Task #7

Part One:
Do you belong to any online communities?

I belong to last.fm & blip.fm but have not really gotten into the latter yet.. I have twitter so I feel like I can just tweet about songs rather than blip them. Here is my last.fm profile! : )  

Last.fm though is a great online community. I joined it because it keeps track of the music you listen to and recommends new artists based on your track record. I am currently scrobbling music from my itunes and my iPod. 

It also tracks upcoming concerts and gives artist profiles. Through the profiles you can listen to an artist’s radio that includes their own tracks and track from similar artists. You can also play a “my library” radio or a “my recommendations” radio. Although, they have recently started charging users for the radio feature which is very unfortunate. I only have like 18 tracks left I can listen to for free. The radio was a cool option because you can tag and “love” certain tracks to remember what you liked/disliked. I don’t think I will pay for future radio services because with just a little bit more effort on my part, I can google certain bands that are recommended and listen to track off their website or Myspace, etc. I get a lot out of my last.fm and find that its a great way to discover hidden bands that change the way you listen to music. If I am ever feeling like I am in a musical rut, I simply log onto my last.fm and browse my neighbour’s artists (last.fm also keeps track of the ‘musical compatibility’ of other users or neighbours if the compatibility is high). I joined last.fm because my sister told me about it, and even though I don’t have many friends that use it I still like to use it. Its definitely easy to make friends with people over a similar taste in music even if they live halfway across the world. I guess if

 you are very passionate about something that is how these online communities foster friendship/relationships and growth. I definitely wouldn’t be able to bond with people over a shared love of asparagus, but music is one of those things that brings people together offline and online, especially thanks to online communities like last.fm or blip.fm.

• Are virtual communities (3D) ‘real’ communities? Why/not?
• Discuss the benefits (what are they) to players/participants – both in the physical world & in virtual worlds (ie WoW) – of being in these communities (the Williams et al (2006) talks about this).

I am only part of Second Life because of this course, but I definitely think that it is a real community. Why not? I mean if people can fall in love via email, a virtual world is truly something spectacular. Second Life, WoW, Everquest, Runescape and many more virtual worlds offer players to build relationships around a variety of different interests. I think that to say a virtual world is not a ‘real’ community is similar to the outlandish argument about what constitutes a ‘real’ family. Gay and/or lesbian couples and families face discrimination because the so called definition of family does not include a homosexual definition, but the truth is, they are still a family with the same kind of loving bonds as a heterosexual family has. The definition of family has changed many times throughout history to include mixed families, divorced families, etc. The definition of community as we discussed in lecture is similar to that of family. And it too must adapt to new technologies, events, people, etc. Virtual worlds celebrate that community has not been broken down in a world where we no longer rely on our neighbours or on geographical location. Virtual communities transcend geography, age, race, class, and gender (most of the time). They allow for the ultimate community experience and foster casual, romantic, and  business relationships along with many others. 

Benefits to building community through virtual worlds can be seen online as well as offline. Williams et al. (2006) explains that WoW is like a team sport that contains its own rules, interactions, boundaries and social norms & practices. Virtual worlds are not meant to replace the physical world, but to enhance and complement it for those participating. Social capital is gained through socialization even in a virtual world. Some players benefit from finding an accepting community online to fill the void that is missing offline. Others connect with friends/family from the physical world and bring those relationships online. The flow is two sided, which means that online relationships can grow into offline ones and visa-versa.

Part Two:
Revisit what you’ve written so far about your research paper and formulate a research question or thesis statement (or key argument) for your research paper. You can either set up your paper so that it asks a question (research question) and then your paper will seek to answer it; or, you can make a statement or argument and then your paper will make/support that argument. You’ll need to think about – what is my paper going to be about? What’s the story I want to tell? This frames your paper and will go in the introduction of your final paper.

Research question: Clearly, learning is possible through games and video games, yet there is still a strong argument whether games as learning environments are a negative context or a positive context. Do video and computer games hegemonically distribute information and knowledge to a passive gamer, or can we give these gamers some credit? Is there a difference between learning violence and learning about global warming?