Victoria McArthur

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...

Real ethics in a virtual world

This paper investigates the ethics of the appearance and behavior of avatars in massively multi-user online communities, in particular, avatars created for virtual business interactions in Second Life. The ethics of research conducted with avatars in 3D online environments is also discussed.

Knowing, not doing: modalities of gameplay expertise in world of warcraft addons

In this paper, we consider the impacts of game addons on conventional notions of game-based expertise in World of Warcraft, through the analysis of 37 travelogues - a data collection tool designed for use in MMOG research. We adopt a multi-faceted definition of gaming expertise as described by Taylor, Jenson, De Castell and Humphrey [33] and we apply their categorization of expertise modalities to the addons named by our study participants. We find that the most commonly understood expressions of expertise in games (time investment and skill) are less represented in the addons reported by our participants.

Communication technologies and cultural identity a critical discussion of ICTs for development

In this paper we discuss the design and deployment of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the developing world - specifically, the issues of culturally sensitive design and subjectivity through an analysis of the hardware, software, and deployment of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer. In our analysis we examine the design of the OLPC computer, and discuss its deployment within the context of information fetishism in the west. The goal of this paper is to encourage a critical discussion of the ways in which technologies are being designed for and deployed in developing nations.

World of Warcraft as a ludic cyborg

This paper describes World of Warcraft as a ludic cyborg --- an entity that exists for play and depends on both artificial and organic components to survive. We argue that the popularity of the game arose due to the balance between the types of socialization it promotes and in-game literacies acquired by players on PvP servers.

Construction of cybertypes in Lineage II: an analysis of game interfaces and support documentation

This paper discusses social exclusion by analyzing the avatar creation interface of the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) Lineage II. We use a previously developed syntagmatic-paradigmatic structure analysis for analyzing MMORPG interfaces and extend that method to include textual analysis of support documentation. This study concludes that virtual world designers must be more critical in their choices for representing sex and race.