"Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities"--Howard Rheingold

In “Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities,” Howard Rheingold discusses MUDs. MUDs are Multi-User Dungeons, which are make believe worlds in computer databases. Through these worlds, people “use and program languages to improvise melodramas, build worlds and all of the objects in them, solve puzzles, invent amusements and tools, compete for prestige and power, gain wisdom, seek revenge, indulge greed and lust and violent impulses,” (149). Through MUDs, people develop an alternate life. This is good for people who are not of high social status in the real world and may not have a “glamorous life,“ but want to. These people can use MUDs to develop an alternate life to live. MUDs can also serve to form marriages and romances.

Although these may make MUDs seem only beneficial, MUDs also pose some serious threats. MUDding can become seriously addictive. Some people spent 70 to 80 hours a week. MUDding, which can harmfully affect their social life as well as school work. In addition, MUDding increases telecommunications traffic as well as using a lot of computer memory. Lastly, some MUD users lie about their gender and also pretend to be other people in real life. These harmful threats that MUDding has caused, has led to the ban of MUDding in college campuses.

Curious on how MUDding becomes addictive, I read an article about it. In this article, a woman explains how people who are slowly becoming addicted to MUDding spend all of their available time MUDding and even start to cut out activities to spend more time MUDding. The woman discusses how people who become addicted to MUDding can lose their marriage, education, and job. This woman then describes how her husband became addicted to MUDding. She saw the signs of his addiction at the beginning when she knew she had competition with MUDding for his time and attention. The woman was jealous of the time and attention he would spend MUDding. However, she never knew the extent to which it would affect their marriage and lives. The woman then explains how she doesn’t know how she will eventually handle her husband’s addiction to MUDding. His addiction has lasted three years and she doesn’t know if their marriage will be able to last through it. Before I read this article, I didn’t really think it was necessary that universities banned MUDding. However, now I see the extent to which people become addicted, and why it should be banned across universities.

Positive outcomes from the WELL

In Howard Rheingold’s “Virtual Community“, Rheingold describes his experience with WELL. WELL stands for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, which is an online virtual community. People from all over the world discuss different things with each other and write e-mails to each other. Over time, people begin to care about these people that they have talked with through the WELL, and form an “emotional attachment” (Rheingold, 95) to them. In addition to talking to each other through the WELL, they also provide support, flirt, gossip, argue, play games, and fall in love with each other. Howard Rheingold has been to real-life WELL births, WELL marriages, and a WELL funeral. According to Rheingold, “People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind,” (96). In addition, the WELL has influenced other things. Craig Newmark, the inventor of Craigslist told me that “the WELL strongly influenced the philosophy of Craigslist.”

In a YouTube video, a boy talking about virtual communities says that he is a loner because he doesn’t find people that he likes to be with. He said that he lives alone, but doesn’t feel alone because of the virtual communities. In addition, he also said that he has a lot of internet friends who know him better than anyone. .

Many people in our class are strongly opposed to virtual communities and “communicating with complete strangers” without face-to-face interaction, but WELL.com shows the positive consequences from the WELL. According to well.com, members of the WELL have “gone into business together, fallen in and out of love, cultivated feuds, taken kickass vacations together and enriched lives.” They do everything that normal people do in real life, but without the face-to-face interaction. Before someone talks to someone through the WELL, yes they are a complete stranger, but isn’t that the same thing that happens in real life? In real life when you first start talking to someone new, they are a stranger. However, shortly after, you get to know the person and form an emotional attachment to them. This is what happens through virtual communities as well. I’m honestly not opposed to virtual communities. I don’t think it’s weird now in our technologically influenced society to talk to people through virtual communities. After you talk to them for a while, you probably become so close to them, as if you know them personally. In fact, you don’t have to worry about them judging you and you could probably tell them more things than you could with the people you’ve known for years.

"The Cult of the Amateur"--Andrew Keen

In “The Cult of the Amateur,” Andrew Keen discusses how the noble amateur is causing a cultural revolution of the Web 2.0 and “threatens to turn our intellectual traditions and institutions upside down,” (Keen 36). According to Keen, an amateur is “a hobbyist, knowledgeable or otherwise, someone who does not make a living from his or her field of interest, a layperson, lacking credentials, a dabbler,” (Keen 36). Today, on the internet, amateurs instead of experts or professionals are creating information on the internet. Trusted and reliable references run by professionals are being replaced by references run by amateurs. Websites such as Wikipedia are being “run on democratic principles,” (Keen 36). Through this, everyone has a say and voice. This includes all amateurs who may have no idea what they are talking about.

On Wikipedia, anyone can edit or add any information they want. The problem with this is people use Wikipedia as a credible source for their information. If the information on Wikipedia is written by amateurs, it may be wrong because according to Keen, “The voice of a high school kid has equal value to that of an Ivy League scholar or a trained professional,” (42). This poses the question of how can a garbage man be considered credible in an argument with a trained chemist on a chemistry topic? The Web 2.0 aids in promoting these questions. By allowing amateurs to post what they want on the internet, we are challenging professionals who post truthful credible information. By challenging the professionals, the information posted by the amateurs threatens our professional institutions. According to Keen, the readers and internet users pay for this, they get “’ a state of intellectual enervation and depletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance,’” (45). It makes it difficult for internet users to understand what is credible and reliable, and what is not. Many internet users assume that the information on the internet can be trusted, but it can not. With an increasing amount of information created by amateurs, “we will have no choice but to read everything with a skeptical eye,” (Keen 46).

Curious about the unreliable information found on the internet, I came across someone’s blog. This blog discusses many websites that have information that are unreliable. The question with this, however, is if this blog is reliable or not? How do readers know if this blog writer/amateur is writing credible information or not? The answer is, we do not know. This is the problem that the Web 2.0 is creating, which Andrew Keen discusses in “The Cult of the Amateur.”
http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2004/10/quacksites-most-unreliable-health.html

Transmedia Storytelling 101

In “Transmedia Storytelling 101,” Jenkins discusses Transmedia Storytelling. He defines Transmedia Storytelling as a “process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” Usually each medium is involved with the unfolding of the story. People gather information from many mediums to form a new perception. Transmedia Storytelling allows companies to increase their viewers/customers by being able to target to different groups. This is shown in a YouTube video. This video contains several Transmedia clippings. It shows segments from the Simpson’s cartoons, video game, movie, and others.

These are not the only ways that the Simpson’s has formed a synergy with numorous forms of media. The Simpson’s has a television show, comics, movies, action figures, board games, video games, dolls, and so much more. This is probably the reason why the Simpson’s is so popular still, even after the many years it has been around. In addition, these multiple forms of mediums allow the viewer to get involved with the storyline and stay interested and hooked on the Simpson‘s.

Through the video games, board games, dolls, action figures, movies, comics, and television show, the creator of the Simpson’s can target to different groups and ultimately increase it’s viewers and customers. This increases revenue for the creators of the Simpson’s because through all of the purchases of the movie, comics, video games, etc., they are making money and spreading their brand. This is what makes the creators of the Simpson’s so successful and well-known. I feel that Transmedia storytelling contributes greatly to a brand. Without Transmedia storytelling, a brand would not be profitable and popular for a long period of time.