Practicum 7 - CMC & Wikipedia

One of the most vital aspects that pulls together the virtual community within DC Universe Online is Computer-Mediated-Communication or CMC. CMC consists of any form of communication that takes place through multiple computers. At the begining of the game, there was very little CMC, as almost every line spoken to me, untill I reached level 4, were coming from the game and not an actual person. Once I began speaking to people, CMC completley took over my gaming experience and essentially ushered me into the real world of MMORPGs. CMC includes everything from chating with one other person, to chating with a group of people, to posting a message to whoever would enjoy reading the post, to sending someone a private message who will never know who sent the message, to group interviews were two existing members of a group or league will interview the user who desires to join their group. When I looked up CMC on the internet, I instantly found information detailing the synchronization and asynchronization of CMC, but was surprised to find no other information on other types of CMC. As a result, I decided to edit the section which listed the types of CMC.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication#Types

Types
CMC can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous modes. In synchronous communications all participants are online at the same time (e.g. IRC), while asynchronous communications occurs with time constraints. (e.g. email). People choose asynchronous communication like email for delayed, controlled and longer messages. They also prefer email for negative emotion as they are distant from the receiver ("shielding" effect). On the other hand, people prefer synchronous communication like IM for immediate good news. They also use it because they can multitask while talking. CMC can also be divided into categories of how many people are communicating, how many people are they communicating with, and how are they communicating. Some examples are one-to-one communication, one-to-many communication, many-to-many communication, monologues, diologues, and multilogues.


In conclusion to my practicum project, I would like to say this was one of the best projects I have ever completed and thoroughly enjoyed every second of playing DC Universe Online and learning about MMORPGs and interactive media. It is amazing that such vast virtual worlds exists and that there are so many users who so strongly desire to be a part of a virtual world and community. I feel that there should be a ton more research going into MMORPGs because it is clear that such virtual communities are the communities of our future and it is clear that such games can create communities that cross borders, oceans, religions, races, and nationalities. If there was somehow a way that such virtual communities were created where users from 3rd world countries were able to learn and communicate with citizens of industrialized communities, the benefits are endless and could lead to such things as the end of hunger if people somehow managed to bring some form of currency into the game that can be transfered to the poorer users through gameplay, or education.