Week 8 Class and Reading Reflection

Week eight’s reading, Productive Players: Online Computer Games’ Challenge to Conventional Media Forms by Sal Humphreys, discussed the blurring of boundaries between production and consumption of content and the necessity for the lines between social and economic relationships to be redrawn. The reading was based specifically upon Everquest. It raised the issue of implications coming from having productive players. As in Everquest, the players create the text, community, networks of relationships, systems of governance and characters. This then raises questions of whether a corporation can own these things, whether their profit from it is exploitation and who has the power within such a virtual space. In Everquest Sony relies upon the players to ‘make the game’. “This unpaid labour of the players is not peripheral to the commercial success of a game; it is central.” Is this outright exploitation!? I think this is a really interesting topic because it is one that is quite blurry and I can’t decide whether there is a right and wrong. If there is a wrong in what corporations such as Sony and Auran are doing then what is the answer?

This week’s class was the first of my seminars. We discussed virtual communities and then had to form groups in which to develop our own idea for a potential community. I don’t usually like working in groups but I’m finding in many of my creative industries subjects that it is a necessity. Collaboration is fundamental within the creative industries so it is something I need to get use to for my professional practice. So I have a cool group and it should be fun. We brainstormed some ideas and I think we are going to do something along the lines of a virtual community for theatre script writers. It will be somewhere that script writers can meet, share ideas and work collaboratively on a work that will eventually be produced. It will also be a place where theatre goers can discuss performances they have seen, critique them and critique the development of the scripts under development. It will be locally based, eg: Brisbane, with the opportunity for expansion to other major cities if it becomes viable. It will be a means for networking and developing both social and industry relationships while allowing people with talent and/or passion to have a creative outlet which may lead to them making it big. The end result being an actual public performance will make the community feel productive and give members a reason to come back and contribute. This idea is copyrighted by moi!!!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

This is an image from the Everquest archives. It has a Lord of the Rings 'feel'. I'm hoping that this will be my last game image! All of this game talk is turning me into a game nerd, hehe.

Week 8 Lecture Reflection

This week’s lecture was given by Sal Humphreys and discussed multi-player online games, specifically Everquest. It covered the currently topical area surrounding intellectual property within online games where players produce the game while the corporation who owns it profits. It highlighted for me that there is an increasing popularity in interactive virtual worlds where players produce relationships, game content and the overall game play but the contract terms under which they play are very unfair. For example; a corporation such as Sony is given rights where it can make its Everquest players/producers accede to contract terms that give ownership to Sony while taking away the producers rights to their own creation. In addition to this there is the issue of online games and virtual worlds owned and managed by large corporations, eg: Sony, where the player’s real world citizen rights are taken away, eg: freedom of speech within the virtual environment. Players have been banned by Everquest customer service for protesting against actions of game management. I agree with the lecturer’s recommendation for there to be an assessment of rights given to large corporations in relation to their control over others’ intellectual property. How far can they go?

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

A screenshot from The Sims game. This actually wasn't my first pick for picture of the week. I wanted to use a screenshot from The Strangerhood (as seen in this and last weeks lecture) - the soap opera that has been created using The Sims game engine - but it was impossible to find one. Check out an episode at www.strangerhood.com/archive/

Week 7 Class and Reading Reflection

The week seven reading, Negotiating Participatory Culture in the New Media Environment: Auran and the Trainz Online Community by John Banks, was close to being a transcript of the lecture. It examined participatory culture in the new media environment and the relations that are arising between producers, consumers and media technologies by drawing upon Banks’ Trainz/Auran experience. Banks details a National Model Railroad Association convention (I must put it on my list of things to do [sarcasm]) and says “you could almost smell the rich tapestry and fabric of materials, practices, skills and knowledge that held this participatory culture event together. The strange mixture of commerce and hobbyist passion, energy and enthusiasm is very much at the core of participatory culture”. The reading highlights the blurring of boundaries between the commercial and the fan. It presents the question of whether capital is extending its networks and co-opting fandom for commercial gain. I think such corporate practices raise serious ethical issues in terms of fans and voluntary producers being exploited.

For this week’s class we did yet another chat, this time from home. I raised my concerns about the ethical implications of participatory culture within the chat and most of the others did not share my concern. In relation to Trainz, their opinion was that the fans chose to be there and provided services to Auran for free and therefore should not expect to be paid or recognized. I disagree with this. I think that even though the fan participation in Trainz is for enjoyment as a hobby they are still providing Auran with a significant financial gain; Auran relies upon them. I think this raises ethical questions…but I don’t know the answer to them.

Week 7 Lecture Reflection

The week seven lecture was again presented by John Banks and discussed ethics and governance in online communities. It really brought to my attention the extent to which fans and voluntary content creators contribute to corporations. The Trainz fan base offer so much to Auran. The fans provide everything from game content to publicity at no cost to Auran, in fact Auran relies upon their contributions. This extensive ‘free labour’ raises ethical issues for such corporations. Problems arise when areas of voluntary work connect with entrepreneurial business. It seems that these problems are only going to occur more often in the future as the culture of fans and consumers taking on production becomes more prevalent. John seemed very concerned with the ethical issues surrounding this topical area and I think rightfully so. Although there is no real right or wrong answer it is a concern that a corporation can profit so significantly from fans and their intellectual property whilst providing nothing in return. Obviously the fans aren’t forced to do so but should a corporation use this as an excuse for exploitation?

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

CHOO CHOO! A screen shot from Trainz. I'm sorry but I do not understand how people get so excited about playing a game that simulates trains and railroads!? Each to their own.

Week 6 Class and Reading Reflection

Week six’s reading, Gamers as Co-Creators: Enlisting the Virtual Audience – A Report from the Net Face by John Banks, was a more detailed explanation of John Banks’ Trainz experience as discussed in the lecture. It detailed how the fan forum for Trainz began as a promotional and marketing tool but then became a place where train and rail enthusiasts could give feedback as well as be enlisted in the process of creating an active online Trainz network. It’s really interesting how Auran and train/rail fans have struck up this relationship via an online community that is highly productive; it’s quite unique. It is a perfect example of how “entities such as ‘audience’, ‘fan’, ‘producer’, ‘corporation’ and ‘consumer’ are relational – they emerge from continually transforming networks of relations”.

The lab session for week six was a chat room session. I was in a chat with about five others about Internet politics, however, they kept going off talking about something else. I thought that maybe I hadn’t grasped the topic but I’m beginning to think that maybe they just didn’t do the readings and chose to talk about something completely different, haha, sorry guys. There were some things I didn’t agree with and made me think what the? but I forget what they were now. Oops.

Week 6 Lecture Reflection

Week six’s lecture was given again by John Banks and discussed commerce in communities, drawing on his Trainz/Auran experience. The primary thing I learnt from the lecture is how to develop a successful online community. This included Amy Jo Kim’s nine design strategies and three underlying principles for online community development. Kim approaches online community development in terms of the people within the communities rather than the technologies used, which is secondary in importance. It became apparent to me that it is important to nurture the people who participate in online communities and provide them with a sound and productive environment in order for a community to survive. I found what John and Auran did with Trainz and the online fan community to be really interesting. (I won’t do into depth about it now so read Gamers as Co-Creators: Enlisting the Virtual Audience – A Report from the Net Face by John Banks in Mobilising the Audience). These ideas are really relevant to the uprising of online communities and how they contribute to the development of products; consumers becoming ‘prosumers’. As a side note: game development is growing surprisingly within Queensland! There appears to be an expanding creative cluster of game developers within Brisbane. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

The We Are All Boat People group projected the first fleet of boat people image onto a Sydney Opera House sail to remind the government and people everywhere that all non-indigenous Australians are in fact 'boat people'. The image is an excellent example of the principles of detournement; "creates a moment of surprise and confusion in the receiver and brings out meanings other than those intended." "The moment of confusion is the pre-condition for the skepticism necessary for radical thought to emerge." (Meikle, 2003, p.14)

Week 5 Reading and Class Reflection

Week five’s reading, We Are All Boat People by Graham Meikle, was awesome! It was a case study of the Internet activist group, We Are All Boat People and how they use the Internet. It focused upon three main parts; the dilemmas of the activist, the influence of tactical media and intercreativity - the campaigners’ emphasis on distributing tools for others to make their own media interventions. The latter interested me the most. The organization uses various tools such as kits, stencils, manipulated images, diagrams and more that can be downloaded from their site. The Internet plays a major role for them in terms of distributing these tools. The tools encourage people to initiate their own actions and therefore become producers of their own, which is very much a DIY culture thing. I thought this was great! I found it really interesting how the group use more passive approaches; “events to date have concentrated more on spectacle than on mass participation, on creating images rather than creating crowds”. I think this is such a clever and creative way to approach activism. The other reading, Mexico’s Zapatistas: the first information guerilla movement by Manuel Castells, gave another example of a movement that utilized the media and the Internet to diffuse information. The Zapatistas are much more extreme than the Boat People in terms of their mass protests and the use of weapons but they still use the Internet to create support networks. The Zapatistas use the Internet in a very political way; making it impossible for the Mexican government to use repression on a large scale. The readings highlighted how two different groups, worlds apart, could use the same tool to achieve such a significant outcome.

The week five lab session included a discussion about our submitted mailing lists and virtual communities. There were some interesting ones, eg: a cake recipe mailing list. We also practiced our chat room discussions. I was placed in the ‘politics’ chat room with four other guys. I think they need my female perspective. It was a bit frustrating because they kept going off on a tangent about things I didn’t know about or they discussed breasts, haha. But we have an agenda for next week so I will keep them in line, hehe.

Week 5 Lecture Reflection

Week five’s lecture focused upon online political activism and discourses associated with the Internet; Version 1.0 and Version 2.0. I learnt a lot from both of these discourses. Version 2.0 Internet is a model of the Internet which is based upon the passé producer/consumer relationship, which has now been destabilised by new media and the Internet. Mainstream political parties have a Version 2.0 approach to the Internet and their sites often lack interactivity. Activist groups have a Version 1.0 approach to the Internet and their sites provide for intercreativity where consumers become users that can make an input. An example of this is We Are All Boat People. I agree with the lecturer’s, Christina Spurgeon, admiration for this group and the creative ways they approach the Internet and activism. I think it is fantastic and it really mirrors the currently topical areas surrounding the rise of DIY culture, intercreativity and new media while combating current political issues.

Blog is good for exam prep!

Posting to my blog and looking back on it I'm beginning to find a love and respect for it...I've realised that reflecting on the lectures and looking over the readings and what not for the purposes of this blog is quite handy dandy for preparing for the exam.