audio is a bit crap but oh well.

1. Analysing the current and future effects of MMORPG's image

2. My selected journal entries… Media effects of MMORPG’s and other virtual worlds: Media Analysis of MMORPG’s and other virtual worlds

3. History of MMORPG’s /Virtual worlds As the capabilities of the modern personal computer increased, and as accessibility to the Internet became widely available, it became possible in the early 90’s to build MUDs which stands for Multi User domain, with graphical front-ends. Ultima Online, launched in 1997, is recognized to be the first MMORPG – a persistent. The second MMORPG, Ever Quest, was launched in 1999 Internet access allows for these possibilities The experience in south Korea and Japan shows that the internet is a real driver of innovation.

4. Media effects …Current trends MMORPG’s and Virtual worlds can be very immersive and addictive : > Immersion “ The active promotion of social interaction in online role-playing games has a significant impact on game-text, play and player experience.” Kryzwinska, 2007, p. 102 “Every user is motivated by a different combination of the possible rewards. The result is that adventures, stories, and most importantly, meaningful interactions and relationships between users emerge.” Nicholas Yee, 2006, p. 5 > Time investment: “Users spend on average 22.72 hours (n = 5471, SD = 14.98) each week in their chosen MMORPG” Survey study on MMORPG’s - Nicholas Yee, 2006

5. Media effects > Social interaction –“When asked to compare the quality of their MMORPG friendships with their material world relationships, 39.4% of male respondents (n = 2971) and 53.3% of female respondents (n = 420) felt that their MMORPG friends were comparable or better than their material world friends” – Nicholas Yee, 2006, p. 15 “The fantastical metaphors employed in these environments encourage idealizations that parallel cultural myths of chivalric romance – knights in shining armor, clerics with glowing auras and so forth” Yee, 2006, p. 16

6. Media effects When playing fantasy RPG games like Everquest, users may be picking up skills that can be transferred to the material world. “ In the survey study [28], 10% of users felt they had learned a lotabout mediating group conflicts, motivating team members, persuading others, and becoming a better leader in general, while 40% of users felt that they had learned a little of the mentioned skills” Yee, 2006

7. Media effects MMORPGs might be valuable for learning and education as in Second Life. “ Through their presence as an avatar in the immersive space, the user can readily feel a sense of control within the environments and more easily engage with the experiences as they unfold.” – de Freitas, 2008, p. 5

8. Media effects However, addiction to MMORPG’s can have detrimental effects e.g. : S Korean man dies after playing online game for 50 hours

9. Media effects…Future trends Future of MMORPG’s and other virtual worlds to bring about a 3D environment: “They are environments where the relationships that form and the derived experiences can rival those of the physical world. They are new platforms for social science research. They are places where people fall in love, get married, elect governors, attend poetry readings, start a pharmaceutical business, and even commit genocide. Whatever MMORPGs are, or will become, one thing is clear. They are not just games.” Nicholas Yee, 2004

10. Future.. “In the future, the development of new technologies will make the virtual indistinguishable from the real. Moreover, with the extension of real world institutions and practices into virtual space , the virtual world will begin to take a life of its own.”Cline, 2005 p. 191 “Virtual reality is a powerful socialising agent/conditioning mechanism which may be used to promote uniformity (the most powerful the world has ever seen” Cline, 2005, p.197 This may lead to a massive 3D environment in the future as the distinction between reality and virtual worlds becomes blurred. This may be offset by processes such as development of virtual world economy and integration of real and virtual.

11. Conclusion Virtual environments are already taken seriously by users as there is quite a lot of investment in it. Therefore, future trends are linked to existing trends i.e. emotional investment in virtual worlds, social interaction/ immersion in virtual worlds and so forth.

12. References Mychilo Stephenson Cline (2005) Power, madness and immortality: the future of virtual reality Google Books, accessed 27/04/2011, available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7OxbJWzIaVEC&pg=PA80&dq=future+of+virtual+worlds&cd=3#v=onepage&q=future&f=false Young, Kimberly (-) Addiction to MMORPG’s, accessed 27/04/2011, available at: http://www.netaddiction.com/articles/addiction_to_mmorpgs.pdf Matejka, W, Riegle, R (2006)The learning guild: MMORPG’s as educational environments, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_futureworlds.html Yee, Nicholas (2006) The psychology of MMORPG’s: Emotional investment, relationships and problematic usage, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2006/yee-psychology-mmorpg.pdf Yee, Nicholas (2004) The Daedalus gateway: The psychology of MMORPGs, Imagining future worlds, accessed: 28/04/2011, available at: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_futureworlds.html BBC News (2004) S Korean dies after game session, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm

13. References Kryzwinska T, Atkins B (2007) Video games, Player, Text, Newman moodle, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://moodle.newman.ac.uk/10-11/file.php/1828/09-10/Videogame-player-text_Krzywinska.pdf Policy Briefing (2009) Getting up to speed: Making superfast broadband a reality, accessed: 28/04/2011, available at: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:OY43Hjhj7W0J:www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Getting-up-to-speedv5.pdf+korea+fast+broadband&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh6fS2dWfE5YdcPzsB-_hlsI88uhL6oMbdMzrIGJi4WBElyPA1Cu30sxzkzJPyDL2KSCjx46zg8ZWWy2eti-9IvUNi1qMinAgT91gEmFc9deyg6YWBi9BKdN9GAKJ4jPL9VFSGN&sig=AHIEtbRuGT7JTvANPZfSab-pC39dQTe4Cg

14. References.. References for images: Blizzard entertainment (2009) World of warcraft players: A female world of war craft character in the making, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/world-of-warcraft1.htm Consumer electronics association (2001) accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/images/CES_second_life_KoolAid_001.jpg Hayes G (2008) Social virtual worlds logo, Flickr, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/3059934552/ The new media consortium (2006) Howard Rheingold Keynote in second life, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://www.nmc.org/macarthur/rheingold-second-life MMORPG galleries, Silenos – In uruga with friends http://www.mmpg.com/photo.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=fdec0bda-3347-4d1f-b9fb-cbc8bb8dd0a9 BBC news (2005) S Korean dies after game session, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm

15. Ddegracia (2010) Free and living conservative, A Movie Review of The Book of Eli: Conditioning For A New World Order? Accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://filfree.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/boeddg/ Human productivity lab (2006) The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room in the World and HSL's Thoughts on the Future of Combining Telepresence and Virtual Reality, accessed: 27/04/2011, available at: http://www.humanproductivitylab.com/archive_blogs/2006/05/12/the_most_realistic_virtual_rea.php