My Simulated Life

Note: Like my last post, this was also written for my web design class. For an extra credit assignment, I joined a game and attended a story telling event and wrote about my experience. 

I've known about virtual worlds games, such as Second Life, for some time. Although I am an avid video game player, I had eschewed these sorts of first-person avatar-based games. I knew I didn't really like the Sims, for example, and I didn't really see the point of these games either. What did people do there, anyway? Well, for this assignment, I took a look at InWorldz, a second-life style game, firsthand.

So, this is me in InWorldz. Wearing a suit and tie of course because I can be all the more dapper than I am irl (or in real life, for you newbies). Below is my avatar.

I got dressed up and headed over to the Public Library at Delphi (yes, InWorldz has public libraries), which was holding its first live story telling event. I was honestly not sure what to expect. I suppose I thought that the storyteller would read the story over the mic, or something like that.

When I arrived (by teleporting, the only way to travel), the presenter had laid out cushions for everyone to sit on. So I right clicked, selected "sit here," and made myself comfortable. I sat in the back, which is my natural propensity in real life, but which turned out to be a bad plan in game, since my avatar is shorter than almost everyone and because everyone in front of me had little floating labels with their names on them. Unfortunately, but the time I realized my mistake, it seemed rude to get up. Lesson learned.

Most of the attendees seemed to be library board members and executives, as well as some of my classmates whom I had met the day before. I think that, despite the awesomeness of the library, a lot of people on InWorldz still don't know about it. I talked to a few people who told me they'd never heard of it before. I dutifully passed these people a landmark and told them to check it out.

The story telling itself was lead by a ferret (I think he was a ferret?) in a fancy hat. He told a story about a man and a cherry tree that blossoms one day, once a year. The speaker asked everyone to set their environmental settings to "midnight" before the story began, so that we could all experience the mood of the story. The tale was told via the chat box and a number of "slides" that the presenter put up. I'm actually not sure how that effect was created in game, but I think it is really cool how much you can manipulate the environment. The story ended with the entire visible sky being transformed into bursts of cherry blossoms, which was an amazing aesthetic effect.


I think virtual worlds story telling is a really interesting medium. Obviously, something like filling the sky with an image is something that would only be possible in a very high-tech venue, but in InWorldz, it's just another day. I am definitely interested in attending similar events in the future because I think digital art is fascinating. Art is only limited by the environment, and when that environment has no limits, well, then artists rule.

Means of social discourse: GIF stories

Note: I wrote this post for my webdesign class, but I think GIF stories are an interesting trend. While it doesn't really fall under the purview of language learning, it does have to do with discourse analysis, so I think it's fair game for this blog.

GIFs have been enjoying quite the renaissance on today's web. I've started noticing a trend in telling stories with GIFs interspersed with text. Before I get to far into this concept, I want to share this interesting video in the history of animated GIFs that was released this month by PBS.



This video is so great in describing a brief history of the format and their current usage. I especially like the concept of a "post-modern GIF."

That said, I want to discuss what I'm terming as GIF stories. These are a variant in digital storytelling in which the storyteller uses GIFs to express an emotion or idea that is either not clearly expressed in text, or is expressed better through visual media. I think these stem from this idea that the GIF is relating a feeling in a way that the author cannot convey except in the most florid of prose. Most people on the web, frankly, do not have the writing prowess to commit their thoughts and emotions to the "page" quite so expertly. Thus, by my estimation, are GIF stories born.

GIF stories range from simple explanations of annoyances like getting called in to work on one's day off to a full on explication of one's efforts to reconnect with an ex--and the subsequent renunciation of said ex [NSFW language]. What ultimately drew me to acknowledge the awesome potential of this trend was this GIF story posted in honor of International Women's Day [also NSFW language]. This story leverages a number of pop-culture references as well as pointed text to explain what's wrong with the current political situation in the U.S. regarding women. What is so great about this GIF story is that the GIFs use really do transcend what the author might have expressed in writing and allow the reader to experience different facets of this issue. Yes, absolutely, some of the GIFs are just silly, but several of the GIFs make an excellent visual point that corroborates what the text describes. I think it's a very effective piece and an exemplar of this trend.