Steambot Chronicles is a game which presents a virtual environment that displays some interestingly similar characteristics to our modern day urban landscapes. A player of this game is likely to discover that much of the obstacles and boundaries that are presented in the game’s environment are much like the ones that are experienced in ‘real-life’. The statements that I am making now are gathered from observing our professor play the game while we were in class. We noticed that while she was operating her Steambot, it was necessary for her to stop at stop-signs, yeild for pedestrains, respect the speed limit, and generally adhere to all other facets of urban structures that we experience in our own urban landscapes. It leads a person to wonder if whether or not machines of that nature would ever be allowed to function in our types of ‘real’ urban landscapes. If so, would they be forced to yeild to the same types of urban transportation laws that we have to currently? The ideal answer would be to assume that they would be, but law enforcement agencies would also ideally do everything they could to match and manage the power of these machines, and the humans that operate them. With a innovation in transportation technology and a particullarly larger scale as is noticed on the Steambot, it would follow that large scale innovations would need to be generateed in order to comply with all other facets of the society in which those innovations are created. for example, larger streets need to be created and building entry points need to be enlarged. Pollution levels will rise as a result of the co2 emmissions given off from such “Steambots”, following an enlargement and restatement of urban emmissions policies. The amount and nature of urban laws, as we understand them today, would inevitabley have to experience a change. Therefore, we as humans would experience a change in the way we live our lives in Urban landscapes. A change in one system can reflect a certain change that is made in another system, and change in transportation mode would reflect a change that is made towards the way we live our lives in this grand urban complex; much as it does in the game Steambot Chronicles.

Almond Nicholas
Games and Virtual Geography: GRG 309
Blog (Extra Credit) Assignment #1
Date: 5/8/10
www.facebook.com as Space and Place
I thought this blogging assignment could pose as a convenient addition to the research material which I generated for my final research project in this class. The purpose of my research on virtual worlds was to investigate the various ways in which www.facebook.com could represent a virtual environment, and since the concept of environment is so closely related to the term, world, it will also be used in relation to the one that I believe exists in www.facebook.com. The method used in order to collect my research findings was to conduct a comprehensive, four question multiple-choice survey on 100 students at the University of Texas at Austin TX. The research data that was collected enabled me to gain valuable information about peoples’ perceptions and opinions about how this website could pose as a virtual environment, in the realm of “cyber-space”. One of the four questions that were listed on the survey sheet included a specific question about how www.facebook.com could represent a virtual “cyber-place” while spending time on the internet. I received a lot of questions from my survey subjects such as, what do you mean by “cyber-place”? Or simply, what is a “cyber-place”? I answered their questions to the best of my ability; as I am not an expert on the subject of either space or place and much less about how it relates to the cyber-realm, but I believe they received the necessary information from me that allowed them to answer the question. I essentially tried to ‘encourage’ the survey sampler to think of www.facebook.com as posing a ‘place’ on the world-wide-web that provided a medium through which people could interact and mingle with without having to be physically present in a physical, terrestrial location; and this medium is one that is known to “transcend national borders” and occurs at a global scale (Adams 1992: 118). After explaining this, in a matter of minutes, the sampler attained the idea. However, for the purposes of this blog, and to possibly clear up any misconceptions about the nature of cyberspace as it related to my research findings, I’ll try to present a little more information on the nature of “cyberplace”; as it will relate to the spaces contained within it, and inevitably contributing to a understanding of one of my most important research questions. The collective term for how concepts of place and space can relate to various computer networks is to define them as “virtual-place metaphors” (Adams, 1998: 88). One such metaphor that I believe provides an ideal definition for the term cyberspace, as I believe it relates to websites such as www.facebook.com, is to call it a virtual medium. Neil Postman defined a medium as something that represents the social and intellectual environments that are created by machines ((Postman 1985:84); Adams 1992: 119). The idea of mechanically reproduced environments where interactions between humans can take place at any given moment is an issue which the concept of “cyberplace” brings to light. My rational when explaining the nature of my question to the survey subjects was to advocate that if something like cyberspace exists, so too must a ‘cyberplace’ exist within it. www.facebook.com is a website that I believed could have qualifying characteristics of a certain cyberplace that exists in cyberspace. But where exactly is www.facebook.com located in the grand scale phenomenon that is cyberspace? Computer-network-activist organizations often claim that over the last 50 years, human society has crossed into a landscape that is unlike any of which it has ever experienced before. This unknown landscape is perceived to be one in which there is little shape and/or form, and it exists in the unexplored web of our electronic communications network ((Kapor and Barlow 1993: 1); Adams 1998: 88). This comes as no surprise when referring to Postman’s definition for medium as social and intellectual scenery that is reproduced by machines. The goal of such mechanical reproductions of our natural environmental systems is to invoke place experiences (Adams 1998: 89). Cyberspace can now be defined as the collective mass of environmental reproductions that contribute to place-like experiences on the world-wide-web. A specific location, even though its topography and boundary have not yet been analyzed or identified with certainty, is www.facebook.com. This website provides a medium through which interaction and communication between people can be facilitated. It is a cyberplace that exists in cyberspace, where interactions between people can occur without anyone having to be physically present in any one physical location. (scroll to the very bottom to view references)

Work Cited
Adams, Paul. Network Topologies and Virtual Place: Department of Geography Planning. University at Albany S.U.N.Y: “Blackwell Publishers”. Oxford, UK. 1998. (Pages 88-89).
Television as Gathering Place: Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Annals of the Association of American Geographers. “Association of American Geographers”. 1992. (Page 118).

Anwar Sounny the guest speaker had talked about many of the interesting technology used in the field of geographical mapping. He discussed the rapid changes that are taking place in this field: from a 2D perspective to a 3D perspective. Personally, I thought it was intriguing to see this transition from 2D to 3D due to the fact that maps are becoming much more interactive and are able to carry information other than just direction and distance. For example, our guest speaker demonstrated Google Earth during his presentation and was able to explore some of the walking trails in parks and some area of sightseeing in the country using the street-view function built into Google Maps. In addition to changes occurring in the way we use maps, he talked about change in technology used for mapping as well. I am interested in the concept and function of Lidar which he had mentioned during class due to the fact that he talked about how Lidar could be incorporated into gaming design by using the geographical data as the model for creating realistic virtual environments. The virtual world created using Lidar can be enhanced with another technology he mentioned during his presentation and that is “Image-Based Modeling”. Image-Based Modeling, according to Sounny, is the process of creating three dimensional models from a collection of 2D images. It would be mind blowing to see a game based upon the real world down to the smallest detail such as street signs and buildings. Mr. Sounny had also talked about other Photo Tourism by Microsoft and 3D geography from Google Earth and how these companies are pushing for a revolution in this field using new technologies that are becoming available. I personally found his presentation interesting and I had learned couple new things that I didn’t know about prior to listening to his presentation such as the uses of Lidar and modeling based on 2D images.

Dennou Coil is a show that focused on the coexistence between argument reality and the real world. The story follows a school girl named Yuko Okonogi who has just moved into an advance city. The city is constructed and interconnected with layer of cyberspace and is connected to the “net”. People who wear special type of glasses are allowed to interact with this layer of virtual reality such as owning cyber pets, making call and sending emails without dedicated hardware; every activity was done through body interaction. The story began with Yoko as she started her new life in the new technology centered city. The most intriguing aspect of this show is that it provided a reasonable perspective on what the future might hold for us and a logical way on how people might interact with a new technology such as argument virtual reality. In addition, the show outlined some of the advantages and disadvantages of this new technology. For example, the show explored some of the technological barriers and issues that plagued the new technology of virtual environment that is layered over the city. The advanced city was the only one of its kinds in terms of scale; there were a lot of bugs in the “cyber layer” that covered the city and these bugs needed to be fixed in order to ensure the system function as normal. Some of the bugs are caused by different version of the cyber space; the conflict between the different versions causes the virtual reality to be corrupted and distortions were found at various parts of the city. Therefore, the city employed “antivirus” softwares in the form of guardians called Satchi that patrolled the city streets and correct any bugs and defects in the virtual world. The instability and viability of the virtual environment is one of the many possible problems that we may encounter if argument reality becomes main stream in the future. Furthermore, the show explored the implication of having deep connection with the virtual world such as the problem of addiction to the virtual environment and withdrawal from the “real” world. This problem of withdraw was observed in the plot when one of her friend was in danger due to her dependence on the virtual world. Overall, Dennou Coil provided a great model and concept of a futuristic city with emphasis on virtual reality. The concerns and issue raised by the authors of the show is worth examine especially considering that with our rapid technological advancement, virtual reality may one day become possible and we may potentially face some of these issues and problems.

Borderlands is a first person role playing game released on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. The game is set on the planet of Pandora. The geography of the planet is arid, dry, and essentially a barren wasteland. The settlements on this planet are very sparse and isolated. Between them is a wilderness full of trash piles and desert. Settlers were once attracted to the planet, but when they soon realized there was little of value on the planet, many left. Those who did not have the means to leave were left behind, forced to fend for themselves as scavengers and savages.

The player takes control of one of four characters in the game. They are lured to Pandora through rumors of a hidden treasure on the planet. The player must fight through the wildernesses, as well as the savages that inhabit these barren wastelands. The wilderness in this game characterized as a place to fear. It is fill of wild people and void of law and civilization.

The idea of massive online games with a relatively simple UI and gameplay that exists as 2D clicks and numbers has really take off on the last few years thanks to the rise of social platforms like facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. With companies making ludicrous profits off of seemingly trivial games such as Farmville, MafiaWars, or RestaurantCity, the simple objective is to get people to play their games… a lot. To this end, Farmville is incredibly easy to play, quite addicting, and requires attention multiple times a day. The interesting parallel is that this approach to game design in Farmville follows the classical pastoral view of rural life.

In Farmville, you simply click on the ground you’d like to plow, then click on a seed type to plant, and you’re done. Come back in a few hours (or a few days, depending on what type of seed you used) and harvest it via simply clicking on it. That’s all it takes to grow copious quantities of plants… a few simply mouse clicks.  This ridiculously low barrier of entrance to play the game allows pretty much anyone to have a “fun” time playing farmville… even if the end goal is pretty much to just have a lot of crops.   On top of the simplicity, there is no real ‘negative’ problems in Farmville.  If you dont harvest your plants for a looooong time, then they die, but other than that, everything is presented in bright pastel colors in a pleasantly cartoon art style.  The ease and juvenile presentation of the game hide all of the actual difficulties of operating a large scale farm.

Undeniably, Farmville reinforces the pastoral view of the rural life.  Little time spent on actually producing harvestable goods coupled with incredibly simple means to gain these results hides any unhappy sideeffects of farm life.  This game’s massive popularity and simplistic interaction runs the risk of perhaps over-exposing people to this hyper-pastoral idea of farming at the expense of a more balanced idea of rural life.

Augmented reality generally refers to technology being integrated with human sensory input/output in some capacity.  This includes everything from robotic limbs controlled through mere thoughts to visual information display overlays of reality in real time.  However, some games take the flipped perspective, using the real physical world to alter what happens in the virtual world.

One interesting example of reality being used as the augmenter of a virtual world is Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis, a cellphone game released to Japanese markets in 2006.  The specific way this worked was that in order to cast magic spells in the game, you needed varying types of “material,” a fire material for flame spells, a lightning material for electric spells, etc.  Each material had its own color, fire being red, electric being yellow, and so on; this particular aspect is what was used with the reality augmenting.  Since it was a cellphone game released on a very specific model of phone, the game integrated the cellphone’s camera into gameplay.   To acquire a material in game, you took a picture of anything in the real world colored in a similar fashion.  Want a green healing material? Take a picture of a blooming tree or perhaps a field of grass.  Want a fire material? Best take a picture of a cocacola can or some roses.   While the main character of the game used a virtual version of this phone in his virtual world for communicating with his allies, you were using it control his power and attacks. This implementation of reality augmentation in a virtual world is an interesting exploration of how real and virtual worlds can overlap and create new methodologies of interaction.

While Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego) has yet to be released many trailers have conveyed the overall game world.  I believe that Harvey’s view that place meanings are socially constructed apply to this game.

One of Harvey’s aspects of socially constructed place is that there are different interests competing over place meaning.  Being set in the west, part of this game’s world takes place in Mexico.  As seen in trailers there seems to be a great amount of tension between Mexicans and white settlers.  A real-life problem, Americans encroaching on Mexican soil, appears to be portrayed in this game.  Historically Mexicans tried to defend their land and ways of life from settlers who also tried to establish their own societies.  Thus many competing interests fought over places to attempt to define them as ‘Mexican’ or ‘American.’

Another aspect is place under threat from globalization and time/space compression.  This holds true to what I have seen in Red Dead Redemption so far.  The game takes place in the early 20th century, 1908 specifically.  While the game definitely looks to have a western feel once should take notice that the World War I is right around the corner, a time where many innovations came into being.  The game seems to explore the aspect of the dying ‘western way of life’  and the ever-growing modernized America that had its roots in this same time period.

(I feel that the following article further elaborates on this issue of place under threat)

http://kotaku.com/5520035/the-real-history-behind-2010s-big-western

One of the more perplexing ethical issues of a reality that is becoming more and more intertwined with technology is how to treat the modern battlefield. As high-tech equipment becomes more efficient, more reliable, less expensive, and more widespread, it inevitably makes it’s way into military use (or, in many cases, starts there to begin with). These new technologies make the modern warfighter more lethal, more aware, and most importantly, better able to survive. Advancements such as “smart” munitions that automatically calculate range to target and optimal detonation, gun-mounted cameras, and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) have effectively made war into an almost-virtual affair, and in the future, it is entirely likely that soldiers will never even see the target they are engaging face-to-face until after the last shot is fired. But what side effects will this advent in warfare bring, psychologically? Modern UCAV pilots effectively play real-life video games, sitting comfortably at base while fighting a real war from behind a computer monitor, yet more and more are beginning to show signs of PTSD regardless of their physical detachment from combat. With a growing number of would-be soldiers having initially gained interest in military service through video games such as Call of Duty, one has to ask whether or not this virtualization of actual combat is a truly good thing. While it may save countless lives, it may come with the cost of dehumanizing war – a concept that works wonderfully in wartime, but may lead to unnecessary conflict in peace.