Lives Online: CyberCultural Studies

With the final exam fast approaching, I thought this might express some of the feelings you may be experiencing:

No, it’s not new, but I really like the stick-figure treatment. Très Kingdom of Loathing. And no, I have no idea where I got it. It’s been sitting on my desktop for ages.

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Alert reader Nick sent this in. CNNMoney (”the Internet home of Money Magazine” et al.) reports on the top 5 new new careers. Coming in at number 5: Second Life Lawyer.

Check it out. As they say at Kingdom of Loathing: A Second Life Lawyer Could Be You!

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Joystiq has a post up about a lengthy article in Rolling Stone on Second Life creator Philip Rosedale.

Definitely some interesting reading, and may even answer of the questions or complaints you have about SL.

Best way to download quality mp3. Use these letters to navigate our new site:movie

Second Life has updated their client programs once again, and that means that you’ll need to update the program you use to access it. (Which you must do because we’ll be spending class on Monday in Second Life, and part of the final exam will be in Second Life.)

If you’re running Second Life on your own computer, log in and when it tells you to update the client, do so. You shouldn’t have any problems. I just did it and it’s relatively quick and painless.

If you don’t have access to a computer that will allow you to install things onto it (for instance, if you use the University’s computers), you’ll need to go to the WebCT page and download the files I’ve posted. I’ve already uploaded the Mac client to our WebCT page, and will upload the PC client tonight.

Both clients have been archived as “zip” files. Once you’ve downloaded the client for your computer, you’ll need to unzip the archive and then COPY the entire folder to your thumb drive or burn it to a CD-ROM. To do this, right-click on the unzipped folder and select COPY. Then go to your thumb drive or CD-ROM, right-click and select PASTE. Make sure you’re not just creating a shortcut to the folder (as drag-and-drop sometimes does)!

If your computer doesn’t already have a program on it to unzip archives, ExtractNow is a solid (and free) utility for PCs, and StuffIt is a solid (and free) utility for Macs that will do this for you.

Also, connecting to our recent discussion of the integration of toys and the online world, Mattel has just announced that Barbie is getting a whole new web site! Be sure to check Barbie Girls out. The site appears to be down temporarily, but I’m sure that as soon as they get Barbie changed into her Dream Web Designer outfit, the site will be back up in no time. And you never know, Barbie Girls or the BarbieGirls MP3 players shown below (could Barbie be the iPod killer?) may be on the final.

In class on Friday we’ll be discussing virtual worlds (VWs) other than Second Life.

Here’s a list of VWs to explore:

Chat-type VWs:

• Dubit
• Kaneva
• There
• Virtual Zones
• Furcadia

Game-type VWs:

• Achaea
• Entropia
• Kingdom of Loathing
• Meridian 59
• Neopets/Neotopia
• Ryzom

Most require a downloaded client to run, but Kingdom of Loathing and Neopets/Neotopia are browser-based, which means that you can run either from any computer anywhere.

Before you come to class, please explore all of these sites. Pick one from each group (one chat-type and one game-type) and answer the following questions for each:

Based on the materials on each of your chosen VWs’ web site:
1) What is the setting (the virtual world)?
2) How long has this VW been online?
3) What is your role in the world?
4) How would you describe the character/avatar customization options?
5) What is the main (at most give 3) selling feature of this VW?

If you can’t answer any of these questions, write that down. It’s probably noteworthy that the site doesn’t mention it.

Check it out:

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Here’s this week’s machinima goodness: a music video to those upbeat kids, Breaking Benjamin, and their song, “So Cold.” Keep smilin’ guys!

The video was made by Paul Marino using Half-Life 2, and features a lot of footage from the game. (In fact, if you haven’t finished the game yet, there may be a few spoilers in here for you!) I think it’s a fascinating mix of the game’s narrative with the tone and lyrics of the song.

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a special bonus sorta-machinima clip for your edification and enjoyment!

GayGamer’s FruitBrute clues us in to the latest sorta-machinima video by Monty Oum: Haloid:

It’s “sorta-machinima” because Oum takes two iconic video game characters, Master Chief from the Halo series and Samus Aran from the Metroid series, and has them duke it out in the grand tradition of “Who Would Win: Batman or Superman” contests. In this match-up, fortunately, the fight takes an unexpected turn. However, because he’s combining franchises, he can’t use the games’ engines to create the video. He animates it himself. Thus, it’s like machinima, but this isn’t machinima.

The video is pretty darn good. The animation in the opening sequence isn’t great, but Oum’s sense of timing and his skills as an editor are on full display. And the fight itself is fun. I have a major quibble with his choice of music, though: when you’re going to rely that heavily on Matrix-style bullet-time and superhuman fighting skills, using the music from The Matrix just feels redundant.

Also, you should read Oum’s notes (scroll down to the FAQ) on making the video. They did a lot to make me feel better about Master Chief’s electro-tingle, but I really wish the gender play in this video were more about the fact that girl gamers roxxor hard, and less about the straight-guy fantasy that “hot lesbians are awesome.”

(X-posted on Digital Digressions)

Prepaid Phone Cards China phone cards Canada phone cards USA phone cards UK phone cards India phone cards Prepaid phone cards

You may have heard about the recent resignation of Monica Goodling, the former top aide to US Attorney General Alberto Gonazales, who quit amid continuing questions about the US Department of Justice’s firings of a group of US Attorneys.

When MSNBC reported on Goodling’s resignation, they used this photo:

But they might have chosen to use this photo instead:

The second photo comes from Goodling’s law school web page. Come with me (and Wonkette) now to that long-ago age of 1999.

As TBogg notes: “I used to have a much higher opinion of people who went to law school before I started reading the internets.”

Thanks to the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine initiative, web pages that went up and then came down can live forever.

And ever. And ever. And ever.

And you thought it was creepy that the nerdy manager at The Gap had seen your Facebook page when you interviewed for a summer position. Imagine what that page will mean to prospective employers in another 8 years.

Personally, while I do hope that Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy can use the Sneate Judiciary Committee to find out what really happened with these firings, I’m much more interested in getting to the bottom of the mysterious “Ron” (if that is his real name) and the “several kidnapping experiences that are best forgotten.”

(X-posted to Digital Digressions)

I have heard the cries of pain, the howls of despair, and I understand. Not everyone thrives in conditions of extreme open-ended-ness.

If you’re flourishing in the freedom afforded by the current format of the meditations, read no further. Go forth and frolic in your liberation.

If, on the other hand, you’re having a tough time of it, here’s a different model to follow. I hope that this one will provide you with concrete goals to meet, and a set format, and that these strictures will allow you to rise to the occasion admirably.

OPTION B: MEDITATIONS AS CASE STUDIES

As before, each meditation is to be about the cultural (on- and off-line) implications of a single cybercultural focus. However, the Option B format will make your meditations appear more like “case studies,” which may be more familiar.

Begin each meditation/case study with a brief (1 paragraph) prose description of a single, well-defined moment or instance of your chosen cybercultural focus. (If you want to write about eBay, for instance, focus on the time you got ripped off by a scammer “selling” a bogus AlienWare laptop, rather than trying to summarize all of eBay.)

List 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus. These observations should arise from your analysis and examination of your focus. (These may be bullet-points.)

The next (and last) two sections are brief explanations of at least 2 points you see as being significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line and off-line culture and social practice. One section should explore, briefly (1-2 paragraphs), the significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice. The last sections should do the same for off-line culture and social practice.

So, your meditations/case studies should look like this:

• SUMMARY: 1 paragraph description of your specific instance/example of your cybercultural focus
• ANALYSIS: 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus (can be bulleted)
• IMPLICATIONS - ON-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice
• IMPLICATIONS - OFF-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for off-line culture and social practice

I’ve updated the Course Calendar for the readings/assignments for April 9th through the 16th, so check that out.

For Monday April 9th, make sure you’ve read Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in the orange (second) edition of the Media and Cultural Studies. If you’ve got the first (blue) edition of the MCS, I’ve scanned the article and posted it to the WebCT page, so get it from there.

And read it. Hint. Hint.

Photoshop. It’s cool. And disturbing.

And it’s what we’re going to be talking about in class on Friday. So, to prep for class, check out two of the largest sites for Photoshop Phreakishness: Something Awful and Worth1000.

Here are the links:

• Something Awful
• Worth1000’s current and most recent contests
• Worth1000’s archive of all galleries

Here are a few galleries from both sites that I’d like you to look at and think about:

• Attack of the Clones 11
• Dude, Where’s Your Ride?
• Visual Puns 5
• Hungry Man Phriday
• Fasting Time 3
• Band Name Movies
• Alternate Reflections and Shadows 3

That should be enough to get you started.

Spring is just around the corner, and something (besides pollen, mold, and dust) is in the air. It seems that everywhere you look, sites are getting EXTREME MAKEOVERS!

Click the link to read all about it.

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