Conclusion

Hi there bloggers! Just stopping by to say hello-goodbye! This is my final post, but I would just like to share a few tips I have learned throughout my gaming experiences. First I would like to impress upon you all the necessity for time management in your gaming careers. It is essential that you stay on top of your daily activities aside from playing online. If you lose sight of real life, you may never get a grasp again. It is also important to maintain or merely allow yourself to search within yourself to find who you truly are. Virtual worlds can be the best way to find out who you truly want to be. It is through games like League of Legends that people let loose and be who they are truly meant to be. The last is to maintain bonds and also be a team player. There is no "i" in "team." You will always be in need of a helping hand at some point down the road, so it's important to maintain those friendships you attain through online gaming. Here is a video exemplifying teamwork in online gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEgc9xFHpWc

That's all for my blog folks! Hope you enjoyed!

Online Gaming: Saving the World, One Click at a Time

Hi bloggers! I want to talk today about the future of gaming and what we could/should see in our gaming future. During a Ted Talk by Jane McGonigal, she talks about gaming becoming the savior for our world, as we know it. We spend 3 billion hours a week playing online games, but according to her research, in order to save our world in the future, we need to be putting in 21 billion hours of game play per-week. She claims that solving problems such as world hunger, disease, and other stressing matters, we must turn to gaming culture (McGonigal). In the real world, most do not give it the try-try-again mentality on a regular basis to achieve a goal, no matter how big or small. In gaming though, it is known to be a normal act for someone to put their all in something that matters, because let’s face it…everything matters in the gaming world. Any miss hit, or missing puzzle piece you overlooked could lead to an epic fail. So why can’t the real world be like this? Why can’t we use what we learn from the gaming world and enact it in our everyday lives. The drive and determination to win a match in a game can be easily applied to any real world circumstance. Looking again to Jane McGonigal’s Ted Talk, she says that when in game world, we are the most likely to become the best version of ourselves; the most likely to drop anything and help out to solve the problem, no matter how difficult the task. She says that the reason we are sucked into these games is it’s a complete mood changer when on the verge of an epic win all the time, due the MMO’s constant task fulfillment needs. It also creates a good social environment for expanding your social circle. Once gamers have played with someone it is known that they can generally trust them to play by the rules and help you out in order to achieve a common task. If we brought this mind set into the real world, we would drop predisposed impressions of our neighbors and play by the same rules to achieve our tasks (McGonigal). This could eliminate SO many problem the world faces right now with foreign policies and more. If we bring this mentality into the real world, serious problems would be solved quickly. So the theme of this post? Gamers, non-gamers, COME ONE, COME ALL, YOU CAN SAVE US ALL!

McGonigal, J. (December, 2010). Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World

Follow the link to view this Ted Talk in full: Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World

Avatars: The Other You

           "Some people think that inhabiting an online world is a way of escaping from yourself; others think that it is a way of escaping from others...being an avatar means exploring the self as much as it means exploring others; more specifically, it means exploring the self through others. The other becomes the medium for exploration of the self," (Pearce, C., Boellstorff, T., & Nardi, B., 2009).
           This is the thought process I share with the authors of the book that quote can be found in. It isn't about hiding from oneself, it's about exploring your options that you hold within, so that you may be able to find yourself through your avatar. MMO's are a way of allowing people to immerse themselves in their avatar's world and become anyone they wish to be. Some even become more like their avatar as time goes by, because they become more comfortable with who they truly wish to be in the outside world.
           Throughout my time as a gamer, I have encountered many Avatars decked out in accessories that well reflect their own identities, or rather what they wish they looked like. Having an avatar for most is a way to express true self in another world, away from the stresses and drama of the real one. Creating an Avatar is a powerful representation of one's true identity that allows someone to recreate him or herself in the light they wish they could be. In the journal, "Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play," the authors quote Huizinga when he says, "The way we play is the way we understand the world." They go on to say that, "This is most obviously expressed through the way we play games and is uniquely represented through the way we play video games, because video games represent how imaginary and real systems work," (Embrick, Wright, Lukacs, 2012). In my experience it has been about recreating the person I am now, but with a more intimidating and powerful look. When I log onto my account in League of Legends, it is important that I look and feel the part. So, when I see my character is Ahri, Ashe, or even Caitlyn, I picture myself as a strong and powerful being like them. In the real world, I am independent and strong-willed, but I sometimes lack the confidence that I see myself gaining each time I win a match or even just defeat one enemy.

            Other games such as FSP (First-Person-Shooter) are also exciting to me as I get to accessorize my avatar as I would myself. For example, when playing Halo, I like to gear-up my soldier with purple gear, almost as if I were creating them to be a girl…even if they do not provide the option. I feel as a girl, it is of extreme importance that we realize our potential in the world as women among men. For those who think it is a man’s world, we are allowed to show up online in our girl avatars and show them that we are equals. This is all a very important part of creating an avatar, personally. I want to be able to recreate the spunky personality I have and defend my title as a girl, without having to hide behind the amour of a man. This is all very feminist, but I am simply trying to convey my personal opinion in the matter of how someone fits their avatar to express their individual identity.

            All in all, this post was to mainly show you a personal take on my opinion and personal experience in creating an avatar, and why I choose the accessories that I do. I believe that people either choose an avatar that truly expresses them, or they choose one that they believe they are already conveyed as in real life. Once again, connecting the online gaming world, to the real world.

Pearce, C., Boellstorff, T., & Nardi, B. (2009). Communities of play emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Embrick, David G.;Wright, Talmadge J.;Lukacs, Andras. (2012). Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play. Lexington Books. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from <http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=364325>

Collaboration Among Gamers

Hey there, bloggers! Just touching back in today to talk a little bit about the kinds of collaboration among members of an online gaming system. It has been in my experience that you achieve the most of out any and all games if you give and take with your teammates, and even opponents. For example, it is common for gamers to chat within a realm to form game plans and scheme for a more sufficient experience. This collaboration is also known to have extended into the real world. Taking a look back at 1990 would bring us to the era of Ebay merging with this culture. The gamers of EverQuest took to Ebay to sell their accounts which includes their Avatars, virtual objects, currency, and real estate. This led economist Edward Castronova to determine that this virtual world claimed the REAL world's seventy-seventh largest economy (Pearce, C., Boellstorff, T, and Nardi, B., 2009). This collaborating left a huge mark on the entire world...not just the online world. Studying this way of collaborating and economic growth could lead us to incredible new research to help build our own economies in a large way.

Pearce, C., Boellstorff, T., & Nardi, B. (2009). Communities of play emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! Here I will inform you, through personal experience and educational examples, the scope and ramifications of the various aspects of gamer culture and the effects it has on the individual itself, and the relationships it has formed through online interaction. Once the gamer enters the online realm world, it provides a mask that one can choose to wear throughout the experience. I will go more in depth about these social experiences and the effects it has on society, as well as solely the individual. It is common that the game impacts the world outside of the console, and through my personal experience with gamer culture, I will analyze the ways in which I have seen myself develop through these experiences, and the ramifications that have followed suit. To give a brief background of my history with gaming, I have been immersed in the game, League of Legends, and the First Person Shooter (FPS) games, Call of Duty, Halo, and others that have an online interaction experience. I enjoy these games, but I have had to lay back on how often I use them due to the lack of free time I have, due to school and the limitations that go with it. Therefore, I can vouch for any outside ramifications of the gaming culture that are often found alongside reality. In order to provide an example as to just how large the League of Legends world is, I have provided a link to in the post above with the World Championship Finals competition that is hosted each year for the best of the best.

To start this blog, I would like to take a minute to briefly touch on my beliefs of the gaming culture. This way, you all will have an understanding of how these games effect my life, and then from there, begin to understand the scope and ramifications throughout the entire gaming community. It is my belief that online gaming, though time consuming, can actually help your cognitive functions. The online games that I play consist of strategizing, and quick reflexes: physically and mentally. On of my favorite games to play is Super Smash Brothers as it is a very fast-paced fighting game. The controls on the remote allow you to immerse yourself in the game and soon enough, your fingers are acting subconsciously. In addition, gaming culture allows people, like myself to release tension and immerse in a new world, away from the stresses of the real world. There are many benefits to online gaming, but I too realize there are ramifications. I will touch on each topic in various blog posts through time.

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