NAMBLA Members
Circle I Limbo

Oakland Raider Fans
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Hipsters
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

DMV Employees
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Barack Obama
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

The New York Yankees
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Osama bin Laden
Circle VII Burning Sands

General asshats
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

Matt Mihas
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Last Post

Wow, I totally forgot to write my last post.

I wanted to write is after my paper to just blog about how I tied Kongregate into everything we learned in class. Overall, playing Kongregate was a great experience. I probably won't play as often in the future, but it's a great way to take a break from studying to do it while watching tv, etc.

I felt that the notion of developing an identity on Kongregate was very important because all the huge community it has online. From chat rooms, to forums, and multiplayer games, how one presents them self online can alter how they experience Kongregate.

I also decided to highlight some of the learning components Kongregate could provide, from Gee's reading. From experience I found that Kongregate games used the skills of performance before competence, the development of taking risks, and cross functional teams.

Lastly, I explained the different types of games that were offered on Kongregate, citing some information from Juul's reading, and also emphasizing the different usage of a player's space and a screen space.

I had a fun time in this class! Too bad the final is so late :(

Practicum 8 - Kasi

Over the course of the semester, I was definitely more of a consumer of information about Glee rather than a participant on Wikia. I think my findings would have been a lot different had I chosen to focus on a wiki that didn’t have such a dedicated, overwhelming fan base. Had I chosen a topic that was not covered yet, or not as meticulously detailed, I may have felt more of an inclination to participate. Although I did not add much new information to the wiki, I was able to particpate through blog posts as well as commenting on other people’s comments. It seemed like a handful of people dominated the website, and it was a hobby for them to be exceptionally involved. 


It was interesting to see how different Wikia was from Wikipedia throughout my fifteen hours of research. Wikia was much more interactive and Web 2.0 oriented than Wikipedia through its incorporation of Facebook, Twitter, customizable user profiles, and its overall interface and style. Most members on the Glee wiki used the site as a form of entertainment and an outlet to express their fandom. In the future, I will be more likely to use Wikipedia to find information on something I am unfamiliar with because it has a more neutral philosophy. 

Practicum 7 - Kasi

Although Wikia is not a social networking site in itself, it does allow users to construct a public profile and list connections with other users by tagging their friends’ usernames into their home page. Related to my last practicum post, many of these users seemed to know each other in their real lives offline, and the Glee wiki seemed to be a way to maintain connections with established friend groups for some users. I think a natural next step for the site would be allowing users to “friend” others, and having a separate box on their profile listing these connections. The sense of an already established community may have deterred my desire to participate because I felt like an outsider most of the time. The wiki was extremely structured by the administrators, and they were more argumentative and critical than other users. 

Practicum 8: Tyla

My how this semester flewww by! As this is my final blog, I figured I would write a little about how much I ended up enjoying playing Xbox (Sorry Mark!). Like I said, I initially chose Xbox as an option in hopes of maybe understanding this online gaming phenomenon...but even then, I think my plan was to "understand" and learn the games but still think the whole epidemic was silly. Well that plan failed.

I actually enjoy playing Xbox. Obviously it took me a while to warm up to it because I was bad. As a super competitive person, I hated playing certain games with people because they'd been playing for what seemed like forever, while I was sitting there just learning. FIFA was never my favorite because not only did I not know what button did what, I don't really understand the game of soccer, which made my learning curve much greater. However, once I found my "true calling" you had to pry the controller from my hand!

Call of Duty: Black Ops. I still encourage everyone to try the Zombies mode on this game..it is soooo awesome! It is by far my favorite Xbox Live game that I have been fortunate enough to play. I said during my presentation that I wanted to unlock certain codes which would enable me to turn into JFK and other famous people..but that never ended up happening...at least in time for my final blog! I definitely plan on continuing my new obsession with Xbox and specifically Zombies...it's a crazy competitive adrenaline rush!

So although my initial plan backfired, I am grateful that I gave Xbox a try. I'm not like a psycho junkie or anything, like I can go a few days without playing! But it is sooo addictive!

Practicum #8 - Mitch

I finally got to do something that I've wanted to do since the beginning of this research. I wanted to use some of the inappropriate language and phrases that the website warns you about using in its terms of services. I didn't want to try it before because I feared that I might get banned for life and would not be able to continue on one of the sites. After trying it, I noticed that the website allows you to type it in, but it immediately recognizes it once you hit enter and are banned from the website for 24 hours. I would like to see what happens after a second or third violation as well. Maybe the website just keeps banning your for 24 hours at a time, or maybe the website eventually kicks you off for life. I think I would like to experiment to find out, also experiment with the sorts of things that can be said.

Aside from that, I do not think I will be continuing to participate in websites that are targeted towards kids. Mostly because they are targeted towards kids. Don't get me wrong, I like to do a lot of things that a kid would want to do, but playing these games is not one of them. They are very monotonous and I would rather play something different. It was nice having the experience though, and my family wondering why I'm playing with a penguin avatar for school.

Practicum 7 - Mitch

I've been on my social networking sites for kids because I was wondering about if the activity level has changed there very much. There still is not very much activity on these websites though. I don't think young kids are very concerned with social networking at their young age.

I also received an email from club penguin talking about things I can do to make my child's experience more fun. This is the first time I have gotten any of these emails. I do not know how often they are sent out, but I started club penguin in September. Maybe it happens every 3 months or maybe just random times around the year. Maybe because it's near the holidays? Most of the ways to make my child's experience better did revolve around the holidays, but I can't say for sure. Some of the things would say things like "Our gift to you" where you can give your kids 500 coins in the game, etc. I'd be interested in finding out how often they actually send out emails to the parents.