While researching theories to use for our group's digital cyberdrama project in Second Life, I found myself constantly referring to Glassner’s Interactive Storytelling and the Janet Murray essays from the First Person text for inspiration.
I kept reminding myself and the members of our group of the importance of plot and the three-act form discussed in Glassner's Interactive Storytelling. I found Glassner’s Chapter 3 on plot, as well as Chapter 8 on structure, to be key.
I kept thinking that the unfolding events in our group's digital story had to remain true to the three-act elements of complication, development, and resolution. We had to have a coherent beginning, middle and end. We needed conflict, development and ultimately resolution in order for our attempt at cyberdrama to be successful.
Also, I found that it was important for us to keep in mind Janet Murray’s theory of cyberdrama. Murray believes that the computer is the perfect medium in which to attempt cyberdrama. Murray’s elements of cyberdrama, immersion, agency and transformation, were important for us to follow as well.
Our first challenge as a group was agreeing on story and plot ideas. We met in real life. We met online in Second Life. We realized that each of us contributed in our own creative and individual ways from script writing to research to taking creative photos in SL. Everyone within the group contributed. Ultimately, we were able to converge the technology of our computers and our experiences within SL to produce this cyberdrama.
The initial plot of our story began as a take off on Tarantino's film Kill Bill. The Kill Bill idea then morphed and mixed with elements of Alice in Wonderland. Suddenly, the creative juices were flowing. and we, as a group converging as a TechArt class and trying to converge SL and story narrative. It also probably helped that we were five pissed off chicks who were ready to hunt and kill our only male classmate, Will, who just happened to not be in class that night.
Overall, the experience with the cyberdrama project in SL has been very positive.
I have to admit that I am not a big fan of group projects. (I have had a couple of bad experiences with them here at Macon State.) But, I have to admit, the six of us in the TechArt class worked quite well together as a group.
Working on the SL project has definitely peeked my curiosity about machinima. I have been researching it online and have attempted to capture some film images. I have gotten Fraps and have been playing around with trying to capture filmed images within SL. I can see where working on this cyberdrama Techart project could lead to me possibly exploring a machinima project in the future.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ludology and Narratology in First Person and Second Life
While reading the first six essays in First Person, I began to find myself drawing on my experiences with participating in Second Life to help me understand the concepts of narratology and ludology.
I find Janet Murray's essay "From Game-Story to Cyberdrama" to be interesting because it delves into the question of whether there can be an actual existence of a so-called game-story. Can a game-story exist where gaming and story elements combine?
As Murray writes, "So perhaps the question should be, is there a game story? For me it is always the story that comes first because storytelling is a core, human activity, one we take into every medium of expression, from the oral-formulaic to the digital multimedia" (3). I tend to agree with Murray. For me, the process of storytelling is a central activity that binds us together as a culture.
What Murray realizes is that as our modern culture relies increasingly on technology and our methods of traditional storytelling are bound to change because of the emergence of these new media technologies. What I am wondering is if this means that we will find the answer to discovering the key to integrating games and stories through the use of new media and technology. Murray writes that "We need a new medium to express this story, to practice playing this new game, and we have found it in the computer" (3).
I understand that storytelling, like games, has its forms, structures, and sets of rules. Essentially ludology is the discipline that studies games and play activities. I found Matthew Mateas's essay "A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games" to be interesting. Mateas incorporates elements of Aristotle's theory of drama with Murrays's aesthetic categories (immersion, agency and transformation) in order to better understand the ideal of the interactive story (Mateas 21).
By understanding what makes a story so appealing, I have been able to apply these elements to my participation with Second Life. I am aware of immersion, agency and transformation each time I log onto SL. Mateas states in his essay: "Murray suggests three ways of inducing immersion: structuring participation with a mask (an avatar), structuring participation as a visit, and making the interaction conventions (the interface mechanics) seamless" (26).
When I sit down at my iMac at home and log onto SL, I try to essentially forget about the computer that sits in front of me. I try to get beyond the fact that I am playing a game on a computer and focus solely on my avatar and what I want to accomplish in SL and achieve agency.
I understand that I am in control of my avatar's creation when I log onto SL. It is up to me to choose to actively particpate in creating my avatar's story. Out of creating my own "story" with my avatar, then I am essentially creating my own sense of agency. According to Murray, "Agency requires that we script the interactor as well as the world, so that we know how to engage the world, and so that we build up the appropriate expectations" (10).
Mateas writes"...that agency is a first-person experience induced by making moment-by-moment decisions within a balanced (materially and formally) interactive system" (27). When I log onto SL, I essentially am in control of creating my avatar's story, therefore I am the key to experiencing my own agency in SL.
I find Janet Murray's essay "From Game-Story to Cyberdrama" to be interesting because it delves into the question of whether there can be an actual existence of a so-called game-story. Can a game-story exist where gaming and story elements combine?
As Murray writes, "So perhaps the question should be, is there a game story? For me it is always the story that comes first because storytelling is a core, human activity, one we take into every medium of expression, from the oral-formulaic to the digital multimedia" (3). I tend to agree with Murray. For me, the process of storytelling is a central activity that binds us together as a culture.
What Murray realizes is that as our modern culture relies increasingly on technology and our methods of traditional storytelling are bound to change because of the emergence of these new media technologies. What I am wondering is if this means that we will find the answer to discovering the key to integrating games and stories through the use of new media and technology. Murray writes that "We need a new medium to express this story, to practice playing this new game, and we have found it in the computer" (3).
I understand that storytelling, like games, has its forms, structures, and sets of rules. Essentially ludology is the discipline that studies games and play activities. I found Matthew Mateas's essay "A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games" to be interesting. Mateas incorporates elements of Aristotle's theory of drama with Murrays's aesthetic categories (immersion, agency and transformation) in order to better understand the ideal of the interactive story (Mateas 21).
By understanding what makes a story so appealing, I have been able to apply these elements to my participation with Second Life. I am aware of immersion, agency and transformation each time I log onto SL. Mateas states in his essay: "Murray suggests three ways of inducing immersion: structuring participation with a mask (an avatar), structuring participation as a visit, and making the interaction conventions (the interface mechanics) seamless" (26).
When I sit down at my iMac at home and log onto SL, I try to essentially forget about the computer that sits in front of me. I try to get beyond the fact that I am playing a game on a computer and focus solely on my avatar and what I want to accomplish in SL and achieve agency.
I understand that I am in control of my avatar's creation when I log onto SL. It is up to me to choose to actively particpate in creating my avatar's story. Out of creating my own "story" with my avatar, then I am essentially creating my own sense of agency. According to Murray, "Agency requires that we script the interactor as well as the world, so that we know how to engage the world, and so that we build up the appropriate expectations" (10).
Mateas writes"...that agency is a first-person experience induced by making moment-by-moment decisions within a balanced (materially and formally) interactive system" (27). When I log onto SL, I essentially am in control of creating my avatar's story, therefore I am the key to experiencing my own agency in SL.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Building in Second Life
When it comes to building or constructing things, I am like the anti-Martha Stewart. I am not really good with the hammers and nails and tools in real life...I like to think I am, but truth is, I try to fix things around my house and I usually end up doing more damage than good.
So, I was excited Thursday night when I read the notecard for Assignment 3 in SL - Build a Chair. Ah, cool! I can use tools in my virtual life and not have to worry about putting a nail through my hand or screwing anything up too bad!
I entered the Ivory Tower of Prims and found the scrolling text on the floor and began the tour. I immediately started collecting the notecards that were available at each tutorial station. What first caught ny attention of the building tutorial in SL was the reference to the movie Tron and the use of the word
I noticed that the turorials reminded me of the basic 3-D modeling I had to do for my ITEC 3236 class. The create and edit features in SL definitely remind me of Google's
I decided that I wanted to build a funky bus stop bench. So, I chose the block as my feature for the base of the bench. Next, I use the stretch tool to elongate the block to form the bottom of my bench. I then chose the material wood for the bench. I added the woodgrain texture as well. Then, I chose a hot pink color for the base of the bench.
I next composed the back of the bench. I was able to choose a second box and then use the edit tool to manipulate the size and shape to form a long, narrow rectangle. I then used the move feature to physically move this piece to form the back of the bench. After I attached the two prims together, I chose the same wood grain texture for the back and gave it a dark forest green color.
I envision putting grafiti and post-it bills onto the back and front sides of the bench. Unfortunately, I do not know how to write or make post-it bills in SL yet. I sat in on scripting class last night and am looking for another class to take to try and learn how to make grafiti for my bench.
I went ahead and took pictures of me sitting on my bench. I was excited I was able to build it myself. It seems fairly simple, but I feel it really gave me a good working knowledge of the building basics for SL. I am going to keep working on my bench and will continue to post photos on flickr when I get it looking the way i want.
Well, I have to admit that I am much better at learning to build or "rez" things in SL than I am in my first life! I am not the anti-Martha Stewart of SL yet...but, watch out. Give me a bit more time to hone my skills and I will be!
So, I was excited Thursday night when I read the notecard for Assignment 3 in SL - Build a Chair. Ah, cool! I can use tools in my virtual life and not have to worry about putting a nail through my hand or screwing anything up too bad!
I entered the Ivory Tower of Prims and found the scrolling text on the floor and began the tour. I immediately started collecting the notecards that were available at each tutorial station. What first caught ny attention of the building tutorial in SL was the reference to the movie Tron and the use of the word
I noticed that the turorials reminded me of the basic 3-D modeling I had to do for my ITEC 3236 class. The create and edit features in SL definitely remind me of Google's
Sketchupprogram. I liked working with the Sketchup program. Of course, I never built a chair in Sketcup, just 3-D models of houses, but I felt like I had a decent understanding of the SL building process because of my exposure to programs such as GIMP and Sketchup.
I decided that I wanted to build a funky bus stop bench. So, I chose the block as my feature for the base of the bench. Next, I use the stretch tool to elongate the block to form the bottom of my bench. I then chose the material wood for the bench. I added the woodgrain texture as well. Then, I chose a hot pink color for the base of the bench.
I next composed the back of the bench. I was able to choose a second box and then use the edit tool to manipulate the size and shape to form a long, narrow rectangle. I then used the move feature to physically move this piece to form the back of the bench. After I attached the two prims together, I chose the same wood grain texture for the back and gave it a dark forest green color.
I envision putting grafiti and post-it bills onto the back and front sides of the bench. Unfortunately, I do not know how to write or make post-it bills in SL yet. I sat in on scripting class last night and am looking for another class to take to try and learn how to make grafiti for my bench.
I went ahead and took pictures of me sitting on my bench. I was excited I was able to build it myself. It seems fairly simple, but I feel it really gave me a good working knowledge of the building basics for SL. I am going to keep working on my bench and will continue to post photos on flickr when I get it looking the way i want.
Well, I have to admit that I am much better at learning to build or "rez" things in SL than I am in my first life! I am not the anti-Martha Stewart of SL yet...but, watch out. Give me a bit more time to hone my skills and I will be!
Crashing in Second Life
I was in Myrtle Beach, SC on Thursday night for a convention I was filming for my final project documentary in ENGL 4451. I knew I would be missing Techart class, but I wasn't concerned as we are meeting in SL on Thursday nights. I took Nick's Compaq laptop with me to SC to meet up with the class on SL.
I downloaded SL on the laptop at home and tested it out. I was able to connect to the Internet just fine; the computer has enough memory to run SL. So, I was not too concerned about encountering problems with SL while I was at the conference. Ha! What a false sense of security I had!
I signed onto Second Life at 8:00pm from my hotel room. I took about ten steps around the ALOHA'S bar, went to find my friend Jet Good and then proceeded to crash. Augh!
I shut down the computer and rebooted. I signed onto SL again. I was able to stay on for about five minutes then I crashed again. What the heck??
Once again, I shut down. I waited about five minutes and rebooted. I entered SL and retrieved my notecard for my assignment. I teleported to Ivory Tower of Primitives and found the floating text to begin the tour. Once I began to download the notecards in the Ivory Tower, I crashed again! I was not pleased.
I decided that maybe their was something wrong with the DSL connection in my hotel room. I packed up my computer, grabbed a pen and notebook, got a Diet Dr. Pepper, and headed downstairs to the main lobby where there was free wi-fi connection.
There were four other people in the lobby with their laptops. After finding a free chair, I proceeded to log onto SL again. I was able to keep the conncetion much better in the lobby. I wish I had started off downstairs instead of in the hotel room. I was able to get through a good portion of the tour before I lost my signal.
I found the entire ordeal stressing. One minute I am connected to SL and taking my tour, the next minute SL has crashed. I realized as I became more and more irritated that I am really enjoying the SL experience. I decided that as I was unhappy the computer and SL were crashing and that I was missing my SL time.
I had lousy Internet service the entire time at Myrtle Beach. I complained to the front desk manager about the loust reception and was told: "That happens a lot here."
Well, I finally made it home Sunday and have been catching up on my missed time in SL!
I downloaded SL on the laptop at home and tested it out. I was able to connect to the Internet just fine; the computer has enough memory to run SL. So, I was not too concerned about encountering problems with SL while I was at the conference. Ha! What a false sense of security I had!
I signed onto Second Life at 8:00pm from my hotel room. I took about ten steps around the ALOHA'S bar, went to find my friend Jet Good and then proceeded to crash. Augh!
I shut down the computer and rebooted. I signed onto SL again. I was able to stay on for about five minutes then I crashed again. What the heck??
Once again, I shut down. I waited about five minutes and rebooted. I entered SL and retrieved my notecard for my assignment. I teleported to Ivory Tower of Primitives and found the floating text to begin the tour. Once I began to download the notecards in the Ivory Tower, I crashed again! I was not pleased.
I decided that maybe their was something wrong with the DSL connection in my hotel room. I packed up my computer, grabbed a pen and notebook, got a Diet Dr. Pepper, and headed downstairs to the main lobby where there was free wi-fi connection.
There were four other people in the lobby with their laptops. After finding a free chair, I proceeded to log onto SL again. I was able to keep the conncetion much better in the lobby. I wish I had started off downstairs instead of in the hotel room. I was able to get through a good portion of the tour before I lost my signal.
I found the entire ordeal stressing. One minute I am connected to SL and taking my tour, the next minute SL has crashed. I realized as I became more and more irritated that I am really enjoying the SL experience. I decided that as I was unhappy the computer and SL were crashing and that I was missing my SL time.
I had lousy Internet service the entire time at Myrtle Beach. I complained to the front desk manager about the loust reception and was told: "That happens a lot here."
Well, I finally made it home Sunday and have been catching up on my missed time in SL!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Unmasking Second Life
I can be my own worst enemy at times, especially when it comes to taking on new forms of media. What is so difficult and challenging about learning new media challenges? I'm a CIT major for crying out loud. A part of me loves it and another part of me...the unsteady, unsure and unconfident part of me dreads it...Why?
The only thing I can think of is - FEAR. Fear is my true enemy. Fear makes me freak out over something as simple as learning a new technology. Why? Fear of the unknown, fear of failure...fear of screwing something up? I have learned that the best way I deal with my fear of something is to just say: "Screw it! And just do it and learn it."
This is exactly what has happened with me and my introduction to Second Life. When Second Life was brought up in class, I had NO idea what it even was. I had to go home and look it up on google. An online participation game through an avatar living basically a "second life" for me. Hmmm...interesting and yet scary at the same time.
I don't play video games...at least not since we had the Atari and a Sega Genesis. The last video games I remember playing were Frogger and Q-Bert and Donkey Kong. My younger brother had the Sega and the Nintendo growing up - not me. We got PONG for Christmas one year - which I believe is probably still in my parents' attic somewhere. So, the thought of learning to play a character participation game like Second Life initially scared me. But, I decided to say "Screw it! I'm learning to play Second Life!"
I am beginning to get the hang of playing SL now. It has taken me a week or so just to learn the basics from the tutorial. While choosing my avatar, I was reminded of Glassner's idea of a "living mask"(375). In designing my avatar, I was essentially creating a virtual version of my character Becca Akroyd...my living mask so to speak. I was choosing my height, my weight, my body type, and eye color.
I initially chose my avatar to look like the Girl Next Door. I think I chose this av because it felt safe. It was more comfortable for me to look like an average person during my introduction to the game. I was a bit self conscious about looking too wild or crazy; but now that I am understanding more and more about living in the Second Life world, I have a feeling my originally chosen "safe" girl next door avatar look is about to change.
In Thursday's class, we were given our first SL assignment. During the course of the class period, we were to sign on to SL and meet new people, mingle and interact with them in SL. Also, we had to interview a person about their avatar.
I went to Hanjo. While I was walking around, I was approached by a female av named Jet Good. She immediately said "Hi! How are you?" We began to chat and I informed her I was actually playing SL while in a college classroom. Jet Good was intrigued by this and began asking me questions. She asked "Where are you in school?" and "What class dares to play SL for homework?"
I informed Jet Good that I was in Macon, GA and she told me she was in Amsterdam. When I asked what she was doing up so late, she laughed and replied that she always stays up late and that she was waiting up for her boyfriend who was out buying some pot.
I asked Jet Good if I could interview her about her avatar and her SL experience and if I could also get her permission to take her picture for my assignment. Jet Good said "Sure, why not?"
First of all, I asked Jet Good how long she had been playing SL. Jet Good replied that she had joined SL about 10 months ago and that it took her about the first 3 months to actually get into playing. Jet Good said she knew friends who played and were addicted to it.
When asked about the look of her avatar, Jet Good laughed and said she did not enter the game looking like she looks now. Like me, she initially chose a fairly simple and plain avatar. She said that she could tell from the look of my avatar that I was probably new to the game (because at the time I was wearing no extras like jewelry, hats, skin textures or tattoos).
Jet Good asked if I would like to join her at ALOHAS, which is where she works as a beach club manager. Also, she works at the bar a few nights a week where she makes enough money in tips to help pay the rent for her house on the beach. She also told me her SL boyfriend is a club DJ at ALOHA.
Jet Good teleported me into ALOHA. The Club was hopping. Avatars were dancing and hanging out at the bar. Jet Good showed me how avatars can touch the big disco ball above the bar and join in the dancing.
While we were dancing, I asked Jet Good what she thought of my avatar. She said it was nice, but plain. I laughed and explained that I chose the "safe" look of the girl next door. Jet Good told me she experimented with changing her look over the course of a couple of months and it would probably take some time for me to perfect my look as well.
She offered to take me shopping for free stuff around the bar. So, we walked around. She gave the grand tour of ALOHA and we went shopping together! How cool! I picked up a couple of free t-shirts and a new pair of jeans, which I put on. Then, Jet Good showed me where to get free jewelry. I chose a sparkly silver necklace that says "aloha" on it.
All in all, I would have to say I had a positive experience with my first Second Life assignment. The assignment definitely forced me to interact with people. I have been hanging out in ALOHA since then. On Saturday afternoon there was a dance party. Jet Good also sent me an invitation to the Disco Inferno Roller Disco party on Saturday, October 27 between 12-2am. From what I understand, it is a big Halloween party where you can come dressed in costume. I'm not a big fan of disco, but I plan to check it out anyway!
The only thing I can think of is - FEAR. Fear is my true enemy. Fear makes me freak out over something as simple as learning a new technology. Why? Fear of the unknown, fear of failure...fear of screwing something up? I have learned that the best way I deal with my fear of something is to just say: "Screw it! And just do it and learn it."
This is exactly what has happened with me and my introduction to Second Life. When Second Life was brought up in class, I had NO idea what it even was. I had to go home and look it up on google. An online participation game through an avatar living basically a "second life" for me. Hmmm...interesting and yet scary at the same time.
I don't play video games...at least not since we had the Atari and a Sega Genesis. The last video games I remember playing were Frogger and Q-Bert and Donkey Kong. My younger brother had the Sega and the Nintendo growing up - not me. We got PONG for Christmas one year - which I believe is probably still in my parents' attic somewhere. So, the thought of learning to play a character participation game like Second Life initially scared me. But, I decided to say "Screw it! I'm learning to play Second Life!"
I am beginning to get the hang of playing SL now. It has taken me a week or so just to learn the basics from the tutorial. While choosing my avatar, I was reminded of Glassner's idea of a "living mask"(375). In designing my avatar, I was essentially creating a virtual version of my character Becca Akroyd...my living mask so to speak. I was choosing my height, my weight, my body type, and eye color.
I initially chose my avatar to look like the Girl Next Door. I think I chose this av because it felt safe. It was more comfortable for me to look like an average person during my introduction to the game. I was a bit self conscious about looking too wild or crazy; but now that I am understanding more and more about living in the Second Life world, I have a feeling my originally chosen "safe" girl next door avatar look is about to change.
In Thursday's class, we were given our first SL assignment. During the course of the class period, we were to sign on to SL and meet new people, mingle and interact with them in SL. Also, we had to interview a person about their avatar.
I went to Hanjo. While I was walking around, I was approached by a female av named Jet Good. She immediately said "Hi! How are you?" We began to chat and I informed her I was actually playing SL while in a college classroom. Jet Good was intrigued by this and began asking me questions. She asked "Where are you in school?" and "What class dares to play SL for homework?"
I informed Jet Good that I was in Macon, GA and she told me she was in Amsterdam. When I asked what she was doing up so late, she laughed and replied that she always stays up late and that she was waiting up for her boyfriend who was out buying some pot.
I asked Jet Good if I could interview her about her avatar and her SL experience and if I could also get her permission to take her picture for my assignment. Jet Good said "Sure, why not?"
First of all, I asked Jet Good how long she had been playing SL. Jet Good replied that she had joined SL about 10 months ago and that it took her about the first 3 months to actually get into playing. Jet Good said she knew friends who played and were addicted to it.
When asked about the look of her avatar, Jet Good laughed and said she did not enter the game looking like she looks now. Like me, she initially chose a fairly simple and plain avatar. She said that she could tell from the look of my avatar that I was probably new to the game (because at the time I was wearing no extras like jewelry, hats, skin textures or tattoos).
Jet Good asked if I would like to join her at ALOHAS, which is where she works as a beach club manager. Also, she works at the bar a few nights a week where she makes enough money in tips to help pay the rent for her house on the beach. She also told me her SL boyfriend is a club DJ at ALOHA.
Jet Good teleported me into ALOHA. The Club was hopping. Avatars were dancing and hanging out at the bar. Jet Good showed me how avatars can touch the big disco ball above the bar and join in the dancing.
While we were dancing, I asked Jet Good what she thought of my avatar. She said it was nice, but plain. I laughed and explained that I chose the "safe" look of the girl next door. Jet Good told me she experimented with changing her look over the course of a couple of months and it would probably take some time for me to perfect my look as well.
She offered to take me shopping for free stuff around the bar. So, we walked around. She gave the grand tour of ALOHA and we went shopping together! How cool! I picked up a couple of free t-shirts and a new pair of jeans, which I put on. Then, Jet Good showed me where to get free jewelry. I chose a sparkly silver necklace that says "aloha" on it.
All in all, I would have to say I had a positive experience with my first Second Life assignment. The assignment definitely forced me to interact with people. I have been hanging out in ALOHA since then. On Saturday afternoon there was a dance party. Jet Good also sent me an invitation to the Disco Inferno Roller Disco party on Saturday, October 27 between 12-2am. From what I understand, it is a big Halloween party where you can come dressed in costume. I'm not a big fan of disco, but I plan to check it out anyway!
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