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.

Practicum 6 - Virtual Community

As my superhero character, Macro Man, in DC Universe Online continues to grow in skill, strength, and experience, my horizon of friends, groups, leagues, and rivals, is continuing to grow as well. Now at level 15, I have 22 friends (more appropriately acquantances), I am a member of 3 groups, and I am still in only one league, even though my rank and influence in that league is growing quickly. The reason I feel more comfortable calling my 22 friends acquantances is that 4 to 5 of my so called 'friends' are actually people who I have dueled with and felt that they were of equal skill as myself and would be a fair fight in the future or a good fight to see where my improvements stand against other users improvements. AKA...rivals.

Now that I am clearly adapting to the game, I am begining to really get a sense of the magic behind the virtual communities which often come about from MMORPG and other forms of MMO games. For example, if I ever have a question about any aspect of the game that I need to know, there is absolutley no need to search for an answer on the internet as I am sure that a 'friend' of mine could help me out with the answer on DC Universe Online. If the ability to ask others for help is not an aspect of a community than I dont know what is.

Another aspect of a virtual community that I have found to be ever present in DC Universe Online is the shared interest amongst users towards both DC Comics and MMORPGs. As I continue to speak to more and more members and ask them the reason for why they are on DC Universe Online, the answer has almost 100% of the time been either, "I like superheroes/comic books" (or a specific superheroes name), or "I <3 MMORPG". With these shared interests, communication between users is much more casual as the users are aware that there is at least one aspect of their lives that are similar to eachother, and users are also more motivated to speak to people if they believe that they are going to turn out to be similar to them. For a lot of socially awkward teens and adults, turing towards these virtual communities appears to be the best option because they find these sorts of shared interests between themselves and the users around them without having to actually communicate with them.

Computerized Devices

Here is a list of the computerized devices I used yesterday.
(Just a heads up that this list might be quite extensive as I am a Sony Electronics Ambassador and have many electronics that I used yesterday during a demo)

1. Alarm Clock
2. Electronic Toothbrush w/ timer
3. Cell Phone
4. Laptop
5. PS3
6. Xbox
7. Television
8. Microwave
9. S1 Tablet
10. Bloggie
11. Cybershot Camera
12. Walkman
13. Elevator

I am fully aware that I am an extremely heavy user of technology and essentially depend upon it to go about my daily life. I probably spend close to 80% (very rough guesstimation) of my awake day using computerized devices. I use my computer for every aspect of school from in-class note taking to out of class homework completion. My free time is taken up by watching television, playing video games on Xbox, PS3, S1 Tablet, or my laptop, social media on my laptop, or talking on my cell phone. Basically, unless I am in the shower/bathroom, walking to class (without a cell phone), athletics, or taking a test, I am using computerized devices. Although I do find my heavy use of technology a bit worrisome, I also believe that technology is the future of humanity and feel that ignoring such devices would be a huge mistake and would not benefit me at all in the future.

Google Yourself

For many years now it has been a hobby of mine to google myself and my family members in order to learn new information on people, or to see the extent of information available about people on the internet. Personally, there is quite a lot of information about myself on google and I am not sure whether I should view this as a positive thing or a negative thing. On google you are able to find what high school I went to, what sports I played and how I did in those sports (swimming times and basketball stats), the names of my family members, where I live, the name of a CD I sang backup on when I was 7, where I went to camp, my facebook/myspace/livejournal, and almost everything else I have put on the internet. For things like family member names, where I live, my high school, or my social media sites, I believe the access google has to private information and the ability they have to promote these websites that contain this information is quite unbelievable and I feel that this definitely, in some way, breaches my rights to privacy. At the same time, there are also good things about google searches, for example when I am 40 I will be able to see how many points I scored in a high school basketball game, I also sometimes use google to conduct research on family members who have deceased and I never had a chance to meet. For example, on google I discovered a list of my great-grandfather's favorite films, and as a film lover and comm arts major, this list had a huge impact on my life and my taste in films.

Copyright Experience

Since my earliest experiences with the internet, I had always been aware of Copyright laws, but in the most part, chose to ignore them. When I was only 8 or 9 years old, I used to illegally download music and games from Napster. I had been told in school that downloading music on websites like napster was illegal and had always heard stories from friends who had friends who had friends who had gotten in trouble with the government and had to pay thousands of dollars in fines, but because I had never experience such punishments first hand, I completley ignored them. After Napster I moved on to Limewire and continued downloading music, videos, and games without paying. Later on after Limewire began making my computer run slower, I began file sharing off of applications like Mojo, where any users on the same network can transfer songs, videos, or pictures to one another through itunes.

In terms of the morality of what I am doing, I am deffinitley fully aware that I am stealing somebody elses property, and that it is wrong and illegal. This is especially a problem when it comes to illegally downloading movies as my family owns a chain of movie theatres and film piracy has led to major drops in the cinema market. At the same time, there is also a side of me that wants to simply state that if it is available on the internet for free, then there shouldnt be any punishment for viewing it, and that part of the responsibility and challenge of these media producers is to adopt to the online age and figure out ways to provide free media to audiences while still profiting off of advertisements, like Hulu, being able to pay off the media creators.

Practicum 5 - Gameplay Cont.

Currently in DC Universe Online, I am level 14 and my character is nearly unrecognizable due to the vast amount of utilities I have added to my characters physical appearance.

With the addition of each of these new utilities, my character can improve in attack efficiency, attack strength, defensive strength, health, speed, and other character skills. Also, characters can learn different attacks and use different weapons based on the utilities on hand. For example, I originally started of the game with fist projectiles as my weapons, but have since added the battle axe to my weapons in my utility. With the battle axe, I was able to learn an entire new series of attacks while still being able to return to the attacks I learned with fist projectiles. The way at which I attain these new utilities is through leveling up, mission completion, or by stealing it from other users while battling individually, in groups, or in leagues. Personally I have gained the most experience and utilities while participating in group battles, but in this post I am going to specifically discuss missions and how rewards work in PvE. Just a reminder from my earlier posts that PvE stands for Player vs. Environment, where the user is only completing computer generated missions and battling computer generated characters.

A few of the missions I have gone on so far in DC Universe Online were; Save Robin from Joker, Help Superman Destroy Brainiac's Gorillas, Defeat Flash in a Race, and Help Wonder Woman Destory Brainiac's Computers. It should be pretty clear that most of the early missions in this game are with some of the more popular characters in DC Comics, and if one is able to complete the missions in a certain alloted time or with a certain number of kills, the character gains the mentorship of the superhero. For example, after I saved Robin from Joker in under 10 minutes, I received Robin as a mentor and gained Loyalty as my personality.

All of the missions I have gone on so far are relatively simple and I have not had to much difficulty completing them. I have read on chats that the missions do get much more difficult when you pass level 30, but I have a long way to go until then.

Lastly, one of my favorite aspects of these missions is that even though they are assigned to you alone and your results are yours alone, there are sometimes other users who are completing the same mission as you at the same time. For example, in Help Superman Destory Brainiac's Gorillas and Help Wonder Woman Destroy Brainiac's Computers, there was an unlimited number of gorillas and computers to destroy, so an unlimited number of users can be completing this missions at the same time as only 15 gorrilas and 10 computers are needed to be destroyed before the mission is complete.

Practicum 4 - DCUO Demographic

In my last practicum post I asked the question to the class, "Are the majority of users on DC Universe Online fans of MMORPGs, fans of Superheroes and DC Comics, or both?" Since posting that question, I have decided to do a bit of research into the subject of DC Universe Online's demographic as I believe it is a critical aspect of the games success due to the games attractiveness to both fans of MMORPGs and fans of superheros and DC Comics. Using an app called Raptr, which is a social networking app for gamers, researchers were able to track the users who were playing DC Universe Online and the other online video games these users were playing. According to the statistics, DCUO users were found to be much more interested in other MMORPG games, like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, then other comic book genred games, like City of Heroes.

Prior to reading these statistics, I had fully believed that the majority of users of DC Universe Online were more interested in superheroes then they were in the games MMORPG style. This was because of the lack of games garnered towards the strong communal aspects of the comic book community and the idea that MMORPG fans would have already been too busy dedicating their time to much more popular games like World of Warcraft.

Even though this new information does go against my original thought that the game was primarily comic book fans, I still believe this info adds more validity to my claim that much of DCUO's success comes from the rare combination of multiple demographics; comic book fans and MMORPG fans.

Practicum 3 - Social/Interactive

As an MMORPG, it is very expected that DC Universe Online is a 'multiplayer' game, which requires the game to incorporate many aspects of social/interactive media. From the beginning of the game through my first few missions, I felt as if there was an extremely limited amount of interaction/communication between myself and other user's superheroes, but that was only because I had yet to explore the interactive/communicative aspects of the game. Once I began focusing on being social within the realm of the DC Universe, I was amazed with how connected many of the users are. First, you are able to label other users as your friend, which allows you to know whether they are online or offline. Second, once you have some friends, it is very easy to place them within a group that you or another user created. Within these groups, users are able to go on missions together as well as communicate with one another through Advanced Chat. Third, you are able to join or create a League which is essentially a large group of users that are not necessarily friends with one another who consider one another allies and go on missions and raids together. Most of these Leagues have been established for a while, which makes it nearly impossible to start your own league, and as a result only three Leagues make up the vast majority of users. When I first tried to make friends with another user, it was quite difficult until I figured out where the social hubs were on the map; police stations. The first person I managed to communicate with was Cookie Kaboom, a user who was also new to the game and I decided to take the opportunity to research a bit into the cultural aspect of the game.

How long have you been playing DC Universe? About a month.
What level are you on? Level 10.
How often do you speak with other users? Not very often...I dont play DC Universe to make new friends.
Then why are you playing DC Universe? I want to be Batman.(To no surprise, his character was a green version of batman with a large orange mohawk)
Do you think most users are fans of DC superheroes? Ya.
Do you think most users are fans of MMORPGs? Whats that?
DC Universe is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Game), is this your first time playing an MMORPG? I dont know.
Is this your first time playing a superhero game? No way...I played Spiderman and Batman games for like 10 years. 

Finally after communicating a little longer, I placed him as a friend and he invited me to a group which consisted of only 5 people including myself. With this group, I went on my first raid which involved attacking another group of users. In order to do so, I had to change my settings from PvE (Player vs. Environment) to PvP (Player vs. Player), so that I could attack other users. Sadly, my group was defeated rather quickly by a group of 8 much more experienced users who were taking the raid as an opportunity to beat up on new users.

Since this first interaction, I now have 5 friends and our group has grown to 13 users. I have gone of 3 raids with this group but have not yet won as most of the other groups have much more experienced users. During the last two raids I have completed with the group, we have communicated using voice chat as it is impossible to type while you play. Personally, I do not speak very much because I am not that experienced and do not feel very comfortable giving out directions, but I have found the voice chat to be very helpful with group communication and has also helped me learn a lot of new things about the game.

Here are some questions I would like the class to ponder before my presentation:

Are the majority of users on DC Universe Online fans of MMORPGs, fans of Superheroes and DC Comics, or both?

If a user chooses not to communicate with any other users, and instead goes through the entire game communicating and interacting with computer generated characters and missions, is that person still participating in interactive gaming? What if he is surrounded by other users, and often battles alongside other users, but does not communicate with them?

Have any of you played an MMORPG before? If so, which game and often did you find yourself communicating with other users?

Hulu vs. Youtube

As a fan of both Hulu and Youtube, it is very difficult arguing that one is 'better' then the other as they are both extremely different from one another. Hulu, on one hand, is a website where videos (primarily movies and TV shows) are uploaded to the Internet by Hulu employees for the viewing pleasure of a global audience. For the most part, Hulu is licensing these videos from distribution companies, and profits off of these videos through the use of commercials, as well as a paid service called Hulu Plus which is $7.99 a month and provides access to entire catalogs of TV shows, new episodes the day/day after they air, and many films. On the other hand, Youtube is a website where videos (primarily home/amateur videos) are uploaded to the Internet by just about anyone with computer/Internet access. For the most part, the content on Youtube is not licenced and very often videos are taken down for copyright infringement. Youtube is much more of a social network of videos as users are able to upload response videos, comment, and users have individual profiles where unique personas are unveiled. For users who post videos that garner extremely large audiences, I believe there is a way to receive money through allowing advertisements on your videos, but primarily, the people uploading these videos do not receive any payment and most advertisement revenue is kept by Youtube.
Personally, I use Hulu a lot more then I use Youtube, but they both hold special places in my heart. As a film enthusiasts, I most often use Hulu and Youtube to view videos both for class and personal amusement. One of the best collections of classic films from around the world, the Criterion Collection, is on Hulu Plus (which I am subscribed to), and provides me access to many films which I could never find anywhere else on the Internet. On Youtube there are many films that you can find but many of them are uploaded illegally or do not have any copyrights. Most of the illegally uploaded films tend to be divided into 6 to 10 parts as the amount of memory most users are allowed to use to upload is significantly less than what would be needed to upload an entire film. Lastly, if I really had to chose between Hulu and Youtube, I would definitely chose Hulu as having a Hulu Plus subscription gives me access to so many extra luxuries that I can't imagine watching videos on my computer without it.

Practicum 2 - Gameplay

After customizing my superhero, Macro Man, I began a short training course where the character's controls were taught and the basic gameplay of DC Universe Online was introduced. Right away I was faced with my first dilemma once I realized that it was nearly impossible for me to control the characters movement, point of view, and attack with my laptop alone. After running to Digital Outpost and picking up a wireless mouse, I was finally able to begin the training course. The training course consisted of defeating about 20 robots and one 'boss', and afterwards I essentially understood all of the games basic controls. For example, W is to move forward, S is to move backwards, A is to move left, D is to move right, and left & right click are different attacks. During the training course, I leveled up to level 2 which provided my super hero with more cash and a new pair of gloves. I was able to go into my inventory/utility belt and switch my old gloves to my new pair of gloves which increased my defence by 18 points. When I was finished with the training course, I had not only earned a pair of gloves, but I also earned a cape, helmet, and belt, I had leveled up to level 3, and I received one new Power and one new Skill. The Power and Skill appear to be the most important to earn as the powers increased upon my chosen powers of flight and mental attack, and the skills teaches me new attacks and abilities like stun or heal. Each new item, weapon, power, or skill is measured in system where certain properties, like health, strength, speed, critical frequency, etc. are given a number value to determine their efficiency. By the time I made it outside of the training facility, my character had changed a lot due to the new items in his inventory.

As you can see in the picture above, not only has my character changed, but I am now surrounded by other superheros. I am extremely impressed with the perfect mix of superheros controlled by other human users and superheros controlled by computers. This allows characters to go through challenges that are either against the computer (time races, missions, etc.) or against a human (strength challenges, races, and battles to the death).

My first three missions were all relatively simple and primarily consisted of defeating a determined number of genetically enhanced gorillas while collecting pieces of technology. Losing in this game appears to be a very difficult feat as the only time I have lost so far was battling other humans who are leveled in the hundreds. Not only is the game difficult to lose at, but I have leveled up once every 20 or so minutes and now I am on level 6. At this point, the items in my inventory are filling up quickly and each item on my superheros body is stronger then the last. I have also developed two new attacks. When I hold down the left click, I release a super punch, and when I hold down the right click, I build up power for a few seconds then fire it through my arms. Lastly, I have begun trying to communicate with other users but am finding it very difficult. In my next practicum post I will go into detail the modes users communicate with one another and the effect it has on DC Universe Online gameplay. 

Practicum Post 1 - Customization

For my Practicum project which focuses on Interactive Media, more specifically MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), I have chosen to explore the online world of DC Universe. I have always had an interest in superheroes, and after reading the description of this MMORPG online, I am more than excited to start playing this game. Luckily, I have a Sony VAIO laptop, which allows me to play almost any game as many games are incompatible with non Windows computers. In this post, I will focus on the earliest stages of the game including; downloading the game, the opening videos, world selection, character selection, and character customization.

Downloading the game was very simple, except I had to wait almost 2 hours for all of the games files to install onto my computer. Once I finally had the game running, the program took over my entire screen and I was unable to take notes on Microsoft word (I took notes on a pad of paper instead), and I was also unable to take screen shots which is a problem I did not expect to have. Right away, it is easy to notice how many customizable options there are in an MMORPG game. First I had to chose between Player vs. Environment or Player vs. Player. I chose PvE because in PvP anyone can attack anyone while in PvE, you are only attacking what the game designed to be your enemies and the other members are your allies. I did not feel that game did a sufficient job explaining the differences between the two options and I was forced to look up further information on my phone. Next, there was an introductory video which explained the plotline which is simply the superheroes (including every member) used to fight each other, and now they are fighting against an evil alien named Braniac to save earth & humanity. After this short video, which contained some Hollywoodesque graphics, I finally began to choose and customize my character.

The number of choices available when customizing your character is unbelievable. First, you can choose your gender, size, character type, hero or villain, personality, mentor, power, mode of movement, and weapon. Or, you can just choose a character inspired by an actual super hero like Flash Gordon or the Green Lantern. For my character, I chose a Large Male Striker, with a Powerful personality, Mental powers, Flight for movement, Hand Blast as my weapon, and I chose Superman as my mentor. Next, you are able to completely customize the appearance of your character to match almost anything you can imagine. I personally chose a relatively simple character appearance, but I couldn't help but add a green mustache to my patriotically red, white, and blue superhero. Finally, I was asked to name my character which was by far the most difficult task of all. As the emblem on my super hero is an M and my name is Max, I attempted to name my character Professor Max, MAXIMUS, Magnificent Max, Professor M, Master Max, Super Max, Super M, and many others. After each and every one of those names were rejected for being previously taken by other members, I finally thought of a name unique enough for my Superhero: MACRO MAN!!!

Chatroulette

I had been on chatroulette a couple of times before, and I felt this experience was almost identical to the other experiences I have had on the website. Almost everyone I video chated with was either a pervert, musician, elderly foreign man, or other infrequent chatroulette users who were on the site looking for what has become the stereotypical chatroulette experience. The two musicians I chated with were actually very tallented. One was a trumpet player, and the other was a guitarist. I also chated with a freestyle rapper who made a rap about my name and location. I told the rapper my name, which probably wasnt very smart of me, but I was also a bit rattled that your location is shown to every person you chat with.
Overall my experience on chatroulette was pretty weird. I deffinitley think the idea of a randomized video chat site is a good idea, but with all the strange people in the world chatroulette has become just another hotspot for perverts.

Max Reisbaum Video Response

I found this video to be very informative and I felt it did a very good job laying out the foundations for what later became the Internet. It is really fascinating how imperative the cold war was to the speed at which the Internet developed and the huge role competition played into the development as well. I was really surprised at how little I knew about the development of the Internet. I had no idea that Internet and computers developed on very different timelines and that even though computers had been around for most of the 20th century, the Internet only began to be created during the 1960s. I think they could have done a much better job with the images used in the video though. I thought the animation was not very eye catching and felt there was a lack of actual pictures or videos. Overall, great choice of video to start this course off.