Social Change Technology

In episode 13 of Social Change Technology Dr Burcu Bakioglu (Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media at Lawrence University) returns to talks to Hector Postigo about his new book The Digital Rights Movement: The Role of Technology in Subverting Digital Copyright. Hector is Associate Professor in the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications, and Mass Media in the School of Communications and Theater at Temple University. In the podcast Burcu and Hector discuss the complex relationships between technology, law and emergent social movements such as what became known as the digital rights movement.

The podcast focuses on some of the fascinating ethical and legal issues brought about by ARGs (Alternate Reality Games). What makes ARGs unique is that they are played out in the physical world but they inhabit a conceptual spaces that not only sits somewhere between fiction and reality but actively blurs the boundaries between the two. In the podcast Andrea draws on case studies of actual ARGs to ask - can you sign a friend up for a game that might make them feel threatened? Should players every be asked to break real-world rules, if so, which ones? And, if you listen to your lawyers and have to add a legal disclaimer to everything – is the fiction shattered, ruining the game for everyone?

This episode of Social Change Technology is a games and tech legal news roundup with solicitor Jas Purewal from law firm Osborne Clark. Jas is better known on the internet as @GamerLaw on twitter and editor of the Gamer Law web site.

In the show we look at three items of recent news: the Infinity Ward case, the state of free to play gaming and the UK courts ordering a number of ISPs to blocking the Pirate Bay website.

In Episode 10 of Social Change Technology TL Taylor talks about her new book Raising The Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. This work, like TL's previous book Play Between Worlds, focuses on the interplay between people, technology and institutions.

In the podcast, TL charts the rise of e-sport / professional computer gaming from early arcade competitions through the LAN-party scene to the rise of e-sports leagues in South Korea, the US, and Europe. The evolution of professionalisation fo computer games has brought with it a reconsideration of what computer games and sports are, what it is to be a competitor and spectator. The growth of professionalisation has not been without its conflicts such as the relatively recent debacle between Blizzard (makers of World of Warcraft, StarCraft etc) and the South Korean e-sports body KeSPA. TL explains how ownership of the electronic 'field of play' has become contested as have player performances - a legal issue also recently seen in traditional sports.

To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed.

Dr. T.L. Taylor

T. Taylor is Associate Professor in the Center for Computer Games Research and a founding member of the Center for Network Culture at the IT University of Copenhagen. She has been working in the field of internet and multi-user studies for over fifteen years and has published on topics such as play and experience in online worlds, values in design, intellectual property, co-creative practices, avatars and digital embodiment, gender and gaming, and e-sports.

Raising The Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming "In Raising the Stakes, T. L. Taylor explores the emerging scene of professional computer gaming and the accompanying efforts to make a sport out of this form of play. In the course of her explorations, Taylor travels to tournaments, including the World Cyber Games Grand Finals (which considers itself the computer gaming equivalent of the Olympics), and interviews participants from players to broadcasters. She examines pro-gaming, with its highly paid players, play-by-play broadcasts, and mass audience; discusses whether or not e-sports should even be considered sports; traces the player's path from amateur to professional (and how a hobby becomes work); and describes the importance of leagues, teams, owners, organizers, referees, sponsors, and fans in shaping the structure and culture of pro-gaming. Taylor connects professional computer gaming to broader issues: our notions of play, work, and sport; the nature of spectatorship; the influence of money on sports. And she examines the ongoing struggle over the gendered construction of play through the lens of male-dominated pro-gaming. Ultimately, the evolution of professional computer gaming illuminates the contemporary struggle to convert playful passions into serious play." Source: Publisher.

Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture "In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps--as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. She considers "power gamers," who play in ways that seem closer to work, and examines our underlying notions of what constitutes play--and why play sometimes feels like work and may even be painful, repetitive, and boring. She also looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don't fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity.

In Episode 9 of Social Change Technology Ren Reynolds talks to Paulette Robinson phd from the US National Defense University's iCollege about this years' Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds conference. It will be be held in Washington DC from 16th - 18th of May 2012, and over the internet via live streams and virtual world based meetings. The event is free to watch over the internet but it's asked that you register.

This year's conference features speaker from a range of backgrounds including Jesse Schell who some may know from his 2012 DICE talk Design Outside the Box and his recent book The Art of Game Design. Other speakers include Randy Hinrichs from the University of Washington, Michelle Fox from the US Department of Energy and Charles Wankel from St John's University New York.

In the podcast, Ren and Paulette talk about the future of virtual worlds as enterprise tools in the context that most organisations are seeing a drastic reduction in travel budgets. One of the biggest challenges faced by large organisations such as the US Federal Government in the adoption of virtual worlds has been the security issues of accessing something on the internet with a proprietary application and protocol. The market has now changed so that there are a range of virtual world options that either sit 'within the firewall' or that use standard interfaces such as browsers. They also discuss the future of virtual words not as a thing apart from other applications or our lives but as things that we may slide in and out of.

If you are interested in this podcast you may also like From Ghana to Second Life – public diplomacy in the digital age our interview with Bill May about the US State Departments' use of Virtual Worlds and social media. To make sure you catch all the episodes of  Social Change Technology subscribe on iTunes or via our RSS feed.

Paulette Robinson phd

Paulette is Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology at the Nation Defense University, iCollege, Washington DC.

Show Links

Paulette Robinson

Twitter: @pjrobinson

Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds

Background

Jesse Schell's 20120 DICE Talk Design Outside the Box

Randy Hinicks

Blog

University of Washington Course

CHarles Wankel

St Johns University Bio

Further Reading

Dancing Ink Productions' report on IBM's adoption of Virtual Worlds into the enterprise - IBM: From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City

<< Episode #8

What's social about Social Games

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Episode #9>>

TL Taylor and the rise of e-sports

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

Episode 8 of Social Change Technology explores the social aspects of so-called social games with Dr Mia Consalvo of Concordia University and Ron Miners of Electronic Arts.

In the episode Ren, Mia, and Ron talk about what we mean by 'social games' and the social conventions and norms that are emerging from them. For example the common practice of gift giving has been adopted by main games as a key part of the play mechanic. However, in some social games this voluntary action has morphed into a social obligation on our socially-networked co-players; a process which in turn has been automated to such a degree that it has almost lost touch with the notion of gift giving that inspired it.

The podcast also covers the relationship between our social / family identity, as expressed in Facebook, and our our gamer identity. Do our social relations constrain our game actions? Do our game actions re-construct our social world? For example, in games that have 'relationship' options, are people prepared to have an in-game partner who is not an out-of-game partner, are people prepared to play a different gender or sexuality - all to achieve game play goals?

Make sure you catch every episode of  Social Change Technology by subscribing on iTunes or via our RSS feed.

Featuring: Dr Mia Consalvo

Mia is Canada  Research Chair in Games Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and before that an Associate Professor at Ohio University in the School of Media Arts and Studies. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, and is currently writing a book about Japan's influence on the videogame industry and game culture. She has published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Games & Culture, Game Studies, and Convergence, and she was previously the President of the Association of Internet Researchers.

Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames "In Cheating, Mia Consalvo investigates how players choose to play games, and what happens when they can't always play the way they'd like. She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups), examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating, describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating, and studies online cheating in context in an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XI. She develops the concept of "gaming capital" as a key way to understand individuals' interaction with games, information about games, the game industry, and other players.Consalvo provides a cultural history of cheating in videogames, looking at how the packaging and selling of such cheat-enablers as cheat books, GameSharks, and mod chips created a cheat industry."

Featuring: Ron Meiners

Ron is Director of Community at Electronic Arts for The Sims. He has been in community management and building for over fifteen years working on everything from Myst to Burning Man. Ron is a specialist in understanding how cultural dynamics influence the online social experience, how memes propagate, and how to create exciting and positive communities. Ron also runs the blog Virtual Cultures with academic Celia Pearce.

Show Links

Mia Consalvo

Academia.edu profile

Twitter: @MiaC

Ron Meiners

Linked-in Profile

Blog: Virtual Cultures

Twitter: @ronchanel

Background

Electronic Arts

The Sims

Further Reading

Nicole Lazzaro -  XEODesign

Zinga

CastleVille

Tripple Town

TL Taylor

(with Mikael Jakobsson): The Sopranos Meets EverQuest: Socialization Processes in Massively Multiuser Games

Listen to TL talk about e-Sports on Episode 10 of Social Change Technology

Ray Mazza's 2012 GDC (Game Developers Conference) Sims Social talk

Gamasutra's preview

Game.com's coverage

In episode 7 of Social Change Technology we speak to Rita J. King of Science House, New York. Rita is EVP of Business Development and head of Science House Creative.

In the episode Ren Reynolds talks to Rita King about the work that Science House does to bring 'hard science' together with business. They touch on the range of Science House's work from being a start-up incubator based in New York to outreach programmes bringing science education to children around the world.

One area covered in greater detail in the podcast is that of the actual and perceived future of robotics. Rita raises the issue of robots as a new source of possible technogenic disaster in the minds of media and the public alike. That is, the idea that robots may bring about some catastrophic global event - think the Terminator's Skynet or the robot takeover in the Matrix or AI for popular science fiction interpretations of such a catastrophe.

Such notions have recently been taken up from various angles by academics such as Sherry Turkle, who has written about the ethics of the emotional bonds that humans may form with robots. At the other end of the spectrum a research team at Georgia Tech has been looking at military robots with the capacity to deceive.

All this has given rise to conferences such as the inaugural We Robot conference on legal and policy issues relating to robotics, held in Miami in April of 2012. It should be noted that academic communities such as those researching ethics of technology (See: ELTHICOMP and CEPE), law of emerging technology (see Gikii), and specialised research areas such as the ethics of tele-care have been researching this for some years.

In future episodes we hope to have more on the social, legal and policy implications of robotics. To make sure you catch it, you can subscribe to Social Change Technology on iTunes or via our RSS feed.

Featuring: Rita J. King

Rita is Executive Vice President of Business Development and head of Science House Creative. In addition to her work at Science House Rita is Resident Futurist at the National Institute for Aerospace (NASA Langley's Think Tank). She is Founder / Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions.

Rita has served as Innovator-in-Residence at IBM’s Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a current Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington DC.

Show Links

Rita J. King

Science House

Dancing Ink Productions

IMAGINATION: Creating the future of education and work

NASA Langley Research Center

Background

Technogenic Disasters

Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media (Rita J. King - Scientific American Blog, July 2011)

Deceptive Robots

Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception." International Journal of Social Robotics

Alan R. Wagner (Georgia Tech)

Ronald C. Arkin (Georgie Tech)

Further Reading

Ethics of Robot Care

Sherry Turkle (MIT)

Conferences

We Robot

ETHICOMP

Gikii

<< Episode #6

The co-creators: audience, artists & the future of music

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Episode 7>>

What's social about social games?

Podcast music: “For the Horde” kindly provided by 100 Robots.

#Transmedia #ARG Dr Burcu Bakioglu talks to Michael Andersen, senior editor of the Alternate Realty Gaming Network argn.com, about transmedia fiction and games.

#ReactiveMusic #IP Robert Thomas, Chief Creative Officer of RjDj, and Jim Purbrick / Max Williams of 100 Robots discuss how technology has changed our relationship with music breaking down the artist / audience barrier and enabling us to be co-creators of unique musical experiences bringing back the emotional attachment to music making we had pre-industry times.

#Bitcoin #Virtual Currency In this second part of a two party interview with Jon Matonis, editor of The Monetary Future, an economics blog. we focus on Bitcoin - what it is, how it works, why governments don't like it and how it might revolutionise online gaming.