Interdisciplinary Research Seminar

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Interdisciplinary Research Seminar

• Class 2 Agenda
• Announcements
• Discussion about readings
• Group Project Discussions
• IN-WORLD exploration
• Preview of Next Week

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Announcements

• Blog
• Swamp invitations
• Office hours
• Emory Conference

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SL Discussion

• Any new resources found in world?
• Any interesting or revealing experiences?
• Ive heard and read the comment a lot lately that
  Second Life is a great place to learn? Why?
  What makes it better than FTF or other online
  learning places.? 

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Discussion of Readings

• Castranova, E. (2001) Virtual worlds A
  first-hand account of market and society on the
  Cyberian frontier. CESifo Working Paper No. 618.

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Discussion of Readings

• Doctorow, C. (2004) Andas game. Short story from
  Salon.Com. November 15, 2004.
• Will the real virtual sweatshop please stand up?
  
• From sweatshops to stateside corporations, some
  people are profiting off of MMO gold.
• My low-level characters in World of Warcraft
  could net about a gold an hour, I'm guessing,
  based on current in-world prices for raw
  materials. I'm sure higher level characters could
  do more. Listings on eBay indicate that on my
  server, sellers are asking about 25-33 cents
  (US) per gold piece, suggesting a potential wage
  of at least 25 cents an hour, and perhaps as much
  as 2 or higher for dedicated high-level
  farming.
• Edward Castronova

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Preview of Next Week

• Yee, N. (2004). The Psychology of MMORPGs
  Emotional Investment, Motivations, Relationship
  Formation, and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroeder
  A. Axelsson (Eds.), Social Life of Avatars II.
  London Springer-Verlag. (in press).
• Chou, T.J. and Ting, C. C. (2003). The role of
  flow experience in cyber-game addiction.
  Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 6(6) 663-676.
• Develop questions to ask about readings
• Spend at least three hours IN WORLD (in Second
  Life)
• Meet with your group IN WORLD and be prepared to
  present your project ideas to the class.