Author: Jim Tien

Reflection on Nick Yee’s “The Proteus Paradox – How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us and How they Don’t – Chapter 11: The Hidden Logic of Avatars”

When I was looking through the contents of the book, the title of chapter 11 really stood out to me as relevant. Reading this part has really got me thinking about how boundaries can be pushed with advancements in technology. Yee mentions that a lot of virtual reality research has been about ‘creating experiences that replicate the physical world as faithfully as possible’ (Yee, 2014, p. 199). That really made me pause and think – why are we just mirroring our physical existence in these digital spaces? There’s so much more that can be done in these spaces.

Yee’s point about how ‘virtual worlds have become a way for us to replicate physical reality’ (Yee, 2014, p. 202) really resonated with me, I feel like a lot of the existing games or platforms are built with the assumption that people want to replicate physical reality, and it constrains your expression and imagination with a limited preset of templates for your characters and worlds. But then, I started thinking about the newer virtual reality platforms like VRChat. It’s a whole different territory there, VRChat frees your creativity and imagination of those binds. You can model anything you want in 3D software and bring it into the game. It’s like stepping into a world of unlimited possibilities, where the only limit is your imagination. This is a significant shift from the ‘lock-in’ effect Yee talks about, where design choices are often limited by what’s easy or fashionable (Yee, 2014, p. 205). Platforms like VRChat are breaking these barriers, offering a glimpse into what virtual worlds could be – spaces where we’re free to create and explore without the constraints of physical reality.

Reflecting on this, it’s exciting to see how virtual worlds are evolving. Yee’s suggestion that ‘we owe it to ourselves to try’ different forms of virtual embodiment (Yee, 2014, p. 207) really resonates with me now. It’s not just about playing in these worlds; it’s about exploring and pushing the boundaries of what we can create and experience.

In summary, going through Yee’s chapter has been really interesting. It’s opened my eyes to the potential of virtual worlds, especially with the advancements in platforms like VRChat. I’m eager to see how these worlds continue to evolve and break free from the traditional molds, offering new ways to express, interact, and experience the impossible.

Reflection on Thomas Blume’s Review on Tom Boellstorff’s ‘Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human’

This article by Thomas Blume is an overview of Boellstorff’s exploration into the virtual world of Second Life, a virtual world where players create avatars to live out complex, self-defined lives in a fully customizable online environment. Boellstorff observes how individuals in this space create and inhabit avatars that often represent starkly different aspects of their identity compared to their real-life personas. His study reveals that Second Life is not merely a digital platform but a complex social landscape where residents engage in meaningful cultural and interpersonal dynamics. Boellstorff notes, “residents of Second Life are three-dimensional avatars, designed and ‘inhabited’ by people in ‘real life’ but often quite different from their authors.” (Blume, 2009). This insight highlights the complexities behind a person’s choice of avatar, it’s not just about mirroring their physical form.

The observation about the depth of interaction and the richness of culture within Second Life really resonates with my own experiences even though I have never played this game before. It strikes me that a lot of these online worlds are not just games, but really a platform for genuine expression and connection. Boellstorff’s findings echo this, as he describes how “People meet, fall in love, get married, and go through divorces. And some residents engage in antisocial behavior, creating pressure for a legal system” (Blume, 2009).

It’s fascinating how virtual worlds like Second Life are able to not only mirror but potentially enrich people’s real-life experiences and identities. As Blume puts it, “SL residents… talk about their satisfactions and frustrations as well as unique encounters with SL traditions related to multiple time zones, connection problems, and computer crashes” (Blume, 2009). The complexity and reality of these experiences within the virtual worlds, really challenges our perceptions of identity and human interaction.

Final Thoughts

Reading these two works really opened up a box of questions about identity in the virtual realm. How are the evolving nature of the virtual worlds continuously shaping our understanding of self? In what ways can our virtual experiences influence our real-world perceptions and interactions? And what’s going to happen as these virtual realities get even more advanced?

References

Yee, N. (2014). The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us – And How They Don’t. Yale University Press.

Blume, T. (2009). Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human – by Tom Boellstorff. Journal of Family Theory & Review, [December], 1(4), 227-230. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2009.00029.x.

Gaming: Identity Formation??

I’ve been into gaming since I was really young. I especially loved the fantasy online roleplaying game “World of Warcraft.” It was more than just a game for me, it felt like living in another world. The world has its own history and culture. I’ve spent countless hours digging deep into the stories, meeting people online, and just exploring the world. I also cared a lot about how my character was represented in the game, I would go to great lengths, often spending days to obtain a piece of clothing I’d like my character to wear. It was so immersive to me at the time that coming back to the actual world felt strange and dissociating, I often felt like I needed to touch grass. In more recent years, I’ve dabbled in VR and saw how this new technology takes it even further. In this game VRchat, it’s like a whole other universe, you can visit rooftops, cafes, or cosmic worlds that don’t exist in real life. There are so many worlds out there, if you search for it, you can probably find it. The interesting thing about VRchat is, I’ve seen people spend a lot of money to commission 3D artists to create their own unique avatars. It’s fascinating how much people care about their digital presence. This whole idea of how we present ourselves in these virtual spaces is very interesting, especially as someone who has experienced it extensively before. I felt like this could potentially be a really interesting topic to explore especially in recent years with all the talk about the Metaverse and digital identity.

Identity: Two Places, No Home

Born in Taiwan, my life took a turn when I moved to Singapore during my formative years. Those years from Primary 1 to 5, Singapore wasn’t just a place where I lived, It’s a crucial part of who I was. It was a time where I started to really establish and figure out who I was. My first meaningful friendships, my understanding of the world, and my sense of self, these were all rooted in Singapore. Then, after finishing my Primary 5, I suddenly had to move back to Taiwan. It felt like being uprooted just as I had begun to lay down my roots. Even though Taiwan was my birthplace, I don’t completely feel at home, even now. The sense of belonging to Singapore has faded over the years. Now, I don’t feel any sense of belonging, not in Singapore, not in Taiwan. It’s like living with one foot in each place, never fully immersing in either. It’s a unique perspective, one that keeps me from being tied down to a single identity. This whole concept of how experiences can shape and impact identity really interests me. It’s like living proof of how our environments can forge who we become, and I think it can be valuable to explore this further.

Beliefs: Shifting Perspectives

When I was in college, my view of the world and life was quite different. I was really nihilistic, didn’t care about anything and didn’t want to do anything. It’s edgy and cliche I know, I’m not proud of that. It was during this time I stumbled upon “Rick and Morty.” The show, with its blend of dark humor and existential themes, really resonated with me (edgy and cliche again, I know, the whole theme). There was this one line delivered by Morty that really echoed with my own thoughts, “nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, we’re all going to die. Come watch TV.” It was a show that mirrored my own skepticism and doubts about life’s meaning. It felt like the show was putting into words and scenes the very ideas I was grappling with.

As I moved forward from my college years into the professional world, my outlook began to gradually shift. I still don’t think life has any inherent meaning, but I no longer believe that life having no meaning is an excuse to not do anything. It’s intriguing how the same show that once reinforced my own nihilistic views now sparks a different kind of reflection. I’ve recently revisited “Rick and Morty,” I realize that the show hasn’t changed, but me. My understanding of nihilism has evolved. It’s no longer about the despair of meaninglessness but about liberation and the freedom to do and experience whatever you want. This shift of perspective really shows me how our ideas and beliefs can change with life experiences. The topic of how our ideas evolve and how they shape our perception towards life, I feel like it is worth exploring how people’s views change over time and what influences them.

AI: Creativity and Efficiency ???

Working in marketing at ASUS brought me face-to-face with the rapid advancements in generative AI technology. It was not just a new buzzword, like the “Metaverse” or the “NFT.” It was a fundamental shift in how we approached creativity and efficiency. When tools like Stable-Diffusion, MidJourney and ChatGPT came onto the scene, it was like opening a door to a new world. These AI applications weren’t just tools, they were collaborators, bringing a level of efficiency we hadn’t seen before.

I remember being one of the first marketers in our department to integrate Stable-Diffusion and MidJourney into our workflow. It really changed how fast we can push things. Collaborating with a senior designer in our department, we started using AI-generated images as reference and as a base instead of relying only on stock photos. It was faster, unique, and often sparked new ideas due to the unstable nature of how some generated images came out as. With the help of these new tools, we pushed the project timeline to a new fast. This threeway collaboration of a marketer, designer, and AI was a revelation. It showed me that AI shouldn’t be seen as a competition but as a valuable tool and partner. It’s about using the tool to enhance our capabilities. 

Looking ahead, I believe the key is in how we adapt to and integrate AI into our workflow. The future should be about collaboration between human intuition and AI’s data-driven insights. This perspective on AI excites me, it’s a part of the unknown that is still developing and something that I’m eager to explore further. Understanding how AI can continue to evolve as a tool and how we, as creatives, can harness its potential to its fullest.

Reflecting on this project of reshaping a laundry basket deemed “useless” by it’s previous owner into a communal tool for sustainability, my project “Bag it Forward” began with an examination of our perceptions of usefulness and the potential for reimagining everyday objects. It all starts with the discarded laundry basket, deemed useless as the owner preferred using plastic bags to carry laundry due to its convenience. This actually made me think about whether this is a case of “useless behavior” or “useless object.” It made me think about how our behaviors and preferences are able to shape the utility of the objects around us, whether making it more valuable or rendering it useless.

Going into the concept of shaping behavior, I read some studies, like the one from UBC, which underscore the significant impact of convenience on recycling behaviors. This piece of research laid the groundwork for my hypothesis: that by making sustainable practices more convenient, we could encourage greater engagement in sustainability.

With this in mind, I reimagined the laundry basket as a “Bag it Forward” station, a communal bag swap point designed to tap into the power of convenience. Placing it in accessible locations aimed to bridge the gap between intention and action in sustainability, making it easier for people to engage and participate.

The project’s potential impact was gauged through community feedback, collected via surveys. The responses were mostly positive, revealing that people were willing to embrace positive change, but it also highlighted some concerns about cleanliness and accountability, which went over my head when I was first working on this. I’m glad the survey brought about feedback about potential issues. If I were to do a reiteration on this, there will be an emphasis on the need for clear guidelines and maintenance of the bag swap point to ensure everyone’s accountability and the sustainability of this “Bag it Forward” station.

In conclusion, this project opened my eyes on the transformative potential of shifting perspectives, helping me give new life to a discarded object.

Link to presentation deck:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OhPvVPCX172AKUXvP_QLVHaHn6coifC2/view?usp=sharing