Were all those drawings of the X-Men on grammar school notebooks evidence of infringement? And what about all those homemade superhero Halloween costumes? Why are everyday expressive activities in the real world -- such as joining some neighborhood kids in the backyard for a bit of superhero role playing -- suddenly exposed to the depredations of copyright and trademark lawyers when they move online? I suspect that the difference here comes down to one's view of embodiment, the avatar-as-self, and the distinction between game worlds and social worlds.

In myth, a hero visits an “other world” in some way apart from mundane reality, an exciting and adventurous place where different rules apply. In everyday life, we can’t easily visit such worlds except when they’re virtual. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t visit us. Every once in a while, the real world changes and becomes something other than what it normally is. I suspect that the difference here comes down to one's view of embodiment, the avatar-as-self, and the distinction between game worlds and social worlds. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us. It was simply kind of surreal, after reading the comments on TN this past week and hearing other things at the conference about the problems with game studies and developer/academic relations.

In essence, the open-ended universe of MMOs would be reduced to a limited set of tightly controlled theme parks. All this, thanks to the censorial side of copyright and trademark law. I suspect that the difference here comes down to one's view of embodiment, the avatar-as-self, and the distinction between game worlds and social worlds. They looked friendly enough--at least, no one had fruit ready to throw at us. It was simply kind of surreal, after reading the comments on TN this past week and hearing other things at the conference about the problems with game studies and developer/academic relations.

Like several other Terra Novans, I'm a fan of City of Heroes and am quite concerned about Marvel's suit against NCSoft. The Complaint[1.7MB pdf] raises some very strange issues at the level of legal doctrine, but it's a particularly troubling claim with regard to the policy of virtual worlds. Marvel is claiming that NCSoft is vicariously and contributorily liable for copyright and trademark infringement--which means that it must be claiming that players are infringing Marvel's copyrights and trademarks by making avatars resemble superheroes in the Marvel portfolio (the X-men, the Hulk, etc.). Can't decide where to start? Browse the summaries of each paper at the official proceedings page. I suspect that the difference here comes down to one's view of embodiment, the avatar-as-self, and the distinction between game worlds and social worlds.

I was proud of my dance script(s) - each felt like a creative accomplishment. A statement of personal expression. True, by the norms on the clubs and their dance floors I visited, my scripts quickly made me out to be the odd goose (think disco at hip-hop?). But my goose flap was vivacious and full of feather, and it was *my* goose.

The value of dance was the textured community they helped to create. In terms of the behaviors themselves, there seemed a conflict that got in the way of accepting them as any more than decoration: they were predictable. This is an attitude (deeper than that, it's a disposition) which I'd suggest is rooted in developer practice generally, and computer games developer practice specifically. It is a view which recognizes that which is scripted, modeled, or otherwise generated according to the practice of software development as seemingly both the (only) site of creativity and (therefore) the ultimate locus of value.

'[J]ust as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral...," wrote Jean Baudrillard, "Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real...." I leave it as an exercise for the reader to guess what insidious purpose Baudrillard will ascribe to the nth-order simulation that is Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom, now live in "sneak preview beta" mode (via). Meanwhile, last one into their own private virtual Jungle Cruise safari boat is a rotten avatar!

So my first question is whether I'm right that the divisions in Norrath's fictional alliences run a bit deeper than the fictions of governance in other MMOGs? For instance, at the time of the Kunark expansion (circa 2000), there were 17 different deities to whom players could swear their devotion (an 18th option was the lack of faith), as well as 13 different "racial" identities, and over 100 known organizational factions. On the one hand this may seem like technical arcanum, but note that we all often pretend this point in our discussions and comments on Terra Nova and elsewhere. It is how most of us conceptualize a simulation.

Last night I logged into Guild Wars for the first time. These thoughts in my mind I immediately noticed the way that NPCs seem to have even more life to them, the addition of trails of footprints in sand and ripples when walking through water add even more layers. On the one hand this may seem like technical arcanum, but note that we all often pretend this point in our discussions and comments on Terra Nova and elsewhere. It is how most of us conceptualize a simulation.

NPCs seem much more robotic. Yet I still get some sense that is greater than the data presented. The only way I individuate these feelings are that WoW has a sense of place whereas SWG has a sense of landscape. On the whole I find much of WoW to be artificial and distancing, many surfaces are so obviously texture mapped and the images seem to be stretched and distorted a little too much. But now I'm discovering new areas the feeling of place is starting to flesh out. Based on my own experiences with WoW, CoH, DAoC, and a few others, that certainly seems to be the case, but my impression is that Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, and some of the other big MMOGs portray fairly factionalized systems of government.