Research-practice interaction: Building bridges, closing the gap

Previous work in the CHI community has identified and explored gaps between theory and practice in HCI research [2]. The recently formed SIGCHI Community on Research-Practice Interaction aims to help bridge the gap between research and practice, by for example supporting practitioner-­friendly dissemination of results, and serving as a conduit for feedback from practitioners to researchers. This SIG is an opportunity for interested CHI attendees to meet members of the SIGCHI RPI community, and engage in discussions on RPI issues including the CHI format, dissemination of results, and supporting practice-based research

Are socially exclusive values embedded in the avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how both the presentation and limitation of visual choices in massively multiplayer online role/playing games (MMORPG) avatar creation interfaces tends to exclude or favor different real life social groups. Design/methodology/approach – A novel method combining both quantitative and critical analysis of the syntagmatic/paradigmatic structure of MMORPG avatar creation interfaces is used to inform the findings of this study. Findings – This study concludes that as cultural interfaces, current fantasy themed MMORPGs remediate socially exclusive values both from fantasy literature and from their own game lore. The socially exclusive values deal largely with extreme and immutable racial and sexual dimorphism. Research limitations/implications – Interfaces which present users with color palettes and/or smooth slider/based body modifiers do not lend themselves well to this method of analysis. In addition to this, only a handful of the popular MMORPGs are analyzed within the body of this work. Practical implications – This paper demonstrates that MMORPG players and designers need to be more aware about how they are constructing and embedding social values in their worlds. Avatars are critical conduits for online social dynamics and embedding socially exclusive values may transfer negative ideologies from old media to new. Originality/value – This paper offers one of the earliest critiques of embedded values in avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs. The paper aims to begin discussion on an overlooked area of now popular media that has not received any critical attention regarding its embedded messages of social inclusiveness or exclusiveness

Construction of cybertypes in lineage II: An analysis of game interfaces and support documentation

This paper discusses social exclusion by analyzing the avatar creation interface of the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) Lineage II. We use a previously developed syntagmatic-paradigmatic structure analysis for analyzing MMORPG interfaces and extend that method to include textual analysis of support documentation. This study concludes that virtual world designers must be more critical in their choices for representing sex and race. Copyright 2008 ACM