DOCSLIB.ORG

The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College Of The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Information Sciences & Technology PARTICIPATING IN THE VISUAL: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FANART COMMUNITIES IN THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT A Thesis in Information Sciences and Technology by Michael Colibraro © 2008 Michael Colibraro Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science December 2008 The thesis of Michael Colibraro was reviewed and approved* by the following: Andrea Tapia Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations Thesis Advisor Lynette Kvasny Associate Professor of Information Sciences & Technology Gerald Santoro Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences John Yen Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Programs for IST *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT As fan culture becomes increasingly mainstream, it falls to researchers to diversify the ways that they approach it. This research aims to uncover the relationships between fan-generated artwork and in-game and out-of-game communities in World of Warcraft. Much current research into fan culture focuses on the community interactions. Though it mentions fan-generated content, it is rare to find more than a passing mention of fanart and its potential roles within these communities. The study takes a qualitative & interpretive point of view in order to establish the reasons that players create and consume artwork. Through a combination of text analysis, surveys, and interviews this research is intended to provide a broad understanding of players’ general knowledge and feelings about fanart as well as how and why fanart affects the World of Warcraft community. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................... 4 The History of Online Games .......................................................................................... 4 MUDs ....................................................................................................................... 5 MMORPGs ........................................................................................................... 6 History ........................................................................................................... 7 Current MMORPGs ....................................................................................... 8 The Study of MMORPGs ..................................................................................... 9 Avatar Representation and Gender Studies ................................................... 9 Social Interactions in MMORPGs ................................................................. 10 Psychology of MMORPGs ............................................................................ 11 MMO Games as Learning Environments ...................................................... 12 Economics and Business in MMORPGs ....................................................... 13 Designing MMORPGs .................................................................................. 14 Communities and Group Structures in MMORPGs ...................................... 14 Community ........................................................................................................... 16 Online or Virtual Communities ............................................................................ 18 Types of Virtual Communties ....................................................................... 20 Fan Communties ................................................................................................... 22 Critiques of Existing Research ............................................................................. 24 Chapter 3 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 25 Computer games ............................................................................................ 25 Fan artwork .................................................................................................... 26 Communities, in-game & out-of-game .......................................................... 27 Relationships ................................................................................................. 28 Anticipated Relationships ..................................................................................... 29 Art/Artist ÅÆ Game/Developer .................................................................. 29 Art/Artist ÅÆArt consumers & Gamers ...................................................... 29 Game ÅÆArt/Artists .................................................................................... 30 Communies (Art, Game, and Social) ............................................................ 30 Theoretical Perspective ......................................................................................... 32 Social Informatics Perspective ...................................................................... 33 Social Shaping of Technology ....................................................................... 34 Computer-Mediated Artwork ........................................................................ 34 v Chapter 4 Research Design ..................................................................................................... 36 Online Content Analysis ....................................................................................... 37 Surveys ................................................................................................................. 39 Semi-Structured Interviews .................................................................................. 39 Qualitative and Interpretive Justification .............................................................. 40 Chapter 5 Data ........................................................................................................................ 41 Forums .................................................................................................................. 41 “Hey, Everybody!” (General Sharing and Inquiries) .................................... 42 “Hey, Blizzard! (Solicitations for the Attention of Game Staff) ................... 45 “Hey, Artists!” (Petitioning Artists for Fanart or Advice) ............................ 52 Summary ........................................................................................................ 54 Surveys ................................................................................................................. 56 Demographics ................................................................................................ 57 Information About Fanart Communities ....................................................... 58 Opinions as Artists or Consumers ................................................................. 62 Interviews ............................................................................................................. 65 Participant Backgrounds ................................................................................ 65 Producers and consumers of World of Warcraft fan art do not limit themselves to one game at a time ................................................................................ 67 Fan artwork serves as inspiration for other creative activities .............................. 68 Blizzard supports their fans ............................................................................... 69 Jeffrey misses the World of Warcraft community ............................................... 70 Charles thinks the game community is far too large for easy classification and study .......................................................................... 71 Chapter 6 Analysis .................................................................................................................. 72 Updates to the Original Model .......................................................................... 75 The New Model ............................................................................................... 77 Fanart in a Community as a Focus ..................................................................... 78 Visualizing Fanart as a Focus ............................................................................ 79 Chapter 7 Conclusions and Implications ................................................................................ 81 Implications ..................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 86 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................. 88 Appendix
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Third Age of Avatars Bruce Damer, [email protected] Damer.Com | Digitalspace.Com | Ccon.Org | Biota.Org | Digibarn.Com
    A Third Age of Avatars Bruce Damer, [email protected] damer.com | digitalspace.com | ccon.org | biota.org | digibarn.com Ò Started life on a PDP-11 fresh out of high school (1980), programmed graphics, videotext systems, dreamed of self replicating robots on the moon, designed board games, built model space stations. Ò Worked at IBM Research in 1984 (Toronto, New York), introduced to Internet, optical computing. Ò At Elixir Technologies 1987-94, wrote some of first GUI/Windows-Icons Publishing software on the IBM PC platform used 100 countries. Ò Established Contact Consortium in 1995, held first conferences on avatars (Earth to Avatars, Oct 1996) Ò Wrote “Avatars!”in 1997. Hosted and supported 9 conferences until 2003 on various aspects of virtual worlds (AVATARS Conferences, VLearn3D, Digital Biota) Ò Founded DigitalSpace in 1995, produced 3D worlds for government, corporate, university, and industry. Evangelism for Adobe (Atmosphere), NASA (Digital Spaces, open source 3D worlds for design simulation of space exploration) and NIH (learning games for Autism) Ò Established DigibarnComputer Museum (2002) Ò Virtual Worlds Timeline project (2006-2008) to capture and represent the history of the medium Ò The Virtual World, its Origins in Deep Time Ò Text Worlds Ò Graphical Worlds Ò Internet-Connected Worlds Ò The Avatars Cyberconferences Ò Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs Ò Virtual World Platforms Ò Virtual Worlds Timeline Project and Other Research History of Virtual Worlds The Virtual World, its Origins in Deep Time So what is a Virtual World? A place described by words or projected through pictures which creates a space in the imagination real enough that you can feel you are inside of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards Balancing Fun and Exertion in Exergames
    Towards Balancing Fun and Exertion in Exergames Exploring the Impact of Movement-Based Controller Devices, Exercise Concepts, Game Adaptivity and Player Modes on Player Experience and Training Intensity in Different Exergame Settings Zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) genehmigte Dissertation von Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken (geb. Martin) aus Hadamar Tag der Einreichung: 05.11.2020, Tag der Prüfung: 11.02.2021 1. Gutachten: Prof. Dr. rer. medic. Josef Wiemeyer 2. Gutachten: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frank Hänsel Darmstadt – D 17 Department of Human Sciences Institute of Sport Science Towards Balancing Fun and Exertion in Exergames: Exploring the Impact of Movement-Based Controller Devices, Exercise Concepts, Game Adaptivity and Player Modes on Player Experience and Training Intensity in Different Exergame Settings Zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) genehmigte Dissertation von Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken (geb. Martin) aus Hadamar am Fachbereich Humanwissenschaften der Technischen Universität Darmstadt 1. Gutachten: Prof. Dr. rer. medic. Josef Wiemeyer 2. Gutachten: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frank Hänsel Tag der Einreichung: 05.11.2020 Tag der Prüfung: 11.02.2021 Darmstadt, Technische Universität Darmstadt Darmstadt — D 17 Bitte zitieren Sie dieses Dokument als: URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-141864 URL: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/14186 Dieses Dokument wird bereitgestellt von tuprints, E-Publishing-Service der TU Darmstadt http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de [email protected] Jahr der Veröffentlichung der Dissertation auf TUprints: 2021 Die Veröffentlichung steht unter folgender Creative Commons Lizenz: Namensnennung – Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Attribution – Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Erklärungen laut Promotionsordnung §8 Abs.
    [Show full text]
  • Penny Arcade: Volume 8: Magical Kids in Danger PDF Book
    PENNY ARCADE: VOLUME 8: MAGICAL KIDS IN DANGER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Mike Krahulik,Jerry Holkins | 112 pages | 11 Sep 2012 | Oni Press,US | 9781620100066 | English | Portland, United States Penny Arcade: Volume 8: Magical Kids in Danger PDF Book The wares of the poor little match girl illuminate her cold world, bringing some beauty to her brief, tragic life. He has a fascination with unicorns , a secret love of Barbies , is a dedicated fan of Spider-Man and Star Wars , and has proclaimed " Jessie's Girl " to be the greatest song of all time. Thompson proceeded to phone Krahulik, as related by Holkins in the corresponding news post. The transformation of humanity through nano… More. PC Gamer. Jul 09, Kevin Gentilcore rated it really liked it. Anyway, people probably already know whether or not they like Penny Arcade. Retrieved March 23, Retrieved May 10, Unless you are a major geek like me, you have no idea what Penny Arcade is. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 26, Retrieved May 9, The comics are from , the commentary from , and both are reflecting an industry that moves rapidly, so both are often unintentionally humorous just in regards to how things have fallen out since. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. He has just enough fuel to reach the planet—then he finds that he has a sto… More. Some of these works have been included with the distribution of the game, and others have appeared on pre-launch official websites. Good collection, quick read. Published September 11th by Oni Press first published August 29th Want to Read Currently Reading Read.
    [Show full text]
  • The Decline of Mmos
    The Decline of MMOs Prof. Richard A. Bartle University of Essex United Kingdom May 2013 Abstract Ten years ago, massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs) had a bright and exciting future. Today, their prospects do not look so glorious. In an effort to attract ever-more players, their gameplay has gradually been diluted and their core audience has deserted them. Now that even their sources of new casual players are drying up, MMOs face a slow and steady decline. Their problems are easy to enumerate: they cost too much to make; too many of them play the exact same way; new revenue models put off key groups of players; they lack immersion; they lack wit and personality; players have been trained to want experiences that they don’t actually want; designers are forbidden from experimenting. The solutions to these problems are less easy to state. Can anything be done to prevent MMOs from fading away? Well, yes it can. The question is, will the patient take the medicine? Introduction From their lofty position as representing the future of videogames, MMOs have fallen hard. Whereas once they were innovative and compelling, now they are repetitive and take-it-or-leave-it. Although they remain profitable at the moment, we know (from the way that the casual games market fragmented when it matured) that this is not sustainable in the long term: players will either leave for other types of game or focus on particular mechanics that have limited appeal or that can be abstracted out as stand-alone games (or even apps).
    [Show full text]
  • Art Worlds for Art Games Edited
    Loading… The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association Vol 7(11): 41-60 http://loading.gamestudies.ca An Art World for Artgames Felan Parker York University [email protected] Abstract Drawing together the insights of game studies, aesthetics, and the sociology of art, this article examines the legitimation of ‘artgames’ as a category of indie games with particularly high cultural and artistic status. Passage (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, 2007) serves as a case study, demonstrating how a diverse range of factors and processes, including a conducive ‘opportunity space’, changes in independent game production, distribution, and reception, and the emergence of a critical discourse, collectively produce an assemblage or ‘art world’ (Baumann, 2007a; 2007b) that constitutes artgames as legitimate art. Author Keywords Artgames; legitimation; art world; indie games; critical discourse; authorship; Passage; Rohrer Introduction The seemingly meteoric rise to widespread recognition of ‘indie’ digital games in recent years is the product of a much longer process made up of many diverse elements. It is generally accepted as a given that indie games now play an important role in the industry and culture of digital games, but just over a decade ago there was no such category in popular discourse – independent game production went by other names (freeware, shareware, amateur, bedroom) and took place in insular, autonomous communities of practice focused on particular game-creation tools or genres, with their own distribution networks, audiences, and systems of evaluation, only occasionally connected with a larger marketplace. Even five years ago, the idea of indie games was still burgeoning and becoming stable, and it is the historical moment around 2007 that I will address in this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Art and Art History 1
    Art and Art History 1 theoretical knowledge to create meaningful artistic contributions. Visual ART AND ART HISTORY imagery created through painting, drawing, printmaking, book arts, ceramics, sculpture, graphic design, media arts, or game design are Art & Art History educates artists, scholars and teachers by fostering emphasized in this program. Additionally, students can also pursue teacher creative expression, visual literacy, and critical thinking through practice certification to apply their artistic skills in the K-12 classroom. and research. By developing mastery of various disciplines in art, students are prepared to become leaders in their chosen careers and make positive 2D contributions to the world. Art & Art History is fully accredited by the • Artist National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). • Fashion illustrator • Comic illustrator Contact Information • Storyboarder For more information, contact Art & Art History at 402.554.2420. • Medical illustrator Website (http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-communication-fine- • Art therapist arts-and-media/art-and-art-history/) • Concept artist Admissions • Art educator Any student enrolled in the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media 3D may declare a major in Art & Art History. To advance to upper level courses, students working on their BASA must pass a portfolio review (ART 2000), • Sculptor which is normally conducted after a student has completed the Studio Core • Art educator I courses, or the equivalents. • Special effects artist • 3D animator Degrees
    [Show full text]
  • Art Games Applied to Disability
    Figure 1. Thatgamecompany. PlayStation 3. (2009), Flower. Figure 2. Thatgamecompany. PlayStation 4. (2013), Flow. Esther Guanche Dorta. Phd student. [email protected] Ana Marqués Ibáñez. Teacher. [email protected] Department of Didactics of Plastic Expression. Faculty of Education. University of La Laguna. Tenerife. Art Games applied to disability. Figure 3. Thatgamecompany. PlayStation 3. (2012), Journey. THEME 4 – Technology – S3 DT Art Games, Disabilities, Design, Videogames, Inclusive education. Art Games applied to disability. Videogames are an emerging medium which represent a new form of artistic design, creating another means of expression for artists as well as different educational context adapted to people with dissabilities. Abstract This is a study of several examples of artistic videogames which can be 1. Art Games and Indie Games Concept The MOMA2 arranged an exhibition on the 50 years of videogame history, made a used to improve the quality of life of persons with impairment, for those review about the design and has added the most significant games to its permanent with specific or general motoric disabilities and mental disabilities in Art Game is an art object associated to the new interactive communications media exhibition, such as those of the Johnson Gallery with 14 videogames, which have order to bring them closer to art and design studies. As well as to develop new approaches in order to include this medium in artistic and a subgenre of the so-called serious videogames. The term was first used in been increased to around fifty. productions, study the impact of these images in Visual Culture and its academic circles in 2002, and referred to a videogame designed to boost artistic and construction by designing.
    [Show full text]
  • The Daedalus Project
    The Daedalus Project Vol. 2-4 (10/12/2004) by Nicholas Yee (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus) The Prince and The Pauper: The Transaction of Virtual Capital for Real-Life Currency Very interesting arguments arose from player responses as to their views on the sale and purchase of virtual items, currency and accounts for RL currency. One common argument for the acceptability of these transactions rests on the inherent nature of capitalism. More importantly, some argue that the real underlying transaction is a transaction of time rather than a transaction of virtual items. I have had friends purchase items from EBay and they have been very happy with the result. I have never been involved myself. I find it much more fun to earn the item rather than purchase it. Though, I do think the idea of making a business by selling virtual goods is intriguing and should not be the 'big deal' many game companies have made of it. These goods have value to many and many simply don't have the time to invest to get the items they want. Just like in life, if you have money, why shouldn’t you be able to buy it? [CoH, F, 44] There are some people that are vehemently against the sale of virtual goods for real life money. However, these 'virtual goods' are things that you could get in any case. Merely paying real life money for them indicates to you that your relaxing time after work is worth real life money to you. I have a friend who makes $50,000 annually.
    [Show full text]
  • A Rundown of What's Going on with Penny Arcade
    12/27/2014 A Rundown of What’s Going on with Penny Arcade Now | A Rundown of What’s Going on with Penny Arcade Now Posted on June 20, 2013 by Tami Baribeau It hasn’t been that long since the last time Penny Arcade did something that cast the company in a negative light, but here we are again with another fiasco that’s been making its way around Twitter today. I thought it would be helpful to do a quick rundown of the events from today to make everyone aware of the situation and help answer some questions about why you might want to rethink supporting Penny Arcade, PAX, or anything affiliated with that organization. It all started today when this panel was posted from PAX Australia, titled “Why So Serious? Has the Industry Forgotten That Games Are Supposed to Be Fun?”. The original screencap of the description is below. “Why does the game industry garner such scrutiny from outside sources and within? Every point aberration gets called into question, reviewers are constantly criticised and developers and publishers professionally and personally attacked. Any titillation gets called out as sexist or misogynistic and involve any antagonist race other than Anglo-Saxons and you’re a racist. It’s gone too far and when will it all end? How can we get off the soapbox and work together to bring a new constructive age into fruition?” There is so much wrong with this panel description that I don’t even know where to begin. The idea that games as a medium are exempt from criticism because they’re “supposed to be fun” is ridiculous and immature.
    [Show full text]
  • Play Chapter: Video Games and Transmedia Storytelling 1
    LONG / PLAY CHAPTER: VIDEO GAMES AND TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING 1 PLAY CHAPTER: VIDEO GAMES AND TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING Geoffrey Long April 25, 2009 Media in Transition 6 Cambridge, MA Revision 1.1 ABSTRACT Although multi‐media franchises have long been common in the entertainment industry, the past two years have seen a renaissance of transmedia storytelling as authors such as Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams have learned the advantages of linking storylines across television, feature films, video games and comic books. Recent video game chapters of transmedia franchises have included Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Lost: Via Domus and, of course, Enter the Matrix ‐ but compared to comic books and webisodes, video games still remain a largely underutilized component in this emerging art form. This paper will use case studies from the transmedia franchises of Star Wars, Lost, The Matrix, Hellboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and others to examine some of the reasons why this might be the case (including cost, market size, time to market, and the impacts of interactivity and duration) and provide some suggestions as to how game makers and storytellers alike might use new trends and technologies to close this gap. INTRODUCTION First of all, thank you for coming. My name is Geoffrey Long, and I am the Communications Director and a Researcher for the Singapore‐MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, where I've been continuing the research into transmedia storytelling that I began as a Master's student here under Henry Jenkins. If you're interested, the resulting Master's thesis, Transmedia Storytelling: Business Aesthetics and Production at the Jim Henson Company is available for downloading from http://www.geoffreylong.com/thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Massive Multi-Player Online Games and the Developing Political Economy of Cyberspace
    Fast Capitalism ISSN 1930-014X Volume 4 • Issue 1 • 2008 doi:10.32855/fcapital.200801.010 Massive Multi-player Online Games and the Developing Political Economy of Cyberspace Mike Kent This article explores economics, production and wealth in massive multi-player online games. It examines how the unique text of each of these virtual worlds is the product of collaboration between the designers of the worlds and the players who participate in them. It then turns its focus to how this collaborative construction creates tension when the ownership of virtual property is contested, as these seemingly contained virtual economies interface with the global economy. While these debates occur at the core of this virtual economy, at the periphery cheap labor from less-developed economies in the analogue world are being employed to ‘play’ these games in order to ‘mine’ virtual goods for resale to players from more wealthy countries. The efforts of the owners of these games, to curtail this extra-world trading, may have inadvertently driven the further development of this industry towards larger organizations rather than small traders, further cementing this new division of labor. Background In the late 1980s, multi-user dungeons (MUDs) such as LambdaMOO were text-based environments. These computer-mediated online spaces drew considerable academic interest.[1] The more recent online interactive worlds are considerably more complex, thanks to advances in computing power and bandwidth. Encompassing larger and more detailed worlds, they also enclose a much larger population of players. The first game in the new category of Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing Games (known initially by the acronym MMORPG and more recently as MMOG) was Ultima Online http://www.uo.com, which was launched over a decade ago in September 1997.
    [Show full text]
  • Information Privacy in Virtual Worlds: Identifying Unique Concerns Beyond the Online and Offlineorlds W
    NYLS Law Review Vols. 22-63 (1976-2019) Volume 49 Issue 1 State of Play Article 11 January 2004 Information Privacy in Virtual Worlds: Identifying Unique Concerns Beyond the Online and Offlineorlds W Tal Z. Zarksy Yale Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/nyls_law_review Part of the Computer Law Commons, Gaming Law Commons, Internet Law Commons, and the Privacy Law Commons Recommended Citation Tal Z. Zarksy, Information Privacy in Virtual Worlds: Identifying Unique Concerns Beyond the Online and Offlineorlds W , 49 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. (2004-2005). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@NYLS. It has been accepted for inclusion in NYLS Law Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@NYLS. \\server05\productn\N\NLR\49-1\NLR113.txt unknown Seq: 1 8-DEC-04 13:13 INFORMATION PRIVACY IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: IDENTIFYING UNIQUE CONCERNS BEYOND THE ONLINE AND OFFLINE WORLDS TAL Z. ZARSKY* I. INTRODUCTION Online virtual gaming communities are evolving into an in- triguing phenomenon, which is provoking legal scholars to ac- knowledge the unique legal issues associated with the proliferation of this technology.1 As online virtual worlds consist of ongoing, dig- ital interactions among many individuals, it is only natural that legal scholars will inquire into how personal information is collected and used within this realm.2 In this Essay, I analyze how information privacy concerns are implicated by the expansion of online virtual worlds.3 In doing so, I intend to address both the information pri- vacy and gaming communities.
    [Show full text]