"Play Money" and RMT is why I will never play MMORPGs again.

Critique, Games, Opinion, Readings No Responses »
May 142010

I just got finished reading Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot by Julian Dibbell, and I must say that no book in recent memory has riled me up so much.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not angry because I am naive about virtual worlds and their economies. As matter of fact I am fascinated by real money trade in virtual worlds, and I understand economics well enough to see that real money trade is not only an inevitable facet of virtual worlds, but is in some ways a beneficial one. Having attended Indiana University, I have even had the pleasure of sitting down with Edward Castronova, author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, and who was mentioned several times in Dibbell’s book. And I agree with both of those guys that the production and trade of virtual goods should be viewed more seriously as a legitimate economy. However, because of this I also think that people who hack and exploit code in order to make money should face harsher consequences that just having an account banned. Continue reading »

Posted by Chad at 11:58 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Capstone Presentation Video

Capstone, Design, Games, Projects No Responses »
May 132010

I recently finished my Master’s Capstone presentation and will be adding it to my portfolio when I get the chance. In the meantime I have made a video of the final presentation available. There is an introduction by Marty Siegel followed by my presentation and some follow up questions.

Also, here is the poster for my final design:

Master's Capstone Project Poster

WoW Capture: HCI/d Master's Capstone

Posted by Chad at 12:32 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

Capstone Theoretical Stuff

Capstone, Games, Projects, Readings No Responses »
Feb 122010

Design is a balancing act, and one of the things I find merit in tossing into it is a strong understanding of theory and literature. It helps to recognize and acknowledge your values in the design process so that they can be made explicit to yourself and all other stakeholders.

That being said, I now present a brief overview of my capstone project and some of the theoretical stuff informing it.

INTRO
This project seeks to design a system that preserve the experience of virtual worlds, in this case World of Warcraft outside of the through the use of screenshots and metadata. The design aims to give players some out-of-game representation of their experience Continue reading »

Posted by Chad at 2:37 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Critical Analysis Pre-Writing

Critique, Design, Games, Human-Centered, Projects No Responses »
Dec 062009

In this post, I am attempting to make some sense of my argument for a paper I am planning to write.  For this paper I am doing a critical analysis of World of Warcraft’s FigurePrints service.

In making my thoughts and assumptions explicit, I have very strong opinions about how World of Warcraft favors certain playstyles over others.  I feel that the design and “loudest” player groups have created a game culture that favors ambition, aggressiveness, and a focus on certain achievements over others.  (Warning: The following sentence might be highly subjective or half-baked).  High level or “epic/elite” activities, raiding, or player vs. player are seen as “better” than any-level activities like exploration, pet collection, or crafting.  While these any-level activities are not seen as unimportant, they don’t have near the prestige of the other activities, and are often treated as a means to an end. Continue reading »

Posted by Chad at 2:38 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Phenomenological Reading of WoW Machinima

Critique, Design Philosophy, Games, Projects No Responses »
Oct 312009

For my Interaction Culture class I decided to a close phenomological reading of a bit of machinima made from WoW clips set to the song “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down. It has been an interesting journey. It is incredible to think that some clips from World of Warcraft set to a cheesy late 90′s love-rock song could make me misty-eyed. I dare you to watch this video multiple times and not be moved at least a little bit. Continue reading »

Posted by Chad at 10:48 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

MMORPGs and HCI

Games, Human-Centered No Responses »
May 182009

I have always loved RPG games. I often think about how RPGs and MMORPGs can relate to HCI. There are probably a ton of people who could talk on this subject better than I will, but I will spit out my couple of cents anyway. I am considering doing my Master’s capstone project on the subject, and this post is just the tip of the iceberg.

From a truly human-centered design perspective, that is, taking core human values into consideration when designing and implementing technology, MMORPGs have many great things to offer. I will give an example from my own experiences to elaborate on some of them. Continue reading »

Posted by Chad at 1:18 pm Tagged with: , , ,
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