“It’s like my life but more, and better!” - Playing with the Cathaby Shark Girls: MMORPGs, young people and fantasy-based social play

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.Digital technology has opened up a range of new on-line leisure spaces for young people. Despite their popularity, on-line games and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games in particular are still a comparatively under-researched area in the fields of both Education and more broadly Youth Studies. Drawing on a Five year ethnographic study, this paper considers the ways that young people use the virtual spaces offered by MMORPGs. This paper suggests that MMORPGs represent significant arenas within which young people act out a range of social narratives through gaming. It argues that MMORPG have become important fantasy spaces which offer young people possibilities to engage in what were formally material practices. Although this form of play is grounded in the everyday it also extends material practices and offers new and unique forms of symbolic experimentation, thus I argue that game-play narratives cannot be divorced from the everyday lives of their participants

Empathy at Play:Embodying Posthuman Subjectivities in Gaming

In this article, we address the need for a posthuman account of the relationship between the avatar and player. We draw on a particular line of posthumanist theory associated closely with the work of Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti and N. Katherine Hayles that suggests a constantly permeable, fluid and extended subjectivity, displacing the boundaries between human and other. In doing so, we propose a posthuman concept of empathy in gameplay, and we apply this concept to data from the first author’s 18-month ethnographic field notes of gameplay in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. Exploring these data through our analysis of posthuman empathy, we demonstrate the entanglement of avatar–player, machine–human relationship. We show how empathy allows us to understand this relationship as constantly negotiated and in process, producing visceral reactions in the intra-connected avatar–player subject as well as moments of co-produced in-game action that require ‘affective matching’ between subjective and embodied experiences. We argue that this account of the avatar–player relationship extends research in game culture, providing a horizontal, non-hierarchical discussion of its most necessary interaction

Role of the internet in popularisation and promotion of culture

The article discusses changes in the area of culture related to promoting and distributing cultural content on the internet, as well as transformations concerning flow of cultural content, practices of participation in culture and new business models, that emerged in this sphere. Statistics on the usage of media, including TV and the internet, in Poland were examined. While presenting changes in distribution and related new business models, focus was put on the effects of content overproduction and numerous channels of distribution, resulting in the growing role of filtering mechanisms. It has also been shown, how the use of the internet supports participation in culture offline, and the relevant mechanisms have been pointed. Raising popularity of the internet, diversification of channels to access cultural content and more democratic, in comparison to the old media, ecosystem, with lowered entry barriers, belong to the crucial aspects of the changes discussed. Among conclusions, the role of the state in this new system, as well as and the place for the Internet in the broader model of civic participation are discussed

Obóz Kultury 2.0

Obóz Kultury 2.0 Mirosław Filiciak, Alek Tarkowski, Agata Jałosińska, Andrzej Klimczuk, Maciej Rynarzewski, Jacek Seweryn, Stunża M., D. Grzegorz, Marcin Wilkowski & Anna Orli

Digitalizacja dziedzictwa (Digitisation of Heritage)

<p>M. Filiciak, A. Tarkowski, A. Jałosińska, A. Klimczuk, M. Rynarzewski, J.M. Seweryn, G.D. Stunża, M. Wilkowski, A. Orlik, Digitalizacja dziedzictwa (Digitisation of Heritage), Fundacja Ortus, Warszawa 2010.</p

Obóz Kultury 2.0 (Culture 2.0 Camp)

<p>M. Filiciak, A. Tarkowski, A. Jałosińska, A. Klimczuk, M. Rynarzewski, J.M. Seweryn, G.D. Stunża, M. Wilkowski, A. Orlik, Obóz Kultury 2.0 (Culture 2.0 Camp), Fundacja Ortus, Warszawa 2010.</p> <div> </div

Video games in the family context : how do digital media influence the relationship between children and their parents?

"The eighth chapter of our book discusses video games in the family context. Video games are becoming one of the most important cultural industries. The role of this medium in the contemporary culture is reflected in the attendant numbers: the population of gamers is growing and they devote an increasing amount of time to their hobby. This, in turn, significantly affects leisure activities across different social categories. Furthermore, this change impacts the global economy as evidenced by dramatically increased gaming market revenues. The growing population of gamers includes children, for whom video games are not only a favourite media, but also a sphere of socialisation, primarily within the family. This chapter presents conclusions from a study on the role of video games in the life of a modern family. The study particularly focuses on the issue of technological and cultural competencies of children and their parents. This chapter is an attempt to deepen the analysis of the impact video games on the family environment.