About the plots of the guild of scientists in the virtual world World of Warcraft
While on his way to the scientific conference, Wayne Luthers, a computer scientist from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, was lucky enough to encounter a group of aggressive hyenas. The difficult event lasted only a few seconds - the hypocrites were going to tear the helpless researcher to pieces. Fortunately, Luther came back to life after a few minutes and continued on his way with the wisdom of experience at his side. He finally made it to the conference site after dodging starving penguins, ferocious pink flamingos and saber-toothed T-Rexes.
Thus began the first scientific conference on the virtual computer game - World of Warcraft (WoW). The players in the online world control computer characters that can communicate, see and react with each other through the network. The graphically rich world around the characters is built by the computer, but the real uniqueness of WoW is the number of people who take part in it. As of today, about 10 million players around the world participate in the virtual game. The players roam Azeroth, the game world, alone or separately, killing monsters, completing missions and generally fighting for the advancement of virtual goodness and justice.
The game has attracted the attention of sociologists, economists and researchers from other fields, who believe that lessons can be drawn from it about the behavior of people in the real world. Economist Edward Castronova showed that it is possible to compare results from economic studies conducted in different virtual worlds, similar to the results produced from similar studies conducted on countries on Earth. Doctor Ran Balitzer, from the Department of Epidemiology at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, proposed in 2007 that virtual worlds can be used as a tool for epidemic research. Balitzer got the idea from an unplanned virtual epidemic that spread in Wow in 2005 and killed virtual characters by the millions. Epidemics in online games force thousands and millions of people to reach decisions in real time, and careful monitoring of them may produce models with a relatively high level of reliability.
The idea to organize the conference arose in a conversation between John Boanon, a journalist in the prestigious journal Science, and Professor William Sims Bainbridge from the National Science Institute of the United States. Bainbridge has been researching cyberspace for several years and can boast 2,100 hours of ethnographic research on Azeroth, as well as a review article on the subject in Science in 2007. The two decided to jointly organize the first World of Warcraft online conference and began spreading the word to researchers engaged in the field. By email, of course.
The conference itself was held last May, with the participation of 200-300 researchers and scientists from all over the world. Instead of paying a huge fortune to come to the conference, the participants were obliged to purchase a subscription to the game for only 15 dollars, a fact that will certainly please the instructors of many young researchers. The scientists participated in the conference as characters of all races - cowmen, minotaurs, elves, undead, trolls and orcs, and participated in the discussions and the various sessions in open correspondence in real time. Discussions were occasionally interrupted as scientists from various fields engaged in duels to the death between their characters, but most of the fights were stopped before the first graphic bloodbath was spilled.
The full conference lasted about three days and dealt with the connection between real life and virtual life and the different methods for research in the virtual world. Does the character on the computer screen reflect in its behavior the person in front of the keyboard? Does he make the same decisions for her that he would in real life? Do people tend to lie more or less when they are seen through the computer screen? These and many other questions were answered by the best experts in the field - orcs, trolls and others.
Professor Bainbridge hosted the last discussion - "The Future of Virtual Worlds", which was open to the general public. The discussion dealt with the possibilities that virtual worlds may open up for humans - starting with alternative lives for the disabled and paralyzed and ending with the possibility of immortalizing humans as computerized entities. Already today there are pre-programmed characters in the game world, who place flowers on the graves of deceased programmers. It is likely that some of those public gravestones receive a greater number of visitors than most gravestones in the real world. And even if placing flowers on her tombstone may not impress most people, it is evident that the lines between the worlds are blurring. When we see the dizzying pace at which computers are developing, there is reason to wonder whether the day will indeed come when a sophisticated artificial intelligence will be able to perpetuate our virtual likeness after our death.
At the end of the conference, the organizers announced a festive event - an all-out attack on a fortress manned by virtual enemies. All the scientists stormed the walls with the only battle cry that seemed appropriate, "For Science!" The defenders of the fort, devoid of scientific knowledge as they were, fell prostrate at their feet, but the men of science did not have long to revel in their victory. The defenders called for reinforcements, and in a short time all the participants in the conference were killed. The first scientific meeting in Azeroth has come to an end.
Roy Cezana, Galewind, Druid, level 70
For more information
The website of the Science Guild that was established in honor of the event
20 תגובות
If I touch for a nanosecond after logging in to MMORPG it will take me a year to recoup after that or a minimum of a day lost from life ……………….
not for now…. It's not virtual worlds and nasty Second Life.
With you in your difficult times.,,Approximately.
Good point.
The truth is, I thought about it as well, so I try to call the 'real world' the 'physical world'. But every now and then there are stumbles...
thanks for the correction!
"Real life", what is it?
Does today's western world, where the paper named after a metallic element, "silver", and for which we kill, are killed, and sacrifice the few hours of our lives on the altar of work (alien?), deserve the name "real life"? Seems to me like a bad use of language.
And still we live.
Hi Hanan,
I liked Ziv's video. The differences between the virtual world and the real world are indeed diminishing, and many lessons can be learned from virtual interactions. Two years ago I gave a lecture on the subject at Icon, and since then the professional studies have only been added.
Have you published scientific articles on the subject? I would love to receive a referral.
your,
Roy.
Roy Hi,
End title and good coverage.
I have been researching this fascinating and complex topic of behavior in virtual worlds for over ten years. [wow - the time].
In order to understand what one wants to measure, how processes are measured, what the technological tools are and their limitations, one must "reinvent" the wheel every time but at the same time rely on the theoretical basis of the sciences of learning, cognition and neurophysiology.
For example, Ziv Lavi and Anochi investigate leadership development and crisis management among guild managers in WOW multiplayer role-playing games as a test case for management in organizations. See the clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j65SAYwDbKs
The research tools we use are as diverse as the variety of races, and I'm exaggerating!)
GAME-ON!
Dr. Hanan Gazit | CEO of Metaversens
http://www.metaversense.com
Certainly 🙂
The XNUMXD thing refers to this of course
Ofer:
I hope you noticed that there are two articles there that contradict each other.
A very interesting article, Ms. Susan should read some Nietzsche, specifically Zaratostra.
Man's ambitions are to pass from the lion stage to the child stage, experiencing the world without prejudice. Then she will realize that in her own words she is contradicting herself.
As a designer, I can say that XNUMXD perception is something that develops very slowly, for years, working with XNUMXD software that I learned as a teenager, helped me get a huge advantage over all my competitors.
Today, the process is an imagination, a three-dimensional, industrial creation.
As someone who teaches XNUMXD in both drawing and software, I have no doubt that the same area of the brain develops only at a different rate.
But in any case there is no substitute for creativity. He who does not imagine will not create and it does not matter what the tool is in his hands.
Or and Roy:
זה You will probably be interested
light,
It's a fascinating topic in itself, and although I don't know what the full agenda of the conference attendees was, I'm convinced that there were also discussions about addictions and their various negative effects.
It's hard not to think of the parallel between wow and the idea of reincarnations existing at the same time. The concept that each of us has an overself as the Tibetans believe, which experiences the world through several individual "souls" at the same time and at different times, since it exists on a plane disconnected from the timeline as we know it, is very similar to me. As Ofer, I have about ten characters of different development levels, some of them have been downloaded and some have been alienated, they sometimes exist in parallel universes (pvp or pve server) and the knowledge I have gained helps to develop new entities and does not disappear. Sometimes a character can be on the floor for a month while I develop another character.
If I take into account the rate at which the ability to calculate increases today, it is not impossible that we live in a very complex simulation, and perhaps even hold figures from rival companies in order to understand the parties from a "divine" point of view.
So the addiction to a virtual environment is just as valid as the addiction to this "real" life.
Two things I regret about them:
1. Earth's server is too busy and getting boring, an extension with aliens or something has already come out.
2. That I cannot erase the memories of Azeroth and enjoy the experience in a primal way again.
What about the negative consequences of addiction to virtual computer games? Isn't this a worthy subject for anthropological research?
I am virtual means I exist 😕
I'm still suffering from the WOW withdrawal syndrome 🙁
Excellent game.
rain
Ran,
I'm glad you like the title!
Michael,
The highest rank is rank 80, but only then does the real game begin, when dozens of people cooperate in a way that requires coordination and precise planning in advance, to complete particularly difficult tasks. The time when I played seriously in the virtual world was one of the most interesting that I experienced, and I believe that I learned a lot about cooperation, about managing myself and others and about the nature of human beings. A bit like an army, but with dragons.
Roy:
Congratulations on the promotion.
What level can you reach?
Genius title!!…. 🙂
It seems that someone has checked this world in depth… 🙂
Now already level 79.