Ahoy, Ship mates!
Ah, blog number two. Our relationship is going so well and our community will begin to flourish for the next few months. But should I even call this a “community” or should I name it a chat room? In our last class we discussed the true meaning of a virtual community and how it (a non-physical experience) can substitute for actual face-to-face interaction. We decided that a community, in essence, is a group of people with common interests. Talking about this in terms of virtual communities we began to draw conclusions on what the rules of an on-line, self-governing community actually needs to be successfully. Going back to the question of: “is our blogging community an actual community?”, I would say no.Why? Simply because this blog will end at a certain time. And because it ends at a certain time we cant class it as a growing community. This is merely an experience but one that I think is essential for better understanding of a virtual community. Thinking about the virtual communities I am apart of I decided to pick XBOX Live (yes, I am a closet gamer). It continues to grow in a non-physical environment as well as an outside one, formed with in cyber space and serves to please a common interest to its users. It is a perfect example of what small communities can eventually achieve.
Before I start here is a quick look at what XBOX Live is.
Xbox Live gives you the opportunity to meet, talk and play games with people from around the world. It is set up exactly like Facebook or Myspace but its even more. MUCH more. Not only can you communicate via text but also talk to them using a head set, web cam, internet or phone applications. For example, I often call one of my friends and tell him to “get on-line and play a game”. There’s no need for me to ask him “how his day went” or “whatchu you doin man” because I know it will be discussed in the virtual realm. We’re not just playing a game. We are communicating with a virtual tool that creates a greater interconnectivity between people even if we are not physical in the presence of each other. Just like Face Book or Myspace, Xbox Live continues to grow with the many cell phone applications sprouting up. This also shows the dripping of a virtual world into our ever day lives. The Extension of computer to man.
Xbox live, as much as I love possesses some digital divide questions. You can use Xbox Live for free from a computer, an Xbox or your phone but if you want to play games online you have to pay a yearly subscription fee of fifty dollars. This is where their community marketing and rules come into effect. People who don’t pay the fee can still talk to people via text or with a head set, create their page, build an avatar, gain friends and play SOME of the games but without the subscription you don’t have 100% access. The stuff that Xbox still gives you with out the subscription is still awesome and would give somebody the opportunity to gain the experience. There will always be a digital divide but the divide is small here. People who get involved with Xbox Live, at first classed as what our generation has coined “NOOBIES” but will quickly pick up the lingo and become Xbox live literate.
Xbox live is an amazing example of what communities can achieve with time, marketing and a great appeal. With this virtual community individuals are able to choose the level or degree of interaction. They can choose when to participate; they can choose their degree of involvement with others, create a virtual alias, incorporate their interests through various ways of communication and build a greater global connection. There are only a few other examples like Xbox Live but in my opinion is the most versatile multi-virtual communication tool we have.
Sincerely,
Capt. Jimmy Dangle
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Capt Jimmy, is YOUR subset of the Xbox Live community in general actually a virtual community, because you describe it as one in which those who play in your community are actually people you know in the physical world -- the physical community extended into the virtual, via a tool. Or is it a mix? Are there people in your community whom you know only virtually?
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that our blogging community is not a virtual community, but not for reasons of ephemera -- instead, for reasons of, oh, little interaction besides a few people. A bunch of people blogging does not a community make; a bunch of people blogging and communicating with each other can be the start of a virtual community.
What about the virtual communities that rise up around word events -- Iran elections, Haiti earthquake, etc -- often for a short period of time, but communal, and virtual, nonetheless, eh?
Totally agree that short term blogs are all over the place and often arise during mass media coverage of any breaking news event or actually for anything at all. I guess from speaking in class i came up with,'if a blog has a definitive end at a scheduled point and isn't finite then is it more a blog experience than a community?'.As for Xbox Live it defiantly is a Virtual community first and a tool second. More than half of the community I play with are from all over the world or US. It's defiantly a mix between virtual friends and outside friends 'if you want it to be' but more than 95% of the time its people you only know virtually. The fact that you can make it only people you know from the outside world is sometimes an appealing feature for new comers.
ReplyDeleteThis will be my second attempt at commenting on this (seeing as though I lost the first one through a technicality).
ReplyDeleteLoved your insight on the blogs for this class being restricted to time, and thusly not being allowed the ability to become a community. I had never thought about it that way. If it is doomed from the jump, then why would its users bother to form it into a community?
Speaking of communities, XBox Live is one of the best examples of virtual community that I have run across yet. I totally agree with you that it is a community in and of itself, despite its ability to contain members of your real-world communities. I do, on the other hand, have to disagree with your comments on the communityness of the 475 blog. I say this based on the same example I stated above about various members transcending community lines. Your XBL community has its own set of rules and regulations that its members follow, as do you real-life communities. You interact with the members of your communities based on those rules and regulations. I would be willing to bet that your interactions with individuals that are part of both your virtual and real-world communities varies depending on which community rules you are guided by. Just because they transcend the boundaries of the two communities, doesn't mean that they are ultimately part of one larger community. Take you and I for example. We belong to the DTC @ WSU-TC community, the Spring 2010 philosophy of art community and the virtual DTC475 blogging community. Our interactions vary in each of these communities because each has its own set of rules and regulations. In fact, this very conversation would never had existed without the structure of a community. It is the community that has created this interest and interaction.