J0anna's Blog

Janet Jackson Number Ones Teaser

2009-11-03T21:35:00.005-08:00

Janet Number Ones Countdown Widget

2009-10-30T19:13:00.004-07:00

Janet rocks MTV Michael Jackson Tribute

2009-09-14T01:15:00.022-07:00

Last night September 13 2009, Michael Jackson was honored in a very special tribute on the MTV VMAs featuring Janet.
After dancers performed several classic MJ routines while some of his most groundbreaking videos showed on screen, Janet literally broke onto the stage, smashing through glass to command the stage and perform their duet "Scream".

Janet sang live with the recording of her brother and commanded the stage with powerful energy and emotion in an outfit inspired by rhinestones and even a Janet-ized MJ glove.

A particularly stunning moment took place when Janet performed the dance duet sequence from the "Scream" video alongside a massive projection of Michael, in sync, with impeccable timing.
The full tribute video performance has been pulled by MTV from YouTube, but you can still see Janet's amazing tribute to MJ in this video shot by a fan:

After the show: Janet Releases "Make Me" as gift to fans

A couple of hours after the VMA's Janet posted the following update to her Twitter, Facebook & MySpace pages:

"I hope u guys enjoyed us tonight.It was very special for me n I have a very special gift for all of u. Thank u for ur endless love n support!"

The gift turned out to be the Web Release of Janet's new song "Make Me".

Lyrics here.

Congratulations on a very special night Janet.

Janet's New Website & Twitter launched this week!

2009-08-06T21:53:00.005-07:00

Janet's New Website & Twitter launched this week!, originally uploaded by J0 anna.

This week Janet Jackson twittered her first tweets, and launched her new website. It's so great to hear from Janet and read that she is getting into some new projects. I've missed how she keeps her fans on the edge of our seats when she is entering a new era. We've hurt with her, and we've missed her.

Just hours after Janet's first tweet on Monday, her 3,000 followers who had followed just in case it was official, exploded to over 18,000. It was so rapid growth that twittercounter couldn't graph it, and if you refreshed the page every second or so on Monday night, you would see the total going up by at least 20 each time for a while there. It was a pretty awesome thing to witness.

Now as of 10pm Thursday, she has over 33,000 followers and Janet's twitter followers are continuing to grow.

I'm not surprised and I'm excited and relieved to see her back at work and back in touch with her fans again. I wish her every success with her upcoming book and album (I can't wait for the new album!) and I look forward to seeing Why Did I Get Married Too.

One of the great things about Janet's new website, other than it containing ALL of her videos with some neat flash navigation, is a descriptive biography which includes some of the charities and causes Janet supports.

Follow Janet on twitter at http://twitter.com/JanetJackson
and check out her new site at http://www.janetjackson.com

Rest In Peace Michael Jackson

2009-07-02T22:04:00.006-07:00

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

~ http://www.J0anna.com
&
Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/J0anna

JoannaSRobinson.com

2009-02-26T21:58:00.003-08:00

I've moved away from blogging here to photoblogging(I upload about as many screenshots as I do photographs!) and tweeting more for the time being.

Find me on the web in various social media, via www.JoannaSRobinson.com

Facebook's First Big Chain Letter?!

2008-08-19T19:42:00.005-07:00

Okay, so I haven't blogged here in a long time - I've been over blogging at the Centre for Digital Media and photoblogging it up on my flickr...

But I couldn't wait to share what I encountered last night, through to this afternoon (and I bet it's not over).
A family member who I trust, sent me the following message using facebook's messaging system. I could also see that they had sent it to many of their friends in a mass message.

" Attention all Facebook members.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are to many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you're active please send
to 15 other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.

Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerber "

I received it 4 more times before I started receiving responses questioning the authenticity of the message. And they keep coming. It made me chuckle, and it's the first chain letter on facebook I've ever been sent. It reminds me of the first time I received crazy emails when I first started using the web.

Here a comment I enjoyed from the discussion:

"Attention all Facebook members.

Do you really think that they can't tell if your account has been used? And that their method of checking would be to ask people to forward a message? Do you really think that an official mailout would have misspelt "you're", or used so much informal language?

Every day, spam wastes millions of megabits per second all over the internet.

Please, think of the megabits. Think before forwarding.

Cheers,
Not A Founder Of Facebook"

PS: I am not passing the letter on. Lulz. What's next?

2008-04-02T14:17:00.002-07:00

Blended Reality: A look at bringing Second Life into Real Life

Spam Poem - a combined effort by the spammers of my Inbox

2008-02-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

etic

Thanks, we are ready to lend you money

top designer shoes

juggling gifts

FuckstickTremendousFloyd

parallelless

improve sexual endurance

diamond replicas

penis enlargement scams... get the truth

try it, your woman will be happy

thankyou, we are accepting your refinance application.

Sunday Reading

2008-02-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

* Here's one of the recent Anonymous videos about protesting against Scientology online and offline.
The hacker group has been counting down to TODAY, Feb 10, for a big assault against the Scientology "cult". So I am sure there will be some major strikes online and off today. It will be interesting to see what happens and how the media responds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yLnFMFM9g

* IBM expands business centre for India in 'Second Life'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/IBM_expands_business_centre_for_India_in_Second_Life/articleshow/2738243.cms

* Cool new PicLens firefox add on lets you view pictures in a 3d side scroll reminiscent of the iphone's itunes browser
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579

* Social Media Information Flow
http://hq.andrewshuttleworth.com/hq/2008/02/social-media-on.html

* Loving your avatar: identity, immersion and empathy
http://warburton.typepad.com/liquidlearning/2008/01/loving-your-ava.html

MDM Students Reflect on the RSVP Mixed reality picnic

2007-10-29T11:22:00.001-07:00

RSVP Picnic in first and second life 1, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

A week after the Contemporary Art Gallery RSVP Picnic event hosted at the GNWC Centre for Digital Media the students discussed their impressions and feedback on the event.

Event Description:

"The Contemporary Art Gallery presents RSVP - a series of dinner parties as unscripted social performance enacted by everyone in attendance, as part of the 2007 LIVE Performance Art Biennale, October 19 - 28, 2007.
Guests including Masters of Digital Media students, faculty, second life and first life educators and Second Front performance artists discussed performance and identity over picnic lunch in both worlds.
Guest-curated by Germaine Koh, ECI sessional faculty member, hosted by Joanna Robinson & Ian Verchere at the GNWC Centre for Digital Media in first and second life. "

General Feedback:

- There was a disconnect between virtual and real picnic – attention drawn to one or the other

- Facilitation between worlds was needed and was provided by Joanna but since she was not clearly defined as 'leader' this could have been more successful

- 'Weird' experience, even though eating lunch and chatting is something we do often in everyday life

- How to particpate was not defined in keeping with the unscripted social performance mandate - this made it awkward, not sure what to do

- Some students performance was centred on their SL avatar, others felt they were performing in first life for our guests at the first life campus, representing the MDM (Masters of Digital Media) program

- RSVP – Framed it as “respond please”

- Being together in the room made a different dynamic, than if we were separated in diferent rooms

- Students found themselves waiting for artist to give her performance, the professor to direct or either to give them explicit sanction to perform

- A 'Team leader' would be useful (video game guild style) to direct group action

General SL feedback:

- The SL experience is Exploratory
- SL is a Social space – a space of chatter
- SL general feels like it is lacking sense of purpose, lack of direction
- No explicit goals to orient participants unlike WoW

Talking about Emergent Play:

- Use of emotes in Wow to communicate between horde and alliance
- Metaphor of SL as a festival with many sub events simultaneously occurring

Examples of gaming Emergent play:
- Reppapropriation
- Mass suicide or town death by poison
- Seasonal quests
- Conga line
- Suggested motivations of boredom, showing off
- “Transgressive play” - pushing the limits, finding the rules and breaking them
- Emergent play requires an observer

Examples of Second Life Emergent Play:
- Different borders and rules to transgress
- Scandalous behaviour, inappropriate in some first life spaces
- "Excessive violence" and PvP
- Griefing
- Or can every Second Life activity be considered "emergent play"?

Another interesting comment about SL and reflexivity:

- SL can make you think more consciously about your first life performance and behaviour, because the rules that govern us in first life are different

Doing it the Great Northern Way - The Masters of Digital Media Program @ the Centre for Digital Media is launched

2007-09-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Hello friends/readers/surfers/you!

It is about time for me to return to the blogosphere & share some news and updates!

It has been a busy summer, jam-packed with program preparation and events at Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC).

Centre for Digital Media Launch in Vancouver Sun, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

GNWC is an academic partnership of British Columbia's four major post-secondary institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

As research assistant to the Masters of Digital Media Program (MDM) @ the GNWC Centre for Digital Media, I have been working on a number of projects over the Summer and continuing into Fall. Most of this work has centred around the use of virtual environments in education, collaboration and events.

Since October 2006, we have been exploring the use of metaverse Second Life in particular, at our virtual space there called "University Project". http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20Project/150/84/23/

Explorations have revolved around developing practical course uses centred around a pedagogy of participation, student centred design (something MDM is exploring in both the physical and the virtual) and the organization and hosting of blended reality events.

We have held a number of events and explorations in Second Life to date, including:

 Collaborative modding and building of learning spaces workshop
 Blended reality open house and campus events, including BC Premier's first visit to Second Life at our blended reality program launch
 Community partner Vancouver Police Department's Second Life information and recruitment session
 Blended reality book launch by renowned sci-fi writer and MDM advisory board member William Gibson
 Hosting a virtual conference - CITASA MC 3.0 2007

Now that the program has launched, and students have begun their courses, our future plans for the use of our virtual campus in Second Life include:

* Courses using SL including:
-Building Virtual Worlds (several metaverses)
-Visual Story
-Interdisciplinary Improvisation
* Further exploration of blended reality events and activities
Eg - ‘RSVP’ Campus & SL blended reality lunch, presented by Contemporary Art Gallery Oct 22 2007
* Student modification/design & redesign of our space(s)
* Exhibition of student work and possible student store

So these are some of the elements of the MDM program I am working on, in addition to speaking engagements this semester.

This week I am looking forward to participating in a panel entitled The Reality Continuum: Physical, Blended and Virtual Realities in Second Life at VidFest (The Vancouver International Digital Festival) http://www.vidfest.com/

In other news, I am looking at some changes and updates to my website in the coming days, and being a Resident Evil buff, keep an eye out for my commentary on the new Resident Evil film, "Extinction" soon to be released. Should be interesting!

Over and out for now, cyberspace.

Metro article page 2 - May 31 2007

2007-06-03T22:38:00.001-07:00

Metro article page 2 - May 31 2007, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

Joanna Robinson aka JoannaTrail Blazer - MDM Research Assistant

VPD Event hosted by the Masters of Digital Media Program @ GNWC - at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media (University Project sim)

www.gnwc.ca/mdm/

The final day of Resident Evil Outbreak (File 2) Online!

2007-03-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

"Capcom regretfully announces the end of online support for Resident Evil Outbreak File #2.
Service will terminate on March 31st, 2007.

Fans are, of course, free to continue playing the game offline even after the online server has been shut down.

We would like to apologize for any disappointment this decision may cause the dedicated online community."

I received an email earlier in the week from a friend I used to play daily with in Resident Evil Outbreak (REO) telling me the sad news.
Rumours say that the server will be online til 12 midnight Pacific tonight.
I logged on last night just after midnight EST, and there were:

146 in Free Area (91 now playing)
3 in Nightmare Area
38 in Infinity Area
0 in Mens Club
2 in Ladies Night
12 in Bonus Event
6 in Showdown
0 in Survival
0 in Panic
0 in Elimination
= 207

I checked REO File 1 and there were 17 people online - it seems that File 1 is going to be kept online for a while longer, so I think it is safe to say it can expect a mass migration of hardcore REO players to return to it in the coming days/weeks.

It's a bizarre sort of way for the REO saga to come to a close for participants, particularly those of us who began on file 1, got excited about file 2 and went together to the new game... and now some of us will return to File 1 as the last online REO space....ever?

We all have high hopes for something comparable to (and better) than Resident Evil Outbreak to be released for PS3 or elsewhere...a true survival horror MMOG....
But some think it grim, saying things like "if they make a file 3, bush is the best president"...
There have been many messageboard threads devoted to the possibilities of File 3 and what players would like to see in such a game...but as it stands, we are not sure if we will get to play Resident Evil online together again, after these game servers are shut down.

Players had mixed sentiments, but most were sad or angry at Capcom's decision, even calling them "Crapcom" in game titles. Other game titles could be read either way, such as "thanks Capcom".

Other memorable comments from the gathering of the REO community on the File 2 game servers last night:

"I haven't seen this many people since last year"
"What's going on, a fucking reunion?"
"This is outrageous!!" (after finding out File 2 was closing down)
"I guess all go file 1 after shutdown"
"at least ob has the best scenarios ever created" (ob refers to REO File 1)
"sweet nightmares"

I will return tonight and meet up with some old friends, some of which have been playing REO regularly since I met them after its release in 2003.
Thankyou to all of you for making REO so much more than what capcom programmed it to be! We had a blast. And I will see you on File #1. Looking forward to hitting the zoo one more time tonight, until she goes down!
- J0anna ;)

PS: Here is one of my favourite game play videos from REO File #2, by MEMDB.

Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - Girls Nite Out

Fiddling with Google Sketchup

2007-03-13T14:40:00.001-07:00

Fiddling with Google Sketchup, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

I had some difficulty...using the help, this was what I did on my first try.

Note the avatar that I couldn't even manage to make female... eek!

I really like what this program can do (which is more than I managed to achieve on my first go, I couldn't even resize my shapes to be 3d easily), but I'm not finding it very user friendly!

It's a shame, as there is a Build Your Campus in 3D contest I'd love to enter if I could get a better handle on this!

2007-02-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

Modding the Metaverse Machinima

MDM Learning Space Modding/Building Exercise - After

2007-01-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

MDM Learning Space Modding/Building Exercise - After
Originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

NMC Campus is Accreting Land

2007-01-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

NMC Campus is Accreting Land
Originally uploaded by NMC Second Life.

Educational/Learning Space Modding Workshop in Second Life - January 18th & 25th 2007

2007-01-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

From TracyTrail Blazer (& me, JoannaTrail Blazer!):

VCDM Classroom Jan 14 2007
Originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

Some of you may remember me from last November when I posted an invitation to our Virtual Open House at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media where we talked about a new Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the Great Northern Way Campus starting in September 2007. The open house was a great success and we are moving forward to put together some innovative ideas & educational tools in Second Life for our 'real life' curriculum.

One initiative that we are currently working on is transforming traditional style educational spaces (for example lecture halls and seminar rooms) into student designed collaborative learning environments. We would like to move beyond conventional 'real life' pedagogical delivery modes and encourage students to actively engage and participate in their learning milieu by creating virtual learning spaces & places, and have students learn technical design skills (and modding) at the same time.

Having said that, I'd like to invite you to a workshop we are having at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media (Erie) on Thursday January 18th - 1oam SLT/PST AND repeated later the same day at 1pm SLT/PST where we will have a 'brainstorming' session to take the existing seminar room at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media, and transform it into something that is collaboratively created by a group of individuals - the intention is to show that a group of individuals can come together and create their own learning space.

The following week (Wed Jan 24th 10am SLT/PST) we will put theory into practice and actually do the modifications and changes to the room to see what the end result might look like; however if you only want to come to the brainstorming session on the 18th - that's fine too - We're interested in your thoughts, ideas and expertise.

If you have questions, please feel free to email me at joanna@gnwc.ca

More information about the program here:

http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/

http://www.mastersofdigitalmedia.blogspot.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc

2006-11-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

Masters of Digital Media: The Making of the Centre for Digital Media in Second Life

A Possible Future - What will be the state of Gaming & Virtual Environments in years to come?

2006-11-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

I was pondering the changes in the video games I have played over the years, from the home console version of Pong my father brought home which I thought was SO cool, shooting asteriods and hyperspacing....being Luigi at one friends house and beating up my other friends on Mortal Kombat with the oh so naughty blood feature turned on... Sonic the Hedgehog which I described as like being "in an interactive movie" when my Dad asked me what was so great about it after catching me sneaking downstairs to play at 5am one morning...and wandering around with a bunch Cys and later alien avatars in AlphaWorld then ActiveWorlds....
And I must not leave out the chunk of hours of my life I spent devoted to being a Matriarch Sorceress in Diablo nor the countless evenings I spent shooting zombies and outsmarting the evil Umbrella corporation...
So many interesting experiences to reflect upon now that I am a little older (and I like to think wiser) and am reading about and participating in game research.

These days the suped up PS2 with it's HDD I bought Final Fantasy just to get a hold of and it's extra memory cards and vibrating controller sits idle when not working on my Resident Evil Outbreak research project and has even ~gasp~ gathered a layer of dust a few times now!
I am living a Second Life and loving it. Not only am I exploring Second Life with my own personal account, as I blogged about recently, I have an avatar/acct for my Virtual Research Assistant job with the Masters of Digital Media Program at GNWC, working on a virtual locale for their Centre for Digital Media.

Looking back on these experiences and the many others I've had, some of which I may share another time, I imagine the possible future of my gaming, and indeed as the Wii and PS3 are released, and virtual environments are increasingly used in education and training, the future of gaming (and VR) for all of us.

I imagine perhaps in future histories of gaming, that in the early 2000's gamers gradually drifted from their consoles to virtual environments, where their avatar and experiences could be highly customized and changed from day to day....
At the same time, audiences who had never played a video game in their life took up the games this group had largely left behind, the Yahoo Literati, the Solitaire, the Console games.
Even further in the future, perhaps this group then joins the others, in a virtual world or worlds that would make ActiveWorlds and Second Life look entirely primitive, but a definite ancestor.
A place or series of places where websites are no longer pages, where groups have highly complex virtual communities that are disconnected from "rl" as well as groups that are entirely blurred between them. Places where fantasy WoW type scenarios take place, shooter environments, educational environments, virtual music scenes and performing arts venues, environments we haven't even dreamed of yet, an experience that can be what we traditionally think of as gaming as well as whatever we may dream of experiencing together...a place where we both play and work and where we all contribute to what is around us and what experience, and can be whomever we want to be...

Open house for Masters of Digital Media in physical & Second Life...

2006-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

The Virtual Centre for Digital Media Building under construction in Second Life
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

On November 25, 2006 the open house for the Masters of Digital Media (MDM)
Program will be held concurrently at its real life location in Vancouver, BC
at the Great Northern Way Campus AND at its Second Life presence at the Virtual
Centre for Digital Media Building! We're accepting applications for 2007 and
more information about the open house and the program can be found at our
website: http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm.

A cornerstone course planned for the MDM Program is "Building Virtual
Worlds", and the opportunity to use Second Life as a major platform for
instruction and interaction in that course is very exciting. MDM Program
also has two (possibly the first ever) virtual Research Assistants who will
be on-site for the SL Open House to guide people, they are sociologist Tracy Kennedy (University of Toronto) - SL name: TracyTrail Blazer, and graduate
student Joanna Robinson (Brock University) - SL name: JoannaTrail Blazer.
Please look for either of them in world, the location of the Open House at
the Virtual Centre for Digital Media Building (under construction) can be
found in their picks (Erie, 178, 55, 25).

The MDM Program has an advisory board that consists of world-class educators
and leaders in the digital media industry (William Gibson, Glenn Entis, Don
Mattrick, Scott Fisher and Joi Ito) and leading industry partners (Blast
Radius, Electronic Arts, Mainframe Entertainment, Microsoft, New Media BC,
Price Waterhouse Coopers, Propaganda Games-BVG/Disney, Radical
Entertainment-Vivendi Games, Rainmaker Animation & Visual Effects, Relic
Entertainment-THQ).

JoannaTrail Blazer & the Virtual Centre for Digital Media in Second Life

2006-11-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

JoannaTrail Blazer - Virtual Research Assistant
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

Hello all!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been asked to help organize the building of the virtual space for the Masters of Digital Media @ Great Northern Way Campus. Along with other team members interested in VR and education including TracyTrail Blazer (Tracy Kennedy of the University of Toronto) I will be hosting the open house in Second Life simultaneously with the open house at the physical site in Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver BC.

The Masters of Digital Media program is unique in it's structure, support from four major educational institutions and partners in BC's burgeoning digital games and media industry. To read more, visit http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm
We also have a blog athttp://mastersofdigitalmedia.blogspot.com
The group blog will track the progress of the project and feature screenshots of work in progress, and general info about the program as it develops.
Also, pictures are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc/

Here is a recent article about the program and SL project in the Vancouver Sun!

More updates soon...

Masters of Digital Media @ Great Northern Way Campus

2006-10-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
Here's a great video about an exciting new program at Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The Masters of Digital Media is going to build a Second Life space, the "Virtual Centre for Digital Media" Building. Tracy Kennedy and I will be helping it get together, and hosting the open house at the virtual location November 25...
Check it out! More to come...

Resident Evil Outbreak/Online Research - Participants wanted

2006-10-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Gamers,
I, Joanna Robinson, Graduate Student, from the Department of Communications, Popular Culture & Film, Brock University (www.brocku.ca/cpcf/), invite you to participate in a research project entitled Gender, Representations & Interactions in Resident Evil Online.

The purpose of this research project is to explore the different ways players interact in Resident Evil Online and how they think and feel about Resident Evil Online’s characters as their virtual bodies. It is also about how you play the game, other than how it was designed to be played.

I am particularly interested in talking with female REO gamers (as well as male) of any age that play Resident Evil Outbreak online, or have played it!

The expected duration is a 40-60 minute interview (by web-messaging or email) and an optional 10-30 minute session playing Resident Evil Online.

This research should benefit games research in general, by providing an important historical case study of an online console game community, as well as generating recommendations for gender inclusive game design in the future.

This is a single site project, conducted by one researcher using her password protected home office computer.
If you have any pertinent questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the Brock University Research Ethics Officer (905 688-5550 ext 3035, reb@brocku.ca) There are no funds raised or profits gained by this research.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jrobinson@brocku.ca. There are also details on my website.

Thank you,

JOANNA S. ROBINSON (aka J0anna)
www.JoannaSRobinson.com

Joanna S. Robinson               Dale Bradley
Graduate Student              Assistant Professor
(905) 688-5550                (905) 688 5550 ext 3180
jrobinson@brocku.ca               dbradley@brocku.ca

CITASA 2006 - Participating in the conference online...

2006-08-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't make it out to the ASA (American Sociological Association) conference this year, due to drafting my thesis! The conference was held in beautiful Montreal, and I am enjoying checking out the photos on flickr of those who were able to attend...

Excitingly though, this year the Communication & Information Technologies section of ASA (CITASA) held their discussions in conjunction with online participants! So I was able to participate in a number of interesting discussions in (almost) real time on the site messageboard, and still be a part of things. A variety of issues were discussed relating to the sociology of ICTs including the use of laptops in the classroom, library filtering of the internet and online health resources...

Participating in a conference online without actually being there was a first for me, and a lot of fun! Congrats to those who organized it, and I look forward to next years....although I hope to be there in person as well next time!

To read or add to the discussions, head over to http://www.citasa.org/

A student film trailer I was in - 'Legend of Tiamat'

2006-07-26T14:13:00.000-07:00


Legend of Tiamat is a film trailer production made as a college project by envysion.org and hooknflesh.biz.

Thoughts on Women in Games 2006

2006-07-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Phew! Difficult to know where to start in discussing Women in Games 2006.

The event, July 10-11 2006 @ the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough UK was attended by an enthusiastic group of game designers & researchers from all over the UK as well as international visitors, including yours truly.
The entire group attended most presentations, and discussions were really lively, interesting and thought provoking. Since I am no journalist (I do academic rants...uh, I mean interpretations of data better), I will not try to provide an overview, but instead focus on some of the sessions that interested me in particular. I hope you find my notes useful, and feel free to discuss them with me here or in private by email (Joanna.Robinson@brocku.ca)

Registration & Coffee
* Always a good way to start any conference, mmmmmmmm coffee....

Left: Deb Tillett, CEO of BreakAway Games, Right: Me!
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

"Quality of Life" - Deb Tillett, CEO BreakAway Games
* After the welcome address by the Vice Chancellor of the University and Make Eyles' opening address, Deb got the conference off to a great start, discussing how BreakAway takes care of their employees needs and how this translates into good work and retention, (both women and men).
* Deb's talk revealed a company environment in which employees are made to feel like family members....and in which employee's family members become involved and invested in the goals of the company through genuine caring and involvement.
* I found the steps that BreakAway had taken in terms of caring for employee's spouses/partners particularly commendable. Helping new employee's families settle in the town was another important extra step that most corporations wouldn't bother with, that has the potential to make a major difference....
* Later in the day, Deb participated in the Quality of Life panel, moderated by Jason Della Rocca of IGDA.

Left: Me, Right: Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director of IGDA
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

Particularly useful I thought was her suggestion that the burgeoning games industry learn from the successes and mistakes of existing creative industries.... hear hear!
* On a personal note, it was inspirational to hear Deb talk - she was confident, assertive, (successful) and clearly passionate about what she does. I really enjoyed her contributions to conference discussions....

"The Making of an Art Game" - Emma Westecott
* A fascinating presentation which challenged us to think about the potential for future game design....
* I enjoyed the example of an art game that she showed, about Beethoven's ghost. This game used noise and blurring at one point to simulate the experience of Beethoven's hearing loss later in his life. Emma challenged the audience to think about how games can simulate and express experiences beyond the "fun" and "entertainment" that is currently being produced en masse.
* I think her point was driven home brilliantly by the example. While the noise was unpleasant and the blurring disorienting, it was a fascinating experience....
* Emma was right to cite art and film history, in its many explorations of a myriad of experiences as important and useful to designers today... I have often pondered where games will go in the future, and there is *so much* that can be done in terms of producing experiences with this amazing medium that has yet to be embarked upon!

T. L. Taylor & I
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

"A future for gender and computer game studies?" - T. L. Taylor
* As I had an inkling she would after reading her book, T. L. Taylor rocked the house with her talk on the possible directions research into women and games should go in the future.
* Among many important interventions, T.L. reminded us that researchers are also gendered bodies, and that gendered communication issues do not disappear when we research games, particularly online.
* Areas she cited as needing further research included social networks, studies of console gaming women (as much as been written about female PC gamers) and more detailed studies of the women who play games now, rather than simply posulating about "what women (may) want".
* Importantly, T. L reminded us that we are now 10 years removed from the "pink games" movement, and we need to keep progressing...she even showed the infamous "chess for girls" clip from Saturday Night Live. hehehe.
* Also, she suggested that studies of newbies or pathways to gaming was an important avenue that has not been adequately investigated, including how players come to start playing a game, and why they stay in the community and continue to play....
* T. L. reminded us that there is much left to be done in this field, and I was encouraged and uplifted by her talk!

Eduteams - Helen Routledge, TLPD
* This was a really great presentation, done along with two students from St. Saviours High School at which TLPD simulated a game design team and put together a learning game.
* The students who presented along with Helen were articulate and enthusiastic and had clearly learned alot from the experience. Also, the actual game they produced was great! As they noted, it may even be a good way for some students to study! Wish they had this program when I was in high school!

Kitt of the UK Frag Dolls & I
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

Frag Dolls UK - Kitt Kearney
* Kitt's talk was really interesting. What I found particularly positive was how Kitt explained how she wanted the Frag Dolls to help as a gateway for new, (potentially young) girl gamers....so that they can perceive the gaming world as a legitimate space for them. Again, we go back to the issue of pure visibility. And she does have a point...while the representations of gender in the Frag Dolls cartoons might be seen in some ways as problematic, they will signify and trigger certain things to parents, and to young girls (as socialized).
* One can debate all day whether or not this is the right approach to get more women into gaming, and if a corporate built team of women is really the right people to be mentoring these new recruits. But as Kitt asserted in her presentation, at least they are trying something, right now, and it is producing results.
*And after discussing some of my reservations with Kitt about the image of Frag Dolls, I do feel that the Frag Dolls has the potential to make a difference to perceptions about female gamers, moving away from booth babes to bad-assed (competent) babes. It is a great starting point...

Left to right: Kyle Machulis of Linden Labs (Second Life), Me, Kitt of the UK Frag Dolls
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

"Sex in Games" - Kyle Machulis - Linden Labs
* A really fun and thought provoking way to end the conference. Kyle presented a history of sexual content in games, along with the various issues such games and their developers have faced. He also spent some time discussing emergent sex, and even birth and babies in Second Life. Loads of fun, and fascinating to think about what may be next & the implications..... Thanks Kyle!

Playing with Gender: Performance & Subversion in Resident Evil Online
(My Presentation!)
* Suffice to say, things went well! It was a challenge for me to put this paper together, as although I am experienced presenting to academic audiences, this was my first time addressing a group consisting of mostly designers and industry reps.
* Lots of interesting questions and discussions arose with various participants throughout the conference about my presentation. It was great to talk about how my research pertains to designer objectives, as well as contributing to a greater understanding of player audiences.
* I will be putting a PDF version of the paper and Powerpoint of my presentation on my website in the coming days. The live game play videos (re-enactments) used to illustrate concepts from my paper will also be available soon.
* If you would like to hear more about/discuss my research on Resident Evil: Outbreak (Online) further, please feel free to contact me at Joanna.Robinson@brocku.ca and I will be glad to chat with you about it....

Mark Eyles, Maggie Parker, Me, Gabrielle Kent
Originally uploaded by Jo-anna.

Click here to see the rest of my trip photos in my flickr photo album. :)

Thankyou to all of the presenters, to everyone on the Women in Games steering committee and to Gabrielle Kent in particular - Women in Games 2006 was a fantastic experience!

Women in Games Conference 2006

2006-07-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my awesome trip to the UK to go to Women in Games 2006!
I am jetlagged & really sleepy, so I'll save my more detailed report for tomorrow. :)

I've uploaded some pictures from my trip to my Flickr Photo Album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jo-anna/

I want to write more now, but my jetlag and fuzzy brain will not allow it. In short though, it was a really fantastic conference, with some very interesting and useful presentations.

More very soon on my thoughts on the presentations and ideas discussed....

Thankyou to all of the conference organizers and participants, AND also everyone I met along my trip and in my visit to London afterwards...I had a fantastic time!

It's about time I got a (Second) Life!

2006-07-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks (ok, months!) but here I am, exploring the wonderful world wide web once more.... in my curiousity over the references I've seen to SecondLife lately, I headed on over. While I expected something much like the ActiveWorlds or CybernetWorlds, which were my first "VR" or virtual chat programs/environment experiences, I was pleasantly suprised by what I found and how much easier it was in comparison.
Unlike in these programs, in SecondLife, customization is pretty user friendly and allows for the greatest degree of user input into representations (without paying for a custom made avatar, made by someone else to your specifications) that I have seen so far!
For AW and CNW, I had to buy my own world (annual fee, over 100 dollars US) to be able to customize the avatars, other than choosing from what was provided already which consisted of a limited amount of pre-made avatars for free version users. With my pay account and world, then I had to edit the files myself, using a crude modelling program, so things were still limited. Or, I could try to explain what I wanted in my personal avatar to someone else, and pay 20 dollars US and up each. This is obviously alot to go through to have a customized avatar.
So in comparison, SecondLife is very exciting stuff!
I won't get into debating whether this is a video game or a virtual chat program. Doesn't matter, I enjoy these virtual world thingies. One of the many things that excites me (because I LOVE to build environments, but I will save that for another rant) is the ability to self-represent through avatar customization. The degree of freedom to customize in "SL" was really amazing, and I soon figured out how to take off all my clothes as well as change their appearance when on. After I got the virtual streaking out of my system, I went about the fascinating task of sorting out how I wanted my avatar to look and thinking about how it may be perceived by others. As you will see, I came up with a feminine looking avatar, tall with a medium body weight and width. I chose to keep a human skin tone, even though I could have had any colour in the spectrum whatsoever, and lightened the default tan to something more like my own skin tone. I enjoyed my long purple hair, but changed to another hair colour to accomodate a great wild looking hairstyle. Below you will see the start I made on my avatar - I am sure I will fiddle with her some more soon! I was fascinated by the diverse avatars I saw others wearing, from spectacularly 'sexy' and 'wild' (in the sense that they were otherworldly or may not be socially acceptable in the 'real world' because they are too 'crazy') to simple virtual jeans. Most were highly individual, and while some referenced 'types' as a starting point (eg Goth Girl) they were still very unique and unlike any mass media created images I have ever seen! I was excited to see lots of women standing around the lobby, dressed in their finest - shiny heels and ruffly skirts (interestingly, lots of women wore skirts and heels, I wonder if they had as much difficulty choosing between pants and a skirt as I did??) as well as giant sh*t-kickin-boots and trousers, all manner of expressive and exciting avatars...their wild hairdos blowing in the breeze. The guys looked fun too, one of them had a neat sword I'd like to get my hands on, and I saw one guy run by that looked like a superhero I had never seen before!
I am sure I will have much more to say down the road on this environment and its communities. But for now, my thanks to my new friends (two women and one man) who, after I had chatted with them awhile gave me (virtual) money and clothing, helped me learn to navigate some of the controls and generally gave me a warm welcome! It was a very pleasant newbie experience that helped take the edge off the learning curve too.
I've included 3 of the screenshots I took during my first adventure into SecondLife below (permission gained!). I will add more to my flickr photos as I further work with my avatar's representation...

It looks like it will be yet another busy work week for me, as Friday I am off to the UK for a few days to participate in the Women in Games 2006 conference! More soon!

UPDATE JULY 14:
My SecondLife avatar has changed significantly since this post....screenshots are on my flickr photo album! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jo-anna/

D&D Character Alignment Test

2006-06-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

So I found this D&D character alignment test, via looking at RPG Alignment designed tshirts at OfflineTshirts .com.
While on the gamer tshirts topic, other faves of mine are J!NX and ThinkGeek.

My results on the character alignment test were...~drum roll~....Neutral.
Neutral?
hmm. Interesting...

Here's the shirt I ended up buying!
"I do not need Mario to save me!"

Your Character’s Alignment

Based on your answers to the quiz, your character’s most likely alignment is Neutral.

Neutral

A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutrality is a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil. After all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she’s not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. The common phrase for neutral is "true neutral." Neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion.

--excerpted from the Player’s Handbook, Chapter 6

Click here to take the Character Alignment Test

Thoughts on the Canadian Communications Association Conference 2006

2006-06-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the annual Canadian Communications Association conference at York University.

I found the following presentations particularly interesting and rewarding:

* Lauren Cruikshank (York/Ryerson) - The Coded Body: Avatar Design and Debates in Digital Spaces

* Nils Olson (Simon Fraser) - The Ambiguities of Productive Play: Romantic Modding in Fantasy Role-playing Games

* Florence Chee (Simon Fraser) - Apollo and Dionysus Meet Korean Online Game Communities

* Nina Boulus (Simon Fraser) - Reconstructing Constructivism: Moving Away from the Commitment to the Social Study of Associations

Moreover, on Friday I had the privilege of chairing the panel entitled "Stereotypes, Coherence and Games". Panelists consisted of Jason Luckerhoff (Universite Laval), Stephane Perreault and Yvon Laplante (UQTR).

I enjoyed their presentation, which applied a mixture of semiotics and social psychology to examine how stereotypes function in games of various kinds including cards, monopology and MMOGs.
I enjoyed how their analysis tied together traditional board games with the digital games that are the focus of my own research. It is important to remember just how similar they are and how derivative video games really are, both of culture in general, but also of previous forms. This was well accentuated in the presentation, through discussion of the "d20" system, from table top role playing (a system defining intelligence and other attributes of character types), which continues to be perpetuated in role play video games, fantasy genre in particular.
I am looking forward to comparing this to the Resident Evil: Outbreak characters under analysis in my current research, as well as to Vladimir Propp's archetypes, to which I am already making connections in explaining how these cultural stereotypes are age old tropes.
I also enjoyed the discussion of how stereotypes function, other than to perpetuate inequalities, which is usually my hard and fast answer to such an issue. They argue that stereotypes work to help people understand new realms, using familiar codes to produce coherence (or make sense), and reduce uncertainty. Of course, stereotypes also work to both represent and perpetuate culture in games, socializing individuals and teaching norms. An interesting question posed during the presentation was "does it matter if stereotypes are accurate"?
This one had not really occurred to me before. Okay, so I can say pretty confidently that most stereotypes aren't true, but perhaps stereotypes such as police are mostly white and male is a little more complicated. This stereotype is represented in Resident Evil: Outbreak in the character of Kevin. Kevin is the default character, and being a white male action hero, he directly addresses the imagined ideal subject for video games, the white male consumer.
Is it the job of game designers to give us six different raced police officers? Should we be able to customize them to the extent that they don't even represent 'reality'?
Should games represent reality, an ideal reality, or ?
Moreover, is it realism we really should have, or is abstraction in avatars a better choice for inclusivity? (Cruikshank)
There are no easy answers to these questions. Ultimately however, it is important that research into these and other pressing questions in representations and social implications of online games continue to be asked and investigated.
As T. L. Taylor asserts in her recent book "Play between worlds", there is a need for continued critical attention to representations in games, and the ways in which they are read and used by players, because these not "just games" but powerful and complex cultural objects and sites of culture, interwoven with gamers everyday lives and identities.

Thankyou to everyone who talked about the tough issues with me, and contributed to a very enjoyable and rewarding experience at CCA!

Popular Culture and the Local

2006-05-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Port Dalhousie Stories -- Mike and Doc at Lakeside Park" (1987),
by. John B. Boyle, Popular Culture and the Local Conference Keynote
Cover illustration for The Port Dalhouse Stories by Dennis Tourban (Coach House Press)

Phew!

This weekend the Popular Culture and the Local conference was held at Brock University.

I had a fantastic time listening to and discussing presentations from a diverse variety of disciplines including communications, film, popular music, historians as well as librarians and independent scholars whose research explores questions of popular culture and local identity.

As part of my role as a Research Assistant for the Popular Culture Niagara Research Project, I had the privilege of being on the organization team. My sincere thanks to everyone who worked hard to make it a success!

I am off to enjoy the rest of my weekend, but I wanted to thank everyone who took part in what was a very enjoyable 2 days. :)
Bravo to the presenters, concert organizers, musicians and artists who made the Popular Culture and the Local conference such a unique and valuable experience!

Checking in, and some articles of interest...

2006-04-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the city of book stack skyscrapers! I am busy writing my thesis literature review and an essay on subculture theory, theories of play and resistance for my directed reading class as well as dealing with the usual end of term craziness...

* I plan to write some feedback on Tomb Raider: Legend soon, it's great so far. :D
* Netwoman blogged some interesting experiences and thoughts about the game yesterday.

* Here's some great articles to check out that I will be referencing in my thesis research "Gender Representations and Interaction in Resident Evil Online" See my site for more.

* How to challenge negative stereotypes about games - Aleks Krotoski

* Masculinity and online gaming - Aleks Krotoski

Tid-bits & bytes

2006-04-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

It's that busy time of term again, April... Beautiful weather though!
Currently working on an essay on the social construction of portable mp3 technology, a directed reading in youth and subculture theory paper and my thesis literature review.

So, now that I have listed my excuses for not blogging lately, here's some tid-bits and bytes from my recent adventures in academia and 'everyday life'!

What Resident Evil: Outbreak character are you most like?

Alyssa Ashcroft
Alyssa is a newspaper journalist working for the local paper. With a vigorous sense of curiousity, she has an insatiable appetite for collecting various bits of information. This is the source of her power. With a pushy and strong personality, she is a sore loser who often clashes with others. But even though she is stuck on herself she does take care of her fellow man.

* Popular Culture Gaming - Bryan-Mitchell Young's blog, a PhD student at Indiana University whose research centers on an ethnographic approach to studying videogames and videogame players.

* Queer Gamer Groups:

Why sites for gay gamers?
"in the gaming community, there are some pretty staunchly homophobic players and Gaymer.org is about having fun without hearing the bashing. So I give this site to you as a safe haven where gaming is the focus, not hate." - Gaymer.org

*Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters in video and computer games

* Crimson Jassic: The Happy Place: Some great fan art including BloodRayne, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy and Capcom characters.

"Catfight!" - Rumble Roses XX on XBox Live

2006-03-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I was discussing with Tracy Kennedy what a great idea it would be to have an online arcade fighter!

Well, it's nothing like Fight Club, which was the game that got me thinking about the idea, nor Tekken or Soul Calibur, both of which we thought would be good games to fit the bill in a new online format.

No, it's Rumble Roses XX, the upcoming Xbox Live version of the (hot) girl on girl wrestling game!

ooh. This looks very interesting.

Aurora Vampire, The Elderly Gamer and Costume Get are among the many thinking and blogging about the game too.

What is it? MMOG? MMORPG? MMOAG? MMOAF?...?!
What kinds of representations will there be in this game?
What type of character customization will be possible?
How will this kind of game pan out in an online gaming context?
How will society and culture respond to this game, with the increase in exposure to media criticism it will likely have?
How will women in particular respond to this game?

Here's some thoughts...

I have the playstation original and while I find it problematic in various ways, I also enjoy the game... It's a shame the game lacks any close to "realistic" female characters, but the exaggerated fantasy archetypes are not without their 'fun' appeal.
The introduction cgis to each character in the copy of the first Rumble Roses are sassy, fun and borderline explicit, teasing the audience...though they may certainly be read as stereotyping and confining visions of womanhood.

Nevertheless these images simultaneously depict a world where very desireable and competent women are at centre stage. These are women who are unafraid, tough and self assured. When representations of women are still so lacking and omitted in video games, each image that can be read as empowering and positive by audiences needs to be appreciated. I would argue that these images are not entirely, or necessarily negative...
Granted, the game is full of 'money shots' and their outfits and breast jiggle action are outrageous...but I do find the game fun, playing with men and especially when playing with other women, when we frame the characters as silly, idealized stereotypes. It's a bit like cheering on one of the girl on girl fights in Kill Bill. It's pervy, but it's also like - you go girl!
I don't have any problem with the notion of 'adult games'. Leisure suit Larry was an early favourite of mine even. Denying these kind of games is like saying there shouldn't be any burlesque dancing. You never really get to see anything you can't see a whole lot more of elsewhere. Parents should protect their children if they deem the images too explicit or they are uncomfortable with discussing why the images of the women in this game are potentially problematic with their kids.

Playing online with others will certainly be interesting in Rumble Roses XX...purely for the arcade fighting/wrestling style, but also the interaction of highly sexualized female avatars...
But, I did see a male character in this screenshot, so there may be a variety of both gender characters....
The game will feature a various items of clothing and accessories, enabling a high level of character customization. There will be 30 slots for custom characters, according to IGN. ooooooh. :D

It will be interesting to see how this game is received. I look forward to checking it out, will have more to say about it then I imagine...

Food for thought:
How might this game appeal to a (queer) female audience (apart from its male target)?
How about giving us a guy on guy/ mix gender 'adult' fighting game too???!

Read the article by Shane Bettenhausen at 1up.com here.
View the Rumble Roses XX Xbox Live trailer here.
Gallery of screenshots from Rumble Roses XX here.

catfight!! meow. rawr!

Which type of Gamer Girl are you?

2006-03-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Role-Player through and through.
If it takes you to a far away place and time,
lets you assume the role of a knight, mage, wizard, monk,
or any other hero, you're there.

Which Type of Gamer Girl are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Which Western feminist icon are you?

2006-03-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

You are Judith Butler!

Your postmodern queer theory has shaken up people's ideas of gender, sexuality, and sex.
Your work has blurred lines between what it means to be a womyn
and what it means to be a man.
Queens and transbois all over the world worship your Birkenstocks!

Which Western feminist icon are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - What makes this game different than the rest?

2006-03-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

Found this site about Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, a MMORPG under development. Exciting stuff!

"Vanguard's purpose is to become the premier third generation, massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game (RPG). Given the significant success of games such as EverQuest, Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and Asheron’s Call, it is clear that a strong demand for fantasy based MMORPGs exists. To meet the growing demand for a game that advances the multiplayer fantasy genre, Sigil is using the combined experience and creativity of its team to bring players a new and challenging feature set with deep, involving game content.

Vanguard is a High Fantasy themed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) with a heavy focus on character development, an immersive world, and player interdependence. Vanguard strives to meet the following goals:

• To lead the next generation of massively multiplayer RPGs by using Sigil’s unparalleled expertise and experience in the field. Our team consists of original EverQuest team members, EverQuest expansion team members, as well as team members from EverQuest 2 and EverQuest Online Adventures (PS/2), and other MMOGs.

• To lead the next generation of massively multiplayer RPGs by implementing unparalleled static and dynamic content using advanced approaches including, but not limited to: advanced encounter systems; meaningful travel; a detailed and interesting seamless world; advanced immersive gameplay and graphics, and pre-planned expansions for both the short and long term health of the game. We also have quite a few ideas and preliminary plans that we consider revolutionary. These innovations, although they will be under wraps for some time to come, should take the genre to the next generation and beyond.

• To bring back to the genre a challenging and rewarding environment — removing tedium and frustration (which we certainly aim to do) does not mean a game necessarily has to be easy. "

What's more, the developers (Microsoft games/Sigil Online) claim that this game will be very diverse in terms of game play options and character development!

" 1.4.2.1 What aspects of Vanguard do you think will especially appeal to the female gamer?

That’s a difficult question, because I think every gamer, male or female, is different. I tend to be more of a power gamer, whereas some of my friends enjoy questing above all else. The best things about Vanguard, in my opinion, are the immersion and the diversity. Like I mentioned above, I believe the intricacy and care with which Vanguard is being built will really shine, and be an escape beyond everything that has come before. – Amanda Poe @ Girl-Gamer.com

1.4.3 What makes Vanguard really different? Can you talk about exciting new features that really set the game apart?

We can go over a few, and more and more as time goes on. We do need to keep some of our truly third generation ideas under wraps for a while, both because we want to make sure they work the way we envision, and also because other MMOGs are coming out first.

1. Bring back the challenge without all of the tedium.

2. Create a truly seamless world where you can see for miles, and just about anything you can see, you can travel to.

3. Integrate a 'multi-sphere' system where your character is both an adventurer and crafter at the same time, with unique experience pools, skills, and items. You could, in theory, be a level 10 Ranger and a level 15 crafter. Likewise, you could ignore one sphere, and focus only on the other.

The following was posted elsewhere in answer to how we would make the game more challenging but also not tedious, but I think it elaborates a bit and also describes even in more general what makes this game different than the rest:

----

The game is going to be challenging.

The game is going to focus on character advancement, item acquisition, and interdependence to build community and teamwork. "

Okay, so what about the characters? Well, there is this picture....

My response was similar to my (male) gamer friend I showed the site to.
"Nice rack!"...
However, the site's FAQ says the following about the level of customization that will be available for the characters in Vanguard:

"5.1 What sort of customization will be available at Character Creation?

After you choose your character's race, you will have a variety of choices as to the appearance of both your character's face and body.

5.2 What about my character’s appearance and clothing – will I be able to make my character appear unique?

When making an item acquisition-centric game, the appearance of those items when worn or wielded is extremely important. You ought to be able to look at someone and say 'Wow, she's got an Iron Crown of the Fire Giant Warlords on!! I’ve never seen one – only heard stories! Where did she get that?'

5.2.1 A question that some people have been interested in is the realism of the character models to be used in the game. In most past MMOGs characters have tended to be on the perfect side of dimensions. What are your views on this?

Our characters are just like the rest of our art. We start from a base of realism, and then bend and exaggerate certain aspects. In addition to that, we also intend to give players the option of choosing how much to exaggerate certain areas. With in reason of course. But I certainly hope to see a beer bellied warrior at some point. *laughs* -- David Gilbertson @ Vanguard Gate "

The game will most likely be PC only, with a chance for console access on XBox360. There will also most likely be a monthly fee, according to the site.

Still, this sounds promising!

To visit the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes site, click here.

There are also various fan/future-player created sites with screenshots etc from the beta scattered about, I recommend googling the game...
To visit the Vanguard Wiki, click here.

Waiting for the next-gen game characters...& hoping for some progress!

2006-03-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

There seems to be a lot of talk about what the new generation games will hold, with the recent release of the XBox360, and the anticipation of Playstation 3.

Apparently I am not the only female gamer waiting for the PS3. Despite the (arguably) superior graphics engine and specs of the Xbox console, it is the play experiences and content that keep me loyal to playstation. The pricy nature of consoles these days forces me to make a choice as a "starving student" and well, for me it is Playstion. Let me tell you why this is the case.

Wake up Microsoft. As I have long suspected, I am the not the only one who feels Playstation games are more gender inclusive in terms of representations and types of games available. The content of games on the Playstation is keeping me with them, despite the bells and whistles XBox is offering me in terms of smooth scrolling, crisp graphics and powerful engine. This is significant.

Seems like a lot of people have this on their minds, anticipating and hoping for gender, race and age (etc) diversity and inclusivity in the characters and game play types/structures/environments in tomorrow's games, especially online multiplayer as well as offline. It is time both companies, especially Microsoft, step up the plate and cater to the diverse gamer market that exists today (and recognize its growth potential!).
Tomorrow isn't too far off....let's hope we can make some significant progress, so that the many potential benefits of video gaming can be made inviting and available to the greatest possible amount of participants!

Here's a preliminary list of upcoming games for PS3 I found. Vanguard looks interesting for XBox360/PC which is also currently in development...
***Give us some more MMORPGs with diverse character and game play style options!!! Please?! :)***

In related news, found a great blog looking at gender issues in online gaming (like moi), through Netwoman's awesome tech blog. Very interesting exploratory approach to issues of gender and sexual identity in online environments: check out Heroine Sheik.

Woah, that character is HOT! - On my relationship with "hot" female characters in MMOGs....

2006-02-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

Interesting discussion about representations of gender in online video games going on over at New Game Plus.

While I am quick to criticize highly sexualized images of women (and men!) in video games, I feel a little torn in doing so. Allow me to explain why.

Firstly, as a female gamer I must admit that I do not mind playing a beautiful, sexy character at all, much of the time. I really enjoy being a beautiful, powerful character. Especially in the context of online gaming, wherein I feel almost as if I am representing female gamers each time I identify myself as female. What do I mean by this exactly?

Well, you know what? She is sexist, but she's there. I'm not trying to say we should be happy there are female protagonists at all, don't get me wrong. I am simply suggesting that the 'hottie' character is not necessarily entirely useless and worthless, reproducing inequalities.
I remember clearly in the not to recent past when there were no women protagonists whatsoever in video games, except Ms. PacMan and the princess in super mario bros. And we all know the myth that women aren't good with technology and gaming that is part of the masculine framing of technology in culture.
It is in this context that I often enjoy playing a beautiful, even weak (in terms of hit points and attack damage) bimbo character such as Cindy from REO. She's blonde, she's beautiful, she's a waitress(!) and says silly things, and yeah, she really runs "like a girl". She is certainly the unlikely hero (meaning unlikely to survive or flourish in the horror game context), compared to someone like the white, male police officer character, Kevin who comes with a gun, much higher vitality and a powerful kicking move. Even her body language screams weak and helpless.

Her default outfit is her diner uniform (above) and one of her primary unlockable is that of a playboy bunny outfit. Well, I'm sure you can imagine some of my fellow gamer's responses of both genders to this representation. But you know, this is the state of our culture, and it's not all bad news folks. There is hope here and there can be enjoyment and beneficial experiences in the here and now. Yes, gender inclusive game design is an important endeavor that we must keep pressing forward for.
But what can we do right now?
And is it entirely negative/wrong for me to enjoy playing a hot sexy babe?
Is it wrong for me to get a kick out of playing Rumble Roses even?

My queer female friend and I were playing Rumble Roses the other day, laughing, saying how hot our characters were and smack talking one another as as our on screen identities mudwrestled each other in bikinis that hardly covered a thing. My male friend chuckled watching us as he commented "Somehow I don't think this is what the game designers had in mind when they put Rumble Roses together!" lol.
He wasn't laughing so hard after we both kicked his ass one after another! Interestingly, with no male characters to choose from in this game, he chose the rubber clothed fetish-inspired demon character, "Evil Rose" to play...

But, I digress. My focus here is online gaming environments, when the character becomes avatar and is even more tightly bound with issues surrounding player identity.
Is it wrong for me to be empowered by her, despite her problematic gendered skills and representation, or to find a way to play her that is empowering or enjoyable for me?
Can we really do anything at the micro or audience/player level?

In online games I wear my clearly female name (J0anna) and related status as a badge of honour. I proclaim, "yes! I am a female gamer!" and what's more, I play very well. I feel as if I am saying "look at me, and what society thinks I should be, weak, beautiful and helpless without men"...."but look at how well I play, even in the way society and culture depicts me and my characters related sexist attributes and abilities, see how I thrive even in the face of such challenges and extra handicaps! Yes, I enjoy cooperative play, but I don't need your help at all! I call attention to the construction of characters often also, in order to disrupt their ideological encoding and encourage other gamers to think critically about what they see, and the intricacies of essentialized feminine and masculine characteristics coded into these characters. I resist, and I actively resist with others. I often think of this metaphor in relation to reppapropriation and the feminist movement! (Kind of like the wearing of a bra for practical breast support or to feel good about oneself, rather than wearing one to enhance one's breasts to look sexy for a man!) It is a little bit of resistance, right now. And that counts for something.

It is time for game design to catch up with its diverse audience, and provide us with more diverse, inclusive representations games. But for the time being, we can counter these representations of women and related stereotypes about female gamers in the online gaming context through the ways in which we play and are critical of these walking stereotypes.

And I know because of the cultural framing when I beat a male gamer in online gaming, often he will be extra frustrated because he was beaten "by a girl" - Yes! one that appeared weak, but was truly strong.

For more on my responses to representations of gender in video games, check out my old class blog post from Spring 2005 in which I list and discuss my Top 10 Favourite Video Game Vixens!

What is Resistance?

2006-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Working on/through my thesis literature review at present.
Read this really interesting & useful article this week:

Raby, Rebecca. (2005).
“What is Resistance?”
Journal of Youth Studies, 8.2, 151-171.

I found it to be a really useful overview of Modernist vs Postmodernist approaches to what exactly constitutes resistance in cultural studies.

Here's some excerpts I noted about forms of resistance, power and agency particularly relevant to my study of gender, representations and interaction in online video gaming. Enjoy. :)

• Relationship of resistance to power and agency

• “Despite its ambiguities, the concept of resistance should not be rejected, for it recognizes and values oppositional behaviour as political and informed” (Giroux 1983). 151

• “How we conceptualize resistance hinges on our differing theoretical understandings of power and subjectivity” 152

* Modernist Conception – Table 1, 153
- “Note: Resistance is oppositional, aiming to disrupt, or gain the upper hand in, what actors perceive to be dominant power relations”
- Active, collective action against dominant powers, toward social change
- Appropriation – Taking symbols of dominant culture and using them in new ways in order to make a statement and way to cope with structural conditions, irony (Hebdige 1979)
- Eg Subcultural Theory – Subcultural approaches can be divided into categories: resistance as deviance and resistance as appropriation (Leong 1992) 155

* Postmodernist Conception – Table 2, 154
- “Note: More postmodern attempts to understand resistance frame it as much more fragmented and transitory, and what seems like unified opposition may in fact be diverse and fragmented as people’s investments and commitments to an activity vary. Postmodernists thus focus on more localized, contextualized analyses.”
- Linguistic – speech acts
- Disidentification – ‘Survival strategy’; taking or misrecognizing a stereotype or dominant image and redeploying it differently or disruptively (Munoz 1999)
- Alternative discourses – Countering dominant definitions through deploying alternative discourses, which may in turn slightly reframe and alter dominant discourses
- Bodily – Insight into discursive frameworks through limit experience or bodily contingency (Foucault 1965)
- Eg Postmodern disruptions – Foucault theorizes power as not something to be possessed, but as a relation. Power is productive, flowing through the language we use, how we come to understand ourselves, practices of governance, the organization of time and space….Foucault considers resistance to be an integral component of power relations: resistance is not against power, but imbricated within it (Foucault 1978)
- Thus, resistance is about local struggles that ‘disrupt institutions and normalization’ rather than ‘the frontal attack on the state led by the One revolutionary subject’ (Martin 1988, pp. 9-10) What is opposed is less clear, for power is enacted by all, and people occupy multiple subjectivies, or locationsin relations of power. Nor is resistance always progressive or revolutionary….Postmodernists see the subject as produced, fragmented, always changing and often contradictory…..[however] discourses and specific historical locations produce people as certain kinds of subjects (Tait 2000). 162

• Foucault (1988) also suggested a potential for resistance through technologies of the self, ‘where individuals create their own identities through ethics and forms of self-constitution’ (Best and Kellner 1991, p.61) Through such technologies, individuals can question the ‘naturalness’ of their identity and recognize themselves as subjects and with resistance agency (Markula 2003).

Rebecca Raby's full essay can be accessed here.

"This Will Be The Online (Gaming) Generation"!

2006-02-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

Phew, completed my thesis proposal this week! Ended up using three theoretical areas to frame my work in the preliminary literature review - quite the challenge!
Essentially I am using feminist theories of representation and ideology, theories of the active audience and agency, fan cultures and poaching along with theories about the benefits of virtual communities. What a mouthful. But I think these approaches will meld together well to approach my artefact.

So I go to check out the Tech news today and there's an article on online console gaming! Just when I was starting to think that perhaps this was being phased out by the industry in favour of trying to guide consumers to online PC games such as WoW.
I was also a little alarmed to find that most of the literature about MMORPGs seems to be based around WoW and Diablo or unstructured 'games' that I personally prefer to refer to as virtual reality chat programs rather than games, such as ActiveWorlds and Second Life (all of which are played on PC, not console).

If it were to be, it certainly wouldn't be because of lack of interest, in my opinion and observations. But fortunately, my suspicions were wrong. And if I needed a reminder as to the relevance of my thesis research on Resident Evil Online, here it was in my daily news. w00t!. Knew I was onto something huge.

Here it is below, or click here to read it in yahoo tech news.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Online console gaming primed for take-off

By Lisa Baertlein 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online video game playing is growing up.

A new generation of game consoles is ushering in online features that promise to make playing with others over the Internet easier and more compelling than sitting on the couch and playing solo or with a friend.

Eyeing a much larger market, console makers are stealing a page or two from the PC gaming playbook.

Hard-core PC game enthusiasts spend a fortune "tricking out" their machines with lightning-fast memory, bleeding-edge video cards and even water-cooling systems to get an edge in multiplayer online games that can take on a life of their own.

By contrast, console games are less interactive than PC gaming cousins and consoles themselves are less easy to modify, which levels the playing field. That is set to change.

Game enthusiasts say Microsoft Corp's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
Xbox Live online game service has gained share with help from its blockbuster game "Halo 2" as well as its new Xbox 360 console. The service offers multiplayer competition and skill-matching, voice and text chat, buddy lists and shopping -- all key pillars of online gaming.

Justin Willman, a 26-year-old network administrator from St. Louis, said the walls that separate PC and console online gaming are already crumbling.

"Xbox Live is merging those worlds," Willman said.

PC game makers still have the advantage of using the keyboard and mouse as a controller, which allows them to give gamers more control and options in game play.

But gamers say few, if any, of the community-oriented online PC games are as consumer-friendly as Xbox Live, which has standardized and automated the process of selecting servers and competitors for the best game playing experience.

"Sometimes you just want to hit go and let it do the work for you," said Sid Shuman, 25, an avid PC and console gamer who contributes to GamePro magazine.

"WORLD OF WARCRAFT" = WOW

The universe of computer role-playing games -- which foster virtual online communities where people chat, form elaborate social guilds and trade virtual assets -- have taken the entertainment world by storm.

Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft," has attracted 5.5 million users to shatter previous records. Players not only buy the PC game, they pay a monthly subscription fee of roughly $15 per month -- something that appeals to upstart online game service providers looking for ways to turn a profit.

Xbox Live is a central feature in Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console and online strategies are also key for Sony and Nintendo Co. Ltd (7974.OS), which are slated to release new consoles this year.

"This will be the online generation," Shuman said.

Microsoft says its has 2 million Xbox Live users in 24 countries. Its silver membership is free to Xbox 360 owners and the $50-per-year gold membership is required to access multiplayer features.

Sony Corp. (6758.T) has 180 online-enabled games for its current
PlayStation 2 and 2.7 million registered users in its North America online console gaming community. Xbox Live is considered by many gamers as the preferred service, but analysts say Sony, the world's No. 1 console seller, will give Microsoft a run for its money with its upcoming PlayStation 3.

David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence, a video game market research firm, estimates that less than 5 percent of console owners now connect for online play on a regular basis. He said that number could hit 10 percent in the next two years as next-generation units debut.

CONSUMER DEMAND

Today's average gamer has grown up with PC, console and mobile games as well as online shopping and chat. They are demanding that video game companies give them the best of all worlds on all of their devices.

"Consumers are not bashful," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing for the online unit at Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS - news), the world's biggest video game publisher, which is investing in online gaming for future growth.

"The difference between online and offline play will disappear," predicted Chris Donahue, director of Windows graphics and gaming technologies at Microsoft.

In addition to offering publishers a new way to fight piracy by identifying people who are copying and sharing games, the new outlet also promises an opportunity for them to keep games fresh with constant updates and offers of trinkets, weapons and other items.

"It will be more like a living, breathing world," said Schuman.

Active Reading as Resistance? & Study Claims Link Between Gaming and Real-World Violence

2006-01-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

Interesting cultural studies debate going on concerning whether the ability of audiences to make oppositional or assertive readings constitutes a political act of resistance.
Check it out here on Marc Singer's cultural studies blog.

And then in today's news I see more moral panic over violent content in video games, with a report on a behavioural study entitled "Study Claims Link Between Gaming and Real-World Violence".

The article states that "In recent findings published on the New Scientist Web site, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia noted that study subjects who played violent video games showed diminished brain responses to images of real-life violence.

The reduction in response correlates to aggressive behavior, according to the study's authors."

Read the full article here.

Personally, I find these results highly suspicious. While empirical evidence for chemical changes is all well and good, there is a social and cultural context to be taken into account when thinking about how people behave.
Perhaps I am actually desensitized to violence in some way chemically from playing shooter games. But thus far I haven't felt compelled to go and buy a gun or attack anybody when I see violent images or acts. hmmm. Something is wrong with this picture. This is where cultural studies theory about active media audiences provides some possible answers...

Sumptuous Side Scrolling Satisfaction! : Revisiting childhood gaming experiences with the Sonic Mega Collection

2006-01-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

I was in Future Shop yesterday when I stumbled upon a game I have been searching for for ages, the Sonic Mega Collection for PS2! Woohoo!

It is an amazing feeling to play a game that I haven't for at least 10 years and find that I still remember the maps and can even sing along to the music.

Oh Sonic and your quest to defeat the evil Dr. Robotnik....we must save the little animals before he makes them into evil cyborgs!
As a friend of mine pointed out, it would be interesting to consider the evil Dr.'s creations in light of Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto...

Such an enjoyable nostalgic experience. Now I feel compelled to look for Ecco the Dolphin for PS2. Sonic and Ecco were the first games I played for hours and days on end...I remember explaining the appeal to my father as being in an interacive movie. And I remember getting in trouble from him for getting up early and sneaking to my Sega MegaDrive to play!

I got to play 2 player Sonic II with my friend and remembered hours of playing with friends from school, trying out play one another to get the most rings in Sonic as well as facing off in Mario Bros and Mortal Kombat. I remember hiding that we had turned the blood option on in Mortal Kombat from a friend's mother . While I enjoyed spending hours alone tackling Sonic, I am reminded of how gaming was very much a communal activity for me all along. It is not suprising then, my interest in the social and cooperative use of online video games. Playing with others has always heightened the experience for me and I am always pleased when this idea is built into games.

I highly recommend the Sonic Mega Collection (Plus) for PS2 to anyone who played the Sonic games years ago or people who would like to experience what captivated a large number of players attentions internationally, early in console gaming history. For me, playing the Sonic games again is an unforgettable experience, remembering my gaming roots and reliving the experience of one of my favourite games of all time that I didn't know if I would ever get to play again.

Gaming Trends in 2005 & what's coming up for 2006?

2006-01-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Check out the Gaming Trends of 2005 identified by Game Girl Advance here.

Tracy Kennedy made some interesting projections too, citing the continuing increase in the female gamer market and recent improvements in the gender inclusivity of some games, (such as Soul Calibur III). Read her post here.

Would love to hear any other ideas/input on this subject. What do you think the future of gaming has in store for us? What would you like to see and experience??

Personally, I hope to see a lot more online games coming out in 2006. As any regular reader would observe, I love the possibilities for online gaming as a new type of highly interactive media with many possibilities for new gaming experiences, playing with others online.
I would also like to see a continued critique and improvement of gender representations in video games, and an increased effort by game developers both indie and mainstream to address the growing female market. There is so much more than can be done with video games, and I cannot wait to see what possibilities develop....

"Let's take it to the next level" - Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2005

2005-12-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

Managed to catch a rerun (I was playing Socom!) of Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2005 this evening. While this year isn't the first, the show was the biggest high production values presentation of this type that I have seen, and I was admittedly impressed.

Hosted by Samuel L. Jackson wearing a shirt that said "The Revolution will not be Televised", the show was attended by a number of big name celebrities both related to games and music and film personalities. Missy Elliott performed and 50 cent was there to promote his GTA style game Bulletproof.

Resident Evil 4 was game of the year, a title I hope to receive this Christmas! This is also great with regard to my thesis research, which is on another recent game in the RE series, Resident Evil Outbreak (online for PS2).

I was interested (& pleased) to see that the moral panic around violence etc in video games has progressed to a space where we can joke about the idea that gamers/audiences mindlessly and passively take meaning and ideology from games.
There was even a skit where Samuel L. Jackson ridiculed Arnold Schwarznegger about the bill that was passed (& is now being challenged) in California that requires identification for sales of games with a Mature rating.
During the skit, he quoted the bill talking about guns and violence toward women. As he did, images of Arnie doing each of these things in the Terminator films was projected on the screen behind him. Great show.

Video Game Furniture - Oh Yes.

2005-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas is fast approaching and I have been thinking about treating myself to a new work/computer/gaming chair.
In my basement apartment I have a couch chair set up with my computer monitor in front of me and television for gaming (oh yeah and tv!) to my right. Whenever arranging or rearranging my home media environment I am always very conscious of setting up an area that is conducive to integrated technology use. I enjoy being able to communicate with fellow game players through msn messenger while playing with them in online playstation games for example.
I've enjoyed my couch chair instead of a traditional computer desk chair for several years now. As a grad student specializing in (new) media studies, I am necessarily in and using my media environment for long hours, doing research, writing papers, analyzing games and films and so on. So I think it is important to have this space as comfortable as possible and well structured for my use.

Imagine my surprise and delight to come across a 'Video Game Furniture' section while browsing chairs at Target.com
The section features a number of different chairs and furniture items intended for long hours of use for pc and console gaming.

While the bright pink camouflage chair, presumably targeted at female gamers is interesting, I find the Gamepod Virtual/Sensory Chair
particularly drooleriffic:

Description:
"Careful you donÂt scare yourself. This innovative, multi-sensory gaming chair thrusts you into the action with 300 watts of sound and motion. The Gamepod rigs up to your video-game console, home theater or computer and puts the sound right into your skull with its amplifier and two coaxial 50-watt speakers embedded in the frame. Add to that a 200-watt transducer built by Clark Synthesis, supplier to leading theme parks and armed forces flight simulators, and you get a spine-tingling, tactile, full-contact experience. When facing off with foes in the gaming universe or taking in a high-octane flick, you can feel the explosions and the recoil, as well as the pulse to the percussion of the music. Made to deliver true comfort, the Gamepod features handsome, charcoal-color microsuede upholstery and mixes stylishly into any home hangout space. Designed with plug-and-play simplicity, it works with all major gaming and home theater systems, Macs, PCs, Game Boys, DVDs, MP3s and VCRs. Users can control audio volume and balance the tactile and audio output (e.g., more sound, less shake and vice versa). Gamepods can also be daisy-chained for thrilling multiple-player gaming."

I like this recognition of group/collective as well as individual gaming/media interaction, rather than the stereotypical notion of the solitary (antisocial) gamer...

Features:
Â Simple plug and play operation, compatible with all major video game comsoles, DVD players, VCRs, TVs, stereo receivers, PCs, Macs, iPods, and MP3 players
Â Fade control moves power from the audio speaker to the tactile transducer, adjust for more shake and less sound or vice versa
Â Fuses the latest audio and tactile technology with a solid wood frame and microfiber upholstery
Â Comes with RCA plug adaptors

It's (only!) $699 US but you get free shipping!

Well, this may be a littlepriceypricy for a student, but I can dream (and prices do drop over time, don't they?). As media becomes more integrated I think we will begin to see much more of this sort of innovative furniture & gear as well as home design, in recognition of the new ways in which people are interacting with media in the spaces of the wired home. It will be exciting to see how technology and culture continue to grow and change together.

Increase in programs in Video Game Theory & Design

2005-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Seth Schiesel at the New York Times writes:

'Video Games Are Their Major, So Don't Call Them Slackers'

"Three decades after bursting into pool halls and living rooms, video games are taking a place in academia. A handful of relatively obscure vocational schools have long taught basic game programming. But in the last few years a small but growing cadre of well-known universities, from the University of Southern California to the University of Central Florida, have started formal programs in game design and the academic study of video games as a slice of contemporary culture.

Traditionalists in both education and the video game industry pooh-pooh the trend, calling it a bald bid by colleges to cash in on a fad. But others believe that video games - which already rival movie tickets in sales - are poised to become one of the dominant media of the new century. "

So what kind of things are covered in class....?

"So you have these four basic types that occupy the environment: the Achiever, the Explorer, the Socializer and the Killer."

Nick Fortugno, the 30-year-old teacher, turned away from the whiteboard and faced the 14 undergraduate and master's-level students in his Thursday seminar. "Killers act like predators, and like any ecosystem, if you increase the number of killers and facilitate them, you decrease the number of achievers and socializers."
Nick Fortugno teaches a class in video game design at Parsons.
A forestry class on the ecology of the African savannah? No. A psychology course on the ways of the grade-school playground? Closer, but not quite.

Rather, in his video game design seminar at Parsons the New School for Design in Greenwich Village, Mr. Fortugno was recently explaining the basic taxonomy of players in online role-playing games like World of Warcraft or Lineage, games that millions of people around the world play every day."

Fascinating stuff. There are so many interesting facets of video game theory and design to explore.
Whether or not schools are jumping on the bandwagon or not, I see this as a positive reflection of an increased sense of recognition of the importance of critical video game study both inside and outside of academia. I can certainly see the medium of video games, especially online games becoming one of the dominant and important new-media forms in the coming years.

Read the full article here.

More outrage over CSI Miami's Anti Gamer Ep

2005-11-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Stumbled across this discussion of the episode of CSI Miami on Video Game influenced criminals I blogged about on Monday night. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only one who found the episode entirely negative, representing only one perspective on the video games and violence debate.

Darren Barefoot writes:

"The plot had enormous holes, and the whole gamers-are-evil theme was paranoia, plain and simple. I thought it laid bare the film and television industries’ increasing fear of playing second (and third) fiddle to the game industry."
To read more click here.

Also, check out IGN's Summary & Sreenshots here.

A Critique of CSI Miami Video Game Ep "Urban Hellraisers"

2005-11-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Watched the new episode of CSI Miami this evening, episode 409 in the series entitled 'Urban Hellraisers'. Felt compelled to share some of my thoughts on the video game themed episode.

Airing ironically (& perhaps not mistakenly) the night before and in the midst of media hype over the release of the XBox 360 console gaming system tomorrow, the episode featured criminals who were heavily influenced by video game violence.
The episode focuses on a series of crimes perpetrated by so-called "gamers", teenage males and one female, who participate in mimicking crimes from a video game in real life. It seems almost like a video game based cult. Apparently the "gamers" are unable to tell the difference between reality and the game or don't care too much, and are completely desensitizing to their killing of real people. This is demonstrated by their laughter as they are arrested and the spitting of quotes from the game at the police officers. None of the gamers seem to have any sort of moral dilemma whatsoever about participating in a series of rl enactments of the first couple of game levels. They seem brainwashed and driven by the game, almost as if they had no minds of their own. I think it's programming like this that only offers one side of important debates in society and culture that is the real brainwashing we might need to be worrying about.

The game, which looks suspiciously like GTA awards points for killing police officers, robbing banks and sniping. In a moment laden with stereotypes of teenage delinquency, the mob of college entry level aged teens in handpainted battle masks enters the bank, shoots out all cameras and proceeds to rob it and take the manager hostage, killing some people including a guard - posing in various poses, rolling around on wheely shoes, talking smack, even attempting to carry out a rape mid-robbery (the fictional video game also rewards players for rape). Importantly, there is no game that I am aware of in which rape exists. Prostitutes and the ability to gun down people, yes. Rape, no. Just to be specific.
I am not arguing that video games are pure as the driven snow. But it is important to draw a line between fiction and reality here. I was disappointed that the show only depicted one side of the video games and violence debate.

Here's an episode synopsis...

"Series: 'CSI: Miami'
Episode Title: 'Urban Hellraisers'
Episode Number: 409
Synopsis: "Delko witnesses a bank robbery and the CSIs soon discover that the culprits are playing out the action from the videogame "Urban Hellraisers" on the streets of Miami. As they score points for each crime committed, the CSIs must discover what consists of getting to the next level in the game in order to stop the culprits before they strike again."
Original Airdate: November 21, 2005
Written By: Dean Widenmann and Marc Guggenheim
Directed By: Matt Earl Beesley"
From CSI Files.

***Click here to see a video clip from the episode.***

While I am always interested when TV or film takes up the topic of new technologies, there were unfortunately several problematic representations in this episode, rendering it an overwhelmingly negative take on video games and gamers.

Some key moments that stuck out for me:

* Horatio comments that they are facing "a new breed of criminal"
* Later another CSI comments that the criminals cannot determine between the game and reality, no wonder they are killing with ease and comfort...
* One of the "gamers" is found dead at his computer. Cause of death? He drank too much redbull, didn't move at all (not even to empty his bladder) and played video games for hours and had a heart attack.
* The gamers were manipulated by the game maker, who set up the game of acting out the game scenes in the real world as a promotional gag
* The gamers consisted of white, teenage males.
* The only female gamer claimed that she played the game so that guys would notice her.

To find anything particularly optimistic or positive at all about this episode's take on video games is like searching for a needle in a haystack. I suspect the needle isn't even there, I didn't see it and I had my eyes peeled. All gamers and even game developers were clearly depicted as the bad guys (& girl). The good guys just played the game to find out what the bad guys were going to do next.

Ok, I'm not saying that themes of video games in television shows/films etc aren't pertinent, interesting and timely. But unfortunately this particular representation of issues of video games, (fictional or no, it draws directly on contemporary hot debates) completely ignores the other side of the debate and dismisses any potential for positive attributes in video games or gaming as a past time.
It is important to examine what is good about gaming, what positives participants are taking away from their experiences. Like the medium of Television, there's so much more to address in the medium of Video Games than one (negative) perspective on one issue, a perspective that is and should have been represented as contested and a site of disagreement and continuing critical debate amongst academics and researchers.

A Girl With A Gun: Thoughts on Socom III & Online Gaming

2005-11-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

So after all the hype over the release of Socom III, I picked up my copy a few weeks ago.

While I am not too impressed by the Seal Recruiting style videos on the game's official site, the game's graphics and environments are amazing and there is virtually no waiting time for loading nor any lag problems online.Socom III features beautifully detailed environments with complex designs that load quickly & run smoothly, even online....

Check out the Socom III developer blog here.
After training a little on offline quests, I've joined the thousands currently playing on Socom III Online servers.
Online, games consist of a variety of types, but the top two that seem to be played most are Supression (basic player versus player) and Demolition (still player versus player but with the objective of picking up a centrally located bomb and blowing up the enemies base with it).
With up to 32 players per game, it's a very exciting online environment to play in.

Seals in the Citadel

The choice of teams consists of the Seals or the Terrorists.
Here comes the but.... I really enjoy this game BUT, where are the women?

I've unlocked some character types and achieved an initial ranking online, but when I go to choose a character to play, they are all male. There does seem to be one female character, which I have yet to unlock (& couldn't find an image of online). She is a terrorist, (of course!)...and elderly and unattractive. Can't wait to unlock that one.
On the upside, I can play a character that is dressed in full combat gear or camoflague hood and pretend that my androgynous form is female.

Yeah that's me under there!

Okay, I don't think I have to be able to directly identify with a video game character that I am playing in order to enjoy a game. I enjoyed playing Sonic the Hedgehog for years, without identifying with his obsessive need to collect large gold rings. But there is a certain magic when one plays as a character they feel represents them in some way, I feel. Lara Croft made me feel that way, so did Jill Valentine. I felt especially connected and involved with the game. You could say that basically, I enjoyed playing more. Besides, what does it say to a gamer when they are continually invisible, under or misrepresented in the gaming world? Surely this is not the way it should be for female, ethnic or any gamers.
And thinking about the online environment in particular, representations might be seen to be of even more importance...? The environment and characters within it are no longer just a game but an online meeting place or social space. An individual is now representing themselves to other 'real' individuals in cyberspace.... Online gaming environments are in many ways the Virtual Reality that we have conceived of in the past, brought to life. But they are a VR that too often help to reproduce inequalities in offline 'reality'. The total abscence of female characters (with the exception of elderly terrorist granny) in Socom III speaks volumes about the continuance of targeting games to teenage males and the ignoring and dismissal of the female player market. Surely online PvP games can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for a number female gamers such as myself too.

I recently did a content analysis of two official platform game magazines for a term paper I am working on for one of my grad classes. I found that female characters were represented frequently in RPG and Action Adventure titles to a lesser extent. Male characters were in almost all game advertisements and androgynous or non human characters mostly appeared pretty masculine. War or Gun Battle games such as Socom were clearly depicted as solely the domain of males. Okay, yes this is in keeping with the traditional socially constructed gender role for boys. But why must females be exempt from these types of games? Why must it be that all games are for boys and only some games are for girls too? I for one am finding Socom III a very interesting and a rewarding pasttime... I'm not saying revise it that much, but let's at least make an attempt to make these types of games more gender inclusive.

Socom III is a hive of activity, and though most of it is player versus player, there is also remarkable cooperation and teamwork I have observed, especially in demolition games, individuals working together to acheive a common goal. It's exciting to participate in the cooperative and strategic attack on an enemy base, working as a team. When the vehicle option is enabled, one can even drive a boat, tank or car, ride along or man one of the mounted guns along with one's teammates. Remarkably, I should also note that I have yet to observe any team killing (when a player kills his fellow team mates with friendly fire) in Socom III Online.
There is also a very active clan system at the moment, supported by the online game design framework which allows players to add letters beside their name to indicate their affiliation and add friends to their online buddy list. I'd love to meet other female players and join with them in a clan on Socom Online. It would be interesting to join with other women and explore the online world of Socom III together (perhaps even show the boys what we are made of!). Unfortunately, I've yet to see or meet another female player on the server, at least as far as names go....but here's hoping. This abscence of identfiable women might be an indication that these issues regarding representation and specifically teenage male centered marketing may be serving as significant obstacles to female gamers gaining interest in and purchasing games such as Socom III.

The last online playstation game that I played regularly, Resident Evil Outbreak (REO) featured a more cooperative and intricate style of game play, with a diverse set of 8 differently designed characters (5 male, 3 female including one Asian and two African American lead protagonists). I was excited to meet a lot of other female gamers on the server and play with them as well as the other male gamers in the environments. (It's an interesting correlation isn't it.) As with any game, there is room for improvemet in REO. 4 player per game is kind of low and the game has terrible load times even in HDD mode. The representations, while groundbreaking and advanced for certain in their demographics, are archetypal at best. But there was a variety of stereotypes to choose from, at least! Like REO, I hope that Socom III can be another baby step in the right direction, toward a more inclusive and diverse game environment of the future. The graphics, environments, load times and online play structure (up to 32 players simultaneously per game) are great and enable a fantastic online environment.
Online games have so much to offer when compared to traditional offline media forms, for so many reasons. Interaction with others actively constructing your own narratives, rather than with pre-programmed bots inside a closed story is so refreshing and different. The intended meaning of signs and symbols in the game can even be reworked by the inhabitants of online spaces (unlike in traditional media), by their own storytelling and interaction with the artefact. Meaning becomes more fluid and more power to construct one's own story is placed in the hands of the gamer as they clutch the controller. Each game is a different adventure, each session spent playing, a time spent with other people in a virtual reality of sorts, where (unlike the 'real' world) everyone begins on an equal plane with equal chance for opportunities. Adventures in cyberspace, perhaps not unlike William Gibson might have imagined would become a regular part of our lives.
I would like to see more online games like REO that challenge the norms of character representation that are as well marketed as Socom (but to a diverse market!) and feature some of the improvements I've just noted.

Socom designers, is it so much to ask to see a female Seal??
If she must be a terrorist, can she be young and capable looking at least?
All I am asking for is a girl with a gun.
Socom III brings a lot of great improvements to the online gaming world.
I'm not saying change the genre, instead I challenge the idea that there must be games for boys and games for girls. How about games for everyone. It truly does not seem a too impractical or implausible an idea to develop.
The task then, I urge is to design games with diverse character sets (& diverse modes of game play for wide appeal) in a variety of genres, (including those traditionally seen as strictly for the boys!) so we can all enjoy how rewarding it is playing in cyberspace together.

*********************************
(Sunday, November 20)
PS: Netwoman recently blogged about Socom as well. Read her thoughts on the game & ideology here.

What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Are You?

2005-11-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

Apparently I am either Gauntlett Adventurer or a Pacman Ghost. lol

I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.

I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there's a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can't find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

I am a Pacman Ghost.

I like to hang around with friends, chatting, dancing, all that sort of thing. We don't appreciate outsiders, and do our best to discourage others approaching us. I enjoy occasionally wandering around randomly, and often find that when I do so, I get to where I wanted to be. What Video Game Character Are You?

Everything Girl?

2005-10-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Professor Matheson brought in an interesting artifact from Popular Culture into theory class the other day. It was a Barbie, a new series that seems to be targeting early and preteen girls. The Barbie was petite, smaller breasts than a typical Barbie and was fashion shopping themed.
On the back of the box, Barbie frolics with her gal pals in the mall. They are all thin yet curvaceous, and very Anglo Saxon featured with long straight hair. One of the brunettes had quite tanned skin, suggesting that she might be the token ethnic minority in the group.

After scoffing at the idealized mall scene on the back of the box, I notice the following two URLs listed:

http://www.everythinggirl.com/
&
http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/

Everything Girl? I ask...
I'm a girl, there should be something here for me....

I am confronted with a very specific and I might add, completely unimaginative vision of femininity, of what it is to be a girl.

My choices are pink and shiny, my role models to identify with are idealized dolls and very Caucasian.
Their life consists of consumerism and frolicking.
There are no challenges, no goals, except to construct the perfect shopping list.
There are certainly no suggestions that other expressions of femininity or being a girl are appropriate or needed.
No room for girl scouts here.

Check out the front splash of the Barbie section of "Everything Girl ".

Everything around her suggests wealth and opportunity, even if it is only opportunity to shop. Scarily enough considering the target market, Barbie seems to have a space that looks much more like a condo than a bedroom in her family's house. What kinds of expectations might this instill in young women and what challenges might this depiction of Barbie as young yet privileged and unconstrained by authority present for parents in their dealings with their daughters?

My trip to Everything Girl . com was very disappointing. For young women potentially looking for visions of femininity and figures with which to identify, Everything Girl presents a frighteningly constrictive vision of who they should be, as a girl.
I had hoped that in 2005, a website that seems to aim to represent a positive image of young girls with as much influence as Mattel holds, would present a more open version of femininity.
Other versions and expressions of being a girl should be accommodated and represented, in order to offer a more balanced look at femininity and what being a girl can be.
In representing what girls can be Everything Girl falls well short of the mark.

"Does Gender Matter? Examining Conversations in the Blogosphere"

2005-10-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the requests I've received for the paper I presented at the recent AoIR conference, with Tracy Kennedy and Kaye Trammell on computer mediated communication and gender in blogs.

The research addresses questions surrounding gendered communication practices in blog posts and comments and utilizes previous research in CMC in a content analysis of communication attributes. Our powerpoint for the presentation is now available in the Current Research section of my website. Feedback is welcome and appreciated as the paper is currently being prepared for publication.

Association of Internet Researchers: Generations Conference

2005-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Tracy Kennedy, Joanna Robinson,
Barry Wellman, Jen Kayahara,
Carolyn Haythornthwaite &
Annabel Quan-Haase @ AoIR

Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

The AoIR conference was a great experience!
As a first timer attending/presenting at the conference I was excited to see a multitude of presentations on very interesting topics/areas of technology research.

I presented a paper on research I did with Tracy Kennedy and Kaye Trammell entitled "Does Gender Matter? Examining Conversations in the Blogosphere".
The research is a content analysis of gendered language in blog comments, contributing to the body of existing research of gendered language and potential implications in CMC.
I was excited (and nervous!) to deliver the paper, but as it turned out, it was very well received and there was lots of useful feedback and interesting questions/comments. So I was very happy about the experience and am eager to do it 110% better next time. Speaking of next time, I can't wait to go to AoIR in Australia next year. I have been away from my homeland of Oz since 2000! It will be great to take part in the conference again as well as reconnect with my family and friends for a few days as well.

One of the paper presentations I attended at AoIR in Chicago was by Susan Herring and her students, which dealt with conversations across blogs in the blogosphere. This was a really interesting presentation studying phenomena that is quite complementary to our research as well. (I blogged during the session on blogging, see below!) More on this and some of the other papers I enjoyed soon....

Chicago was a beautiful city and I enjoyed the sights of Navy Pier, a cruise on the lake and the breathtaking views from the top of the Aon Center where the banquet was held.

All in all, I enjoyed myself immensely at AoIR 2005 and feel very fortunate to have been able to meet and discuss ideas with so many interesting academics.

AoIR Session: Emergent Geographies

2005-10-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

How neat is this. I am in a session at the AoIR conference on blogging, using a laptop to type in my blog.
So far this conference has been an amazing experience. Pulled in so many different directions, it's been difficult to choose which sessions to go to and even more difficult to plan/fit in sightseeing in Chicago!
With my presentation coming up this Saturday, seeing the varied styles of presentation and lots of interesting research on all sorts of cyber topics has been a great inspiration.
At the moment I am listening to this presentation:
Conversation and Connectivity in the Blogosphere
John Paolillo, Susan Herring, Inna Kouper, Sarah Mercure, Lois Scheidt, Peter Welsch, Elijah Wright
It's a really interesting paper concerning conversations across blogs by linking and commenting in various ways, part of a larger study...
Very interesting and exciting to see research in a similar vein to the paper I did with Tracy Kennedy & Kaye Trammell: Does Gender Matter? Examining Conversations in the Blogosphere.

More later.

Virtual Organization Angst

2005-09-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

Had an interesting thought today regarding the increasing use of online and or computerized tools as a personal organizer. Not only are people using the internet personal business such as for bill payments and viewing bank balances, but I am pretty sure I am not the only one using online calendars and organizer programs to digitize my schedule and appointments.

I also use my msn messenger buddy list extensively, not only as a tool to contact individuals but as an organization device, but also as a teledex or virtual phone book of contacts and their contact info.

Well, I think all of this is great, except for one flaw that occured to me today. After mistyping my password for msn messenger and being denied access today, I had a mini moment of virtual organization angst.
What if for some reason, msn messenger lost my stored contact information or my password ceased to work and I wasn't able to reset it rendering me unable to access it?
What if the site my web-based calendar and task organizer is stored on had some kind of similar problem?
I don't have any of this stuff written down or printed on paper.
Am I suffering from computer anxiety?

I enjoy very much having a digital record of things, rather than sheets of paper filed and or laying about everywhere that I must rifle through to find things.

I like the idea of the paperless office and the paperless organizer.

Software designers of organizational web-stuff need to take into account this kind of usage of their software and program in options related to it.
msn messenger should at least have an option to download the contact list into MSWord or something similar...

MA Popular Culture Students

2005-09-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Joanna, Ed, Alisa, Nicole & Shelley.
Originally uploaded by Joanna S Robinson.

Here are some of my classmates in the MA PCUL Program having fun at the Graduate Students Association welcome bbq at Cat's Caboose.

Ed broke the ice with a great presentation today on Museums & Archival data in Research Methods class. :)

Classes begin & organizing thesis advisors

2005-09-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

So the first week is over & both my classes have begun.
One is Research Methods, the other Theory - specifically Cultural Studies theory.
We started off by introducing ourselves, talking a little about our background and about our research interests with regard to our Masters thesis.

I found that a lot of my peers are studying more traditional media than I am, even as far back as graphic novels. Some of them are doing hip hop as a subculture, looking at DJing and freestyle dance culture. Shelley is researching the representation of gender and sexuality in a comic book series, not sure which one. But that sounds quite neat. Nicole is looking at the Prisoner tv series. Another student in the program is looking at escapist narratives in Popular Culture. Another is looking at advertising's response to a more segmented mass market. A lot of people's thesis interests still seems to be pretty broad and not so specific, so I will look forward to hearing more about their studies as they narrow it down and become more focused.

After introducing ourselves and discussing some of the ideas, we had seminar signups for both classes. For Research Methods, the Professor Michael Ripmeester asked us to sign up for a Research Method for our first presentation that we were unlikely to use as our primary methodology in our thesis research. For our second presentation, we can do something that we are likely to use in our thesis research as our primary tool. So for the first I signed up for Visual Methodologies and for the second, Ethnography.
For Cultural Studies Theory class, which is taught by Professor Sarah Matheson there is only one presentation and no instructions regarding topic choice, so I took the week that has readings dealing with Representation of Gender, Race & Queer identity in Popular Culture. Among them is Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema, something by bell hooks and Larry Gross.

So I have those coming up. Other than those, I will need to do various papers & presentation writeups for these classes.
Next term, I have two topical classes, one on Popular Music and the other on Hard Boiled Hollywood. I will be dropping the latter in favour of either a Directed Reading course or possibly a grad course in Social Justice & Equity. We shall see.

That said, it was a good week...getting a feel for things in general.
Also this week, I met with each of the Professors I want to work with for my thesis. I am excited to say that Dale Bradley will be my thesis advisor, and John Mitterer my reader. Barry Joe and Tracy Kennedy who aren't officially involved in the MA program will also be reading and helping by providing feedback etc. XD!
I am ecstatic and feel extremely fortunate to have such a fantastic team of people willing to assist me.
Can't wait to begin.

...so I did begin. hehe
I spoke to several Resident Evil Outbreak players and started a list of people interested in interviews. Almost 10 so far, and that is without posting on the notice boards or approaching people on the online server. This is a good sign and a good start.
I need to look into ethics approval for my interviews/surveys soon.

My Research Assistantship for the Popular Culture Niagara Project begins this week, so we will see how that goes. While I would have liked to TA, I am sure that this will work better with accomplishing more work on my own projects.

Speaking of my own projects, I will be presenting on Gender & Blogging at the AoIR (Association of Internet Researchers) conference this year. I am working on a collaborative paper with two other researchers in the field. That's so awesome. *Thankyou* to you both, if you are reading - it means the world to me to have such a fantastic opportunity!
More on that as it develops.

So the grad school saga has begun!

Grad Student Orientation Day

2005-09-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hello again.
So I had my Grad Student Orientation yesterday. Had a nice welcome lunch/brunch in the Schmon Tower, the very top floor in the Alumni Lounge. Very swanky.
It was great to meet my fellow students in the program and chat with some of them about their research interests.
Got to talk more to my thesis advisor and I am encouraged by his positive response to my ideas so far. I will be meeting with another other faculty member from Psych I hope to work with this coming week.
In other news, it has been confirmed that I will be presenting at the next conference I go to, AoIR in Chicago in October. So naturally I am very excited about it. The paper will be on Gender and Blogging and I am fortunate to be collaborating with some great minds in the field.
Very exciting stuff!
Nicole, who is in the MA Popular Culture program with me took a photo of us before the luncheon, so if it turns out nicely, I will likely post it on my flickr account or here.
That's all for now. Classes begin next week and I am off to the Graduate Students Assoc. dinner tonight.
I am psyched and ready for Grad school. Bring it on!

ASA Conference in Philly 2005

2005-08-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Katie Bessiere, Barry Wellman, Joanna Robinson,
Bernie Hogan & Marc Smith.
Some of the members of the CIT
(Communication & Information Technology)
section of the ASA (American Sociological Association)
Conference in Philadelphia 2005.
Originally uploaded by Joanna S Robinson.

As I had hoped, my ASA conference experience was fantastic! Since it was my first conference, I was interested to observe the format (round tables, keynote speeches, presentations to different sized groups by topic etc) & the dynamics of the event. In particular I enjoyed the seminar style discussion at the round tables. I was excited to find that I had a lot to contribute to discussions, even as a Masters student. I felt very fortunate to be affiliated with the Connected Lives group - Netlab, University of Toronto (I did a bunch of interview transcriptions for them!), as I was able to meet a lot of exciting & interesting people through them.

It was so rewarding to discuss my ideas & the ideas of others with a group of academics who are currently doing research in the field.
With over 4000 attendees at the conference, held in the Philadelphia Convention Centre/Marriott/Loews in downtown Philly, I was so happy to be involved in the event. I was inspired to present in future & I found myself looking forward to the AoIR (Association of Internet Researchers) conference this year (where there will be even more academics in my field presenting) even more...

CITASA Reception Philly 2005

2005-08-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tracy Kennedy & Joanna Robinson
Originally uploaded by Joanna S Robinson.

Computer geek shirts rock!
It was fantastic to meet with so many respected & up n coming researchers/academics at the CITASA Mini conference & reception. I found myself discussing game design & online identity (among many other topics) among minds that both appreciated & seemed to genuinely value my ideas. Despite my concerns about how well my Communications (Media, Culture & Society) degree would transfer to understanding Sociological theory, I found plenty of overlap in the disciplines. I felt like I had come home - these people, these geeks (meant as a compliment!) are my people!
I can't wait to begin my research & contribute to the exciting field of IT & Society. ;)

Welcome & such

2005-07-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello there.
Well, this will be my academic blog. The idea is to have something to work through ideas with during my graduate studies, rant, discuss etc.
We'll see what develops.