New explorations of virtual worlds
American Trinity University students are famous for being perhaps the only students in the world who study the MMOG online course . At the seminars, they, together with the teacher, wandered around this or that virtual world and observed it from the inside. Usually, the land of Norrath (Everquest II) played the role of a platform for experiments. This is the practical part of the course.
Students also listened to lectures - this is the theoretical part of the course. At the end of the training, each of them had to do a research paper on the chosen topic and write an essay.
And here is another semester left behind. The next group of students completed their studies and published their work on the Internet.
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Themes of work are very different: playing as psychological therapy, opportunities for sex in virtual worlds, psychological portrait of gamers who choose aggressive and evil behavior in the virtual world, etc. Each author has his own blog, where you can easily ask him a couple of questions and discuss the work. It is even encouraged, therefore, a stormy discussion has now developed in many blogs.
Some works can be called very curious and even unique in their own way. For example, one of the papers explores the possibility of using role-playing games to treat depression and other mental problems (PDF). On the one hand, due to the anonymity of participation and the diversity of virtual worlds, play therapy looks very attractive. On the other hand, the normal treatment process is hindered by such problems as the onset of painful affection (addiction) and the absence of real social relationships in real life. However, practice shows that role-playing games, including online, actually help to improve the patient's condition.
In another paper, social processes are explored, namely: how friendship and trusting relationships are formed in the virtual space compared to the same processes in the real world (PDF). After examining the formation of guilds and clans in the MMOG, we can conclude: virtual friendship is as strong as the real one, and does not differ at all from its quality characteristics. Moreover, by creating trusting relationships in the virtual world, by participating in chat rooms, players in some way blur the boundary between virtuality and reality.
Habrahabr publishes direct links to other interesting works:
“Violence in multiplayer games: not only teenage boys love this thing” (PDF);
“Second Life and School: Using Virtual Worlds in Teaching High School Students” (PDF);
Aesthetics and Pleasure: Sexual Practice in Virtual Environments (PDF);
“Playing for the Evil Characters” (PDF).
Students also listened to lectures - this is the theoretical part of the course. At the end of the training, each of them had to do a research paper on the chosen topic and write an essay.
And here is another semester left behind. The next group of students completed their studies and published their work on the Internet.
')
Themes of work are very different: playing as psychological therapy, opportunities for sex in virtual worlds, psychological portrait of gamers who choose aggressive and evil behavior in the virtual world, etc. Each author has his own blog, where you can easily ask him a couple of questions and discuss the work. It is even encouraged, therefore, a stormy discussion has now developed in many blogs.
Some works can be called very curious and even unique in their own way. For example, one of the papers explores the possibility of using role-playing games to treat depression and other mental problems (PDF). On the one hand, due to the anonymity of participation and the diversity of virtual worlds, play therapy looks very attractive. On the other hand, the normal treatment process is hindered by such problems as the onset of painful affection (addiction) and the absence of real social relationships in real life. However, practice shows that role-playing games, including online, actually help to improve the patient's condition.
In another paper, social processes are explored, namely: how friendship and trusting relationships are formed in the virtual space compared to the same processes in the real world (PDF). After examining the formation of guilds and clans in the MMOG, we can conclude: virtual friendship is as strong as the real one, and does not differ at all from its quality characteristics. Moreover, by creating trusting relationships in the virtual world, by participating in chat rooms, players in some way blur the boundary between virtuality and reality.
Habrahabr publishes direct links to other interesting works:
“Violence in multiplayer games: not only teenage boys love this thing” (PDF);
“Second Life and School: Using Virtual Worlds in Teaching High School Students” (PDF);
Aesthetics and Pleasure: Sexual Practice in Virtual Environments (PDF);
“Playing for the Evil Characters” (PDF).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4103/
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