MMORPGs: Is this the Bizarro World 2.0?

For those of you too young to remember, the Bizarro World was a fictional planet that existed in the incredible DC comics universe of superheroes and supervillains. The Bizarro world was also known as Htrae, which was Earth spelled backwards (such a supercool play on words!). Superman, Lois Lane, Yellow Lantern, and the great Bizarro himself were early inhabitants of Htrae.

See, I was a big fan of the Superfriends cartoon when I was a kid. Remember that infamous line: “Wonder Twin powers activate”! OK, back to MMORPGS.

While reading Julian Dibbell’s “Play Money or, How I Quite My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot”, I could not help but think about the Bizarro world. Humans are a peculiar bunch. For us, the real world can be stressful, tedious, boring, expensive, and filled with endless responsibilites like bills and debt. And, that leads us to create these other worlds. The other world of the 20th century was the Bizarro world. Now, the other world for the 21st century is the world of MMORPGs aka Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

In MMORPGs, hundreds or thousands of players interact with one another in a virtual world. Think Dungeons and Dragons or Second Life. Like the Bizarro world, MMORPGs can mirror real life in many ways. While refreshing my memory on the Bizarro world, I came upon Wikipedia which stated, “ In one episode, for example, a salesman is doing a brisk trade selling Bizarro bonds: “Guaranteed to lose money for you”.

Funny how that line could explain our real world current economic collapse. Some things are just so timeless.

In “Play Money”, Dibbell writes about a real man named Troy Stolle who was a carpenter from Indiana. In Stolle’s spare time, he literally spent every waking hour on Ultima Online where he created characters who were expert hunters and archers, and bought a deed so he could build his virtual dream mansion. Virtual life was so good for Stolle until the real world crashed his party.

Stolle fell on hard times and had to sell his prized Ultima Online account. Dibble writes, “Stolle got to talking about the unfortunate reasons he’d sold the account- about how he’d been out of work since 9/11, and how the bills were piling up”.

And, just like in the Bizarro world, trading and bartering are a way of life. In Chapter 20, Dibbell wrote that he himself “had over a hundred dollars in my PayPal account and more than 20 million gp in my bank boxes”. But, probably hearing the ‘easy come, easy go’ mantra in his head, Dibbell goes on to state that “it was never wise to forget that any or all of your assets could vanish, at any moment, with the flip of a bit”.

All of this made me wonder if back in the real world, why had any of the folks who ran companies that were recently bailed out by the US government missed those words of wisdom?

In trying times, escapism is sometimes necessary. See, us humans like to create other worlds but somehow we always manage to bring our real world problems with us. And, we could certainly use a few superfriends right about now!

An Ode to the Digital Middleman

Web 2.0 is a phrase created by O’Reilly Media. It is the baby that Web 1.0 gave birth to. In other words, Web 2.0 is the second generation of Internet services that allows people to collaborate and share information and ideas via social networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Web 2.0 is the place where people, technology, and economics meet in the digital age.

It is in Web 2.0 where the middleman is the main man (or middleperson, main person, you get the drift). In digital media, the middleman connects the user to where he or she needs to be. And, who is the biggest and baddest middleman on the web, you might ask? Well, it’s Google of course!

In Tim O’Reilly’s “What is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software“, he states, “Google happens in the space between browser and search engine and destination content server, as an enabler or middleman between the user and his or her online experience”. In the Web 2.0 world, the most powerful companies are those that bring the user to where he or she wants to go. The middleman is the users mode of transportation while they are on an internet joyride.

The middleman isn’t merely a mode of silent transportation. The digital middleman wants to know as much about your ride as possible. Google, the king of search, does exactly that. In “The Long Tail“, Chris Anderson wrote that Google taps “consumer wisdom collectively by watching what millions of them (users) do and translating that into relevant search results or recommendations”.

Companies that target the long tail which is the collective power of all the small sites on the web that make up the web are the companies that thrive in the Web 2.0 world. eBay and Amazon are also great examples of powerful middlemen who always keep the long tail keenly in their sights.  They understand what the customer wants and provide it in simple transactions. They also remember the last time the customer was there and make recommendations, like a waiter at your favorite restaurant.

And, two of the things that are oh so exciting about the middleman, is that their service automatically gets better the more people use it, and customer service really counts; well, most times it does. eBay grows bigger and bigger in response to its user activity and the comments section will let you know if it’s a safe bet to buy that antique vase from Joe Schmo for $29.95.

Amazon has cornered the market on user reviews and they use user activity to produce better search results. But, beware of their return policy. A few months ago, I ordered two of the same books by mistake and had to return one copy. The books each cost $16.47. When I returned it to Amazon, they charged me an $8.24 restocking fee, and a $3.99 prepaid return label reduction which left me with a measly $4.24 for a new book I never even opened. But, I digress.

The digital world is in some ways similar to the nondigital world. But, what’s fantastic about the digital world is that anyone with a computer and an internet connection can participate in Web 2.0 and make their presence known. Maybe some bigwig at Amazon will read this blog and then some other folks will link to it. And, then I’ll get primo Google PageRank status. And, well, who knows what could happen next?

Because in the digital age, how you get to your destination can be just as important as the destination itself. And, that is my ode to the digital middleman.

Help Kell Get an A on Her Research Paper Project!

Bullying. Unfortunately it is one of America’s oldest pasttimes. In grammar school, you either belonged to one of three groups, the bullies,  the bullied, or the just plain lucky. Well, in the 21st century, bullying has gone high tech and morphed itself into cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying includes such acts as harrassment, making threats, spreading rumors and insults via social networking sites, instant messaging, email, photoshop, and blogs. Cyberbullying is usually carried out by minors but some adults have been known to participate. Cyberbullying is a serious problem and can have traumatic and sometimes deadly consequences.

This brings me to my research topic and how you all can “Help Kell Get an A on Her Research Paper Project!”

Social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook in particular are the most popular method offenders use to cyberbully their peers.

You all may be wondering how you can help me get an A. Well, I want your feedback, your comments, and your ideas on how I can shape my research. Talk to your kids and your kids’ friends. Talk to your nieces and nephews. Teenagers! I need to hear from teenagers!

Think about the following questions and post some comments! Join me in the blogosphere!

1. Do you know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying?
2. How was the issue resolved?
3. If so, what was the digital method of choice? MySpace, Facebook, email, instant messaging?
4. As far as you know, have social networking sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook) implemented adequate privacy and safety controls to reduce cyberbullying?
5. Are our schools doing enough to educate and prevent cyberbullying among children?
6. Are parents doing enough to monitor their children’s computer use?

Your answers to these questions will aid me in my research and help shape my hypothesis. So, get busy, give this some serious thought, and post your comments on this blog!