Documenting virtual world cultures

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how virtual world communities employ new media as a repository to record information about their past. Design/methodology/approach – Using the notions of documentary practice and memory-making as a framework, a case study of MMORPG City of Heroes’ (CoH) virtual community on Reddit discussion board “/r/cityofheroes” was conducted. The study consists of an interpretative analysis of posts, comments, images, and other materials submitted to /r/cityofheroes during a period of approximately seven months. Findings – The principal finding of the study is that the CoH community, with varying levels of intentionality, documented a range of pasts on /r/cityofheroes, relating to CoH as a game world, a site of personal experience, a product, a nexus of narratives, and a game. The analysis also lays bare the community’s memory-making processes, in which the documented conceptions of CoH’s past were put to work in the present, informing community action and viewpoints. Originality/value – Games and gaming practices are increasingly prevalent in leisure and professional settings. This trend, which makes virtual environments and online media proxies for or augmentations of “real life”, makes it necessary for information scholars to understand how the full range of human information behaviours, including documenting, and memory-making, emerge or are replicated online. Additionally, few studies have examined the interplay between new media affordances, documentary practices, and memory-making in the context of virtual world communities.

Belgeselde Mekân ve Hafıza: Masumiyet Belgeseli Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

“…Hatırlamak aynı zamanda geçmişe dair anlayışları uygulamaya koyarak bugünü oluşturmaktır. Hatırlanan anılar, bugünün kararlarının alınmasında geçmişten taşınan bilgi, görüş, eylem ve deneyimin temelidir (Sköld, 2015). Diğer bir deyişle hatırlama geçmişi bugüne taşımaktır.…”

Exploring the Virtual Culture of Reality Television Communities: Lessons From #Date My Family

“…Since virtual communities are distinct mediated groups bound by the commonality of interest (Lull 2001; Sköld 2015), it makes sense why the hashtag would be used as a point of convergence for Twitter communities (Zappavigna 2015). The key characteristic of a hashtag virtual Twitter community is the high number of interactions among those contributing to the hashtag itself through replying to tweets (Bruns and Burgess 2011, 5).…”

Documenting Information Processes and Practices: Paradata, Provenance Metadata, Life‐Cycles and Pipelines

“…Explanatory research is more often stemming from knowledge organisation and information‐modelling (e.g., Greenberg et al, 2021; Leipzig et al, 2020; Mayer et al, 2013b) background whereas in descriptive research it is possible to trace influences of heritage studies, anthropology and science and technology studies (e.g. Huvila, 2020; Sköld, 2015; Trace & Karadkar, 2017). In practice, however, the division between the two principled approaches and conceptual spheres is not watertight.…”