Tapping the Hive Mind: The Simplest Form of Feedback (Part I)
Regardless of one’s political orientation, it is hard to deny that Barack Obama has dramatically changed what people think of political campaigns as well as the potential of virtual communities. Approximately 2 million core volunteers worked behind the scenes gathering data on potential voters, which influenced the topics and placement of advertisements, debates, fundraisers, and rallies.[1] During both of Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, these volunteers worked across the country, gathering and sharing information online on how to best convince people to vote for Obama. They engaged in grassroots fundraising both online and off and worked together remotely to encourage people to vote for their candidate. While the online network of volunteers may not be the sole factor that enabled Obama to win in both elections, it is a notable one that points to the power of Internet grassroots efforts.
Now that the elections are over, those involved with Obama’s campaign have created Organizing for Action in an effort to capitalize on the potential for online communities to develop and shape American politics and policy.[2] According to this non-profit, its goal is to foster a progressive movement, which its supporters will dictate.[3] This aim is much less straightforward than getting someone elected to office. The difficulty arises not in an inherent flaw in Obama’s Democrat constituents (indeed, Republicans would face the same challenges if they pursued a similar course of action), but in the shortcomings of online communication, both organizationally and socially. The question on which this article, and subsequent ones, will focus is, “How can virtual communities work together to discuss and create policy by using online communication without a unifying leader?”
Before attempting to answer this question, it is important to first identify ways in which people communicate online by looking at existing interfaces and mechanisms that provide organization. This article will look at the simplest ways in which people participate in online discussions and give feedback.
Although most online communication requires very little physical (or mental) effort, the ones that require the least amount are those that a person can accomplish through a single click. To give this type of communication a term, let us call it one-click feedback. So far, there are six kinds of one-click feedback.
1. Participatory. This is the type of one-click feedback with which people are most familiar thanks to Facebook. On Facebook, a person has several ways in which he or she can engage in participatory one-click feedback. If a user updates his or her Facebook status or uploads a photo, other people, as well as the user, have the option to click the “Like” button and indicate that they “like” the status or photo. Users also are able to like companies, products, and people by “liking” appropriate pages. This type of “liking” provides users with whatever announcements the administrators of those pages make.
The strange thing about “liking” something, whether on Facebook or another site that uses a similar feedback feature, is that users do not communicate anything substantive or definitive by clicking the “like” button. The fact that there is no “dislike” button or alternative, makes the meaning of “liking” something inherently ambiguous. The ambiguity is twofold.
First, since there is no option to dislike something with this type of feedback, the number of likes a given thing has might not adequately reflect whether something is generally liked. For example, Josef Stalin is widely considered one of the most despised people in human history; however, Facebook has numerous serious pages dedicated to him, some of which have thousands of “likes.”[4] If there were a dislike button, these pages would probably receive significantly more “dislikes” than “likes.” This would appropriately reflect the world’s general opinion on him.
Second, because there is no ability to modulate the amount which one “likes” something, it is impossible to accurately reflect the depth of one’s “liking” of a page, status, or photo. This leads to strange situations such as over 1 million people “liking” pancakes and only approximately ten thousand people “liking” civil rights. To someone who has never encountered this type of one-click feedback, it might appear that people who use the Internet value a certain breakfast food more than basic human rights. An informed Internet user would recognize this inherent shortcoming of participatory one-click feedback and infer that people feel more strongly about the latter. However, for someone hoping to use “liking” as a way to gauge public interest and favor regarding certain issues or people, they would be unable to use this as an accurate measurement.
The reason that this type of one-click feedback is “participatory” in nature is that, due to the limitations of this form of communication, a user engaging in this form of feedback is not expressing something obviously identifiable. For instance, if a person viewed a stranger’s Facebook feed and saw other strangers “liking” statuses, pages, and photos, he or she could not say whether users were “liking” them out of genuine interest or approval, out of a desire for attention or to appear a certain way, or out of a sense of irony. Therefore, because of the ambiguous nature of this form of one-click feedback, the only thing one can conclude with certainty when seeing other engaging in it is that they are participating in some online communication.
2. Binary. Many websites use a binary form of one-click-feedback, i.e. a user is able to pick between two feedback choices, because it is more reflective of total consensus and it is less ambiguous than participatory feedback. For example, YouTube allows users to give videos and comments a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, which clearly indicates whether a person liked or did not like specific content. Reddit also uses a similar system with its “up votes” and “down votes.” Reddit is particularly noteworthy because it uses an algorithm to make highly ranked comment threads appear higher up on the website’s subcategories (or subreddits). This algorithm also keeps the top threads relevant by exponentially decreasing the quantitative popularity of threads as time elapses, causing them to drop lower down on the page, unless the threads receive a sufficient number of up-votes to counteract this depreciation. [5]
Although binary one-click feedback is more descriptive and more reflective of a community’s consensus on some form of media (video, audio file, image, etc.) or user-generated content (comment, forum or blog post), it is still a flawed mechanism. Even though it allows for users to say whether they do not like something, their “liking” or “disliking” is still ambiguous. This is because it requires a viewer to infer why someone would “like/dislike” or “up vote/down vote” an image or video. For example pictures and videos of cats are some of the most popular content on these websites; however, people like them for different reasons. One person may “up vote” a picture because it reminds the individual of his or her own cat; and another person may like it simply because it is cute. Although the difference between these motivations may seem trivial, the ambiguity has potentially serious consequences.
For example, as I discussed in “Attention! Facebook Users – Your First Amendment Rights Are on the Line,” people have lost their jobs as a result of “liking” the Facebook pages of their employer’s competitors. In these instances, it would be helpful to have evidence to point to the employees’ motivations for “liking” their employer’s competitor. For instance, one employee may have disliked his employer and wanted to work for the competitor. On the other hand, another employee may have wanted the convenience of automatically receiving updates about the competitor so as to keep track of his or her doings. Because courts, employers, and the public are giving one-click feedback, as well as online communication in general, more weight, it would be helpful to have less ambiguous mechanisms.
Inconvenience and Realism in Video Games: let’s talk about the weather
It seems counterintuitive to say that people want to experience some inconveniences when they are in a virtual world. People who are new to embarking on creative endeavors often make the mistake of attempting to make something too beautiful and perfect. The result is invariably the same: people cannot relate and, after marveling at the technical skill, quickly become disinterested. The same is true in life simulation video games that attempt to create a digital and stylized version of reality. A virtual world that is too perfect is unrealistic and the gameplay soon becomes boring. In order for players to feel that a game is realistic, the game world needs to have elements of imperfection in the form of small nuisances. When developers include real world obstacles and minor problems into a world simulating or sandbox game, they capture what we believe to be important experiences in our world and they also keep players engaged.
As soon as The Sims 3 first came out in 2009, people began demanding that the developers add weather into the simulated world. As The Sims Studio and Electronic Arts released expansion pack after expansion pack over the next three years, the demands became more forceful. People wanted weather above having awesome RPG-esque adventures in exotic locations (World Adventures), the opportunity to be self-employed (Ambitions), becoming famous and hang out with vampires (Late Night), having rich intergenerational communication (Generations), or even becoming fairies (Supernatural)![1] It is understandable that the developers wanted to manifest their fantastic concepts and see how they would affect the world of The Sims. It is less understandable why people were enthusiastic to such a degree about such a mundane thing as weather; however, I believe this desire speaks volumes about what makes a virtual world compelling and immersive.
Let us look at a bothersome situation that happened to me quite recently in the real world. This morning my plan was to get up really early to go grocery shopping and beat the crowds of people who like to hang out in the middle of the aisles and chat at my local Trader Joe’s. Although it was barely light outside, I could see from my window that ice had encased my car. Instead of melting completely by early morning, the ice remained. The park across the street was equally frozen and my heater was working overtime in an effort to counteract the cold. Looking at my car, I knew it would take about twenty minutes of scraping to clear the front and back windows. The prospect of leaving my apartment to confront the freeze that had occurred overnight seemed so utterly unpleasant that I abandoned my plan of going grocery shopping.
If this same situation occurred in a game, it would probably not be as frustrating, in fact, it might even be enjoyable. A fundamental difference between an inconvenience in the real world and a game world is that a person is not physically affected in the latter. For instance, if my umbrella breaks during a rainstorm and I am not able to get indoors immediately, I am going to become soaked and end up in a bad mood. Even more seriously, if my umbrella acts as a lightning rod, it will ruin more than just my day. However, the inconvenience of an umbrella breaking at an inopportune time, or acting as a lightning conductor, in a game world does not physically affect the player. Instead, these types of random unfortunate events make the game more realistic and more enjoyable for the player.
In games that attempt to simulate the real world, developers constantly face the obstacle of realism. In order to make a game feel realistic, the creators need be sensitive to what players believe are essential aspects of the world, and its physical laws, as well as their own lives. For example, although the gravity of Earth is essential to how we interact with our world, players do not seem terribly concerned by game characters whom this force does not constrain in the same way as it does us.[2] A game does not have to attempt to identically replicate the real world in order to be immersive; instead, the game only needs to have enough similarities to the average human perceptual experience so it communicates through a visual language that a player can easily understand. Games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent may not perfectly replicate the average human’s visual experience; however, these games convey the way in which strong emotions affect perception.
The type of game dictates what aspects developers must ensure are realistic. In Baseball video games, creators must try to replicate how real athletes move and the general real world game mechanics. In First Person Shooter games, the developers must communicate the high emotional charge of the fights and story.[3] Furthermore, they must also copy the look and feel of the weapons that the players use. If creators come up short, they can expect disgruntled customers and online mockery.[4] In games that attempt to simulate normal life, those designing them must be attuned to what players consider defining features of their own lives. Rather sadly, most of us pay a lot of attention to our everyday hang-ups, misfortunes, and accidents. Therefore a strategic life simulation such as The Sims must contain inconveniences for the player, and his or her characters, such as: being late to work, breaking electronics, toilets overflowing, dirty laundry, and having to take the trash out.[4]
A possible explanation for why people were so insistent that EA and The Sims Studio release an expansion pack for The Sims 3 that added weather is that it would offer an additional layer of reality, full of inconveniences and exciting variables, to the game. In The Sims 3: Seasons, players can experience the types of weather that accompany each season while engaging in season-specific activities such as building snowmen in the winter, swimming in the ocean in the summer, playing with leaves in the autumn, and picking flowers in the spring. The expansion pack also evokes the powerful feeling of nostalgia. Players can build snowmen, celebrate the PC version of Christmas with their in-game family, play in leaves, set off fireworks, fall in love on Valentine’s Day (or “Love Day”), and dress up for “Spooky Day” (aka. Halloween). People often have fond memories of these times of year, and would like to re-experience the pleasant feelings they have attached to them.
Another reason for why people subconsciously appreciate realistic in-game conveniences is that, if done well, they keep players engaged in the game world. After the initial novelty of a game wears off and a player has either lost ideas for what to do (in a sandbox or simulation game) or is no longer invested in the plot (see Meaning, Morality and Video Games: the enduring value of RPGs for how good games avoid this), the person may lose interest entirely and stop playing. One of the ways a game can overcome the possibility of a player becoming bored is by introducing surprises either in the plot or, in the case of The Sims, in the gameplay itself. A player will certainly become more engaged and attentive to their in-game activities if his or her plan is suddenly thwarted by a debilitating blizzard or a tempting summer festival with snow cones. When a player is surprised, temporarily stressed, or forced to rethink his or her plan, the person approaches the game with renewed enthusiasm and investment.
Although freezing mornings, allergies, and heat waves are annoying for us to experience, these types of disruptions are essential for creating and maintaining the realism of an immersive virtual world. These problems enable players to more fully buy into a game world because they are part of their own life experiences. Minor hang-ups such as needing to fix a stereo and remembering an umbrella are necessary in life simulating games because they help bridge the gap between the real world and the game world. To put it simply, what makes a virtual world realistic is that it communicates to us in a language that we understand. Even though our experiences are fundamentally different, we can all agree that being job-threateningly late to work after breaking your shower, contending with a zombie attack, and burning your breakfast (and half the kitchen), are all bad things and a game that captures the feeling of this hellish type of morning is doing something right.
[2] See the Prince of Persia Trilogy as an example.
[3] MIT Technology Review – http://www.technologyreview.com/news/407094/video-game-realism-shifts-into-high-gear/
[4] See the Counter-Strike series where equipping a knife makes the player’s character run faster.
Related articles
- PC Review – ‘The Sims 3: Seasons’ (worthplaying.com)
- Open Worlds Aren’t Meant for Driving (Moving Pixels) (popmatters.com)
How to Write an Article in 10 Steps
1. Focus Your Topic. Presumably, you already have an idea for your article in mind; however, it may not be specific enough to give your piece purpose and focus. For instance, my initial idea for this article was the nebulous concept of “giving advice on writing.” This idea is too open-ended to be either interesting or helpful. Instead, it is much more effective to focus your topic so that it can be expressed as a question. It is helpful to come up with a question that your article will answer because it allows you to figure out what about your original idea interested you in the first place. It will also prevent your piece from becoming off-topic because it will remind you that everything you say should relate back to your answer to that question.
2. Decide Your Organizational Structure. It will be much easier to think of how your article will come together after you have refined its driving idea, question, or thesis. If you are trying to explain to your readers how to do something, lists or step-by-step guides (such as this one) can be very effective. If you are arguing for or against a certain topic or simply explaining a concept, you can use the traditional essay structure of an introductory paragraph, several body paragraphs (one for each point), and a concluding paragraph.
3. Create a Working Title. If you are writing a list, the thesis or central idea is in the title because this is what informs the reader on the list’s topic. In a more traditional article, the title is a creative variation of your main idea. Obviously, it needs to refer to your specific topic of discussion lest it be misleading. In addition, it also needs to be interesting in order to make people want to read your article.
4. Write Your Introductory Paragraph. The introductory paragraph is, essentially, an expansion of your title. It should provide a roadmap of the concepts about which the reader will read. If the goal of the article is to argue a specific position, the opening paragraph should contain the driving point of your argument. This main point is your thesis and the most important part of your introduction. It can be one sentence, either the first or last, or it can be the entirety of the introduction. Either way, an effective thesis expresses your stance on the topic and how you are going to address it. The complexity of your topic dictates how clear and unambiguous your thesis statement must be. For instance, in “The Class We Are Leaving Behind” I discuss how lower-income people are effectively losing their speech rights through legislation and a lack of access to technology. Because I was pulling together and explaining several seemingly unrelated ideas, I had to clearly outline a skeletal version of the argument:
“The voter ID laws are a new way in which lower-income people are losing their ability to make themselves heard at the voting booth; but this is not the only way these people are losing their voice in the national conversation. These people are also the class least likely to have sufficient Internet access to enable them to express their political beliefs online. While the poor have speech rights, they are effectively shut out of online communication and the voting booth due to the stagnation of class mobility and a lack of adequate education.”
5. Write Informative Topic Sentences. The first sentences of paragraphs are arguably the most important sentences you will write. Whether it is the catchy sentence that begins your piece, or the phrase that lets the reader know that the article is almost done, topic sentences inform and orient readers as to what you will be discussing. Each paragraph should discuss one idea, or possibly two closely related ideas, and your first sentences should introduce the concepts being covered. It should also either allude to or directly state your position on that idea. After explaining the benefit of topic sentences, most people are easily able to utilize them; however, many times their sentences look like the following:
“I will now discuss the importance of topic sentences.”
Most topic sentences are not this bad; however, it captures the tendency that beginning or intermediate writers have of not actually communicating anything in their first sentences. Based on this sample sentence, we know that the writer is going to say something about topic sentences, but what that will be is unclear. It may be uncomfortable to take a stance, no matter how conciliatory or open-minded, but in order for the reader to want to continue reading, you must state your position in addition to introducing a topic.
6. Body Paragraphs. After writing your introduction and the topic sentence of your first paragraph, you have already written the hardest parts of the article. From here on out, it is a matter of endurance, focus, and patience. The body paragraphs are where you actually get to express how interesting and important your ideas are, so try to enjoy the process. Introduce one part or aspect of your main idea, which is in your thesis, provide an example if it is applicable, discuss how it relates to your primary topic, and provide a lead in to your next paragraph.
Ideally, your paragraphs should not be more than five sentences long. If they are longer, chances are that you began to veer away from what you introduced in your topic sentence. When this happens, find where you got sidetracked and see if what you wrote has value. If it does, simply press the “return/enter” key and make it its own paragraph and move on.
7. Build Upon Your Previous Points. Well-written articles are made up of paragraphs that relate to each other logically. Whether you are editing your article or in the middle of writing it, it is important to make sure that the last sentence of a paragraph not only pertains to its own paragraph, but also relates to the topic sentence of the next paragraph. This can be a bit tricky. When editing a piece I have written, I often see that although I express a great idea in one paragraph and a great one in the next, there is no relation between them.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, the question to ask yourself is, “what is the logical connection between these two points?” Most of the time, you will discover that you are missing a logical transition between your two points, which you can insert at the end of one paragraph or the beginning of the next. However, if you are unable to discern why one paragraph follows another, it may serve you to move one to a different part of your article and see if its purpose becomes clear.
8. Write A Conclusion. The biggest rule about writing conclusions is that a writer should not introduce any new ideas or additional information because doing so would confuse the reader. Typically, the conclusion is the place for you to rephrase your thesis and remind the reader of your key points. If you are feeling ambitious or inspired, you can also use the conclusion to explain, based on preceding paragraphs, why your topic has greater significance. This is not standard for academic writing; however, if you are writing a non-academic piece, putting your discussion into a broader context can answer the question: “So, why should I care about your article?”
Take a look at my conclusion in “The Class We Are Leaving Behind,” which attempts to answer that question:
“While its usefulness is evident, Internet access remains unaffordable, or effectively unusable, for many. The result is that a significant percentage of our population is not moving forward with us into the Digital Age. The Internet does not have placeholders for people who are not online and does not remind us that there are millions of people who could share their opinions and stories. Because of this, these people are at risk of becoming invisible to people online and to those in politics that are influenced by Internet communities. The fact is that the majority of men and women whom this article concerns are unable to read it, and this underscores the tragedy of America’s poor.”
9. Rewrite, Edit, Proofread. Congratulations! You wrote your first draft and are almost ready to share your article with the world. For many writers, the editing stage is where they hone their craft because it is there that they are able to devote their entire mind to improving the mechanics of their writing.
Although I could discuss the rules concerning the mechanics of writing and how to apply them to your article, it is more appropriate for me to refer you to the sources that improved my writing exponentially:
- Strunk & White/The Elements of Style – Arguably the book on the mechanics of writing. (Here is the pdf version)
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King – Funny, inspirational, insightful, and infinitely helpful. (Here is the pdf version)
- Writers you know and respect – It is very helpful to have someone, preferably a professional writer or at least someone whose writing ability your respect, to look over your work and give you suggestions. Once you get over whatever bruising your ego sustains, you will see how much constructive feedback allows you to grow as a writer.
- Electronic readers – There is nothing better to improve the readability and flow of your article than to hear it read out loud to you. There are many text-to-speech programs that either come with your computer or can be purchased for very little or downloaded for free. (Advice from my father, a professional writer.)
10. Tweak Your Title and/or Introduction. By the time you have edited/rewritten your article and gone through it for typos, you may find that either your title or introduction is no longer reflective of your piece. If that is the case, go through your article again in order to reacquaint yourself with your key points and adjust your introduction to reflect them. Then, boil your thesis down into keywords and see if you can turn those into an interesting title.
For example, in my most recent article “Meaning, Morality, and Video Games: the enduring value of RPGs,” my thesis reduced down to the words: meaning, moral decisions, and RPGs. After seeing this, my final title came together.
I hope you find these steps helpful. Feel free to express your own advice, insights, and writing experiences in the “Comments” section below!
Note: A number of readers have asked me for writing advice since I began this blog and they inspired me to write this article. Many thanks to those who have asked for guidance and offered advice and kind words about my own writing. I wish all of you success in your writing endeavors.
Related articles
- Writer’s Block: Getting Past the First Sentence (asserttrue.blogspot.com)
- Guide To English Grammar and Effective Writing (learnstuff.com)
- Improve your writing on the web (bottledworder.wordpress.com)
Meaning, Morality, and Video Games: the enduring value of RPGs
Final Fantasy VII
Moral decision-making, ethical dilemmas, and choices regarding civil and political rights do not seem like winning topics for video games. However, many of the most beloved Role-Playing Games (RPGs) tackle these very concepts through adventures that require players to make difficult moral decisions and be responsible for their outcomes. For many of these games, it has been years since their release and newer games have surpassed them technologically. Nonetheless, many of these older games become, and remain, favorites for both new and old gamers. The two questions one has to ask are, “Why do these kinds of games remain popular a decade after their release?” and “How and why do the moral choices in these games become meaningful to players?”
People have accepted that only intelligent species play throughout their lives, and video games are a form of it.[1] Play is important for animals because it allows them to learn how to interact effectively with each other and the world around them. Play is essential from a survival standpoint: if we did not enjoy learning basic skills, we probably would not learn them at all. We continue to learn by playing throughout our lives, starting when we are children running around playgrounds, learning motor skills, and continuing to when we are adults playing golf or tennis.
One can see video games as another way in which we develop our ability to aim, our sense of time, coordination, and our capacity for strategizing. In addition, because we are inherently social creatures, we enjoy acting out roles and video games provide an opportunity to do so. Some of the best RPGs allow a player to assume a role, moral code, and personality in order learn about the world of social interactions through novel situations that require people to make decisions that are ultimately moral in nature.
These high-quality RPGs are games such as, but not limited to, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Final Fantasy VII, which have retained their popularity for over a decade despite companies creating newer games with more sophisticated technologies.[2] Although these two games operate on different platforms, they share two important features that appeal to the human desire to learn and practice social skills. First, both have complex plots in unique and rich worlds. Second, in these games the player must make decisions, both large and small, that influence the development of the story.
Both of these features mean that the player must process a lot visually and intellectually when going through the game. The depth of the world and the degree of autonomy a player has enables him or her to become invested in the story as well as the characters his or her decisions affect. Even though the worlds are not entirely realistic due to the fact that characters, for example, talk to mini dragons, wield impossibly large swords, and may look rather cartoonish, the flexible and immersive nature of these games allows the player to emotionally invest in the story and treat the decisions as though they were ones that would personally affect him or her.
Dovahkiin
By looking at the first five minutes of a relatively new action RPG, we can see how a detailed world and some degree of free-will allows a player to treat the story, and the moral dilemmas it presents, as more than just a game.[3] In Skyrim, you start out waking up, bound, in a cart with other people in a similar position. It turns out that “the Imperials” have accidentally captured you along with the rebel “Stormcloaks”, led by the allegedly rightful “high king of Skyrim,” who is sitting next to you. The Imperials are taking you to a town called Helgen (of whose mead your fellow prisoner has fond memories) and are going to be executed because you walked into the trap when you were crossing the border to Skyrim. You learn all this in about two minutes and probably feel as overwhelmed as your character does by all this new information. Upon reaching the town, and the chopping block, you finally get to create your character. As soon as you finish, you receive a sympathetic comment from an Imperial about your bad luck and then it is time for you to be decapitated. Fortunately a massive dragon interrupts your execution and you run around through the pandemonium and face your first decision. You must choose to follow either a “Stormcloak” rebel who the Imperials captured along with you, or the Imperial that showed you some compassion before you were called for your execution.
The three important points to note about this example are that within the first five minutes of Skyrim the player is primed to find meaning in the game because he or she is instantly immersed into a developed world, his or her character’s life is in imminent danger, and the player has to make an important decision. First, the depth of the world is instantly apparent and engaging, not only due to the strange words, titles, references to geography and political conflicts, but also because of the overwhelming auditory and visual beauty of the world. Second, because we take survival, particularly our own survival, so seriously that when a game informs us that the person we are playing is about to be executed, we become invested in their existence and treat the decisions that the game presents as important. Third, as the player is trying to avoid the flame-breathing dragon, he or she must make a moral decision regarding whom to follow in an attempt to escape the attack. The player must decide whether to align with the rebels (at least temporarily) with the knowledge that their leader allegedly murdered the previous king of the country, or to join the very people who would have executed your character without caring that he or she was falsely imprisoned. The opportunity for the player to make this decision show that he or she has, and will continue to have, a significant influence on the development of the overall story.
After the first five minutes of a successful RPG, the player will have accepted the world and have an idea of the conflicts that are driving the story. When the introduction ends, the player generally finds his or her character without good equipment or skills, but with significantly more freedom on where to go and what to do. At this point, the player can reflect on whatever moral decisions he or she made earlier. For instance: “Maybe it would have been better to side with the Imperials (Skyrim)”; “it might have been better to not yell at Winthrop (Baldur’s Gate I)”; good thinking not killing all of those Lizardmen (Neverwinter Nights II)”, etc. This reflection occurs naturally because the player finally has the chance to stop and think about the preceding events and how to continue from that point on.
As games progress, the emotional impact of decisions and player conduct often fades as the novelty of the virtual world diminishes. The designers and creators of good RPGs seem to be very much aware of this and implement rewards, penalties, and/or reminders of the consequences of a player’s in-game actions. For instance, in Skyrim, if you decide to slaughter an entire town (or a defenseless chicken) everyone will turn against you and you will begin to accrue a bounty on your head whose amount correlates to the severity of your in-game social infractions. The bounty system reminds players to either be more careful when committing a crime, or to act like a law-abiding person.
Dragon Age II reminds players to treat their decisions seriously by using two additional methods. First, the player must continuously address aspects of the morally ambiguous central conflict through every quest. In order to complete whatever quest the player is pursuing, he or she must ultimately take a stand on an issue pertaining to the main quest’s conflict by choosing between two choices that boil down to freedom (which is leaning towards anarchy and terrorism) and order (which is threatening to become tyranny and genocide).
The second way in which Dragon Age II reminds the player of the gravity of his or her decisions is through a mechanism that games such as Final Fantasy VII, Neverwinter Nights II, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect use. In this game, as in life, the decisions a player makes affect how his or her companions feel about the player’s character. These reactions, and how the game quantifies them, serve as subtle reminders of the significance of a player’s in-game actions. For instance, ignoring or insulting a companion’s concern can result in a “-1” to how they feel about the player’s character. On the other hand, if the player decides to champion the cause of his or her friend, this can result in a “+10” to their attitude towards the player’s character. Ultimately, the game creators tap into our inherent concern over what our friends think of our actions and, by doing so, allow players to continue to find meaning in their in-game choices.
Ultimately, the “realism” of a role-playing game will not determine its lasting success or failure. As many of the aforementioned games demonstrate, stylized graphics and older technology have little bearing on the social and moral impacts they can have on players. What matters, instead, is that games have enough substance, and present enough of a cognitive challenge through complex plots and moral gray areas, that players become immersed in the game worlds. Furthermore, players derive meaning from their experiences in games by seeing the consequences of their actions in the virtual worlds. RPGs that withstand the passage of time and continue to appeal to players are more than entertainment; they are worlds that encourage players to learn and practice complex moral decision-making.
[1] M. Kuba, D.V. Meisal, R.A. Byrne, U. Gabriel, and J.A. Mather “Looking at Play in Octopus Vulgaris”
[3] For a video discussion on the significance of the “first five minutes” of a game, check out “Starting out Right” at http://blip.tv/extracredits/starting-off-right-6384263?utm_source=twitteraccount&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=twitter_extracredits
Related articles
- Spoony Bards and Pokemon Cards: A brief history of RPGs (gamesradar.com)
Announcing A Brief Hiatus
Photo by “Geekr” http://www.flickr.com/photos/geko78/
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am taking a month-long hiatus from publishing articles. This month is promising to be pretty hectic with work and the various school-related things. I will still be commenting on posts and visiting blogs, but, unfortunately, my own writing has to take a backseat for a bit. If anything post-worthy comes out of this month, I will share it in the future.
Thank you for the inspiring questions you have asked, the discussions you have started, and the boundless support. I look forward to returning to sharing ideas with all of you next month. If anyone has writing or posts related to the topics about which I write, let me know and I would be happy to share your work here and give you full credit. People who come to my blog are incredibly good and smart, so your work would reach a very special audience.
Happy October and I’ll see you in November!
How Did the Internet Come to Be? Part II: A Surprising Beginning
To the generation that grew up having access to the online world, the Internet seems an essential part of modern life that was simply destined to come into being. Because of this, it may come as a surprise to learn that the public almost did not get the Internet. For several decades, the only people who were able to use the pre-World Wide Web networks were in the military and in academia. This computer network was too expensive for the everyday person to afford, and the telecommunications companies resisted any attempts that the federal government made to extend funding to the private sector. However, despite this apparent impasse, the government, academia, and the early computer companies collaborated in a way unseen today in order to bring the Internet to the American public.
One of the earliest computer networks arose in the early 1970’s and was a series of connections between universities. Academics used this network, called the ARPANET, to share research within their own university and with other universities. In order to do so, they would transmit information electronically from primitive computers through AT&T’s underground telephone wires. The universities that had these connections benefitted immensely because they were connected to other research institutes. Furthermore, they also had the first supercomputers that attracted the top scientists from around the U.S.
A key drawback to this computer network was the exorbitant cost of leasing access to these wires. These leases cost thousands of dollars per month because the price depended on the amount of wire it took to connect two points. For example, two of the first universities to use the ARPANET were Michigan State University and Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, which are 233 miles apart. In order to connect these two schools, they had to lease over 200 miles of underground telephone wire. Although the government provided funding for the universities to conduct research using this network, the money to build and use the infrastructure still had to come out of the schools’ coffers.
Part of the reason it cost universities so much money to lease these lines was due to the fact that AT&T was the only company that could provide this service reliably. It was the most established phone company at the time and easily established a monopoly, enabling it to charge what it pleased. Universities tried to mitigate costs by having other universities join their network. If two schools found another university located geographically between them, they could split the cost three ways and benefit from the added resources each school offered.
Through government grants and a larger network of connected universities, computer scientists were able to develop better and faster networks. It was not long before people outside of the government and academia started hearing about the concept of “the Internet” and wanted to have access to it. Connecting to the Internet was still incredibly expensive, but people within academia and the National Science Foundation (NSF) believed that it was important to connect the public to this growing network. They went to Congress and argued that the best way to ensure feasible access for the rest of the country would be through a federal spending initiative.
Unfortunately, AT&T’s lobbyists blocked the NSF’s attempts to create a network similar to the one we have today. The lobbyists objected to the federal government subsidizing Internet access for the public, claiming that by doing so the government would be interfering with the private sector. In order to get around this, universities requested the government only pay for connections between the universities. The lobbyists did not see this as much of a market, so they agreed. Although this was not a direct way to provide Internet access to the public, people in the government hoped that there would be a trickle-down effect.
Academia, the federal government and the public got their wish when a young company called MCI Communications Corp. challenged AT&T’s monopoly in 1974. As a result of extensive litigation, MCI broke this monopoly in 1980 and enabled the overhaul of telecommunications in 1996. Universities had been trying to get around the “academics only” policy regarding Internet access since 1990 by providing indirect access to the public. It was evident to lawmakers in the 90’s that the public wanted the Internet and that companies and universities would continue to work to provide Internet services to the public regardless of any obstacles. In order to fulfill the needs of the public and energize the communications market, the Clinton administration signed into law the Telecom Act of 1996.
By this time, networks had begun to spring up all over the world. Computer scientists from across the globe collaborated to create browsers, systems, and interfaces to make the Internet more user-friendly and useful. Everyday people began to meet each other through newsletters and email. Companies were able to reach distant markets and people experienced an ease of access to information that forever changed the way they related to the world. Around the globe, computers dialed up and the electronic crowing of modems heralded the dawning of the Internet Age.
Click here for Part 1.
Photo by http://preview.tinyurl.com/8c67psf
Note: Liz’s blogging challenge at Eccentric inspired me to write this historical article on the Internet.
Sources
The majority of my research came from the Coursera course “Internet History, Technology, and Security.” It was a wonderful course taught by Dr. Charles Severance at the University of Michigan.
1) http://www.uknof.org.uk/history.html
2) http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/internet-51/history-internet/brief-history-internet
3) http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/pcnets.html
4) http://www.historyofthings.com/history-of-the-internet
Don't Let Google Boss Your Research Efforts - A Friendly Reminder
Do you have a favourite search engine that you depend on to return those must have research resources? If you are like the rest of the planet this favourite search engine happens to be Google. Nothing wrong with Google (actually there is) but if you conduct research on a regular basis it is good to remember that a lot of search engines utilize personal data caches stored on your computer.
Diving the Deep Web: The Internet You Did Not Know Existed
Photo by Natalie Lucier (http://www.flickr.com/photos/natalielucier/)
It is well-known that when you see an iceberg in the ocean, you are only seeing about 10% of its total mass. The remaining 90% extends below the water’s surface reaching depths of 600 feet or more. The Internet is similar to an iceberg because only 10% of it is “visible” to most users. The part of the Web that is invisible to conventional search engines and is inaccessible through traditional browsers is called the “deep Web.” Like the depths of the ocean, the deep Web is a little known world that contains dazzling and shocking creations as well as vast swaths of emptiness.
The deep Web evades the notice of the majority of traditional search engines. Even though Google may seem ubiquitous and omnipotent when running a search that produces millions of results, it is unable to reach the majority of websites online. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, use Web crawler (or spider) programs that browse the Internet and copy pages that the search engine will later index and make accessible to users. The crawlers go through URLs and search for all the hyperlinks on web pages, adding them to their “crawl frontier” which maps out other websites and pages for them to index. Crawling the deep Web is a challenge for this type of software because it relies on normally shaped URLs and the presence of tags or text. Companies who operate the popular search engines have become aware of the shortcomings of crawlers and are looking for ways to improve them.
A significant reason why crawler software has such difficulty with the deep Web is because a portion of it is composed of dynamic pages that only exist when someone types a query into a database. This format makes it challenging for a person, let alone mindless software, to discover such pages. Some users report that the majority of the deep Web is in the form of these databases; however, this is merely speculative. The popular search engines are unable to index websites because they may have scripted content and thus appear dynamically (such as with Flash), or a non-HTML (standard) format. Websites can also choose to block crawlers by requiring users to login or implement other features such as CAPTCHAs.
People who access the deep Web have reported their findings on forums on the “surface Web” like explorers returning from strange countries. Their tales generally fall into one of three categories. The first group is those people who were unimpressed with their virtual excursion and claim that the deep Web is just a 1990’s version of the surface Web. People in the second group have ended up unintentionally gazing into the dark abyss of pedophiles, assassins, crime rings, human experimentation, etc. and warn everyone away from the deep Web. The third group is those people who have found truly interesting things such as scientific papers, discussion groups, e-books, blogs, and tech communities, and want to share these with those on the surface Web.
From having made forays into the deep Web, I can say that these impressions are all fairly accurate. Hunting around for deep websites can be a frustrating experience because many of the websites are frequently boring, badly scripted or unfinished. Furthermore, slow servers cause these sites to take up to ten minutes to load, which exacerbates the feelings of frustration. There are websites on the deep Web that are truly horrific and cater to the darker elements of our society and world. However, in order to avoid such sites, all a person has to do is take hyperlink descriptions seriously and resist clicking on those that seem too disturbing to be real. With enough persistence and caution, one can find a treasure trove of academic reference material, newspaper articles, maps, data engines and more.
The companies that own the popular search engines are aware of the untapped resources that the deep Web holds and are attempting to improve Web crawlers so they can access the hidden websites. Understandably, there are websites on the deep Web that do not want to appear on the surface Web because being visible in such a way would identify their owners and users. Like shining light into the darkness of the deep-sea, the entire ecosystem of the deep Web would change if it became accessible through Google. Perhaps the world would benefit from being able to easily access information on the deep Web, but at what cost?
For an answer to this question, stay tuned for the second part of “Diving the Deep Web.”
Note: If you are curious about the deep Web, visit the Tor Project, download the browser, and see here for a step-by-step guide.
Sources
1) Spetka, Scott. “The TkWWW Robot: Beyond Browsing.” Wayback Machine. Internet
Archive, Sept. 2004. Web. 15 Sept. 2012.
2) https://www.torproject.org/
3) http://thebotnet.com/guides-and-tutorials/49828-how-to-access-the-hidden-wiki/
Related Articles
- Exploring the Deep Web with Semantic Search [INFOGRAPHIC] (bostinno.com)
- The Deep Web: The Place Where the Internet’s Secrets Are (techpp.com)
The Class We Are Leaving Behind
Photo by Bryan “Gitgat” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gitgat/)
The voter ID laws are a new way in which lower-income people are losing their ability to make themselves heard at the voting booth; but this is not the only way these people are losing their voice in the national conversation. These people are also the class least likely to have sufficient Internet access to enable them to express their political beliefs online. While the poor have speech rights, they are effectively shut out of online communication and the voting booth due to the stagnation of class mobility and a lack of adequate education.
Since the beginning of 2011, 14 states have passed restrictive voter ID laws to prevent voter fraud. These laws have cut early voting days, and require would-be voters to have proof of citizenship (such as birth certificates) to register, and to show government-issued photo IDs before casting their votes. Eight of the twelve swing states have either passed voter legislation or are in the process of doing so (3).
These laws pose significant obstacles to young people and, even more so, to minority groups in this upcoming presidential election. The Black Youth Project estimates that about 25 percent of African-Americans do not have the required identification, and depend on early voter days (1)(2). The result of these laws is students, elderly people, racial minority groups and the entire lower socioeconomic class may not be able to express their voices at the polls in pivotal states.
Many journalists and bloggers have made the point that this legislation is not necessary because documented in-person voter fraud, which these laws seek to prevent, has occurred only ten times over the last twelve years (4). However, I have yet to see the people who these laws directly affect express themselves in the blogosphere or on political forums. Why have we not heard from these people?
The likely answer is that the people who make up the lower-income brackets are not online because they have not mastered Internet technology in such a way that they are able to engage in political discourse, the core of their First Amendment rights (5). This disadvantage arises out of a lack of sufficient education and the stagnation of class mobility. These two factors work together to keep people of all races and ages stuck in the lowest socioeconomic tier and on the bad side of the “Digital Divide” (7).
Across the U.S., states have cut funding to public K-12 schools. Although schools located in affluent suburban areas are able to raise funds to make up for the budget cuts, those in densely packed urban areas are unable to do so. Inner city public schools frequently have overcrowded classrooms, out-of-date textbooks, not enough textbooks, and severely limited library and computer facilities. In addition, students and teachers must contend with the social issues plaguing the urban poor such as high unemployment, gang violence and drug use. Because of these factors, it is understandable that it is difficult for students at these schools to receive an equivalent education to those who go to school in wealthier areas. This is probably not new information to most people; however, the consequences of inadequate educational opportunities may be surprising. According to the U.S. Department of Education, as of 2003, about 44 million adults in the U.S. had literacy skills ranging from illiteracy to very limited literacy (10). Since then, the percentage of adults lacking sufficient literacy skills continues to hover around 23-24% (7)(9).
Although it seems painfully obvious to point out, it is worth highlighting the fact that in order to use the Internet for anything other than basic entertainment, a person needs to be able to read. Studies show that there is a direct correlation between a person’s literacy level and the complexity of tasks he or she perform online (5). For instance, a person with a high literacy level would be able to write a blog and engage in political discussions, whereas a person with a low literacy level may have difficulty finding information online. There is a threshold of reading ability and technological familiarity that a person has to meet in order to make use of the Internet in such a way to be able to improve his or her socioeconomic standing. People who have not been able to achieve a proficient level of literacy or a sufficient familiarity with computers and the Internet are, in effect, shut off from resources in the online world that could improve their lives. Furthermore, these people’s plights go largely unheard because they are not able to use the Internet, the most efficient tool for communicating to a mass audience (13).
Photo by “paul nine-o” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulo2070/)
In addition to lacking sufficient reading and writing abilities to express their voices online, this disadvantaged class may be unable to afford Internet access. Lack of education and inability to afford access can be seen as two sides of the same coin because there is a relationship between a person’s literacy level and his or her income bracket. It is very unlikely that someone with below basic literacy skills would be qualified for a job earning enough to afford good access to the Internet. Generally speaking, the higher paying jobs require education beyond high school or even college. A person who does not receive sufficient education that teaches him or her to read, write and process information is less likely to be able to go to college.
This is not to say that there are not people who are able to start society-altering businesses and earn staggering amounts of money without going to or completing college. Indeed, we like to hold up people such as Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and the first billionaire John D. Rockefeller Sr. (a high school dropout) as examples to counter the opinion that if a person wants to be successful, he or she has to get a college degree. However, these people are the exception rather than the norm and a few outliers are not enough to counter numerous studies that show a direct connection between a person’s level of education and his or her annual income (11)(12).
The “Digital Divide” is the result of a class that does not have enough money or education to join the online world. To put it simply, this divide is between those who can afford and make effective use of the Internet, and those who cannot. The Internet is different from other modern technological developments because it “fundamentally alters the conditions for success across a wide range of economic, social and civic activities at both the individual and societal levels” (5). As an Internet user, you can appreciate the ease with which you are able to search for jobs, create a blog to share your ideas, and use it to run a business more efficiently. Since higher income people are more able to afford Internet access, they will be more likely to have it than those who are lower-income. The result of this is that people who cannot afford to be online and cannot effectively use the Internet simply do not exist in that world. Their businesses do not have the benefit of being online, they have greater difficulty finding jobs, and they are unable to voice their experiences to the online community.
The Covad Broadband Entrepreneur program demonstrates how the Internet is able to improve class mobility. This program provides low-income and disadvantaged small business owners a year of free Internet services as well as $500. The success that the business owners report after one year is striking. During this year, they were able to easily communicate with customers and process orders online, which increased customer satisfaction, profit and allowed owners to expand to different markets in other states. Having Internet access allowed a number of small business owners to make enough money to no longer qualify as low-income. Furthermore, it allowed other business owners to take online classes to earn certificates to improve their trades and make them more competitive (7). The results of this program tell us that if two new family run drug stores, one with Internet access and the other without, open in the same neighborhood, chances are that the one that is connected to the online world will be more successful.
While its usefulness is evident, Internet access remains unaffordable, or effectively unusable, for many. The result is that a significant percentage of our population is not moving forward with us into the Digital Age. The Internet does not have placeholders for people who are not online and does not remind us that there are millions of people who could share their opinions and stories. Because of this, these people are at risk of becoming invisible to people online and to those in politics that are influenced by Internet communities. The fact is that the majority of men and women whom this article concerns are unable to read it, and this underscores the tragedy of America’s poor.
Author’s Note: Big thank you to José Felipe at Creando Conciencia for encouraging me to write about this topic and also Liz at Eccentric for all her support, advice and input. This article also appears on ABetterPeople.com.
Sources
(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/18/republican-voter-suppression-early-voting_n_1766172.html
(3) http://www.leftjustified.com/romney-obama-gallup-poll
(4) http://votingrights.news21.com/
(5) Cooper, Mark, and Donald McGannon Center for Communications Research, Fordham Univeristy. “The Socio-Economics of Digital Exclusion in America.” 2010 TPRC: 38th Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy. Arlington, Virginia. 3 october 2010. Reading.
(6) Prieger, James E. and Hu, Wei-Min, “The Broadband Digital Divide and the Nexus of Race, Competition, and Quality” (August 17, 2007). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1008309 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1008309
(7) Baynes, Leonard M., ‘The Mercedes Divide?’: American Segregation Shapes the Color of Electronic Commerce. Western New England Law Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, November 2006; St. John’s Legal Studies Research Paper No. 06-0047. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=923564
(8) Oliff, Phil, and Michael Leachman. “New School Year Bring Steep Cuts in State Funding for Schools.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. DC: n.p., 2011. 1-16. Print.
(9) Hattyar, Harry. Illiteracy in America: Understanding and Resolving a Grave National Problem. San Francisco: Donpotter.net, 2005. Print.
(10) National Center for Education Statistics. “Adult Literacy in America: A First Look at the Findings of the National Adult Literacy Survey.” U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement. By Irwin Kirsch, Ann Jungeblut, Lynn Jenkins, and Andrew Kolstad. 3rd ed. Vols. 1993-275. N.p.: NCES, 2002. 1-176. Print
(11) http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm
For New Readers of Cybernid
Freshly Pressed!
WordPress recently featured my article “What/Who is Anonymous?” on Freshly Pressed and I have received an influx of new followers who have been unbelievably supportive and intelligent. The comments they wrote were thought-provoking, insightful and very kind. It was an honor to have my article chosen and it was humbling to have so many great bloggers/people/writers take the time to offer their input and appreciation. If you are new to following or reading Cybernid, check out the “About the Blog” page for a brief description of the blog as well as my loose Comment Policy. Also, if you have interest in who I am, check out the “About Rebecca” page.
Because so many smart and articulate people have taken the time to comment, I would be interested in any suggestions you have regarding topics about which you would like me to write. To give you an idea of the topics about which I am considering writing, here is a short list:
- Hive minds on the Internet
- Socioeconomic inequality on the Internet
- The StarCraft 2 community
- Corporate hive minds
- Identity on the Internet
If you would be interested in reading about any of these, I would love to know. Also, conversely, if there is anything on the list that you find repugnant, I would also like to know. Most importantly, if there is anything else about which you would like to read, let me know in any way you feel comfortable (Twitter, email or comments). If you do suggest a topic and I write about it, I will prominently credit you in the post and link to your blog or website. I will also be announcing the topics of upcoming articles on Twitter, so if you have a opinions or information regarding the topics and I include them, I will credit and quote you (if you are comfortable with that).
Thank you for making blogging such a positive experience.
