What I find the most useful in the article is the fact that the researchers acknowledged their “own situated perspective.” An individual’s situation/position affects his/her interpretation of an event, story, etc so I enjoyed the fact that the researchers pointed this out. Furthermore, I found the idea of a collaborative project to be quite useful. The researchers were obviously engaging in a world they are not use to so in a way they were foreigners. But because they both could talk to each other about their encounters, I think it relieved a lot of stress they must have felt while conducting their research. Based on the ethnographic books I have read, it can be quite difficult for researchers to embark into a "new" world so I definitely believe that collaborative projects have a lot of benefits.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Second Life
From the 2nd Life article, I learned about virtual worlds and what occurs in them. I have never engaged in any type of virtual environment so this article was a bit of a shock to me. Despite the shock, however, I did enjoy reading about how games and research can connect to one another. I have always viewed games as only being a form of entertainment but after reading this article, it became clear to me that games have a lot more to offer than just being a good pastime. From this article, I specifically learned about how a culture’s ideas about gender are performed, produced, and portrayed in the virtual world. The article also taught me about how technical skills and economics influenced a person's construction and performance of gender in the virtual world.
What I find the most useful in the article is the fact that the researchers acknowledged their “own situated perspective.” An individual’s situation/position affects his/her interpretation of an event, story, etc so I enjoyed the fact that the researchers pointed this out. Furthermore, I found the idea of a collaborative project to be quite useful. The researchers were obviously engaging in a world they are not use to so in a way they were foreigners. But because they both could talk to each other about their encounters, I think it relieved a lot of stress they must have felt while conducting their research. Based on the ethnographic books I have read, it can be quite difficult for researchers to embark into a "new" world so I definitely believe that collaborative projects have a lot of benefits.
What I find the most useful in the article is the fact that the researchers acknowledged their “own situated perspective.” An individual’s situation/position affects his/her interpretation of an event, story, etc so I enjoyed the fact that the researchers pointed this out. Furthermore, I found the idea of a collaborative project to be quite useful. The researchers were obviously engaging in a world they are not use to so in a way they were foreigners. But because they both could talk to each other about their encounters, I think it relieved a lot of stress they must have felt while conducting their research. Based on the ethnographic books I have read, it can be quite difficult for researchers to embark into a "new" world so I definitely believe that collaborative projects have a lot of benefits.
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I have to agree with your first paragraph I have never really participated in any type of virtual environment. Learning more about second life through this article gave me a better idea about how people think when they are in a virtual world. I agree that games are a form of entertainment and I personally also prefer to read a book than playing a game. I didn’t think about the researchers situated perspective when reading the article. They are “foreigners” in a different world. I have to agree that it was probably easier to navigate in second life with other members researching the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe personal perspective provided by the researchers definitely added to the value of this research; often research papers can seem distant and disengaging however the personal perspectives provided by the authors added value to the paper. I was able to relate to the paper as, like the researchers, I have never participated in games such as Second Life. I felt that I could understand their feelings even though I had never encountered such situations. It is surprising how many students have declared that they have never participated in Second Life yet it is such a popular program you would think it would be more popular, especially in a digital media class.
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