Tyler Pace

The rogue in the lovely black dress: intimacy in world of warcraft

In this paper we present a critical analysis of player accounts of intimacy and intimate experiences in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW). Our analysis explores four characteristics that players articulated about their virtual intimate experiences: the permeability of intimacy across virtual and real worlds, the mundane as the origin of intimacy, the significance of reciprocity and exchange, and the formative role of temporality in shaping understandings and recollections of intimate experiences. We also consider the manifest ways that WoWs software features support and encourage these characteristics.

Blissfully productive: grouping and cooperation in world of warcraft instance runs

Gaming has attracted growing interest in both CSCW and HCI in recent years. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing collaboration in 5-person instance runs in World of Warcraft, an aspect of the game that is considered routine and mundane work by players yet remains largely unexamined in current literature. Using a combination of ethnographic observation, interview, chat and video log analysis, we unpack the conditions under which players can produce the most effective outcomes while having fun, and offer a three-level model of successful instance runs.

Understanding affective interaction: Emotion, engagement, and internet videos

As interest in experience and affect in HCI continues to grow, particularly with regard to social media and Web 2.0 technologies, research on techniques for evaluating user engagement is needed. This paper presents a study of popular Internet videos involving a mixed method approach to user engagement. Instruments included physiological measures, emotional self-report measures, and personally expressive techniques, such as open-ended prose reviews. Using triangulation to interpret the results, we express relationships among perceived emotion, experienced emotion, video preference, and contextual factors.

Celerometer and idling reminder: persuasive technology for school bus eco-driving

We are designing a feedback system to encourage more fuel-efficient driving habits among school-bus drivers. We chose to design for the school bus because as one of the largest public transport systems in the U.S., it is a major contributor to the countrys total fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. Our design uses persuasive technology to discourage excessive idling and aggressive driving by providing real-time in-vehicle feedback for self-monitoring.

Come meet me at Ulduar: progression raiding in world of warcraft

In spite of decades of research on virtual worlds, our understanding of one popular form of virtual world behavior - raiding - remains limited. Raiding is important because it entails intense, high-risk, and complex collaborative behaviors in computer-mediated environments. This paper contributes to CSCW literature by offering a longitudinal analysis of raiding behavior using system data manually collected from the game world itself, comparing two raiding teams as they worked through the same content. Supplemented with interviews and chat transcripts, this research sheds light on what actually happens during raids across four different temporal scales: seconds, hours, days, and months. It also distinguishes between behaviors that are imposed by the system design and those chosen by players. Finally, it derives two viable raiding styles from the data.

Are socially exclusive values embedded in the avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how both the presentation and limitation of visual choices in massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPG) avatar creation interfaces tends to exclude or favor different real life social groups.Design/methodology/approach – A novel method combining both quantitative and critical analysis of the syntagmatic‐paradigmatic structure of MMORPG avatar creation interfaces is used to inform the findings of this study.Findings – This study concludes that as cultural interfaces, current fantasy themed MMORPGs remediate socially exclusive values both from fantasy literature and from their own game lore. The socially exclusive values deal largely with extreme and immutable racial and sexual dimorphism.Research limitations/implications – Interfaces which present users with color palettes and/or smooth slider‐based body modifiers do not lend themselves well to this method of analysis. In addition to this, only a handful of the popular MMORPGs are analyzed withi...

Can an orc catch a cab in stormwind?: cybertype preference in the world of warcraft character creation interface

Virtual worlds are reaching a point of critical mass as a medium for the exchange of business, entertainment and other cultural products and values. As cultural interfaces, virtual worlds mediate the access to remediated cultural data. This remediation of cultural data may transfer existing, repressive racial ideologies to new media. Limited research about racial stereotypes in virtual worlds exists and this paper contributes to the growing research body by demonstrating a novel study of a dominant racial stereotype in the character creation interface of World of Warcraft.

Emerging Standards in Virtual Fashion: An Analysis of Critical Strategies Used in Second Life Fashion Blogs

As virtual worlds evolve, so does the visual complexity and customizability of the avatars inside the worlds. In virtual worlds such as Second Life, prospering virtual fashion industries have brought about, among other things, the formation of virtual fashion blogs. This paper presents a content analysis of major virtual fashion blogs with an emphasis on identifying emerging standards and strategies for virtual fashion commentary and criticism. Overall, this study discovered a somewhat unified voice among fashion blogs, revealing a significant blurring of real world and virtual boundaries when writing about virtual fashion. Additionally, the increasingly important role of the language of technology in virtual fashion writing is noted. The paper concludes with a discussion of the growing impact of virtual fashion on the design of avatar customization interfaces.

A tribute to Mad skill: expert amateur visuality and world of Warcraft Machinima

In this paper, we look at the prominent World of Warcraft machinima community as an expert amateur online com-munity and present a multi-part study of a canon of the most successful works (i.e., machinima videos) produced by this community. By focusing our study on its roughly 300 most successful examples, the determination of which we explain in the paper, we are able to highlight the evolv-ing visual practices, tools, and aesthetic sensibilities of the community. Chiefly, our study identifies how creativity support tools and visual practices are inextricably linked and mutually support the in-kind development of the other. For WoW machinima and its producers, the affordance of creativity tools and the cultivation of visual skill synced at key moments and in powerful ways to support the rapid growth, experimentation, and refinement of amateur exper-tise at the individual and community levels.

From organizational to community creativity: paragon leadership & creativity stories at etsy

With the rise of massive scale, globally distributed creative communities, such as Deviant Art, Etsy, and Minecraft, the role of creative leadership in sociotechnical systems is worth investigating. This paper presents a case study of one strategy Etsy, one such online creative community, uses to articulate the creative dispositions of the communitys exemplar members: Featured Seller interviews. For this study, we report on a combined content analysis and close reading of Featured Seller interviews on Etsy.com, followed up with member check interviews. Our analysis highlights the demographics of featured sellers, the ways in they express their identities and creative processes, and how they position themselves within the broader Etsy community. Our findings demonstrate that Etsys administrators provide both a platform and scaffolding for community leaders to co-articulate with them the creative ideals they believe will strengthen the bonds of the Etsy community.