I like to play games that allows me to do some things in a virtual environment. For instance, the app game that I used to play is called "Home Design". It's a game that allows player to decorate their own home and design the way they want it to be. In this game, there's also the avatar of the player. This avatar can go to other users' houses to visit and socialize with other avatars. But the avatar can't talk with each other. Users can only socialize with other players by leaving comments in others' comment wall. I guess the way the design the game to be like this is because the game designer want its users to fully focus on "designing home" rather than socializing with their neighbors which might become another second life game. I kinda like this idea of just directing players' attention to design itself.
Speaking of this kind of virtual environment, what I like about it is that it allows me to do what I cannot do in my real life. In the real world, I am not a home designer and of course I am not that artistic in creating a beautiful home. However, it's always my dream to design my own comfy house. By playing around in this virtual environment, I get the chance to fulfill my designing dream. I can have a magnificent house with splendid furniture like chandelier or fancy bed or a big backyard with a Japanese style pond over there. Even if I buy some ugly furniture or wallpaper there or even mess up with my design, I could tear them down within a few clicks without losing my actual money. In that virtual environment, I feel that I'm powerful and talented in perfecting my house. And within a few clicks,I can also go to my neighbors' houses to check out their home design and maybe imitate some of their design style. This--randomly walk into a neighbor's or a stranger's house just to check out their home design--is what I won't be able to do in my real life. But again, this virtual environment grants me this opportunity to achieve what I cannot do in my real world. I guess that's one of the reasons why so many people are so obsessed with playing around in virtual worlds in order to escape from their real life and feel empowered to do things in their virtual environment.
While spending some time getting away from the real world won't be a bad thing, users still have to be cautious about not being too indulged in that environment. Otherwise, they might end up spending too much time online and losing themselves in the virtual reality and might even have a hard time going back to the real world or socializing with others in their real life.
My another thought related to this question is about the reading "Second Thoughts About Second Life". In that article, the author mentioned that we overlooked the violence, sexual harassment and other misbehavior happen in virtual environment. Those are something we have to take into account and think about seriously while we are playing the games in virtual reality. I've never thought about the impact those misbehavior could bring to a player until I read this article. As it said, the avatar is like the representation of oneself. It represents the player's wishes, aspirations, virtues, etc. It's very authentic and just like "the other you". I think about it and realize that it's quite true that a player would definitely have emotional impact when its avatar is attacked or sexually harassed. S/he would have the feeling that s/he is the one being offended even though s/he isn't being physically assaulted. That kind of experience can still make people feel emotionally uncomfortable! So it's for sure that more laws should consider this kind of problem and have more action on how to deal with it.
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| The app game : Home Design |
(2) Do you feel there is a correlation between life online and academic achievement, for better or worse?
Based on my own experience, I would say that it really depends on how you manage your life online. If you can manage yourself and time well, you can have an active online life and also use the Internet correctly for learning purpose which might also lead to better academic achievement like I did.
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| Part of my personal learning club on Facebook |
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI like your observation that one major reason why people love virtual environments is they have so many varieties of experience that we have not had the chance to explore in real life. And we can do anything we want to do without being judged or questioned by other people, especially those closest to us. We can see people's wishes of representing their selves through avatars. It's very probable that an avatar of a user may have modifications (minor or major) from their real-life self.
We can then talk about authenticity of these users when they are interacting in these virtual environments, like Second Life. We can say that a lot of users are not authentic enough as they can modify their virtual selves and their virtual lives according to their wishes, but we can also assume that these modifications are real expressions of their inner selves and virtual environments give an outlet for these kinds of expressions which may never come true in real life.
Hi Evelina,
DeleteThank you for pointing out that thinking about the authenticity of the users. I haven't deeply thought about it until you brought that up. For me, I never relate myself to my own avatar partly because it doesn't look like me at all no matter how I dress it up or modify its look. Another possible reason could also be that I didn't spend that much time playing online game and using my avatar; thus, I didn't grow any relationship with my own avatar to feel that it represents me.
I resonated with you on the point that virtual environment gives people a chance to do what you can’t do in the real life and fulfill people’s dream in another realm. The technology empowers people to think wild, dream big and not be afraid to try out their ideas. Maybe some of the crazy ideas will be applicable in the real life in another fashion.
ReplyDeleteI also thought about that it opens another door for people who are physically can’t do certain things. Virtual environment provides them a chance to experience what they are never able to do by themselves. Virtual environment also serves well in school settings. Teachers can, besides just present the history, bring the students travelling back to experience certain historic moments. I think the vivid feeling will truly help students better understand and memorize the great history.
Thanks
Yina
Hey Yina,
DeleteI agree with your second point as well. It makes me think of "Google Street View"! It really opens door for people who cannot afford to go abroad to get the feeling of how one foreign place looks like.
I still remembered that before my first self-planned trip to Japan, I used Google street view to see what that place looked like for the purpose of not getting myself lost there.
Your game reminded me of a Facebook game I used to play years ago called Pet Society. I'm not into this kind of virtual environment games but since I had to be in bed for a couple of months I got easily involved in it. The rationale (if there was one, ha!) was exactly the same, own a house, decorate it, improve it, buy stuff, visit neighbors, send gifts to friends, etc. I had plenty of free time so it kept my mind going and made time went by pretty fast which is what I needed. It was so pleasant to be able to buy stuff that I always wanted to my “house”. By clicking on the buy icon (virtual money) made me feel as if I had actually acquired something for my own apartment. I got THAT addicted that I even started to buy more virtual money using my actual money. The problem wasn’t just that because when I went back to work I wouldn’t stop playing it. During my breaks and lunchtime at school I was tapping on my cell phone. I can’t remember how or why I stopped playing it, but thank God I did. I was a “responsible” adult, can you imagine the impact these kind of games have in teenagers or children who are not properly advised on how to manage their virtual selves/lives?
ReplyDeleteThe article about “Second Life” leads us to another problem which is the anonymity of these environments which can lead to the popular “cyber bullying”. Nowadays there are more and more cases of children and teenagers who suffer from it. Forbidding virtual environments would be to try to cover the sun with our fingers. Virtual reality is here to stay and it will keep on developing further. Parents along with teachers (who are more hours a day in contact with kids) should help them reinforce their real-selves so they can have the tools to navigate these worlds without getting hurt… or hurting others.
Thanks for sharing your own game experience. The funny thing is that after hearing your description of the game, I wanna play it (haha). That seems to be an interesting game for me and I guess I would probably get addicted to it easily! But there's one thing I wouldn't do while playing those kind of online game--spending my money on virtual money or virtual items. That is the one thing I am proud of controlling myself well. For me, it's just not so realistic in buying those unreal stuff on the Net. I prefer to buy real items in my life.
DeleteSpeaking of having teachers and parents to help students develop healthy habits of navigating the virtual worlds, I always wonder how to really implement it. I know probably it should start when kids start to learn how to use the computer. But I am interested in know what the successful strategies are.
Wow, that's a great example of how FB can be helpful academically. I wonder if the researchers factored in the types of engagement students participated in while on FB as part of their study. It seems as if the researchers had some implicit bias with regard to FB as many have pointed out why FB and not other types of social media.
ReplyDeletehmm~ that's a very interesting point to think about. It never occurs to me that researchers might have some bias regarding FB until you brought that up. But I'm with you. That makes me further think about how strong their bias is which might kinda have an influence in their process of conducting the research.
DeleteI totally agree with your points in the post. And how you used Facebook to build a vocabulary club just evoke me thinking, students who know how to study will always make use of every possible tool to excel.
ReplyDeleteI like what you say about the interaction design of the housing decoration, that users can only leave messages to comment others' work, to avoid too much interaction among users and weaken home design part. From the perspective of instructional designer, we need moderate interaction to invoke students to read and to lead, but also we may need to pay attention to "over-social" and deviate from the theme.
I like your thought on how students who are good at studying would seize the opportunity to make something out of another thing. It made me think about teachers probably need to have abilities like that--making good use of the tools or things that students are attracted to and then incorporate them into the lessons to draw students' attention and interests in learning.
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