I R Blogging

Marks meet Worlds?

I’ve had it down for a few days now to comment on a recent article written by Mark Hendrickson titled “Virtual World Hangouts: So Many To Choose From“. It’s not a bad list, but tends to hit a lot of the lower-end virtual worlds. Just because you can use an image to represent yourself doesn’t mean it’s virtual, but more of a social site. However, he seems to have done some research by differentiating virtual worlds and MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Onling Role Playing Games) which most reporters merge together. Kudos to him on that. Be sure to check out the chart included on the page, it was put together fairly well.

The second article I’m going to put my two cent in on today is titled “More polite in the virtual world?” by Mark Ghosh. This article asks two questions: ‘Are users more polite in virtual worlds?’ and ‘Are we better at communicating with peers in a virtual world?’ After spending years in virtual communities, I have to answer the first question with a big “Hell No!”. In all the time I’ve spent offline, I have not run into even a quarter as many rude, arrogant, foul-mouthed trouble makers as I have online. There are quite a few polite users, but since a majority of the users who commute online are teenagers and young adults who often abuse the ability to be anonymous on the Internet (not the previous generation who could steal legally have the rude beaten out of them at a young age) I feel it’s safe to say that the majority are bad apples.

As for the second question asked ‘Are we better at communicating with peers in a virtual world?’, I would have to agree that we are. Contrary to the inability act in a civilized manner, it is still a better way of communicating. Take for instance a conversation in which one party finds it full. In a real life situation they may be stuck there listening to it until an opening or interruption occurs. In the same situation online, a person can simply block the users or leave the chatroom without having to fear the person chasing after them. It may be a crude way to function, however emotions and thoughts are often much more direct in an online situation.