Quiz 1. Gray begins her article with a story of the harassment she experienced on Xbox live. According to her, what are the two things that are intersecting in this story? a) Her experience as a woman and as an African-American b) 12 year old boys and the Internet c) Black and white (hence her name, "Gray") d) Military and gaming

Quiz 2. “Anonymity on the internet _______ people, compelling some to say and do things that they would not otherwise do.” Gray goes on to say that this is expressed in two ways: “benign” as when people show “unusual acts of kindness and generosity”, and “toxic”, as when people harass or berate others in ways they wouldn’t normally do offline. a) commodifies b) frames c) punishes d) disinhbits

Quiz 3. Blizzard asked a guild to remove what proclamation about their group, arguing that it was inappropriate because it might "incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game"? a) The guild kills other players b) The guild is GLBT friendly c) The guild is human-only d) The guild is anti-Blizzard

Quiz 4. According to Cory Doctorow, quoted in the WoW article, what is one huge advantage real life has over gamelife? a) In real life you can see what people look like b) In real life you can discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation c) In real life you can eat real food d) In real life you can appeal a nonsensical interpretation of the law

Group Presentation!

Who here has been harassed or talked down to by someone they don’t know online? “GOLDEN DIPWAD”

Early days of “cyberspace” (late 80s – late 90s) LambdaMOO: “Space” was a metaphor. It was all text.

Real life identities were hidden

Promises & perils of “leaving your body behind” “The physical world… is a place where identity and position of the people you communicate with are well known, fixed, and highly visual. In cyberspace, everybody is in the dark” (Kitchin, “The World in Wires”, 1998)

“an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea” In online games the expectation is that it’s not “you” – but who you want to play as / with.

Some facts/theories about avatars… The more realistic the virtual world, the more people will make avatars that look like them The more novice players are, the more they’ll make avatars that look like them GingerJesus: Guess what he looked like in real life

e.g. the “Militant Misses” Xbox live clan in Kishonna Gray’s article

This is not a new tension… GOFFMAN?

Identity as what you ARE (ie. female, 47 years old, left-handed, 5’9”, etc) Identity as what you DO (i.e. university student, poker player, gamer, dancer) Where does sexuality fit in? Where does gender fit in? Where does ethnicity fit in? Goffman: We perform different roles – we are different people – based on the given social situation

HAVING TWO IDENTITIES FOR YOURSELF IS AN EXAMPLE OF A LACK OF INTEGRITY

“like farming”

Identity as what you are vs what you do What matters more in.... Facebook Online role-playing games Xbox Live School What role does each play: Design & ‘rules’ of the service Other users