Virtual Sociocultural Convergence
by William Sims Bainbridge /
2016 / English / PDF
5.4 MB Download
This book explores the remarkable sociocultural convergence in
multiplayer online games and other virtual worlds, through the
unification of computer science, social science, and the
humanities. The emergence of online media provides not only
new methods for collecting social science data, but also contexts
for developing theory and conducting education in the arts as well
as technology. Notably, role-playing games and virtual worlds
naturally demonstrate many classical concepts about human
behaviour, in ways that encourage innovative thinking. The
inspiration derives from the internationally shared values
developed in a fifteen-year series of conferences on science and
technology convergence.
This book explores the remarkable sociocultural convergence in
multiplayer online games and other virtual worlds, through the
unification of computer science, social science, and the
humanities. The emergence of online media provides not only
new methods for collecting social science data, but also contexts
for developing theory and conducting education in the arts as well
as technology. Notably, role-playing games and virtual worlds
naturally demonstrate many classical concepts about human
behaviour, in ways that encourage innovative thinking. The
inspiration derives from the internationally shared values
developed in a fifteen-year series of conferences on science and
technology convergence.
The primary methodology is focused on sending avatars, representing
classical social theorists or schools of thought, into online
gameworlds that harmonize with, or challenge, their fundamental
ideas, including technological determinism, urban sociology, group
formation, freedom versus control, class stratification, linguistic
variation, functional equivalence across cultures, behavioural
psychology, civilization collapse, and ethnic pluralism.
The primary methodology is focused on sending avatars, representing
classical social theorists or schools of thought, into online
gameworlds that harmonize with, or challenge, their fundamental
ideas, including technological determinism, urban sociology, group
formation, freedom versus control, class stratification, linguistic
variation, functional equivalence across cultures, behavioural
psychology, civilization collapse, and ethnic pluralism.
Researchers and students in the social and behavioural sciences
will benefit from the many diverse examples of how both
qualitative and quantitative science of culture and society can
be performed in online communities of many kinds, even as artists
and gamers learn styles and skills they may apply in their own
work and play.
Researchers and students in the social and behavioural sciences
will benefit from the many diverse examples of how both
qualitative and quantitative science of culture and society can
be performed in online communities of many kinds, even as artists
and gamers learn styles and skills they may apply in their own
work and play.