Incredible Commentary on EVE Sociology

As I mentioned in my last blog post, EVE Online has a certain system of corporations that groups of people use. Here's a link that goes more into it and the litany of horror and hilarity that insues. Bad Crazy in Internet Space

Gaming 'Gemeinschaft'

After reading and responding to "The Radicalization of Zeke Spiers", I was hit by the fact that the description of the close knit groups portrayed as political groups in the article could be applied to multiple gaming entities that have been created in this layer of cyberspace.

First of all, Clans. This is the most common name for gaming groups and one might here about them in the context of the popular games Halo and Counter Strike. They are groups of people who hang out with each other and engage in clan battles with other groups. They recruit over the internet and at tournaments, usually highlighting the unique social groups that each might represent. A player would find one that they feel comfortable with and go from there. This is remarkably similar behavior to the political groups who attract people at conventions while the people go about and find which one they fit into.

Next, my own personal 'gemeinschaft' is a corporation in the massive multiplayer game EVE Online. Instead of clans, different corporations exist in EVE that are entirely owned, run, and financed by people who spend their playtime for the sake of corporate advancement. My own corp is less than a dozen people, most from Lehigh, who all play for fun instead of the corporate warfare that most deal with. Anyone reading this play EVE or any other MMO?

Internet Politics

I thought that the Radicalization of Zeke Spier was an amazing article. I characterize myself as a political person who votes and has gone to numerous politic-related events and programs, so seeing Zeke take a stand (whether I agree with him or not) was a great sight.

These instances of internet coordinated political events proves that interest in politics has been revived by the internet and its ease of use. Obama's use of it helped him win the election in my opinion, and the next election will use it even more if both sides know what they're doing. I can only imagine that in time, colleges such as Lehigh might offer Internet Politics major or minors to help meet the needs of people going into these positions.

I remember when I was in DC for the Inauguration that a lot of people were talking about how the internet helped Obama to win, and the most striking of examples wasn't big forum websites, it was small sites used for individual towns and rallies that helped. Such sites aren't easily counted and proved to be a huge part of the election.

Conclusion to the Alexis story

I was happy to see that Alexis was able to stay friends with Craig. Its extremely easy to lose track of people across cyberspace, just as easy as meeting them. The fact that they kept in touch is a great thing. The internet was the main method of keeping in touch between me and a few friends that I made from an education trip to Australia, however I've lost touch with them over the years, so seeing the opposite was a nice thing.

Online gaming as a social ice breaker

Since the interaction of online gaming and socialability seem to get people interested, I thought I'd post on something recent. A friend from back home decided to come up for the weekend to visit and meet the Lehigh friends staying here. Expectedly, it was slightly awkward since both my friend and my new group didn't really know what to say to each other. It was only after talking about videogames that they really started to click. I think that this all harkens back to the article A Rape in Cyberspace and how seriously people take their online lives, and how it filters back into their own. Cyberspace activites and Reality activities (like soccor) are indistinguishable these days.

Continuing on Cyber Relationships

Thinking about how people deal and live with each other online has reminded me of another friendship from the online world. This was from Xbox Live where I spend a lot of my time. While not as extreme or interesting as the link I posted earlier, it just shows how people can have real friends over the internet. After playing a great match of Gears of War, I friended one of my teammates, who was amazing with a sniper rifle. To this day, I call him an artist with that weapon regardless of the game. Anyway, we got to talking and kept playing together. Once Halo 3 was released we moved to that and havne't really played in much else. Its been about 3 years and while we're not exactly best friends, we're each others' unconnected and impartial voice whenever something happens.

If anyone reading this has an Xbox Live account, send a friend request to Omega Hunter 9

Relationships from Cyberspace

I found the interview with Alexis really interesting, because I had a similar experience with a different ending. Months before Lehigh, I had contacted a girl talking in a physics major thread on facebook, and we clicked really well. Where Alexis found her cyber friend to be in a bad relationship, I found mine to be in an amazing one. However, before I found that out I had considered the possibility of a real more than friendly relationship.

All this about relationships over cyberspace reminds me of an article where someone proposed to his girlfriend of over 2 years using Xbox Live and the create a map feature to spell out "Marry Me" with various weapons. Link: Halo 3 Marriage Proposal

First Post

This is my first time blogging, so this is a test to see if the system works.