published on it. It examines the current theses on attention economy and a few approaches to reading attention economy in gaming besides foregrounding the attention economy and its functions and influence in MMORPGs.</b>
<h3>What is attention economy?</h3>
<p>Attention economy was made prominent through the writings of Thomas Davenport<strong>1</strong>and Micheal Goldhaber<strong>2</strong>, who examine 'attention' as a scarce commodity in an information rich environment and divulge into examining exchanges and investments of attention and their results. Not particularly a new concept, attention economy focuses on the examination of attention as a scarce commodity in the information-rich societies influenced by the Internet and new digital technologies. The concept was first noted and written about by the political scientist Herbert Simon (1971), who notes “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients… [and thus arises] the need to allocate that attention efficiently among the over-abundance of information sources that might consume it.” In the abundance of information and access to information, the consumption or the ‘prosumption’ of information relies on the investment of attention, which becomes a scarce commodity – expended in the act of consumption. For the expended resource is no longer information or its scarcity in terms of availability – which has been the classical concerns in the industrialized market economy – but the amount of attention that is expended on the consumption of information. Economics is governed by what is scarce and the abundance of information is not a measurable function, rather what is expended in its consumption, namely human attention. From a cognitive science perspective, attention can be read as the investment of focused cognitive faculties in a particular ‘prioritized’ activity. In this way attention becomes an essential factor in capital production activities, in that the investment of attention generates capital through the direction of work (labour) and time in any particular activity. Derek Lomas (2008) and Peter Hughes<strong>3</strong> treat media objects as artificial organisms that need attention for sustenance and energy for reproduction, somewhat in the nature of a Darwinian struggle where the most ‘able’ and ‘fit’ organism survives. All media organisms need one crucial element to survival, sustenance and reproduction – ‘attention’. In viral spreads and reproduction of a media organism the possibility of its procreation and viral distribution is realized through the investment of attention – the amount which enables survival and reproduction. By extension, virtual products are essentially media (artificial) organisms, and by extrapolation virtual goods and (possibly) even identities are organisms that thrive on the attention it receives for survival and reproduction.</p>
<h3>The Economy and the Currency</h3>
<p>Goldhaber (1997) notes that attention economy does not indeed have a market and operates unlike post-industrial markets. Although there is considerable material influence in terms of the investments of labour, time, and real money, often there is no direct means to measure it. Concepts of property, dichotomies of production, work, leisure and play require reformulation in light of this economy thriving on attention and its monetization. Davenport and Beck (2001) reinforces a measure of Goldhaber's arguments by stating that telecommunications bandwidth is not a problem but human bandwidth is. Goldhaber proceeds to say that a transfer of information must always be accompanied by a transfer of attention – measurable by the amount of time that is invested in the process. Even though both Goldhaber and Davenport seem to agree that examining time investment is a poor measure of the attention that is expended.</p>
<p>Attention economics in earlier discourses and theses are connected with examining the failures and shortcomings of ‘the design’ of informational systems that locate, falsely, informational scarcity as the root of the problem leading to a deficit in attention, whereas the problem lies in the flow of attention itself and not information. The theories on ‘attention’ deal with a multitude of perspectives – from examining the psychological aspects, on the one hand, to economics, politics and sociology (including a measure of anthropology) of online networks on the other. A recent research on attention economy has largely been towards attention:</p>
<p>a) as a scarce resource that was incentivized [providing an incentive to invest]<strong>4</strong> in some manner and thus the attention currency – which is one reading of the attention currency; and</p>
<p>b) as non-material capital, termed most appropriately as attentional capital and as measurable as wealth is to income, assuming that income can be measured and wealth and holdings are diverse and often immeasurable. Other studies focus on incorporating attention into design such that it captures user’s attention and rewards the time spent on the consumption of that information – so that the prioritization is the gambit of the providers of information and the subsequent hierarchies (such as Google and Yahoo) rather than the users. Prioritization of avatar information is also prominent in the representations in the achievement hierarchy – a system common to how search engines prioritize information – only in gaming this system systematically categorizes information pertaining to the avatar and its achievements and growth. This is both internal to the game world in question as well as external in that external tools outside of the game gather and prioritize avatar information. Such practices have been termed as metagaming.<strong>5</strong></p>
<p>Defining metagaming becomes problematic in that it is not a concept peripheral to the absent centre of gaming rather – metagaming or activities and processes associated with metagaming become multiple centres by itself. Applying this to the secondary/goldfarming market may lead to interesting readings but here I digress. Attention and the flows of attention are connected to the ways in which information is structured into hierarchies and channelled, such that ranking systems and the achievement hierarchy moderates attention flows and shifts – players and gamers who grow in short spans of time through strategic and organizational excellence get more visibility in these hierarchies.</p>
<p>Attention economies are largely read and identified in online economies and ecosystems. Davenport and Beck (2001) switch this dichotomy around and attempt a reading of organizational systems and how the offline attention economy affects organization and concepts of productivity and production. However, for the purposes of this study – online gaming economies take a central focus and a generic reading of multiple MMORPG economies is attempted.</p>
<p>Before Castronova (2003), Castronova et al (2007), and much later Consalvo (2009) engaged with questions on Virtual Economies and Gaming Worlds (for the sake of argument – Castronova’s term, Synthetic Worlds is used interchangeably with Virtual Worlds), Goldhaber and his contemporaries engaged with questions of production of informational goods – those that would in a primitive fashion address virtual production, consumption and exchange of digital informational goods and the relevance of attention expended within these economies. A colloquial reading of attention is that it is always translated as the investment of labour and time in different measures. Furthermore, the investment of time and labour on the consumption of any particular information<strong>6</strong> is is incentivized and thus prioritized based on its position in the hierarchy. The higher its visibility, lower its incentives and vice versa. The writers on gaming cultures and economies do not directly engage with questions of attention flows and shifts but by using their concepts on the investment of time, activities of production, cultural, avatarial, and gaming capital, as well as virtual currencies – I engage with the concept of attention as a currency necessary to survival in virtual worlds particularly in MMORPGs, where there are elements of progress, exploration, conquest, warfare and constant struggle.</p>
<h3>Reciprocal Attention and Survival</h3>
<p>An investment in attention always ‘seeks’ a reciprocity in attention, such that an investment ensures a positive net gain either directly or indirectly owing to a growth in the attention repositories or collection of attention capital. This need not be manifest in the service–provider–user relationship but the user–user relationship. This enables reading the production of attention and the systematic means by which attention is channelled through a complex system of hierarchies in society as well as in the Virtual Gaming Worlds<strong>7</strong> more accessible.</p>
<p>Attention can also be approached as the necessity for survival in human society in much the same manner as human society is dependent on the flows of attention for the development of the individual or group in a society or community. It can be argued that attention inevitably forms a basic necessity that indirectly influences survival, sustenance, and reproduction. Production of attention, production of virtual goods, and the production of attentional capital<strong>8</strong> are dependent on the minimal and pre-requisite investment in attention. The focus of this paper is to pitch attention as a currency, a currency that can be examined as one only when certain thresholds of attention have been achieved and relevant to the survival in MMORPG gaming worlds— worlds that are capable of viable social and economic interaction.</p>
<p>Questions on the attention economy is inevitably connected to questions of production and consumption and more recently prod-usage and pro-sumption (hyphenated for emphasis) in digital technology mediated environments, whether graphically represented complex virtual worlds or text based MUDs.</p>
<p>Although irrelevant to this trajectory, attention economy has also been approached from a systems and organizational perspective, which is what Davenport and Beck (2001) focus on. Similar studies revolve around examining attention flows in Social Network Systems (SNS) – Lomas (2008) and maximizing user value – Huberman and Wu (2008).</p>
<ol><li>
<p class="discreet">Davenport has explored the implication so of the attention economy from an organizational perspective and the impact on human life – so to speak – particularly in Davenport and Beck 2001 – 'The Attention Economy', the primitive precursor of which was Davenport 1997 – 'Information Ecology'.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Micheal Goldhaber has written and spoken in considerable detail on The Attention Economy – most prominent and seminal of which is 'The Attention Economy – The Natural Economy of the Net' 1997 in the Journal First Monday.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">I quote directly from Peter Hughes who posits: “Artificial organisms might live on attention--they 'sleep' when no one is looking at them and gain energy (cycles) when someone is. Since energy could be used to reproduce, the most attention-grabbing forms would be selected.” - Italics imposed for Emphasis.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Some discourses focus on the means by which attention can be converted into currency – one of those means would be to provide incentives to invest attention in a particular action, this incentive then moves its priority higher in the informational hierarchy and in a limited focus, reading the achievement hierarchy.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">I believe the term to be conceptually unanchored and nearly meaningless in its vast array of usages and applications – but to locate some of these practices using metagaming might provide an interesting insight into the very nature of these practices and the way in which they are encapsulated and epitomized in other terms.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Informational goods and virtual goods are read side by side and are not differentiated in this article, for the purposes of this argument – 'informational goods' as a term is a larger concept of which virtual goods may form a subset.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Termed the Achievement Hierarchy – The Achievement Hierarchy represents the complex internal and metaverse rankings in an online game. This includes the game’s internal achievement ranking system that categorises players’ and gamers on different growth patterns and achievements as well as external tools not part of the game which assists in a detailed ranking system. Often players themselves subscribe to external ranking mechanisms, to keep track of others and their own progress. Wowprogress is one such external achievement hierarchy that ranks players in multiple realms. Travian World Analyzer, Traviandope and many other external resources support gameplay but are not in essence a part of intended gameplay. Metagaming can prove to be a usable and relevant term to define these practices. I have intentionally avoided linking them as some of these sites employ hostile scripts.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">I consistently use attentional capital as an extended concept which includes avatarial capital – avatar capital is a term proposed by Castronova (2005) and cited by Consalvo (2007).</p>
</li></ol>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attention-economy'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attention-economy</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGamingGaming EconomyInternet HistoriesHistories of InternetResearchers at Work2015-04-03T10:48:21ZBlog EntryTalk on Game Studies by Dr. Souvik Mukherjee, July 28, 6 pm
https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm
<b>This talk will explore the story-telling aspects of game studies and how it relates to discussions of other digital media, Internet cultures and also traditional Humanities. As an introduction, it also aims to open up discussions for Game Studies in India.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://cis-india.org/home-images/call-of-duty-no-russian" alt="Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - No Russian" />
<p> </p>
<h2>Abstract</h2>
<p><em>You are a CIA agent who has infiltrated the Russian mafia and the mafia bosses want you to shoot down innocent civilians in a crowded Moscow airport. What do you do - kill the civilians or blow your cover?</em></p>
<p>The above scenario is taken from the controversial ‘No Russian’ chapter in the videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Graphically realistic and often provoking us to explore deeper questions, videogames have changed from simplistic beat-em-ups to more thought-provoking media through which stories can be shaped and retold. Videogames are, therefore, storytelling media although traditional Humanities and Information Technology both struggle with this notion. This talk will explore how videogames tell stories and why traditional academia finds them problematic. It will also address how understanding this ‘new; storytelling could result in the creation of eminently more innovative and arguably, more marketable gaming software.</p>
<p>Coming back to the Call of Duty scenario, one notices a significant difference from most stories that we get in books or movies. The reader / player has a choice and this is a nontrivial choice that influences the furtherance of the story. The story therefore has multiple endings and is, in effect, constructed jointly by the affordances and mechanics created by the game designer and by the choices and the playing skill of the player. Further, the player can save and replay a game sequence over and over - each time the game plays out differently and the story changes, at least slightly. Moreover, the involvement of the player with the game environment can be very intense and create the feeling of being within the story-world. Finally, there is the issue of accepting that games, usually likened to the playful and the non-serious, can be instrumental in creating a thought-provoking narrative experience. Likewise, the idea of a computer program spinning out a story is equally unexpected and looked upon with suspicion.</p>
<p>For all the problems posed by game-narratives, the consideration that videogames tell stories and that some videogames tell very thought-provoking tales is an unavoidable one. Recent trends in Humanities criticism and in Computing recognise the synergy between the disciplines. Gaming is no longer all about creating Shooters such as Doom; videogames have changed in concept, have entered social networking platforms and are increasingly beginning to comment on real-world issues. In terms of software development, the storytelling game has made it imperative to study the player’s responses; how players interact with the game-world and how they innovate strategies are of key importance to designing successful gameplay sequences. As far as the Humanities are concerned, the game-narrative can provoke thought into philosophical problems such as the morality of killing civilians in the Call of Duty sequence; further the videogame-story also helps explore storytelling in a multiple and shared textual form and to think about inherent linkages between games, stories and machines.</p>
<p>The aim of this talk is to raise questions regarding the storytelling aspect of videogames rather than coming up with any set conclusions. Ultimately, such a discussion aims to lead to the development of some new pointers for rethinking the videogame industry, especially in terms of the global marketplace and in terms of how the story-experience in videogames is a key factor in shaping player interest. This talk is an introduction to the now slightly over a decade old field of Game Studies and how it relates to discussions of other digital media, Internet cultures and also traditional Humanities. As an introduction, it also aims to open discussions for Game Studies in India.</p>
<h2>Speaker</h2>
<p><strong>Souvik Mukherjee</strong> is currently employed as Assistant Professor of English Literature at Presidency University (earlier Presidency College), Calcutta. Souvik has been researching videogames as an emerging storytelling medium since 2002 and has completed his PhD on the subject from Nottingham Trent University in 2009. Souvik has done his postdoctoral research in the Humanities faculty of De Montfort University, UK and as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India where he worked on digital media as well as narrative analysis.</p>
<p>Souvik's monograph <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137525048"><em>Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books</em></a> was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. His research examines their relationship to canonical ideas of narrative and also how videogames inform and challenge current conceptions of technicity, identity and culture, in general. His current interests involve the analysis of paratexts of videogames such as walkthroughs and after-action reports as well as the concept of time and telos in videogames. Besides Game Studies, his other interests are (the) Digital Humanities and Early Modern Literature. He also blogs about videogames research on <a href="http://readinggamesandplayingbooks.blogspot.in/">Ludus ex Machina</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm'>https://cis-india.org/raw/talk-on-game-studies-souvik-mukherjee-july-28-6-pm</a>
</p>
No publishersneha-ppGamingWeb CulturesDigital KnowledgeGame StudiesDigital MediaResearchers at WorkEvent2016-09-16T13:21:58ZEventNarrative and Gameplay in Role Playing Games
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/narrative-and-gameplay
<b>Not all games tell stories but narratives, gameplay, and their relational attributes are a relevant shift observed in the gaming scene, Arun Menon finds out.</b>
<p>This article, the second in a three-part series, examines the elements of role playing games (RPGs), the narrative versus gaming, and the questions of centrality of narratives in RPGs. It focuses and reviews the debates surrounding narratives and gameplay in RPGs.</p>
<p>The section looks at:</p>
<ul><li>Narrative versus gameplay and games as the antithesis of narrative, interactivity and gameplay. The debates of the ludologists and the narratologists; and</li><li>Interactivity and narrative, the mechanics of the game not independent to the narrative.</li></ul>
<h3>Narrative versus Gameplay</h3>
<p>The <em>narrative vs. gameplay</em> debate has been raging for a few years in media scholarship particularly relating to the (video) gaming industry. Where once the narrative was considered the antithesis of gameplay, there is a noticeable shift towards the former. Developers across genres are incorporating the narrative as an essential element of their products, so much so that a few of them brand themselves as the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2261/gdc_2005_report_storytelling_.php">developer with a difference</a>.</p>
<p>The extremely relevant shift, since the incorporation is <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/gaming/the-elements-of-role-playing-games">not limited to RPGs</a> alone, and a merger or hybridization of different genres. Academicians as well as gamers have called for a diversification of genres so that a gamer may be exposed to a broad possibility of experiences. The movement, although, seems to be in the opposite direction with hybridization of genres but without losing out on possibilities of creating multiple experiences. The Ludologists and the Narratologists differ on gaming, storytelling, and narrative structures and its working within these spaces.</p>
<div class="pullquote">Narrative: The Antithesis of Gameplay</div>
<p>Jesper Juul argues that computer games are not narratives and rather narratives in computer games isolates the ‘computer game-ness’. (I interpret Juul’s computer game-ness as gameplay, can also be read as the mechanics of the game). Juul’s comments are similar to many Ludologists who argue for a focus on the mechanics of gameplay rather than the study of games as media for storytelling as is done by the Narratologists. The focus on the mechanics of the game is derived from the argument that the experience of the game does not solely rest with the experience of the story. Often the narrative limits gameplay and character progression (which includes quest progression where applicable). Reading whole games as entire narratives may be problematic. Narratives may be present in minimal quantities localized within the game. Narrative structures are altogether another medium used to deliver the story. <a class="external-link" href="http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html">As Jenkins notes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>"Game designers don't simply tell stories. They design worlds and sculpt spaces. It is no accident, for example, that game design documents have historically been more interested in issues of level design than plotting or character motivation."</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The delivery of the story through interactive game worlds create a certain process for the narrative to play out. Readings of the narrative alone without the mechanics of gameplay and its contribution would be incomplete. Henry Jenkins seems to term designers more in terms of narrative architects rather than just storytellers. Narratives within games do not conform to the classical modes of narratives, which are used when reading/interpreting games. Such a reading becomes problematic because of the heavy handed import of theory without proper application. A certain amount of incorporation of theory without sufficient examination of the process (or the architecture in Jenkins words) through which the story is told.</p>
<p class="callout">Interactivity and Narrative</p>
<p>Interactivity is the process where the game’s world responds to the player and the choices made by the player. The structure is so set up that in addition to the narrative, interactivity allows a certain response/consequence. The consequence or response of the game world does two things: a) increase the potential for an immersive environment where the gamer emotionally engages with the game and b) there are separate plot lines depending entirely on choices made by the player. For example in an epic fantasy RPG, I can ally with the good hero or the bad hero and have different choices and content that follows dependent on this and the following moral decisions. Interactivity is determined by contribution of the player (engagement with the game world, and the subsequent choices in character development/progression) and the narrative is often construed as the one set by the developer and therefore, has credible authorship (questions of authorship of the developer and the co-authorship of the player) and as such both (interactivity and narrative) are different from each other.</p>
<p>As noted by Henry Jenkins in his article <a class="external-link" href="http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html">Game Design as Narrative Architecture</a> there is a need to acknowledge a few basic points when talking about narratives and storytelling in games. Often when talking about narratives the discussion tends to meander into irrelevant areas locating a narrative in every game where most probably none exists, narrative and storytelling are not intrinsic to the game and not all games tell stories. In one where A throws a ball to B (either can be the player or the NPC [NPC stands for non-player character(s), often found within the game, and does not necessarily have to be graphically coded in text based games. An example of this would be Eternal Duel]), the ball is not expected to bounce up and down, narrating its history and its present predicament, pleading the players character to venture out on a righteous quest [Inspired by Markku Eskelinen “… if I throw a ball at you, I don’t expect you to drop it and wait until it starts telling stories”]. It is then important to see that these aspects are limited to specific instances and specific products which in this case would be RPGs. <a class="external-link" href="http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html">To quote Jenkins</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>"You say narrative to the average gamer and what they are apt to imagine is something on the order of a choose-your-own adventure book, a form noted for its lifelessness and mechanical exposition rather than enthralling entertainment, thematic sophistication, or character complexity."</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The conceptualization of what a narrative is and how it operates within games need to be rethought since classical influences still dictate theorizations of what narratives (in games) are. The application of film theory to videogames has no doubt led to game studies being influenced particularly in areas of immersive structures and storytelling through comparison to other media.</p>
<p>However, such is its literal interpretation that often ‘the lenses’ used to examine a phenomenon irrevocably colours the reading. The study of a narrative does not mean that storytelling is featured above other aspects of gameplay and the experience of the playthrough is not limited to the experience of the story alone. Immersiveness necessarily does not depend only on the story but also on the fact that a story plays a relevant part in the immersiveness experienced in a role playing game. The operation of narratives in a role playing game would be far more extensive than in any of the other genres.</p>
<p>The ‘role-play’ in RPG involves stories on the character and its present predicament with snapshots of the past which fall into place through progression. Such a model may be observed in Bioshock. The epic fantasy genres allow more freedom largely because the central narrative, if there is one at all, is a loose structure that allows progression any one way. Progression here may be linked to moral choices that the reader makes and the characterization that the reader creates. For instance in <a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonAge">Dragon Age: Origins</a> a point comes when the character meets an NPC ‘Sten’ [An NPC character, who murdered an entire family including the children] who agrees to join the group and battle Darkspawn. There are points in the dialogue when Sten argues that death is his redemption and the character depending on how the player has created and visualized the character has to make a choice to either kill Sten for his crime, allow him to join the party, or just leave him caged to be a bait for Darkspawn attacks. This opportunity of making moral choices also affects gameplay and content. Including or excluding Sten in the party means access to different content.</p>
<p>This is where the relational aspects of interactivity and narrative play a part. Two gamers making similar choices will have different experiences based largely on those choices. Dialogue choices, character choices, events in different orders and so forth make up for different playthrough experiences for different individuals even if convergent plotlines are encountered.</p>
<p>Most games do have narrative aspirations. Jenkins argues that game narratives seek to tap into the emotional residues of narrative experiences in other mediums. As such there is an effort to create immersive environments (Immersive environments denote the emotional engagement/investment of the reader/gamer in the game world). Often it is not sufficiently translated into experience. All narratives would be, in this framework, a set of attempts to link with other narratives even as a baser residual or experiential form. Residual narratives are the memories of alternate predecessor narratives engaged by the gamer in the same or other mediums. For example, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.t-o-m-e.net/main.php?tome_current=0">The Tales of Middle Earth</a> (T.O.M.E) would be more accessible for a gamer, who has read Tolkein and watched the movies. This can also be seen in RPG formats. On a careful examination, most plotlines have some similarity with Dungeons and Dragons, one of the first and successful RPGs. There is a possibility of multiple narratives operating in the same game, experienced through an interactive mode. This is noticed in some of the new releases such as <a class="external-link" href="http://www.neocoregames.com/">Neocore</a> [The developers of ‘<a class="external-link" href="http://www.kingarthurthewargame.com/main.html">King Arthur: The Role Playing Wargame</a>] and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.bioware.com/">Bioware</a>.</p>
<p>Bioware is the developer of Mass Effect and Mass Effect2, both modern RPGs with revolutionary design. Revolutionary in terms of ability to carry over a narrative into the second release by importing a saved game and observing the consequences of actions taken in the previous game, as well as cater to new players by allowing creation of new characters and entirely new interactive, responsive narratives. The same company also designed Dragon Age: Origins, which is a more traditional RPG in terms of storyline and characterizations. The Traditional RPGs follow the set models that have similarities to J. R. R. Tolkeins fictionalized world and the RPG precursor dungeons and dragons. As mentioned earlier this translates into multiple/different experiences with consecutive engagement with the same game. Since, the possibility of multiple narratives operating within the same game, through interactivity, is noticed in new releases by developers such as Neocore and to an extent in Bioware.</p>
<p>To conclude, narratives in games have been conceptualized and read through different perspectives. An emphasis on the mechanics of the game is relevant with any approach to the narrative in the game. Since, the narrative is not independent of the architecture that delivers it, it is important to acknowledge that narratives in games require completely different approaches.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/narrative-and-gameplay'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/narrative-and-gameplay</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGaming2012-03-13T10:43:48ZBlog EntryLocating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop: Call for Participation
https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop
<b>Deadline for submission: 26th July 2011-06-08;
When: 19th - 22nd August, 2011;
Where: Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad;
Organised by: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and CEPT University, Ahmedabad.
Please Note: Travel support is only available for domestic travel within India.</b>
<p>LOCATING INTERNETS is an innovative, multi-disciplinary, workshop that engages with some of the most crucial debates around Internet and Society within academic scholarship, discourse and practice in India. It explores Where, When, How and What has changed with the emergence of Internet and Digital Technologies in the country. The Internet is not a singular monolithic entity but is articulated in various forms – sometimes materially, through accessing the web; at others, through our experiences; and yet others through imaginations of policy and law. Internets have become a part of our everyday practice, from museums and archives, to school and university programmes, living rooms and public spaces, relationships and our bodily lived realities. It becomes necessary to reconfigure our existing concepts, frameworks and ideas to make sense of the rapidly digitising world around us. The Internet is no longer contained in niche disciplines or specialised everyday practices. LOCATING INTERNETS invites scholars, teachers, researchers, advanced research students and educationalists from any discipline to learn and discuss how to ask new questions and design innovative curricula in their discipline by introducing concepts and ideas from path-breaking research in India.</p>
<p>Comprised of training, public lectures, open discussion spaces, and hands-on curriculum building exercises, this workshop will introduce the participants to contemporary debates, help them articulate concerns and problems from their own research and practice, and build knowledge clusters to develop innovative and open curricula which can be implemented in interdisciplinary undergraduate spaces in the country. It showcases the research outputs produced by the Centre for Internet and Society’s Researchers @ Work Programme, and brings together nine researchers to talk about alternative histories, processes, and bodies of the Internets, and how they can be integrated into mainstream pedagogic practices and teaching environments.</p>
<h3>Knowledge Clusters for the Workshop</h3>
<p>LOCATING INTERNETS is designed innovatively to accommodate for various intellectual and practice based needs of the participants. While the aim is to introduce the participants to a wide interdisciplinary range of scholarship, we also hope to address particular disciplinary and scholarly concerns of the participants. The workshop is further divided into three knowledge clusters which help the participants to focus their energies and ideas in the course of the four days.</p>
<ul><li><strong>Bridging the Gap</strong>: This workshop seeks to break away from the utopian public discourse of the Internets as a-historical and completely dis-attached from existing technology ecologies in the country. This knowledge cluster intends to produce frameworks that help us contextualize the contemporary internet policy, discourse and practice within larger geo-political and socio-historical flows and continuities in Modern India. The first cluster chartsdifferent pre-histories of the Internets, mapping the continuities and ruptures through philosophy of techno-science, archiving practices, and electronifcation of governments,to develop new technology-society perspectives.</li><li><strong>Paradigms of Practice</strong>:One of the biggest concerns about Internet studies in India and other similar developed contexts is the object oriented approach that looks largely at specific usages, access, infrastructure, etc. However, it is necessary to understand that the Internet is not merely a tool or a gadget. The growth of Internets produces systemic changes at the level of process and thought. The technologies often get appropriated for governance both by the state and the civil society, producing new processes and dissonances which need to be charted. The second cluster looks at certain contemporary processes that the digital and Internet technologies change drastically in order to recalibrate the relationship between the state, the market and the citizen.</li><li><strong>Feet on the Ground</strong>: The third cluster looks at contemporary practices of the Internet to understand the recent histories of movements, activism and cultural practices online. It offers an innovative way of understanding the physical objects and bodies that undergo dramatic transitions as digital technologies become pervasive, persuasive and ubiquitous. It draws upon historical discourse, everyday practices and cultural performances to form new ways of formulating and articulating the shapes and forms of social and cultural structures.</li></ul>
<h3>Workshop Outcomes</h3>
<p>The participants are expected to engage with issue of Internet and it various systemic processes through their own disciplinary interests. Apart from lectures and orientation sessions, the participants will actively work on their own project ideas during the period in groups and will be guided by experts. The final outcome of the workshops would be curriculum for undergraduate and graduate teaching space of various disciplines in the country.</p>
<h3>Participation Guidelines</h3>
<p>LOCATING INTERNETS is now accepting submissions from interested participants in the following format:</p>
<ol><li>Name:</li><li>Institutional affiliation and title:</li><li>Address:</li><li>Email address:</li><li>Phone number:</li><li>A brief resume of work experience (max. 350 words)</li><li>Statement of interest (max. 350 words)</li><li>Key concerns you want to address in the Internet and Society field (max. 350 words)</li><li>Identification with one Knowledge-cluster of the workshop and a proposal for integrating it in your research/teaching practice (max. 500 words)</li><li>Current interface with technologies in your pedagogic practices (max. 350 words)</li><li>Additional information or relevant hyperlinks you might want to add (Max. 10 lines)<br /></li></ol>
<pre>Notes:</pre>
<ul><li>Submissions will be accepted only from participants in India, as attachments in .doc, .docx or .odt formats at <a class="external-link" href="mailto:locatinginternets@cis-india.org">locatingInternets@cis-india.org</a></li><li>Submissions made beyond 26th July 2011 may not be considered for participation. <br /></li><li>Submissions will be scrutinized by the organisers and selected participants will be informed by the 30th July 2011, about their participation.</li><li>Selected participants will be required to make their own travel arrangements to the workshop. A 2nd A.C. train return fare will be reimbursed to the participants. Shared accommodation and selected meals will be provided at the workshop.</li><li>A limited number of air-fare reimbursements will be available to participants in extraordinary circumstances. All travel support is only available for domestic travel in the country.<br /></li></ul>
<p><strong>Chairs</strong>: Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society Bangalore;</p>
<p>Pratyush Shankar, Associate Professor & Head of Undergraduate Program, Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University</p>
<p><strong>Supported by</strong>: Kusuma Foundation, Hyderabad</p>
<p><strong>Experts</strong>:Anja Kovacs, Arun Menon, Asha Achuthan, Ashish Rajadhykasha, Aparna Balachandran, Namita Malhotra, Nithin Manayath, Nithya Vasudevan, Pratyush Shankar, Rochelle Pinto and Zainab Bawa</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop'>https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDevelopmentGamingDigital ActivismDigital GovernanceResearchCISRAWFeaturedCyberculturesarchivesNew PedagogiesWorkshopIT Cities2011-07-21T06:00:39ZBlog EntryIndia Game Developer Summit Bangalore 2010
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010
<b>The India Game Developer Conference held at Nimhans Convention Centre on the 27th of February, 2010 was attended by Arun Menon who is working on The Gaming and Gold Project at The Centre for Internet and Society. The Developer forum brought together game developers from different sectors of the Game Production Cycle, with hardware manufacturers like Nvidia demonstrating their latest 3d technology and Software developers like Crytek and Adobe demonstrating the latest in developer tools for creating and editing games on multiple platforms.</b>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The India Game Developer Summit
Lite was sufficiently provocative in showcasing the developer community in
India and the latest advancements made by the corporate sponsors. The presentations
did not appropriately address creative development and management except for a few
made by Keita Iida, Carl Jones, and possibly Varun Nair which stood out for the
specific focus on creativity. The overall focus was on PC gaming with inroads
into Web, mobile, and a smattering of social games. Console Gaming was present in a few statistics presented but did not figure elsewhere at the conference.</p>
<p><strong>On Presentations</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One key feature found in the
presentations made by Carl Jones, Keita Iida, and Varun Nair at IGDS was the
focus on creating immersive environments and naturally all the three took
different approaches suiting their areas of specialization. The other
presentations bordered on marketing and sales pitches, promoting the presenters'
products, and were not sufficiently detailed other than pushing the presenter’s
products and services. These three presentations stand out for their focus on
creativity in game development, design, and research with data pertaining to
the industry and not limited to their products or companies.</p>
<p><strong>Carl Jones –
Envision, Enable, Achieve.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Carl Jones from Crytek made an
excellent keynote speech with a focus on their latest advancement; the CRYENGINE
3.0. A demonstration video showcased synchronous editing capabilities for
multiple platforms as well as real time 'edit and play' functionality. What you
see is [truly] what you get. Their engine is currently not set for a public
release but can handle textures and fluid rendering with amazing ease on a
standard 500$ machine. The detailed and fluid real-time editing cuts
development time from weeks to a matter of days, not a possibility a few months earlier. The technology targets low end machines and has a higher
market but both Nvidia and Crytek made it clear that their focus for
development is going to be high end devices and technology for high end
machines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Crytek’s entire focus is on the
development and sustainability of creativity, so that new technology could
provide better rendering at better speeds and visuals. Cryengine 3.0’s capabilities
in developing a truly interactive, immersive, and realistic environment were
demonstrated at the keynote speech. The destructive environments and
fluid/texture rendering made designing and editing seem as simple as using a
brush (convinced of its capabilities as an engine but still skeptic about its
simplicity in user interactivity). The dynamic lighting, downward light shafts,
ocean rendering, view distance, soft shadows and particle rendering (fog, etc)
and its real-time synchronous editing capabilities left no doubt as to
Cryengine 3.0’s superiority in the competitive game developer market.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The keynote speech recognized one
main deficiency in game development, there is a problem incorporating graphics
and realistic physics. Jones showcased how at Crytek, the motto ‘the difficult
takes a day and impossible takes a week’ works. Looking at the developer tools
demonstrated at the summit that motto is quite realistic. Crytek’s focus is to
make everything interactive and the CryEngine 3.0 demonstrates that focus. As a
matter of fact Crytek has incorporated Star Data from NASA into their games.
Star navigation based on the digitally (re)created skies in their games is
possibility. The elements they bring in to build in realism to gaming will be interesting to
follow, since realism often meant higher graphics requirements.</p>
<p><strong>Keita Iida –
Technology and Market Trends in the PC game Industry</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The focused session by Keita Iida
of Nvidia placed the growth of Indian markets in perspective including online markets (and digital releases) and offline growth plotted through hardware sales. The numbers and
statistics presented showcased the strength of the growing gaming market particularly
in Asia. The revenues of the Asia segment in the entire MMOG revenues is 76.6
percent globally, the United States and the West is lagging in terms of revenue
generation in the MMOG segment but their recent growth is set to shoot up to
1.3-1.5 billion USD by 2013. Similar numbers in the social gaming segment was
also reiterated by Sumit Gupta (the CEO and founder of BitRhymes). What they
both articulated differently was that there was tremendous money in gaming both
online and offline and India had sufficient infrastructure to capitalize on the
gaming markets for online as well as offline products and releases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Keita Iida argued that the online
gaming market in India was in excess of 60 million USD assuming that these
games were serviced locally. This still leaves out contribution from the Indian segment globally, such figures are also hard to plot out. Some of the numbers that Nvidia made available
were from their own sales and marketing statistics. The DX10 capable computers
globally were 171 Million as of 2009 and DX9 capable machines around
102million, which had a Geforce installed base. Keita Iida's statistics pointed
to one thing - the Asian markets were far ahead of the other markets both in online and offline releases. Nvidia as an organization and developer would provide an ideal
space for game developers to reach out to a larger global market provided they
were Nvidia technology compatible. Keita Iida made an effective marketing pitch
for Nvidia and provided enough data and statistics globally and locally as well
as company specific data that made the presentation more accessible. This
presentation was one of the few that involved industry movements and statistics
with a focus on creative development.</p>
<p><strong>Varun Nair - Quality Asset Creation & Sound as a
Storyteller</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The most creative presentation
was perhaps the one made by Varun Nair on 'Sound as Storytelling and Quality Asset
creation'. We had interacted prior to the conference as well as during the
presentation and he provided a lot of information on the pre- and post-production cycles where sound design and incorporation was most effective. His
presentation was remarkably different and stood out from the others largely
because his focus was not on pushing his own projects or company agenda, rather
he attempted to place the relevance of the sound design industry in the
creative processes of the game’s design stages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The session focused on the
relevance of sound and visuals and the effective placement and modulation of
sound to the visuals to communicate the desired effect. The main example used was an
FPS where the ambient sounds and the player sounds had to be placed in
perspective with the enemy sounds to create an immersive environment. This translates into sounds being modulated and dynamic as gameplay progresses to effectively create immersive structures. The lack
of this immersive effect will create confusion and destroy the effect even if
the visuals are designed effectively. This is interesting largely because if
you hear gunfire not represented in your visuals - as a character - you’re able to react
effectively to the enemy based on sound alone. Quite a few games use this
strategy to provide and create an immersive structure. There was a good
emphasis on the development of sound particularly since it enables a certain
human emotional response to that sound and developers of successful AAA games
have used this strategy to create emotional engagement of the player with the game narratives. Varun Nair also pointed
out the relevance of sound in making connections and here he mentioned using
real world sounds and digitally created and re-engineered sounds. The effects he
demonstrated with a training exercise, where he played out real world sounds
and enhanced sounds to create a suitable environment. On making connections with
the ‘experiential residual narrative’ as the Videogame theorist Henry Jenkins
would put it, Varun Nair pointed out how sound design is created effectively to
cater to certain specific feelings encountered before. Artificial sounds are
specifically created to suit the artificiality of an environment and here he
used the example of ‘Transformers’, the movie to explain artificial sound
effects as well as information overload. The focus of designed sounds is
largely towards creating an environment in which the main focus is to reiterate
the environments artificiality largely used in Sci-Fi media and gaming.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Most sound designers only receive
images and they have to create sounds often from scratch to suit the
environment. In his demonstrations he showcased the kind of creativity that
sound designers and engineers are capable of in designing the environments we
hear and interact with in gaming simulations. Varun Nair also focused on
Information Overload and how the effective blend of sound and visuals would
form an ideal blend to counter this overload. He went has far as saying that at
certain points an underload was preferred since there was less player fatigue
due to overload. The design structures have to be suitably different
particularly for non linear media such as gaming. Varun Nair mentioned the
cocktail party effect where the human mind is able to focus on a few important
sounds and tune out the rest as well as the 2.5 theme rule. The 2.5 theme rule emphasizes the perfect Balance between Visuals, Audio, and Sound effects. Among
others were quality asset creation and the involvement of the sound designer in
the early stages of the game to capitalize on creative development.</p>
<p><strong>Sumit Gupta from
BitRhymes and Hemant Sharma from Adobe</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The presentation by Sumit Gupta
was very detailed, with a focus on audience interactivity. The data Sumit used
was excellent and placed the entire scenario in perspective; perhaps the
overwhelming response to his presentation may have overwhelmed him a little.
The data on social gaming in India and the lack of monetization in the current
market scenario and the possibilities of monetization was explored in detail.
The problem if any was in setting up these structures and infrastructure
backing in India which was lacking. Payment systems and methodologies would
ensure the creation and transaction of virtual goods. The data on the Chinese
and Japanese markets and the Asian and World trends was extremely detailed, so
much so that some of these statistics were scary. Most social gamers do not realize that data is being collected on them as they play and this was
demonstrated in some of the internal statistics that Sumit presented. The
information presented included age groups of the users, their purchasing power,
spending power, and the relationship between the users who trade is almost
totalitarian in terms of information collection. Privacy laws allow that
generic data are collected but the presentation of these data and statistics
reminds the viewer on just how much information is accessible to these
developers. Hemant Sharma’s presentation later was highly technical and
demonstrated the development of games for mobile devices on Adobe Flash CS5
which is currently only out on a beta release. The presentation there also
talked about the ways in which a mobile app could gain access to the OS
features to run better. Most of these features give undue access to the app
developer to geolocationary movement information. Along with access to other
apps which may store generic information which is user specific. This talk shed
light on the amount of access that a mobile app developer has to the
geolocationary and personal data stored on the phone. Although the perspective
was to showcase the functionality of Flash Professional CS5, currently released
as a beta version, details emerged on the kind of easy access a developer has
to change mobile app settings to gather data. The possibilities that a
malicious use of the data would compromise user security emerges strongly when
reflecting on this presentation.</p>
<p><strong>DSKs Presentation –
Sell your Game, Adopt a Game Designer!</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">DSK Supinfogame had a booth at
the India Game Developer Summit along with AIGA the Asian Institute of Gaming
and Animation. DSK’s presentation was to be held by Philippe Vachey but a
change in schedule had another member from DSK make the presentation. Their
focus rested on Gamespot reviews and game journal rankings to showcase the
problems that arise due to the lack of relevant design in games that would
otherwise have been AAA releases. They had some really important points to
make. A 30million USD project is not going to have developers and designers
with one year experience and without a cohesive unit centered on design aspects
a game may as well not make an AAA rating let alone an A or a B rating.</p>
<p><strong>Networking @ IGDS</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Networking at the India Game Developer
Summit was one of the main benefits of the summit. The presentations, other
than the few mentioned here in detail, were largely oriented towards marketing
their own companies and products or sales pitches to this effect. I had already
talked to Varun Nair (from bluefrog presenting Sound as Storyteller and Quality
Asset Creation) prior to meeting him at the conference and discussed mutual
interests in gaming and narrative communication in gaming. Before his
presentation I had the opportunity to get a preview of his presentation and its
main focus on presenting the relevance of sound design and its ideal placement
to create an immersive environment which can be effective or confusing
depending on how the visuals and sounds interact with each other to create an
ideal immersive environment rather than information underload or worse overload
and player fatigue. The discussion also revolved around my current research
project and research interests in the Indian Gaming scene. Varun Nair is based
in Bombay and works for Bluefrog, a company which specialises in sound creation
for games.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Prior to the conference, Rev
Lebaredian and Simon Green from Nvidia Corporation were available at the Nvidia
booth and right after trying out Batman Arkham Asylum in 3D (with the Geforce
3D stereoscopic vision kit); Varun Nair joined us and we discussed my research
interests as well as my project at the Centre for Internet and Society and its
requirements. Rev and Simon were very accessible (not mobbed yet) and gave me a
lot of details on their partnership programs and their products and upcoming
releases. Being engineers they had very little data on the Indian market both
virtual and offline, and the approximate industry revenues. Rev and Simon
offered details on who might have access to the information I needed and told
me some information pertaining to Nvidia might be shared but large part is
internal and not for public access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The interaction with Kiran was
the most productive and engaging we discussed games of mutual interest and the
goldfarming activities on his own server (one of the highest bids on eBay for
an account on his server was above 566 pounds [GBP]) he also focused on
goldfarming in India and how that is very little documentation of any sort on
these activities. His own research is on improving design in online games to
provide better retention, higher virality, and immersive environments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Post the key note session, the
opportunity to speak to Philippe Segard and Lionel Chaze from ‘DSK supinfogame’
presented itself. They were designers engaged with game design training and
also had modules that addressed the online gaming segment. On hearing about my
project they assumed that I was adopting a critical theory approach to a single
game and its content and examining only that (which is also something I am
doing as a part of my research read more on <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/gaming">my blog</a>).
I explained some of my research interests and those of the project in examining
the gaming ecosystem in India both virtually and offline, this was more
appealing to both Philippe and Lionel who agreed to give feedback on the
project as it proceeds. Robin Alter from Kreeda Games was available after his
presentation and spoke to me about the future for the Indian markets and the
growth they were expecting in the online as well as offline game segments, as
publishers most of their focus was on offline products. Robin also spoke about
Gold farming in India and how most of it is undocumented and has very little
studies conducted on them particularly in the Indian context. Gold farming
itself is prevalent in India and is not as minor as thought earlier looking at
the responses by Online Server statistics only in India. Playdom’s Business
operations manager Nagabhushan Rao also reiterated that there are cases of gold
farming on their servers and few cases are logged in India as well. However, as
developers they have very few mechanisms to control this activity, largely
since their user base is approximately around 2.5 million (aggregate). He also
happened to mention how Zynga could afford to proactively target such practices
since their large user base would sustain these mitigating blocks. Playdom is
developing a few mechanisms to track such usage and abusage of their credit but
as of early 2010 they have very few mechanisms that would ban player activity
for these practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The next Game Developer
Conference is expected around the latter part of this year or early next year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/india-game-developer-summit-in-bangalore-2010</a>
</p>
No publisherarunConferenceGamingSocial mediaIGDSRPGGame Developer Conference2010-03-09T16:55:33ZBlog EntryGaming and Gold - An Introduction
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/gaming-and-gold-an-introduction
<b>Arun Menon in this first entry, provides a brief description of the area of study and the questions that need to be engaged with in the course of this study.</b>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Center for Internet and Society has initiated a project to study Online Gaming, particularly Mmorpgs. The title ‘Gaming and
Gold’ may throw off the casual reader who is not sufficiently acquainted with
this area. For this reason, the first few blog posts will focus on providing a
contextual background but before that a brief introduction to the theoretical
premise is necessary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The study ideally focuses on the Mmorpg<a name="_ednref1" href="#_edn1"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[i]</span></span></a>
genre, which is a subset under online gaming (that involves more than two
players over a network, if Andrew Rollings definition is considered). This
would be to effectively locate 'attention' as a currency, a medium that
enables/facilitates the flow of currencies both internal<a name="_ednref2" href="#_edn2"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ii]</span></span></a>
and secondary<a name="_ednref3" href="#_edn3"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iii]</span></span></a>.
Attention also influences the generation of in-game currencies and their real
values are often speculated and traded in secondary markets depending on the
flow of material attention. The approach would have to take in Mmorpg games that
have dynamic communities, which are engaged with the production processes in
the game-world. This would throw light
on many other issues surrounding production of virtual resources. Lisa Nakamura
has extensively studied the racialisation of the production processes that are
deployed in the game world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> This would naturally
involve the technologies incorporated by the developer, since all trade and
financial activities rest on social interaction, which is what eventually
translates into currency both real and virtual. Social interaction therefore is
dependent on how well the in-game communication system is developed. The lack
of social interaction would generally imply a lack in any form(s) of trading.
The Theorization of the Gaming space would necessitate the adequate placement
of the contextual area that surrounds it.
An examination of what this space constitutes is important - the
definitions, the terminologies, the backgrounds, the people, the developers,
the communities, and the developments in online gaming (Mmorpgs) - would form a
relevant background to the study.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To begin with what is Attention Economy? What is Attention
Currency and why is it relevant to my study? ‘Attention economies’ and ‘attention
currencies’ are terms that are largely associated with marketing and
advertising terminology. Thomas H. Davenport discuses Attention Economies and
Attention Currencies in detail and defines attention as ‘focused mental
engagement’, which is treated as a scarce commodity, particularly one that is
spent in the act of consumption (of information). Could this concept be used to
read market transactions (both internal and secondary) particularly in
community-based online gaming? The use of this concept would naturally have to
be very different from the way it is construed in advertising and marketing.
The examination of the economies surrounding gaming and how gamers interact
with their virtual world may be better articulated by placing attention as the
mediating force, and the facilitating conduit which enables then the flows of
real and virtual goods and services. Such a reading breaks away from the way Davenport addresses this issue. Davenport
discusses attention economies and currencies elaborately, but his perspective
does not suit an application to Gaming economies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Exploring the activities of the internal markets and the
trading that takes place, outside of the internal markets, i.e. in the
secondary markets places two things in perspective a) Trading as an activity
that increases the ‘value’ of the account/identity and b) Trading as an
activity that enhances rankings and gameplay. The questions that arise out of
these trading activities alone would directly place attention in a seemingly
material form on the one hand which then enables non-material gains on the
other hand. What are the gains of trading online? Are they only material in the
form of virtual currency and virtual goods? Studies surrounding these concepts
rely largely on a marketing perspective and how attention should be approached
as a scarce commodity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Watch this space for more posts on Online Gaming, Reviews on
a few Games and the current ‘scene’.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a name="_edn1" href="#_ednref1"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[i]</span></span></a>
Massively multiplayer online games.</p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a name="_edn2" href="#_ednref2"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ii]</span></span></a> An
internal market is within the game environment (In-Game) and as such operates
as a system that enables trading within the game between players and between
the game developer and the community. This usage is predominantly used defining
World of Warcrafts market, but can be easily used to define in-game markets on
any Mmorpgs.</p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a name="_edn3" href="#_ednref3"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iii]</span></span></a> The secondary market is the unofficial market
operating around the game environment trading in game merchandise but is not
officially sanctioned, in fact certain games ban accounts that are involved in
gold farming.</p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"> </p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"> </p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"> </p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/gaming-and-gold-an-introduction'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/gaming-and-gold-an-introduction</a>
</p>
No publisherarunGamingAttention EconomyGaming EconomyAttention Currency2011-08-02T05:58:22ZBlog EntryAttentional Capital in Online Gaming : The Currency of Survival
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attentional-capital-online-gaming
<b>This blog post by Arun Menon discusses the concepts of production, labour and race in virtual worlds and their influence on the production of attention as a currency. An attempt is made to locate attentional capital, attentional repositories and attention currencies within gaming to examine 'attention currencies and its trade and transactions in virtual worlds. A minimal collection of attention currencies are placed as central and as a pre-requisite for survival in MMOs in much the same way that real currency become a necessity for survival. The approach is to locate attentional capital through different perspectives as well as examine a few concepts around virtual worlds.</b>
<p>Virtual Worlds<strong>1</strong> have been examined extensively for their capacities in creating simulated spaces for fun, play, and entertainment. Presently there is a trend in research studies worldwide to focus on examining questions of informational labour, production, ownership, racism, and the currencies of trade. By drawing examples from the published works of some of the leading writers in this field , I explore these questions and their connections with attention currency and the attention economy<strong>2</strong> in gaming. I posit attention currency as a third currency in addition to virtual and real currencies in the ability in which it operates as a currency. Through the concepts put forth, an attempt is made for a reading of attentional capital, attention currencies, attention repositories, trades in attention, and the functions of attention as a currency in gaming economies besides a reading of confluences in terminologies and application and to expand them to examine attention economies in gaming. The games examined for this purpose are wide ranging, such as Eternal Duel, Rising Era from the Fantasy RPG Genre, Travian, T.K.O from the RTS genre, and select and limited readings of and around WoW. All of these fall under the MMO genre.<strong>3</strong></p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Edward Castronova is a professor at Indiana University and has prolifically written on virtual economies. His most prominent works are 'Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games' and 'Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality' and has done extensive research and commentaries on the economies of virtual worlds and online games. His concept the 'Avatarial Capital' (Castronova 2005) is articulated in a similar manner as Human Capital<strong>4 </strong>, and Cultural Capital.<strong>5</strong> Castronova's Avatarial capital is approached as a set of non-material factors such as in-game knowledge, experience, growth, skills and other character related functions. Along the same lines as human capital and cultural capital, increases in the investments in Avatar Capital proportionally increases the power of the entity (p. 41 Castronova 2005 also refer p. 110-114).</p>
<p>What would be ideally termed, in a broader fashion, as 'attentional capital' is articulated by Castronova as Avatar Capital in a minimalist manner, such that it can be argued that avatar capital forms an essential and basic part of attentional capital in gaming. Some concepts that are accepted as exemptions (real world problems – race, class, and gender – devoid in Synthetic Worlds) are addressed by Nakamura when she engages with questions of human capital and cultural capital in fantasy warfare games such as World of Warcraft (WoW). By examining concepts of production and segregation of production processes as well as organic systems of production and designed systems of production, an attempt is made to read racialisation of informational labour within virtual worlds in light of designed races, rather than real races and posit that other forms of racism and racial warfare exist. This in contrast to Nakamura's examination dealing with racial stereotyping of informational labour, particularly of the fourth world labour, an attempt is made to posit that racial and/or class warfare (not similar in the manner that Nakamura addresses racial warfare) is present and inevitable in any designed world that has characteristics of Role Play. I posit that such forms of racial warfare need not necessarily be examined as a proxy warfare among leisure gamers and worker gamers but as inherent in any fantasy construct that places racial choices as essential to imagining certain types of roles within the game.</p>
<p>Lisa Nakamura is a professor in the Institute of Communications Research and Director of the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.aasp.illinois.edu/people/lnakamur">Asian American Studies program</a> at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her work revolves around questioning race, ethnicity, and identity in Virtual Worlds. Robbie Cooper who has written expansively on Avatar Identities and their relation with the real identities of gamers (and thus relevant to locating any shifts in attention trades) has been approached through secondary readings, reviews and a partial (limited preview) reading of the text, due to the availability or lack thereof of the text in question. By addressing avatar identities and their links to real world identities, connections can be made in the way attentional capital and attention currency interacts with, and between, virtual, and real world currencies. Although questions of the Virtual - Real Binary6 arise through multiple tangents, it is only examined as a part of discussing the Earth - Synthetic binary that Castronova uses. An attempt is made to clarify some of the terms which are common to this field and place them in perspective. The terms, their limitations and some binaries are juxtaposed for discussion. This is not to imply that Castronova cannot be used to read virtual worlds (or rather their economies), on the contrary his narrative becomes more central as his predictions on exponential growth and impact<strong>7</strong> of virtual worlds (economies) are realized.<strong>8</strong></p>
<p>By using these authors and their concepts, I posit that Attention can be read as a currency of transaction that enables the survival of the player in virtual gaming worlds and at most stages forms a pre-requisite often similar to real world currencies – a basic amount of which ensures human survival. Drawn from the concepts of Goldhaber who posits that attention is an essential pre-requisite to human survival, I extend his reading to virtual worlds to locate the transactions in attention and attentional capital and how they influence the flows of attention as a currency – making a collection of attention currency essential to survival in a virtual world.</p>
<p>In the following segments some of the terminologies, their dichotomies, and a commentary is made on the terms common to this area. The specific usage by these writers and the commentary is speculative, interpretative, and by no means a closed debate. I explore the terms and attempt to make connections with the attention economy in gaming and in the process explore the possibilities of expanding or broadening some of the terms.</p>
<h2>Synthetic Worlds</h2>
<p>Castronova (2005) describes Synthetic Worlds as[C]rafted places inside computers that are designed to accommodate large numbers of people. He goes on to describe Synthetic Worlds as the playgrounds of imagination being host to ordinary human activity. The only notable difference between simulated worlds in offline settings and online settings is that the latter can accommodate a large number of people. This definition basically stands for almost all online games, be they client-server, browser-based, persistent worlds,<strong>9</strong> text based (also MUDs<strong>10</strong>),and many more where multiple users can engage with each other in an online setting, but by focusing on MMORPGs and visual superiority. Castronova in this process isolates multiple genres of games that are capable of social, political, and economic activity similar to that of graphically constructed worlds.</p>
<p>On developing his thesis Castronova seems to suggest an undue emphasis on worlds that are graphically represented and superior (visually well defined and designed), and such games/worlds being viable synthetic worlds. Viability can be interpreted as the immersion of the player in the game as one factor. On the other hand the economic viability of the synthethic world could be another factor, economic in that there are active gold farming (termed secondary) markets in that game. In such a case synthetic worlds as a term is applicable to even non-graphical text based constructs that run online. Julian Dibbell's documentation of the LambdaMoo community reiterates a certain complexity in the textual construction of the synthetic world, even though it is not visually or graphically represented.</p>
<p>On a similar note, virtual economic activity is not restricted to graphical worlds either.<strong>11</strong> The economic activities and organizations that Castronova ascribes to these synthetic worlds are present in almost every virtual world (graphically or textually defined), where there is an aggregation of human activity and congregation of human avatars.<strong>12</strong></p>
<p>The possibilities of human economic activity both within the virtual world and the real world can be connected through an examination of gold farming. Depending on attentional capital (and the attentional repository of the entire virtual world) economic activity connects to real world trade as well. Here the popularity of the game and the ability of the secondary market to generate profits is paramount. Synthetic Worlds or in an expansive definition Virtual Worlds and the attentional capital and repositories of attention are examined that support basic forms of communication, social interaction and game play. </p>
<p>In 'what is a synthetic world' an essay in Space, Time, and Play, Castronova, et al uses the term 'Synthetic Worlds' interchangeably with virtual worlds, the difference being a focus on the 'interconnections' between the two worlds. A reading of Castronova (2005), would suggest that his usage limited what synthetic (or virtual) worlds are capable and constitute of. By using Synthetic Worlds and Virtual Worlds interchangeably throughout this article, I intend to broaden Synthetic Worlds beyond Castronova's imposed limitations.<strong>13</strong></p>
<p>When Castronova says that all synthetic worlds are MMORPGs, he has arguably limited the usage to only games that have an RPG element – furthermore, those with graphical clarity and representation. If say the Virtual World in question such as Eternal Duel were to be examined, it would not fall under what Castronova describes as a synthetic world largely because of its focus on a text based construction of Etheria. Interestingly, Etheria is not identified as a 'diasporic' homeland as much as the cities, the clans, or the game itself. In Eternal Duel, players tended towards their clans identity or the city they were based close to rather than 'Etheria' the Land itself. Unlike SL, WoW, and others where there is an identification towards the whole game 'land' such as a citizen of Lindenberg or Azeroth. Agreed that graphical constructions use visual aids to better connect with an imagined homeland, whereas the same immersive effect is restricted through text. Text based games such as these depend on the interpretative and subjective interpretations of the gamer to create, in the imagination, an idea of the homeland.</p>
<p>Even though Castronova (2005) states that virtual worlds as a conceptual term is closed and synthetic worlds are more open and interconnected (such that its not possible to read them as sealed and separate disconnected systems), it is possible that synthetic worlds are in fact limited in that they are applicable to certain graphically functional and visual worlds (MMORPGs according to Castronova) by express definition.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is relevant to look at MMORPGs as one among many other genres of online games, where there is a collection of avatars and a common synthetic world is constructed. Mizuko Ito in her documentation and usage of the 5thD project notes that the gamer and paired guide were able to construct 'micro-worlds' through narrative experiences of the real world in Simcity 2000, a city building simulation game. This construction of the micro-world was facilitated through a transfer of narrative experiences from the guide to the young gamer, through what is percieved as logical in the real world without actual knowledge of the scripts and algorithms behind the game that dictated its response. Reading micro-worlds as synthetic worlds has its own pitfalls and problems but such a reading is possible particularly when using the alone together phenomenon. Though an 'out of context' reading might be appropriate in an offline setting as well, where games have a sustainable<strong>14</strong> capacity for immersion, the only failure, if any, would be evolution which is a predominant characteristic of virtual worlds in a massive setting.</p>
<p>Whereas RPG games in an offline setting do not have any types of evolution that is sustainable, this feature is resultant of the 'massive' effect in online games, such that narratives of the game are constantly rewritten and brief, even short periods of disconnections leads to a narrative disjunct in the player, which may surface as a diasporic experience. Diasporic experiences here are similar to real world diasporic displacements in that there is a severance from the imagined 'homeland' of the avatar. A severance results in the displacement of the avatar. Evolution of the world is a prominent feature in any persistent or even a temporary time-bound world, where there is an aggregation of human interest. Constant human activity, economic, social, and political create narrative disjuncts in the timeline for those players who are removed from that particular community. MMORPGs have strong evolutionary elements drawn from and often ascribed to the massive element<strong>15</strong> such that any form of change within virtual synthetic worlds are resultant of the activities of thousands of people participating in that world including their organization, collective achievements in the achievement hierarchies and engagement in their virtual worlds.</p>
<p>There are often diasporic experiences faced by players on withdrawal from a community of gamers. The Uru Diaspora was one such – the diasporic effects were documented by Celia Pearce in Communities of Play. An extensive reading of identities, associations and severance of the homeland has been documented – examining concepts like the virtual homeland and association with the homeland such that there is a sense of rights and citizenship that arise out of this 'belonging', to eventually lead to a 'resurrection'. I would interpret diasporic experiences such as these as indicative of the immersive nature of the narrative architecture in an online game. Although the concept of the narrative architecture as one is largely applied to offline games, a confluence of human activity produces its own narrative, such that importing 'narrative architecture' to read into online spaces becomes possible.</p>
<p>Castronova's suggestion that there are possibilities of a thriving parallel economy in and through secondary markets<strong>16 </strong>makes it possible to locate avatar capital and by extension attentional capital more accurately. That is by terming avatar capital as a part of attentional capital, the outworld<strong>17</strong> relevance of avatar capital and the possibility of attention flows functioning as a currency within virtual worlds and between the real world is made.<strong>18</strong> It is possible to argue that Castronova implies certain attentional repositories when he posits that exploration, expansion, and advancement (p.110 Castronova 2005) are necessities to build up the player level, experience, and other intangible capital, which develops as the Avatar[ial] Capital, much in the same manner as Human Capital, Cultural Capital, and Gaming Capital (Pierre Bordieu's term 'Cultural Capital' is influential to both Castronova's 'Avatar[ial] Capital' and later Consalvo's 'Gaming Capital'). In the following sections, an attempt is made at approaching attention currency and its operations and positing attention as the currency of survival rather than the investments of either virtual or real world currencies.</p>
<h2>Avatarial Capital, Attentional Capital, and the Repositories of Attention</h2>
<p>Whereas Castronova places avatar skills and experience<strong>20</strong> as 'avatar capital'
alone is limiting, in that the focus is on one avatar rather than a
set of avatars. This limit also manifests in the set of resources
that the avatar has access to, particularly attention, which changes
the accesses to resources in-world and out-world and effects the
production of attention currency in its turn. Thus, it is almost
cyclical in that attentional capital in repositories ensure survival,
survival leads to greater activity and production in virtual worlds,
which in turn gives greater accesses to in-world resources and
avatarial capital and which then through the hierarchies of
achievement produces more attentional capital.</p>
<p>Even though Castronova articulates the avatarial capital as a necessity (along with physical capital) for survival, he leaves out the relevance of ranking systems (that Hamari and Lehdonvirta (2010) posit as the achievement hierarchy) that seemingly organize a massive amount of data into statistically and graphically available information in almost every virtual world and through this activity build channels of attention. Attention then flows in often unpredictable manners<strong>21</strong> and ensures the survival of the player or avatar character in that game. Every game has a system that organizes seemingly irrelevant information on avatars to provide a daily statistical representation on growth, (re-)investment, level, experience, amount of virtual gold, player vs player and non-player character 'kills' . In some hierarchies attemtpted attacks and successful kills are also recorded and made public with a ratio in percentage, the time aristocracy that lehdonvirta 2005, 2007 addresses can be located by this percentage represented in the achievement hierarchy, and so forth in a ranked hierarchy . Depending on the design and architecture of the game world (Synthetic Worlds), there may be detailed statistical data that provides for in-game information and players that are active, joined recently, completed a certain quest, requests assistance with another quest, etc., are news items that are filtered into general gameverse ranking, clan, community, alliance or group ranking.<strong>22</strong> Central to the attentional capital and its flows are these gameverse<strong>23</strong> ranking systems both internal to the game and external tools that pull data from the server to plot out potential targets for attacks, raids, and so forth.<strong>24</strong> Metagaming, or influences on the game from outside the game and its rules, affects every scenario of gaming in some manner. Metagaming most often than not, dictates the attention of individuals and their investments in time and labour.</p>
<p>For instance – Travian which is a popular MMORTS<strong>25</strong> has an array of scripts, tools, paid services, external data aggregators – i.e., external to the game - that assist in finding other players/alliances and groups for warfare. Although the game itself has sufficiently developed communication and social interaction systems<strong>26</strong>, players ranking 1-1500<strong>27</strong> most often use a variety
of external tools and IM programs to support their gameplay.<strong>28</strong> Skype or MSN<strong>29</strong> becomes preferred means of communication, coordination, and policy<strong>30</strong> discussion – and this is not limited to one game server (Travian) whose example I am citing. The number ranges that have been chosen select players whose achievements ranking is comparatively in the top 10 – 20 per cent in terms of activity, presence, and by extension, economic activity, in an international server this number would be a maximum of 1500-2000 whereas on regional servers which witness lower members the number ranges of active gamers with a reasonable growth rate are fixed at around 500-1000. These players have sufficient amount of attentional capital invested in their game to join larger groups based on common cultural symbols and perceived commonalities, which may amount to social commonalities.</p>
<p>Attentional Capital, though it draws from avatarial capital, is broader than just in-game related ranking.<strong>31 </strong>Attentional capital (and attentional repositories, which makes attention the basic currency of survival) would ideally encompass a larger sphere including real life associations as well as virtual world associations and experiences<strong>32</strong> Avatarial capital limits itself to the collection of intangible non-material capital within gaming worlds alone, there is very little discussion (by Castronova or Nakamura who uses avatarial capital) on the extent to which avatarial capital can be streched. If the term is indeed limited to single virtual worlds, a concept of consolidation of avatars (naturally avatarial capital), which occurs at multiple points should also be articulated in light of attentional repositories which allow for the aggregation of attention to reach the threshold required for survival (and thus trade, activity, and so forth). This is not constant but almost always in flux, a lack of investment for a short period would mean death gradual or instant, and depends entirely on the disposition and design of the game in question.</p>
<p>Advancement and progression of an avatar is addressed by Castronova (2005) as the accumulation of the various forms of avatar capital within a virtual world enabling the 'avatar' greater access to the virtual world and the systems of production within the virtual world, defined or rather limited by a requirement for progression. If the avatar grows, more accesses to the game's systems become available, stagnation on the other hand limits these accesses. In a collective sense the growth of a lot of avatars (in an MMORPG) collectively denotes the growth of a synthetic world. Thus, essential to the aggregation of Avatarial Capital as well as attentional capital is the evolution of a synthetic world. Evolution that may be incorporated into the design of the game but is also in a state of constant change and extremely dynamic. A stagnation in the growth of avatars (in a collective) has repurcussion s in the exchanges of attention, exchanges of virtual currencies as well as the collective attention that resides in a synthetic world.. Stagnation even in markets inflicts attrition that destabilizes the virtual world – a lack of attention could well mean the stagnation and eventual decay of the virtual world – this effect can be attributed to Illusory Attention and the decay of attention – for more refer Goldhaber (1997, and 2008). The evolution and advancement could be rapid such that a break from this world for even a short duration, may result in minor diasporic effects. A loss of contact with a community that has developed and evolved in absentia of the player-avatar and non-investment, either of time or resources by the player makes the narrative disjunct more pronounced.By narrative disjunct, I imply that the narrative of the player and the narrative of the community is not in tune, such that diasporic yearnings may be present even without the closure of the game world which is what transpired in Uru – The uru diaspora is documented very well by Celia Pearce and Artemesia in “Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds”, 2009 MIT Press. This narrative growth and subsequent disjunct captures the essence of persistent worlds and evolution within them most appropriately. Thus, Synthetic Worlds as a conceptual term is limiting rather than liberating as Castronova (2003, 2005) implies, even with its conceptual failings at achieving a state of 'inter-connectedness'<strong>34</strong> with the Real World, Virtual World is a conceptually anchored term to articulate human activity in online gaming spaces, perhaps broader than synthetic worlds.</p>
<p>Avatar capital can locate the influences of attentional capital. Castronova (2005) describes “the accumulated experience points and skills and attributes [as] <em>avatar capital</em> ”, which is the advancement through specific actions resulting in the growth or increment of non-physical capital of the avatar. What are the non-physical capital of the avatar? Non-physical capital is dependent on the design and genre of the game or MMORPG oriented games will have forms of character development that as represented as levels and stages, which when attained allows for further progression in gameplay. Some of these include but are not limited to the attributes, the skills, experience points, all depending on the design and model of the game world concerned. Empire building games on the other hand would design a different set of avatarial capital altogether.</p>
<p>Avatar capital enables further progression in the game world and makes accessible quest lines<strong>36</strong>, virtual goods linked to those quest lines, and higher growth, ability to gain more from attacks and so forth (The Sway of the stars as a Elvish<strong>37</strong> race weapon grants additional gold income and experience points with each kill – largely for NPC attacks, i.e., Non Player Character attacks, other weapons<strong>38</strong> are preferred for PvP {Player vs Player} attacks). At this stage the attempt is not to examine the 'real' value attached to the weapon in a fashion that Castronova et al (2008) does, but to locate the attentional capital that is generated by the possession of such a virtual good which enhances avatar capital. Thus, an almost cyclical progression, I extrapolate this further when examining production. So, its possible to articulate avatarial capital as a small part of attentional capital and its collection in what I would term as attentional repositories. </p>
<p>Whereas the Physical Capital is juxtaposed as the virtual money or goods/items and rewards that the avatar earns as part of gameplay (and subsequent reinvestment of rewards), and is the distinguishing link between real and virtual currencies. The time that is invested in production of virtual goods and the subsequent investment in attention (as a currency) and attentional capital (as the non material investments – such as expertise and the abstract concept called experience) can be located in the growth in what Castronova terms as the Avatar Capital.</p>
<p>Castronova et al (2009) examines the virtual world/synthetic world EverQuest and attempts a mapping of its economy. The authors attempt to read macroeconomic behaviours using real world definitions and attempt an economic mapping quite similar to how real world economies are mapped, the research concludes that real world patterns are present in virtual worlds and in the ways and means that virtual goods are traded. They examine the 'reality' of a virtual sword [Footnote: Please refer page 686, New media and society, 5, 11, 2009, the examination of the reality of the sword, similar to the painting 'this is not a pipe' points to reality of value associated with that object, an object that is considered unreal, non exitent in many terms, Michel Foucault also comments on issues of perception, reality, and the painting and its paradox of Rene` Magritte's painting “the Treachery of Images” 1929-30 – Foucault's focus on representation and simulcura is not necessary to interpreting castronova et al's reading of virtual reality and the real value associated with a virtual good. ] . Are they 'really real'? Castronova et al notes through their study that virtual goods often follow real world patterns and thus can be mapped with real world usages and affordances. Items are classified and graphically represented as furniture, food, clothing, accessories, collectibles and so forth. Castronova et al (2009) by noting that all virtual goods had certain real world categories, armour - clothing, food – what avatars ate and drank, furniture – solid items avatars kept in their huts (homes, etc), and so forth, locate the relevance and psychological value of virtual goods, even if they serve no 'real' purpose. They also noted that virtual worlds scarcely held items that had “no real world uses or affordances”. This is incidentally reiterated to some effect in the AVEA report, which also notes that the demand for virtual goods are a result of the designed spaces (Hamari and Lehdonvirta 2010). The attempt by Williamson et al (2010) and Castronova (2003, 2005) have been locating the shifts in 'Real Life' towards 'Avatar Life'. Castronova himself dictates that such a shift towards virtual worlds is inevitable and as discussed earlier, and although speculative, has materialized and noted by none other than Consalvo (2007) and Nakamura (2009).</p>
<p>Returning to the discussion, the authors note that currency is representational (The value of the paper currency we use is backed by gold from the treasury of the government), thus items and in-world currencies also serve the representational purpose and in trades against real currency indicate the investment of time and labour. Such that the value of a virtual good, or in some extreme gold farming cases the value of an avatar and character, are dependent on the time and effort that has been invested in its development and the level that it holds in the ranking statistics. A virtual good such as a sword may then indicate value associated with the time it would take to develop the sword. For instance: Race levels in the fantasy text-based browser game Eternal Duel require opals to gain race experience, Opals as a gem acts as any other gem in the game except that it cannot be traded and has to be earned through grinding, farming, mining, and similar other means that would require an investment in a great deal of time. Higher race levels bring higher access for each of the six races that are available in the game – the game in question is Eternal Duel [henceforth E.D.] and Rising Era. The elf<strong>39</strong> race gets a higher healing rate after each activity related to production such as mining and attacks, whereas the human race gets a higher gold bonus, increasing the chances of each race to develop in its own course. The higher the experience level, the higher the chances of earning opals in attacks. Race weapons and armour provide added advantage in that any other activity of production would return higher returns for the investment of time. Thus, in the end, the value that is assigned to virtual goods where real money trades come into effect are: </p>
<ul><li>That they denote an investment in time and labour which is saved in the means by which most virtual goods in gaming are acquired, and</li><li>The investment in the focused cognitive resources termed as attention transacts as real value and by extension as currency. This would be one method of locating attentional capital.</li></ul>
<p>Attentional capital when it performs the functions of a currency is also representational in that the value of the item (the virtual good – including any virtual item that can be traded including avatars) depends on the market listings, the time (invested in development of that virtual good) and associated 'illusory attention' (a term borrowed from Goldhaber to situate attention and its potential and capacity to act as a currency), which is traded against real money. This form of trade saves the time that is otherwise invested in the production of this item, thus saving the purchasing party a considerable amount of time, which is transacted for real currency. Such gold farming trades are also called as RMT (real money trades – noted by Nakamura p.5 who cites Consalvo p.149-150, also refer lehdonvirta 2005, lehdonvirta and hamari and lehdonvirta 2010), the AVEA report classifies MMORPGs as the first genre of RMT. Why is the representational aspect of currencies necessary? Very simply if real currencies are representational and 'acquires' (however, that may be interpreted) a certain amount of 'reality' such that value associated with the currency and the item can be balanced and traded. It is clearly possible to interpret attentional capital having similar potential to 'acquire' real value and then emulate the functions of a currency that can be transacted for goods. But is attentional capital the same as attention currency (or for that matter attentional repository)? </p>
<p>I posit that Attentional Capital and by extension Attentional Repositories are dependent on the construction (visual and textual) of the avatar, in-group or out-group racial, ethnic, cultural, and other means of identification, symbolic associations with a particular identity or group, or a perception of a common shared culture, this is similar to constructing communities and Derek Lomas (2008) uses Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Community' to explore notions of associations (through self-representation) that can locate attentional capital in social networking.<strong>40</strong> Lomas (2008) examines attentional capital that is built and developed through the elaborate constructions (including self representation) of profiles, through which there is an accumulation of attention (which is what I posit as the attention repository – a collection of attentional capital). The attention repository can be construed of as independent – associated to a player, or as a complex network of repositories that feed into each other through association, expression, and representation – as in a collective or a small group. Thus, the known/recognizable group identification of a particular player would mean a larger repository of attentional capital than a player with little or a lesser known group identification, even though that player may have a higher level of avatarial capital and physical capital to match. The repositories of the group would then feed into the attentional capital of the player, making identification (in-group, out-group, and so forth) easier and granting a certain amount of attention to the profile, which later results in an increased activity (and therefore, survival) in the concerned virtual world. On the notion of survival Goldhaber (1997) states thus:</p>
<div class="pullquote">“[P]ractically everyone must have some money to survive, so attention in some quantities is pretty much a prerequisite for survival, and attention is actually far more basic.”</div>
<p>In a similar manner, Goldhaber locates the relevance of currency (money) as 'the' essential pre-requisite for survival and suggests that attention is as relevant (if not more), I posit that attention in gaming (in all its capacities discussed earlier) is required minimally, as a pre-requisite amount, or what I would articulate as a threshold in the repositories for ensuring survival. This is where I propose that a threshold exits, which can be achieved or realized by the collection of attentional capital when there is</p>
<ul><li>a certain amount built in the repository through what Castronova terms as Avatarial Capital<strong>42</strong>, and </li><li>the threshold limit is achieved through other associations or connections to other repositories. </li></ul>
<p>This is where the discussion earlier on the connections of attention repositories comes into clearer focus. These associations<strong>43</strong> have their own repositories (not necessarily unintended when represented in player profiles)<strong>44</strong> and often these associations are capable of feeding attention into the players own repository. </p>
<p>The repositories of attention that I have explored and mentioned here are situated outside of the player avatars in other synthetic worlds, which is to say that there are – in some instances – multiple points of consolidation of avatars (and their repositories) to result in this threshold of survival being realized earlier without the collection of Avatarial capital. This is complex to articulate as well as demonstrate largely because it requires an in depth analysis, the data for which is nearly inaccessible (although, it is true that Castronova and his team were granted full access by Sony into their EverQuest Databases).</p>
<p>The multiple points of consolidation of avatars implies the consolidation of their attentional repositories of multiple avatars in multiple similar or different (in terms of genre) virtual worlds. In gold farming practices most trades are dependent on this threshold for survival as well as trades, for the threshold limit in the attentional repositories also implies the point at which trade can take place.<strong>45 </strong></p>
<p>For instance, avatar A is present on server 1 <strong>46</strong> but has in earlier periods taken part in other servers 1-'n' and these avatars would be A1-A'n', where n is the identifiable version of the avatar in any synthetic world regardless of classification.<strong>47</strong> Server 1 being a new game, avatar A will have a very short threshold of attentional capital and avatarial capital – assuming that, as yet, there has been no or minimal investments of time and labour in the development of the avatar that results in avatarial or physical capital. </p>
<p>The repository of avatar A at this juncture will be minimal in that particular synthetic world. For transactions of A1 avatar (that is gold farming for that avatar as a 'virtual good') there has to be an aggregation of attentional repository, which should ideally realize a threshold. This is achieved either through association or inter-connectedness of social viral networks, such that there are higher chances of survival, and in the case of gold farming higher chances of trade. In the event that there is minimal avatarial capital aggregation in A1, the possibility of avatarial consolidation at multiple points still exist. The pre-requisite threshold is achieved not by investments in A, but the investments made earlier in A'n' which feeds into the repository of A1 and survival is ensured. The repositories A1-A'n' would have a consolidated repository that enables avatar A1 to either initiate trade (a real world trade) or equally ensure survival rests in this consolidated repository, which has achieved a certain threshold. Note that this theory of multiple points of consolidation of avatars is not a common occurrence and is largely noticed in successful gold farming trades, and prominent players in any game server that incorporates avatar self representation through profiles, much like social networking profiles. The consolidated repository would mean that the threshold is reached at an earlier stage, than if the normal route of game play were to be taken where avatarial and non physical capital are built up.</p>
<p>To substantiate with a real world example, SARSteam<strong>48</strong> is present on at least 2 of the 10 Travian international servers and is familiar with 8ag.<strong>49</strong> Both having served in common and prominent alliances in multiple Travian servers for a considerable period of time, such that each ensure the others protection, if and when, by chance, they are present in nearby strategic locations in any server. In any new server <strong>50</strong> a chance encounter would mean that either player would list a PNAP<strong>51</strong> in their profiles naming the other. This connection takes place regardless of actual contact and negotiation for a PNAP and ensures that the other multitudes of players planning an attack are made aware of strategic connections that the player possess to his advantage thus enabling a further exchange of attentional capital against illusory attention. Players viewing the PNAP and alliance markings, tags, and so forth will cease offensive strategies. As Goldhaber (1997) states there is always an exchange of illusory attention in such cases<strong>52</strong>, attention may be seen as flowing in both direction when in actuality attention flows are unidirectional compensated by Illusory attention. Lomas (2008) suggests that attention flows are regulated by self representation through profile pages and in the gaming context the same is true. Self representation is deliberative (also noted by Lomas 2008) and by representing selective information an attempt is made at controlling the attentional flows from that profile. For instance, in E. D. listing a mine's quality in the profile page might enable other players to invest their time and labour at mining so as to make a profit and to 'mine out' the mine and thus also make a profit for the owner.</p>
<p>In both the instances above, the focus is on one or two players and in such an out of context state, attention repositories and the threshold of trade and survival do not seem relevant, add to this the sheer numbers of an MMO and viral connections in an ever increasing spiral and attention repositories and the threshold becomes an essential part of survival in gaming and trade in gold farming.</p>
<h2>Markets and Synthetic Worlds</h2>
<p>In this section an attempt is made to read into trading and markets for virtual goods in synthetic worlds and outside of it thereby attempting to place secondary markets and their assumed or presumed legality and/or some form of incorporation into the regular internal market of the game. This would make reading production and segregation of production more accessible later on. Castronova (2003, 2005) does not directly engage with describing the secondary market in Synthetic Worlds, although the market activities that he points out – such as selling game goods on online auction sites (p.16), GNP of Norrath (the country in EverQuest – Sony) being higher than the per-capita income of India and China (p.19) – are activities that connect the internal game markets to the external ones, namely the secondary market, or more commonly known and accessible as the gold farming markets. Are gold farming markets the same as secondary (as external) markets , how are they different from the primary (internal) markets? Almost all secondary markets are external auction markets such as Ebay, or more formalized gold farming trade markets such as Virtualeconomies.net, agamegold.com, myMMOshop.com, gamegoldcentral.com and many others collectively form the external trading markets and economic organizations in the real world that profit from virtual labour and investment (in time and real money). Gold farming also takes place through listings in from forums to social networking sites and gold farming in India largely thrives through such listings. Dibbell (2006) notes the emergence of brokers, traders, and a multitude of intermediaries in the professional transactions of virtual game gold. The AVEA report corroborates thus:</p>
<p class="callout">[It is] now possible for any player, no matter how experienced or inexperienced, dedicated or casual, to obtain high-ranking avatars and possessions simply by purchasing them from a website. Virtual goods were commodified.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>- AVEA report 2010 p.11</strong></p>
<p>The core feature(s) of synthetic worlds as Castronova puts it would be applicable to any immersive environment such that his definition is applicable to most games particularly the ones recently released such that those functions are no longer limited in Online Gaming but contributes to the Alone Together phenomenon as well. Castronova states these worlds as "worlds—the fact that they are radically manufacturable places that can be shared by many people at once." The manner of sharing of worlds from a distanced perspective makes it possible to read some synthetic worlds as offline games that are shared in online spaces not directly with other players but as hinted earlier through the achievements hierarchy that is constructed online, even though actual gameplay is strictly offline. For instance, the recent release of games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Witcher, and many more allow for a certain type of alone together phenomenon which takes place through forum posts, player profiles, and discussions. Note that although there is no online gameplay, similar effects of online gameplay are reflected in the statistics that appear online and create an achievement hierarchy regardless of online activity. Although attentional capital plays a role in such spaces, there is very little connections to survival and team play that it results in. </p>
<h2>Immersion and Immersive Environments - A Different Perspective</h2>
<p>Immersive environments can be considered as emotionally invested spaces, spaces where there is a investment in the character as well as the synthetic world. Ethnographic interviews point to immersion being a key motivator for role playing games. Role Play or games that implemented certain elements of role play.</p>
<p>Immersive environments are often described as the emotional investments that the player makes in the character or the game environment. Turkle (1995) describes role play as the practice of pretending to be someone else within a fictional space.</p>
<p>The reinvestment of virtual physical and non physical capital enables the avatar better access to production and production capacities. This is manifested dependent on the design of the synthetic world and almost any item can be assigned a value. Castronova (2005) notes thus:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The advancement system can be used to induce a player’s emotional investment in all kinds of actions. It can endow seemingly trivial and inconsequential acts—the slaying of a digital dragon—with significant personal and social consequences. Prestige shifts; alliances change; power and wealth flow in new channels; and, most important of all, people feel happier. In the historical record of MMORPGs, the willingness of people to acquire vast storehouses of truly arcane knowledge (the casting times of hundreds of spells; the order of birth of various gods; the number of iron ingots required to make a medium-quality dwarven hammer) has been demonstrated over and over. Advancement mechanisms turn the synthetic world into a place where value can be assigned to anything, and behaviour directed accordingly. ”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The emotional investment that Castronova notes through the investment of virtual and real resources in advancement, is probed into by Williamson et al. (2010, in print). Williamson et al suggest through their hypothesis that immersion may take on two (central) functions -</p>
<ul><li>that of a journey for the player to discover their 'true self', through a character constructed in role play as a space for role freedom, and <br /></li><li>as a means of escapism.</li></ul>
<p>On a superficial reading both hypotheses seem very similar, Williamson et al distinguishes these two features using an ethnographic approach. Players who engage in the first central element describe virtual worlds (refer Williamson et al 2010, in print) as a space where they can express which is otherwise socially constrained offline. To paraphrase a quoted comment, a player feels they can be anything they want in role-play whereas in real life they are who they are. Another player feels that their Avatar is similar to their real life but is capable of doing or being more (flirty, casual, and outgoing) than they are in their real lives. Williamson et al support their second hypotheses on immersion, namely as a means of escapism by using ethnographic studies. Players focus on the Virtual World as something to 'get away' from real life hassles, largely all comments that Williamson et al notes are positive, as such there is no indication if there were any connotations of addiction involved with immersion. Not an avoidance of real life situations but more in terms of relaxation, rest, a break and so forth. In fact Williamson et al seem to be moving away from such connotations by making this remark. Although I do not want to address questions of addictions and violence arising out of excessive gaming, these arise out of some of the discourses I point out. More can be found in the works of Florence Chee. The <a class="external-link" href="http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/docs/InteractiveConvergenceCheeSmithCh92005.pdf">article in particular</a> can be accessed <a class="external-link" href="http://florencechee.blogspot.com/">on her page</a>. Henry Jenkins and his stand on immersion has been addressed in an earlier blog post and would be relevant when addressing immersion in role play (and RPGs) in offline games.</p>
<h2>The Segregation of Production - Reading Nakamura and Racial Production</h2>
<p>Lisa Nakamura provides an insight into reading racial stereotypes in virtual worlds and posits that subjects carefully avoid real world racism, and racial references shifts into narratives of racial warfare in the imaginary world. Nakamura problematizes the informationalized capitalism that constructs Asian players as informational labourers and outsiders to the aesthetic integrity of the world of warcraft that the beauty of the game has somehow been polluted or tarnished by third world and fourth world informational labourers.</p>
<p>Nakamura addresses the informational dispossession of fourth world workers and gold farmers in particular and the real world racism that is inherently present in the caricaturisation that follows informational labour. She compares Consalvo and Castronova to discuss racialization, among other social evils, which as far as Castronova (2005) describes is ideally exempt from virtual worlds.</p>
<p>A strong focus on racialization in the real world being imported into virtual spaces and the connotations that accompany farming or for that matter how race becomes a derogatory insult in communities that have farming cultures is present. This takes the form of (almost) imagined racial warfare in virtual worlds and Nakamura attempts to locate this in light of Chinese (and Korean) informational labour and gold farming. The derogatory connotations associated with Chinese (and Korean) players as stereotypical farmers, and thus contaminated where the aesthetic integrity of MMO worlds are concerned (Nakamura substantiates using Consalvo, p. 6). Gold farming except for legally accepted modes are considered as cheating. Consalvo points out that cheating need not be approached as a flaw or weakness in the game design that is exploited or circumvented by players, rather cheating is an inherent part of gaming culture and is a necessary element that contributes to sustained immersion.</p>
<p>One problem would be the actual produsage of virtual goods that are dependent on racial factors that often separate production and consumption. This form of segregation of production on racial and accumulated avatarial terms would lead to a more nuanced reading of production on racial factors. Produsage is a term recently used in the New Media and Culture Journal to locate the production and simultaneous consumption on the Internet in the larger picture. In the virtual world produsage can stand for the production and consumption patterns of virtual worlds – a detailed report on the same has been recently published by the Advanced Virtual Economy Applications Project in conjunction with the Helsinki Institute of Information and Technology.</p>
<p>Is produsage similar to prosumption, the convergence of production and consumption in social media? Whereas produsage is limited to examining the dissemination of content and the engagement with creative, collaborative, and often adhoc content, prosumption is more applicable in the virality of that content through the networks that it flows through. I would interpret the former as being form and style specific and the latter architecturally informed in that the structures of technology through which content flows rather than the form of the content is given more weightage.</p>
<p>An examination of avatarial capital and its influences on racial production leads to the flows of attention that influence production processes. Influencing production in a systematic manner, attention as a currency dictates the prosumption of virtual goods. The AVEA report notes MMORPGs as the first genre in RMT (Real money trades). Although the AVEA reports literature focuses on 'Game Time' investments in grinding, mining, and farming – repetitive tasks that produce avatarial material and non material capital. A distinction should be made that the Game economy is not dependent on time factors alone, such that the investments of virtual and real money does not always translate into time spent in the acts of virtual production. Attention often mediates this process, such that the flow of attention would effectively enhance a player of low net worth (materially) and disenfranchise players who have invested time, effort, and money in the game and have a higher net worth in material functions. Virtual material wealth and non material wealth plays very little role in the enhancement and disenfranchisement of players and their respective investments in the virtual worlds. This is not to suggest that this is a common norm, production inevitably draws attentional capital in the automated ranking and listings that showcase this 'achievement', which also results in contest and conquest over command on virtual commodities. The AVEA report and works by Lehdonvirta (Ville) and Hamari (Juho) interpret the achievement hierarchy that those who have worked, deserve the fruit of their labour.</p>
<p>Avatar rights<strong>53</strong> and the Declaration of the rights of avatars are tied into the concepts of this achievement hierarchies that Hamari and Lehdonvirta uses and their materialization, if you will, in real value. Production and time are classically linked through labour and effort and to import that reading into a virtual space devoid of certain nuanced reformulations would be regressive. This is reflected in the AVEA report findings, although their trajectories are ideologically motivated. To posit that early MMORPGs had an achievement structure through which players steadily climbed the backbone of social and economic structure destabilized by the emergence of secondary markets is highly problematic. Firstly for it locates an evolutionary trajectory, the idyll (almost echoing of a Christian pre-lapsarian) state followed by the fall, so to speak, or destabilisation of the idyllic aesthetic beauty and 'integrity' by secondary markets or gold farming markets and resellers – Nakamura (2009) reiterates this perceived violation of 'western' aesthetics by eastern guest works and informational labourers. Secondly it locates all investments as a simple matter of time investment (which flows in either/both way), and to locate the connections between real and virtual currencies as simple matters of produsage or prosumption linked to time (whichever term seems more appropriate, i.e., depending on the form of content or the structure that enables its flow – naturally please read content also as virtual content, digital content, and so forth inclusive of virtual goods and services) is limiting and problematic. The problematics are not the input of time and effort but the flow of attention that dictates most gameplay formation<strong>54</strong> and strategy in any game that has a massive environment with a PvP structure. In intense-PvP-character focused MMORPGs such as Eternal Duel the avatarial capital are a) different parameters central to role play and character development and b) dependent on racial choices that allow for different progression pathways.</p>
<p>Nakamura notes that “China-men” are often equated with NPCs or non-player characters whose only role in the game is either grinding, or providing information and equipment. Grinding is a repetitive task, largely of killing monsters again and again to gain items, currencies, and experience in-game. By equating NPCs and Chinese players together, PvP attacks becomes nothing more than 'taking a stroll in the wilderness' and attacking 'monsters'. People who are profiled as Asian, either through their avatars or through their actions, mannerisms, associations and so forth (earlier I made an argument on in-group and out-group associations that facilitated certain forms of attentional capital flows, note that both negative and positive flows are possible). Such profiling along with informational labour dehumanizes the subjects as mere characters in a racial war. I posit that outworld racism, racist tendencies, and remarks such as that noted above and documented by Nakamura becomes only one half of racial production and game play in virtual worlds. Most fantasy genres are built on concepts of warfare with often racial connotations, such that survival, quest progression, and the accumulation of avatarial capital depends on the imaginary, constructed, and designed racial warfare in virtual worlds. All MMORPGs have some element of conflict, warfare which is often a part of design. Survival is not just a matter of survival in harsh game environment but also from other avatars. Survival also depends on the ability of the avatar to exercise command over other goods and services within the virtual world.</p>
<p>This ability to command better resources in the virtual world dictates the survival of the avatar and in cases of warfare (constant struggle is an element of MMORPGs and warfare is the eventual representation of that struggle) the more virtual goods that an avatar commands, the better its chances of survival. Although a commentary of Nakamura's text, an attempt is made to locate instances where attentional capital and its accumulation need not necessarily assist survival in the game.</p>
<p>Racial production or what I would posit as the production of virtual goods dependent on race in MMO Fantasy RPGs is dependent on the attentional shifts that are regulated by the games own internal market ranking systems. What the AVEA project report terms as the achievement hierarchies, for the hierarchy or ranking is not singular but varied and distributed across multiple aspects of development in a game. These hierarchies also facilitate shifts in attentional capital and its flows (other than self representation through profiles and avatars) and locate racial characteristics of an avatar and achievement hierarchies linked to race. For instance, ED ranks players based o their race choices, for all six races in the game with race trophies being awarded to the first three in the list. The trophies are much sought after for the bonus-benefits that they provide. This leads to a form of racial warfare, within the races - for the race trophy, and outside the races for higher achievement ranking. Quests which require the collection of one soul from each race for access to higher capability weapons have players in a constant state of warfare. Attentional capital here dictates the production, often racial production in that the high level weapons, armour, and other virtual goods that are produced are race specific. Often players tend to speculate and buy race weapons only to resell in the internal market after making enhancements to it, even though the weapon or armour itself is quite useless in terms of race compatibility. A look at the top seven race weapon internal market listings in ED and comparison with the players character profiles and race choice will show that four out of seven players have listed weapons they cannot use or equip. Race armour and other weapons have similar statistics in the internal markets in that most are not items of use by players but for speculation general compatibility armour on the other hand has very few players investing in major enhancements. Their efforts at producing these weapons and enhancing them is to speculate on the market and on possible players who will need them as they progress to level 300, and thus make a considerable profit by selling it, or renting it out through an in-game contract system.</p>
<p>In conclusion I also introduce the concept of class production and game world race production of virtual goods and items, such that character race plays a relevant part in imagined racial warfare but not so much in the production of virtual goods, which is driven by market demand and supply. Attentional capital and avatarial capital plays pivotal roles in the systems of production and I have made an attempt to locate them from different perspectives. I posit that attentional capital flows through the self representation in profiles and the ingroup and outgroup identitification along with associations to race, class, and identity which are not necessarily outworld alone. As Nakamura (2009) notes there are no real world races in virtual worlds but the image of the farmer has been associated with real world Chinese and Korean players such that it forms a basic dichotomy between leisure players and worker players, worker players who are dehumanized subjects similar to non player characters run by the artificial intelligence of the game. Attentional currency through many of these perspectives performs the role of a currency that facilitates or enables further progress and survival. Trading in race weapons and armour and virtual goods, that are of no other interest to the game character than pure profit, assists the collection and expansion of other forms of material and non material avatarial capital. </p>
<h3 align="JUSTIFY">References<br /></h3>
<ol><li>AVEA Project Report. (2010). The Advanced Virtual Economy Applications Project, Helsinki Institute of Information Technology, Accessed June 12th 2010. <http://virtual-economy.org/files/AVEA%20Project%20Final%20Report%208%20June%202010.pdf>.</li><li>Castronova, E. (2003). <em>On Virtual Economies</em>, in Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research. Vol 3. Issue 2.</li><li>Castronova, E. (2005). Synthetic worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Chicago: <br /> University of Chicago Press. <br /></li><li>Castronova, E., James J. Cummings, Will Emigh, Michael Fatten, Nathan Mishler, Travis Ross and Will Ryan. (2007). <em>What is a Synthetic World?</em> In Space Time Play Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: the Next Level. Birkhäuser Basel (p. 174–177). <br /></li><li>Castronova, E., Dmitri Williams, Cuihua Shen, Rabindra Ratan, Li Xiong, Yun <br /> Huang, and Brian Keegan. (2009). <em>As real as real? Macroeconomic Behavior in a Large-scale Virtual World</em>. New Media & Society. 11. 685. Accessed 22 April 2010. <http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/5/685>.</li><li>Consalvo, M. (2007). Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Video Games. Cambridge: The MIT Press. <br />Cooper, R. (2007). Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators. London: Chris Boot. <br /></li><li>Dibbell, J. (2006). Play Money. New York: Basic Books.</li><li>Davenport, T. H., & Beck, J. C. (2000). Getting the attention you need. Harvard Business Review, 78(5), pp. 118-126. <br /></li><li>Davenport, T. H., & Beck, J. C. (2001). The attention economy: Understanding the new currency of businesses. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. <br /></li><li>Goldhaber, M. (1997). The Attention Economy: The Natural Economy of the Net.</li><li>Hamari, J., and V. Lehdonvirta. (2010). Game Design as Marketing: How
Game Mechanics Create Demand for Virtual Goods, in Journal of
Business Science and Applied Management. Vol 5. Issue 1. Accessed 21
May 2010.
</li><li>Lehdonvirta, V. (2005) Real-Money Trade of Virtual Assets: Ten Different User Perceptions. In: Proceedings of Digital Arts and Culture (DAC 2005), 52-58. IT University of Copenhagen: Copenhagen. <br /></li><li>Lehdonvirta, V. (2007) MMORPG RMT and sumptuary laws. Virtual Economy Research Network. <http://virtual-economy.org/blog/ mmorpg_rmt_and_sumptuary_laws>. <br /></li><li>Lomas, D. (2008). Attentional Capital and the Ecology of Online Social Networks. In M. Tovey (Ed.), <em>Collective Intelligence</em>, (pp 163-172) Oakton: EIN Press. <br /></li><li>Nakamura, L. (2009). <em>Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft</em>, in Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol 26. Issue 2. Accessed 12 Feb. 2010 <http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/15295030902860252 >.</li><li>Simon, H. A. (1971). Designing organizations for an information-rich world. In M. Greenberger (Ed.), Computers, communications and the public interest (pp.40-41). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press. <br /></li><li>Williams, D., T. Kennedy & R. Moore (2010, in press). Behind the Avatar: The Patterns, Practices and Functions of Role Playing in MMOs. <em>Games & Culture</em>.<br /></li></ol>
<p> </p>
<ol><li>
<p class="discreet">The Virtual Worlds Research Project {VWRP} has conducted extensive studies and workshops on defining virtual worlds – three main prominent characteristics of which are depiction, space and analogic – for more please refer their report published and<a class="external-link" href="http://worlds.ruc.dk/archives/2891"> freely available</a>.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The Attention economy was first implied in the works of Simon H.A (1971) who focuses on the exchange of attention as a relevant factor in the information economy – that the resource that is made scarce is not information but attention expended in its consumption is one of the seminal points made by Simon H. A. The term although was popularized by the writings of Davenport and Beck 2000, 2001 and Goldhaber 1997, 2008. For more details for the “<a class="external-link" href="http://goldhaber.org/blog/?p=197">attention economy hypothesis in brief</a>”.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Three kingdoms online is a merger of MMORPG and MMORTS with a focus on Real Time Strategy similar to Travian. World of Warcraft is a classical Role Playing Game Set in the Massive Environment where millions of players can join in a game – Which is what is termed an MMORPG. Eternal Duel and Rising Era are Text Based MMORPGs that have a smaller base and depends entirely on textual and not graphical representation.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Although similar to Peirre bourdieu's (Bourdieu and Passeron 1973) concept of human capital, it involves the examination of non material gains that are linked to an avatar, such as in-game experience, in-game knowledge and so forth.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Refer Bourdieu and Jean Claude Passeron <strong>"Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" (1973)</strong>.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The Virtual - Real Binary has been addressed in many disciplines in different capacities, concerning identity, presence, production, and labour. Here I skirt the actual binary but use it to lend credence to the virtual currency and by extention also the attention currency.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">What Castronova would like to term as part of 'the exodus'.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Nakamura and Consalvo note this limitation in different manners and points to the realization of Castronova's speculative predictions.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Either browser- or client-based.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">MUDs stands for Multi-user Domain.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The term graphical worlds may be misleading, I use the term to denote the visually superior worlds that Castronova seems to imply as Synthetic Worlds, his main case study being Sony's EverQuest. Doing this I also posit that text based virtual worlds are active economically, even if not as much as graphical worlds, and the term synthetic worlds can be expanded to include the text based genre as well.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">As against NPCs or non player characters.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">And thus subjective in nature.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">By sustainable I suggest that immersion (emotional or otherwise) in the game world does not face massive disjuncts or breaks. A game that has a cohesive narrative architecture (please refer Jenkins works on narrative architectures) could be immersive.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The 'massive element' is used to locate some central points of departures between RPGs and MMORPGs, evolution being one of them.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Also defined as gold farming markets, there are some questionable problems is definitions due to legality, concepts of cheating and so forth. Mia Consalvo (2007) approaches cheating as part of gaming culture and admits that even EULAs do not sufficiently address what activities and circumventions maybe regarded as cheating and how exactly that affects some players. Some players have the ability to pay for farming services, but that does not necessarily mean its cheating, since he is still investing labour (through a process of outsourcing of that labour) into the game.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">This term is not common, I use this term outworld synonymously with out-game, and as a antonym to in-game and inworld. The term implies activities within the game and its impact, influence, or some other variable that is outside of that game mostly in the real world. Thus, although technically, these terms are not synonymously cohesive - for the purposes here is used as such.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Although Castronova urges that there is an impact of synthetic economies on real world economies, I believe locating the attentional capital and its function as a currency within virtual worlds and its shifts and flows effected through real world stereotypes, uses, and affordances (as Castronova himself notes that there are very almost no virtual goods that do not have some form of real world categorization and uses and/or affordances), can be located through gold farming as a trade practice.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Can attentional capital also be read as linked to “all” non-material capital?</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Presuming that they are obtained within the game and not through metagaming, Castronova does not examine metagaming in this manner except to locate gold farming practices that he terms as secondary market activities.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Considering that social and viral networks and their effects can be often hinted at but rarely predicted beforehand. Without sufficient avatar capital, there may be very little attentional capital and trades in attentional capital that ensure survival in any game. As such predicting outcomes based on possible attentional capital can be unproductive.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Depending on how communities and groups are
organized in the game world. They could be limited to 60 as in
Travian, or above 200 as in Eternal Duel, depending on certain
circumstances membership is also often limited, a reason why
attentional capital of high performing groups stay well above the
threshold of survival. Almost all groups will have internal
communications, IGM – In-Game Mailing/Messaging, internal or
devised chat functionality – for instance Travian has a server
chat that accommodates players of the clan but is rarely used, Skype
is preferred and if not Gtalk and Msn is preferred means of
communication and strategizing as well. This is noticeable in
International .com servers and the English .in servers, as for other
servers this may not hold true. Eternal Duel also has chat
functionality but is not clan specific. Both games have their own
internal forums for the clan pages as well as game support forums
internationally and regionally.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Also termed Metaverse where factors external to the game influence the game – practices that are termed as metagaming.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Although at this juncture Bots and their usage should be explored, it might derail the argument on attentional capital flows. Automated programs are forms of circumventions that are often banned in the TOS and EULA of the game, but still used by many players. Multihunters or staff of the game working specifically on detecting circumvention arose out of modding and circumvention. Consalvo explores cheating to a fair amount and places cheating as a part of game culture, such that it allows players who are stuck at certain points to bypass the narrative requirement to complete a certain quest, do a certain activity and so forth. Therefore, she places cheating not so much as loopholes in design exploited by circumvention rather an essential part of a game in its ability to maintain, or sustain immersion.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy is a subdivision of games that focus on Empire building in a persistant or resetting massive environment.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Technologies that facilitate communication and interaction are necessary for any forms of trade and activity to develop online. An ingame messaging system, a contract system, in-game chat functionality make up for synergized communities that can strategize better in such games.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">This ranking range depends entirely on the server and the number of people playing the game. The range denotes the highest investors in the game, in terms of activity, presence, and production. These number ranges are applicable for the international .com travian servers. The numbers would be much lower compared to Indian or other regional servers. A report can be obtained on Travian World analyzer but is limited to server resets – every 300 days for normal servers. <a class="external-link" href="http://travian.ws/">http://travian.ws/</a> - note that this is not the original travian site or in any manner supported by travian or their staff, but an external site that aggregates travian data for assistive gameplay.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Gathered from the Travian Forums and Strategy guides. The exact tools are numerous including user scripts and is not elaborated further.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Both are Chat and Instant Messaging Clients.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Policy here implies in-game production - From basics such as War and Peace to profit sharing, production sharing, resource collection for common growth and so forth.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Avatar capital is largely represented in the player profile page or in the in-game ranking system or external tools that pull data off the server to provide ranking and player search functionalities. One such case would be the extensive in-game ranking systems in Eternal Duel a text-based fantasy MMORPG, another instance would be Travian Servers which run on time bound resets and has extensive external tools to locate, plan, and strategize ideal locations, attack maneuvers, defense, farm finders and so forth. These systems act in the ways attention flows from particular activities that avatars undertake.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Attentional currency as the currency of survival is part of the paper
currently in a draft version and will be linked on my personal blog
when published.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Avatrial death naturally.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Castronova suggests that the term is more
appropriate as it indicates an interconnected relationship that is
not part of the real- virtual binary.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Quest lines would be particular pathways that a player character/avatar can choose for development depending on racial attributes experience points and so forth. For example, the Sway of the stars in a High eld RW1 (Race weapon 1) which is available after crossing a certain level (indicated by experience points gathered). Note that all of this is dependent on the virtual world and the design and plot of the world concerned. The example is taken from Eternal Duel.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Quest lines would be particular pathways that a player character/avatar can choose for development depending on racial attributes experience points and so forth. For example, the Sway of the stars in a High eld RW1 (Race weapon 1) which is available after crossing a certain level (indicated by experience points gathered). Note that all of this is dependent on the virtual world and the design and plot of the world concerned. The example is taken from Eternal Duel. </p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The game does not name the weapon as elvish, rather it is just termed as a high elf race weapon. The word Elvish is not particularly popular either for some reason.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Which are also virtual goods. In the paper macroeconomic behavior in large scale virtual worlds, the authors attempt to locate if the virtual 'sword' can be considered as having 'real' value.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">or the Elven Race, one of the race choices when building a character. Race choices in character building has benefits including race weapons, race specific growth benefits and so forth, all of which are tied into the production of avatarial capital and indirectly attentional capital.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">His study is on social networks, particularly Myspace.com, but can be used to read into attentional capital in gaming.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">And hints at the reduction of identities into interests where self representation is concerned.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">I would choose to expand this concept and make it broader so as to make it applicable to other social networks and is not limited to gaming.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Such as ethnic, cultural, racial, to form an in-group or out-group association, or through common cultural symbols and so forth as mentioned earlier.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">I quote a recent debate with a few colleagues who suggested that I seem to suggest through my writing that the formation of these repositories are resultant of vague unintended actions on part of players and argued that the associations noticeable in the profiles of players are not always unintended but in most cases calculated and placed with deliberative intent. Without going into too much detail, I should clarify that that there might be the influence of the smart cow syndrome (for the lack of a better term for articulating this), where prominent groups have players who game for attention so as to be able to enter these groups (again I suggest that this would be a tactic for survival) failure to be associated with the group and other high level players often imply certain death (virtual avatar death that is). In such a case arguably there is deliberation and contemplation before networking or creating associations through profiles. For instance, a low level player would choose group A or group B – Z dependent on their position and the assumed allegiance and loyalty of the group portrayed through their own profile pages and thus their own repositories (yes this is illusory attention at work), and capabilities of the group to ensure survival of the player – this is deliberative. To return to my point there are often other messages and profile tags that the player uses to denote either strategy or tactics employed by the player and this I posit is unintended, a Gual character posting a Roman slogan on the profile, or some message indicative of strategy. So many troops killed in the first few weeks, so many players farmed and so forth, are unintended but assists in the inter-connection of these repositories perhaps a little more than group identities which are in constant flux (in worlds like travian from which this example is sourced).</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">assuming that it is non coercive and profitable.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Thus represented as A1 avatar on server 2 would be A2 and n number of servers to indicate A'n'.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">For instance SARSteam on Travian interbational severs would be A1 and A2, and on ED servers would be A3 and so forth provided that avatar is linked or recognizable to SARSteam, or any of its members.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">SARSteam is a prominent avatar of a player in
Travian.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">The authors Travian Avatar.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Travian servers reset after approx 300 days, where the endgame is the successful completion of a Wonder of the World.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">A PNAP is a personal non aggression pact regardless of alliance affiliations, such that in the event that two players are in opposing and competitive alliances a PNAP would mean that either alliance would consider non aggression on the listed player regardless of alliance stand on other players. Applicable mostly unless in the event of war when PNAPs are suspended. The notion of the PNAP is similar to the NAPs forged between alliances, except its between a few players. Alone together phenomenon occurs to some extent in such cases.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Goldhaber (1997) places Illusory attention in
perspective with that of a speaker and an audience. Through a reading
of Lomas (2008) I posit that a similar situation is present in the
self representation in player profiles.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">Avatar rights are interesting concepts that question notions of property and copyrights and ownership.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">By formation, I imply how game play progresses and forms dependent on attention flows towards a particular strategy in the game.</p>
</li></ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attentional-capital-online-gaming'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/gaming-and-gold/attentional-capital-online-gaming</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGamingGaming EconomyInternet HistoriesHistories of InternetResearchers at Work2015-04-03T10:46:56ZBlog Entry