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!
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