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Fun ist ein Stahlbad

game & play & film & virtual worlds
 

[Guilds are the new Clubs!]

Dienstag, November 21, 2006


We have to live and work under circumstances our predecessors would have called 'unstable'. The economy of the neoliberal and globalised market is demanding a high grade of flexibility from the citizens of modern and western countries. The desire for big profit margins has led to a defragmented production process: component A is produced in Afghanistan, component B in Belarus, and C comes from China or India or Bangladesh or Mexico. As well as this processes aren't no unified any more, our very social environments are neither. It comes from when you move three times in ten years after your job, and everytime you move you leave behind what you can call the mutilated remains of social relations. Naturally the relationships you've made ain't got the deepness of long time grown one's. In fact, how could they? And is there even the will to build up branches of new ones once you've arrived for another time in another town for another job that demands your flexibility? Accepting an honorary appointment doesn't make much sense anymore because if you depend on something you can't control (the geographical conditions under which you have to earn your living), you don't let things grow you can't leave behind.

This is one aspect of the work of Richard Sennetts. He is a sociologist who is deeply interested in how new forms of capitalism and the behaviour in economical interests change the people, their understanding of work and of themselves. My point here is: if the living conditions of people are geographically inconstant because they have to follow their jobs/their profession, and they don't see sense in engaging in long-term social relationships outside family boundaries, where do they search for alternate satisfaction? In times where superficial social contacts do not depend on "where you're at" but "if you're in", one should ask if internet communtites and the engagement into can become (or do they have already?) an alternative for many unresting employees? One could ask the frequency of relocations and even the ones depending on the job situation (if differentiable), the number of people in different societiey e.g. sport clubs, church unions and any kind of political and social unions. Then one have to see if there is some data about people who are active members in guilds or clans in virtual world. How is their income? How often do they move? If there is some data, I will find it in the mysteriuos museum of mmorpg data of Nick Yee!

swoooochhacknslayswooooch- [the world blurring programme]

Mittwoch, November 08, 2006


Hello there, it's the first time you all are going to read this blog in english. I want to expand my extremely oversized audience with this simple method and use a language every idiot in the world is able to speak and read. Hope you are too. As I pointed out someday, this blog is gonna be about films, media, games and stuff. You know you can't find anything like this in the whole bloggosphere.

My subjects and my appearance are unique. With a coffee in my hand [this is a tool to make a good blog work: personalize! Tell them what ya doing, even if you don't do anything right now], I do nothing further. [Tell them something, at least]. Okay. Here's what I found during my longlasting and exhausting tours through the universe of information, fiction and nonsense. In fact, it fits in what I am doing as my master thesis.

I write about virtual worlds. [MMORPGs as virtual worlds - representation and immersion. That's the complete title]. I will point out that these worlds are more a place or an extension of what is our physical world than only a game. They blur with the real one. [What is real?] People buy their in-world-gold on ebay and spend it for a new sword. Do you remeber the last time you spent a triple-digit amount for a new weapon? [Say this only goes out to all non-US-Americans. Otherwise the cranky turn gets lost] People don't behave like gamers, they behave like inhabitants. They logg in to a virtual place that simulates a society and stay among thousands of people who celebrate a new kind of identity, just like they do. When they return to the physical world, sometimes they behave like this:



Okay, this is LARP [Live Action Role-Playing], and LARP isn't what I am writing about. If you want to read more about the psychological impacts of RP and generating identities, read Sherry Turkle. If you want to read more about my subjects, go here or stay tuned.
 
   





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