An Uber Ethical Dilemma: Examining the Social Issues at Stake

This paper aims to engage with the social issues emerging from the increasing reliance upon app-driven services, as they pertain to precarious labor and ethical standpoints in a digital era. Popular ride services such as Uber have been lauded for bringing much needed transportation services that are superior to expensive taxis or unpleasant or inaccessible public transit. Design/methodology/approach As a result of over three years of ongoing research and analysis, this paper is a comprehensive assessment of a number of social issues facing the integration of practices both signified and enacted in an economy driven by apps such as Uber. While these companies are indeed profitable, questions remain as to just how much of a panacea these practices actually herald

Communication as Conscience

Focusing on ethics in games studies, Chee notes the importance ofcommunication as it has played parts in these other fields and how that mightreflect back on our community

Communication as Conscience

Focusing on ethics in games studies, Chee notes the importance ofcommunication as it has played parts in these other fields and how that mightreflect back on our community

A Game Industry Beyond Diversity: Systemic Barriers to Participation in South Korea

Digital gaming has become a prominent part of mainstream culture. However, as one may observe in the public exhibitions of this form of play, the multitude of reasons for participation in the games industry are especially divided along gender lines. This paper is an analysis of themes emerging from the critical ethnographic examination of South Korea’s1 online game culture that, upon closer and iterative analyses, point to additional socioeconomic complications and systemic barriers to women’s equitable participation in the game development and production. Using South Korea’s national context as a point of reference, the findings from this case study offer a synthesis between educational policies and industry practices that implicate how labor originating from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines may include crucial systemic barriers to women’s participation in the aspects of game culture contributing the most to upward mobility. The findings illustrate that factors (such as compulsory military service) that are typically overlooked in policy research are imperative to understanding how specific structural systems serve to reinforce existing gender norms. These factors go beyond gender disparities, pipeline issues and problems of representation that preclude female’s substantive involvement in the game industry

Understanding Korean experiences of online game hype, identity, and the menace of the "Wang-tta".

THEME: Internationalism: Worlds at Play The context South Korea continues to set the pace in the world of online games. The nation is a world leader in broadband penetration rates and has a very high level of online game playing. This study reports on the intricate relationship between the sociocultural factors at work in Korean game communities and the context of how games are received. The original field research reported here adds to current knowledge of the interplay between science, technology, and human relationships as expressed in digital games, a growing pastime and mode of social expression. Korean gamers are an excellent field site for studying the global phenomenon of game communities, both online and offline. Gamers in Korea have repeatedly made world headlines with reports on their fascination with games, their real-life social activities relating to game parlours ("PC Bangs"), video game addictions, and even cases of Internet-related death. Of course, moral panics such as these come in waves, and while it is has simply been the case that Koreans are internationally notorious for being very "addicted to video games," there has not yet been a coherent attempt in social research to address the reasons for that in a comprehensive manner. This paper presents an analysis of case studies derived from fieldwork that was designed to consider the different ways Korean game players establish community online and offline. The paper argues that it is possible to formulate a more comprehensive understanding of game players’ life and motivations if we take into account theories of play (e.g., Huizinga). These theories add perspective to game research by highlighting the concept of online sociability as it is created in the interactions between players, online and offline. Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois, and James Hans provide alternative explanations of the experiences involved in the player’s relationship with the game. These theories add to our understanding to the technologically mediated life-world of online gamers in Korea and help us to dig deeper into why gaming seems so compelling in Korea and possibly elsewhere. Methodology The study relied on ethnographic research conducted in a variety of settings, using three primary methods. First, in-depth interviews – online and offline -- were conducted in both Korean and English with players who participate in game communities and subject matter experts in the field. The interviews provided insight into the personal narratives of game players and their motivations for engaging in communities associated with game playing. Second, two focus groups were conducted with a variety of people from different ages and backgrounds on the subject of general Internet addiction in South Korea. This served to compare the many perspectives on Internet usage in Korea. Third, participant-observation in and around PC game rooms (PC Bangs) in Korea allowed the researcher to experience gaming environments and report on the observed situations. This participation in culture and lived experiences was absolutely essential in order to gain an adequate understanding of the role games play in people’s everyday lives. Through these various methods, an assessment of the reasons for intense engagement in online game communities was possible for this study. Collaboration, competition and community This paper is inspired by a Korean term that emerged in interviews: the concept of "Wang-tta." This term describes isolating and bullying the worst game player out of one’s peer group. One can be said to, "make Wang-tta" or be the object of Wang-tta. As a consequence, there is, immense social pressure to be good at games, and many young people take every opportunity to practice the game and become more skilled. In addition, age and gender are important considerations in everyday activities, interactions and life decisions. These issues will be discussed as relayed by informants. Based on this research, we can look at game playing in Korea and rank motivational criteria into three areas, in order of importance: 1. Community and social life 2. Potential profit and stardom through professional/amateur gaming 3. Access to a fantasy life because of more social mobility online. Competitiveness and gaming pervades all aspects of life in Korea. Outside of many Korean classrooms there is a sheet posted of who gets the best grades. There is also a sheet posted of who is best at StarCraft. Video games are seen as a sport, and treated just as seriously. One of the most intriguing things about Korea is that unlike anywhere else in the world, pro-gamers are regarded as celebrities without the common negative "geek" taboo that gamers have in other parts of the world. The mainstream media and sponsorship by big corporations also helps to keep the hyperbole for games like StarCraft going, especially their promotion of pro-gamers. Many people aspire to be just like them and this contributes to the national passion for games. There are many cultural and environmental factors that also facilitate participation in online communities. Korea’s population density, crowded homes, and broadband infrastructure are definite factors to take into consideration when thinking about access to online games. Even if a person has their own computer and online connection at home, it is "easier to communicate in person" at a PC bang—to coordinate with those on your team, and have other tangible experiences together. The "bang culture," of the PC bangs provides meeting places offline. Within this culture one can see indications of the way online communities are facilitated, built, and maintained. This study will provide a synthesis of traditional theories of play within a Korean context, showing that indeed successful online communities work in relation to their offline worlds. This will be useful for understanding of the types of environmental considerations that need to occur when assessing digital gaming habits and culture, at home and abroad

The language aspects of Chinese papercuts / Florence Kuek Chee Wee

A recent archeological excavation in Yutian County of Xinjiang has brought to the world one of the oldest form of Chinese Papercuts in the shape of a rosette. Its history can be traced as far back to the period known as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-581 A.D.) Nonetheless, Chinese paper cutting is an age-old handicraft of the Chinese people. One can easily detect thousands of themes and patterns presented in this type of simple, two-dimensional cuttings. Furthermore, one can detect that some Chinese characters or phrases are always presented in the Chinese papercuts. Thus, the Chinese papercuts can be examined as items that have captured the blueprints of Chinese culture, especially in the aspect of Chinese language. This short article seeks to help us examine the rich spectrum of the 'expressed languages' embedded in the Chinese papercuts

The Ethical and Political Contours of Institutional Promotion in Esports : From Precariat Models to Sustainable Practices

This study evaluated five early cases in which esport developer Riot Games made rulings regarding activities and infractions by members of various institutions related to its product, League of Legends. The findings of this study support future theoretical exploration of other esports in seeking a fuller understanding of issues related to consent, power differentials, and roles and behaviors expected of the institutional activities of players and teams in competition. Increased investigation of these—and other—issues from an ethical standpoint could lead to a framework that not only would facilitate future study but also bring opportunities for improvements in practices in concert with necessary policy changes.</p

Applying an Ethics of Care to Internet Research: Gamergate and Digital Humanities

This article examines key ethical issues that are continuing to emerge from the task of archiving data scraped from online sources such as social media sites, blogs, and forums, particularly pertaining to online harassment and hostile groups. Given the proliferation of digital social data, an understanding of ethics and data stewardship that evolves alongside the shifting landscape of digital societies is indeed essential. Our study involves a primary research archive that is comprised of data scraped from our project concerning the case study of Gamergate, which involved numerous instances of hate speech in various online communities. Doing this type of qualitative research presents advantages for humanities and social science research because it is possible to generate large and rich corpora about subjects of human interest. However, such data scraping has also raised ethical issues around treating social media authors as research subjects and, moreover, as subjects who have provided informed consent. Once researchers consider content creators on these sites as human research subjects, what would best efforts adhering to the directive to “do no harm” look like? While we realize the impossibility for definite rules to exist, we do consider the possibilities for how one can best care for the stakeholders using the challenges in their particular contexts. In this case, the stakeholders included Twitter authors, targets of online harassment, researchers, students, archivists, and the larger academic community. Also under consideration is how the Ethics of Care may be extended to the research community, and especially student researchers in their exposure to toxic material.   Cet article enquête sur les questions éthiques fondamentales qui continuent à se poser pendant le processus d’archivage de données recueillies de sources en ligne, tels que des réseaux sociaux, des blogs et des forums, particulièrement en ce qui concerne le harcèlement en ligne et les groupes hostiles. Vu la prolifération des données sociales numériques, il est effectivement impératif de comprendre l’éthique et la gérance de données qui évaluent conjointement les développements d’un paysage changeant des sociétés numériques. Pour notre étude, il s’agit d’une archive de recherche primaire qui est constitué de données recueillies de notre projet qui s’intéressait à l’étude de cas Gamergate, ce qui a vu plusieurs exemples de discours haineux dans diverses communautés virtuelles. Ce type de recherche qualitative présente des avantages pour les sciences humaines et sociales car il permet de produire de grands corpus riches sur des sujets d’intérêt humain. Cette stratégie de recueil de données soulève cependant des questions éthiques au sujet du traitement des auteurs de réseaux sociaux comme des sujets de recherche, tout comme des sujets qui ont donné leur consentement éclairé. Lorsque les chercheurs considèrent les créateurs de contenu sur ces sites comme des sujets de recherche humain, à quoi les plus grands efforts ressembleraient-ils, qui respectent la directive « ne pas nuire » ? Tout en reconnaissant l’impossibilité de l’existence de règles définies, nous considérons, à l’aide des défis vécus dans leurs contextes spécifiques, les façons possibles pour s’occuper au mieux des personnes intéressées. Dans ce cas, celles-ci étaient des auteurs sur Twitter, qui ont été des cibles de harcèlement en ligne, des chercheurs, des étudiants, des archivistes et des membres de la plus grande communauté académique. Nous considérons aussi les façons dont l’éthique peut s’appliquer à la communauté de recherche, et particulièrement aux chercheurs-étudiants qui font face à des sujets sensibles et néfastes.   Mots clés: éthique; éthique de recherche; cyberculture; jeux vidéo; études des jeux vidéo; environnement numériqu

Gamergate: Predicting the Present

In August of 2014 a disgruntled ex-boyfriend of a female game designer posted a vicious diatribe on the net accusing her and the gaming media of corruption. (Quinn 2017) This launched a culture war in the gaming community that played out on Twitter and elsewhere under the rubric #Gamergate. In October, realizing how significant this controversy was to digital culture, a digital humanities team at the University of Alberta started scraping, archiving and analyzing tweets with the #gamergate hashtag. This paper will present key results from the study of the the over 11 million tweets gathered. Specifically, the paper will, 1. Provide a brief background to the project and Gamergate, 2. Discuss the archive developed and our reasons for restricting access to materials, and 3. Discuss some results from our analysis of the data