Online Multiplayer Games

Bainbridge, William Sims

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-02268-5

Cited by 21 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…(Castells, 2000a, 404, Castells' emphasis) More recently, this idea has crystallised around a synthetic parallel world which is being called the metaverse (Ball, 2022), the idea of which grew out of science fiction (the term was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, but the basic idea was used earlier by Stanley Weinbaum, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, as well as Gibson -Ball, 2022) and early ambitions for the Web (Marc Andreessen founded Netscape, and Jim Clark invented Silicon Graphics' 3D Geometry Engine, both in anticipation of the metaverse - Gilder, 2018, 166). The vision was honed by online multiplayer games such as Second Life (Bainbridge, 2009;Barnett and Coulson, 2010;Castronova, 2005;Ducheneaut et al, 2006), 3D virtual environments such as VR Chat (Gunkel et al, 2018;McVeigh-Schultz et al, 2018Zhan et al, 2020), and augmented reality environments such as Pokémon Go (Berryman, 2012;Juan and Pérez, 2011;Zhan et al, 2020) and, is, at the time of writing, a future development of immersive virtual or augmented reality, which may take the form of a series of persistent virtual spaces unified by a platform infrastructure to create an ambient/virtual data analysis infrastructure, and may emerge from unconnected virtual spaces shared at scale (Lee et al, 2021).…”

Section: From Innovation Clusters To the Metaversementioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Modernity

O’Hara

2022

FNT in Web Science

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Modernity" is a social, cultural or historical descriptor for a certain type of society or set of social arrangements. This monograph reviews narratives of digital modernity, without endorsing them; as narratives, they selectively discuss aspects of our sociotechnical context, descriptively, teleologically or normatively. Digital modernity narratives focus on the possibilities of the data gathered by an ambient data infrastructure, enabled by ubiquitous devices such as the smartphone, and activities such as social networking and e-commerce. Some emphasise continuities with 20th century modernity narratives, while others emphasise discontinuity, such as theories of the singularity. Digital modernity is characterised by: a subjunctive outlook where people's choices can be anticipated and improved upon; the valorisation of disruptive innovation on demand; and control provided by data analysis within a virtual realm (cyberspace or the metaverse) which can be extended and applied to the physical world (in such applications as the quantified self and the smart city). The synergies and tensions between these three aspects are explored, as are the opportunities for and dilemmas posed by misinformation. Five principles emerge from the study of relevant texts and business models: (1) the quantity of data being produced in the world has enabled, and been enabled by, technological, social, economic and

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Section: From Innovation Clusters To the Metaversementioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Modernity

O’Hara

2022

FNT in Web Science

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“…In actual gameplay, each of them can switch between close combat with sword, axe or staff, or doing damage at a distance by shooting arrows (Eradan and Farin) or magical energy (Andriel). A traditional categorization of combat roles in multi-player games combines (1) a tank who engages the enemy in melee combat, (2) a healer who stands back and cures damage done by the enemy, and (3) DPS (damage per second) who uses missile weapons from afar (Bainbridge, 2010). These could be described as three different personality types: tough and aggressive (Farin), meek and nurturant (Andriel), aloof and precise (Eradan).…”

Section: An Intricate Expansionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dimensions of Online Role-Playing: Anchored in the Tolkien Mythos

Bainbridge

2022

Social Science Computer Review

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Based on close study of two multi-player games in the tradition of J. R. R. Tolkien, this study documents the complex features of modern role-playing in online virtual worlds and constructs a six-component typology of its dimensions. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is oriented toward the popular movies based on Tolkien’s novels, and can be played by as many as three people. The Lord of the Rings Online is based directly on the novels and is massively multi-player, even one event reported here having 487 avatars simultaneously at the same virtual location. A brief sociometric analysis of thousands of online stories in Tolkien’s legendarium, observation inside 20 Tolkien Facebook groups, and references to social science published during Tolkien’s lifetime, anchor the analysis in a tradition. The six theory components interact dynamically: identity, function, connection, engagement, representation, and property. They were derived from participant observation and ethnographic methods, but also illustrated by statistics, notably censuses of avatars and their homesteads. A great number of other role-playing computer games have similar components, but often fewer and less clearly represented. Therefore, this pair in the Tolkien mythos were especially suitable for this concept-development project.

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Transavatars

Bainbridge¹

2013

The Transhumanist Reader

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Online Multiplayer Games

Cited by 21 publications

References 112 publications

Digital Modernity

Digital Modernity

Dimensions of Online Role-Playing: Anchored in the Tolkien Mythos

Transavatars

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