Virtual Drugs: or, Whypox EVOLVES...

As some of you probably know, much of our research on Whyville has featured Whypox, the virus that at least annually spread around Whyville. Since our research in 2002 and 2005, Whypox has changed dramatically, evolving like the ever changing biological virus it models. It used to be that once your avatar caught Whypox, you began with sneezes, "achoo," and bright red spots on your face. Well, over the past couple years they started adding vaccines, more symptoms, and the possibility to get one symptom and not others. In other words, Whypox has evolved into what must be multiple viruses!

Recentlly in Whyville I wandered into a new pharmacy. Turns out they're now selling treatments for each individual symptom: sniffling, coughing. and those darn pimples. WHAT?! You can treat Whypox?

Will this change how Whypox affects the community? Just last summer we presented on Whypox as a community event. Even if kids didn't have Whypox, they were involved and affected by the epidemic. Some uninfected kids even imitated the "achoo" in their chat! But with these new virtual drugs, will things ever be the same?

Wait a minute, that lady pharmacist just said the drug would only work for two hours. Doh!

Ah well. I'm not infected but I did say "pretty please" to get some "sniff b gone," just in case.

Designing beyond face parts: Climate change on Whyville

Today when I logged on to Whyville (it's been awhile, since we were in Japan at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) presenting on Whyville last week) I discovered that there are now "rolling black outs" on Whyville due to the energy crisis associated with the Climate Change Center. I went there to discover what was up and one thing I found was "CLIMATE COUTURE."



What is this? Well, it appears that design on Whyville now goes beyond face parts, something that an audience member at DiGRA actually asked about. Now, you can go to Akbars and design parts for alternative energy, which are then somehow ranked with a number related to how good they are for the environment. Here are some of the options below. Note that not all parts actually rank anything at all.



Well, I don't want to be a slacker, so I bought a solar panel and put it on my face, then went back to the Climate Center, rang the bell, and my contribution to solving the energy crisis on Whyville was noted. Hooray! I noted in particular that this is yet more evidence that Whyville is working on community-based science participation that requires an investment of virtual money and time and now a visual show of support (one's avatar on Whyville is quite important - just read our avatar paper: Your Second Selves...). Here's a picture of my new solar panel in front of the Climate Center. I think we need more research on this...

Ugh - dead fish!

Ick. I went on Whyville today and noticed that the beach looks absolutely disgusting. The water is a deep maroon color and there are now dead fish lying around. I never noticed that before. So I went to check out the red tide thing. Not sure if it's my imagination but I think it got worse and that there's more of one type of plankton that like urea. Bought 50 seedlings, got in my boat, and planted them at an area of relatively high concentration.

Meanwhile, I also went on a major shopping spree since my old parts expired. After having invested in a bunch of new sunscreen at Target today I was tired of being pale-skinned so I when for a tan look but kept a different version of red hair. I've also always wanted to play Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz so purchased a Toto in basket. Not sure what I'm going for with the umbrella and glasses, but I *have* been writing a lot of papers (about Whyville) recently, so maybe it's a studious thing?

Off to Digra soon... Oriahsiri/Debbie

Global Warming on Whyville?

Looks like yesterday Whyville started a global warming center with opportunities to go back in time and study temperatures in Whyville and Earth. My guess is that this is hitting a hot point with Whyvillians because on one BBS post I saw around 140 separate replies by different individuals about whether they were concerned about global warming. The arguments are heating up as some are very very concerned and others aren't concerned at all (the minority from my peripheral readings of the posts).

If anyone is interested in kids' argument and evidence I recommend this for reading. Some make reference to rising or falling numbers of polar bears, to rising water levels, and so on though without actually listing their sources. Fascinating. Can't wait to travel back in time!

Your pixie reporter in Whyville,
Oriahsiri

Garlic Splats - Who Knew?

We recently decided to further study projectile throwing on Whyville - did you know that you can throw stuff at other folk on Whyville? This is a useful practice for 'reaching out and touching someone,' flirting (throwing hearts), and creating elaborate tag-like wars with your friends.

In pursuit of this fascinating topic, I though it would be valuable scholarship to buy some projectiles and throw them. I bought some oldies - blue balloons, mudballs, hearts - and some newies - maggots, garlic, spiders, and christmas lights. Now, some projectiles just stick to your target for a few seconds and disappear - like hearts. But some splat, like mudballs. Much to my delight and utter surprise, garlic splats. Who can explain the delight of throwing a head of garlic at someone and seeing it splat all over their face (see my target practice in the picture above)!

In fact, maggots also splat - a virtual and scintillating mix of body parts and blood.

In contrast, spiders mostly splat blood and little black legs.

Think about all the implications for context specific learning how to throw projectiles on Whyville - who to throw at, what to throw for what purposes, and how to respond when kids say "who did that?!"

latest fashion trends in Whyville

Every once in awhile I browse through Akbar's Face Mall (where all the face parts are available for shopping) to see what's the latest and greatest, or at least the oddest in looks on Whyville. Yesterday I went through the "Hall of Fame" and "New Arrivals" to see what was around. Here are some of the interesting new things I found.


Musical iPods are everywhere - I especially liked this one with the music exuding from it. Rock on!

Hand signs seem to be in, in multi-colored skin tones, which is encouraging. Here are a couple that I found. Anything to show expression in a static, non-animated avatar?

A puzzler - can someone enlighten me on this one? - is that I've seen several signs with dorks and hearts, for instance: "I love dorks" or the one pictured ot the right. Is being a dork or loving dorks cool now?

Finally, I found this gorgeous hair, called "proud to be African". I combined it with a face that I myself designed - I think it looks beautiful, though the face needs to be one skin tone lighter since some of the extra cornrows don't show up (being the same color as the skin). I'd wear it around, but haven't found a matching body yet, and as a floating head I didn't think it'd be very accepted on Whyville.

Real Car, Virtual Car - Same ANNOYANCE!

This week there was a curious synergy of car problems - both with my real car that I drive to school and such and with my virtual car that I drive around on Whyville. My real car needed a renewed registration - a 3-month long hassle of DMV letters that never arrived, checks sent that were sent back, and finally a last-resort visit to the DMV. My virtual Scion (a limited edition winter scion - see picture with me in my new fedora posing suavely next to it) had a similar barrage of problems this past week as well. Trying to be on top of my Whyville banking, I had paid my weekly car payment early (I owe 1086 clams a week through April) but unfortunately Whyville's server had a bug in it and while the money was deducted, they didn't "see" the payment. This resulted in my receiving a letter about a LATE PAYMENT!

Now, I am doing all right for myself on Whyville, with three accounts now, and one beautiful head selling pretty well, but I can't make two car payments in a week, so I quickly ymailed a City worker who ymailed back and told me to EMAIL City Hall, from whom I recently got an email saying they were investigating it. But meanshile, they've already deducted the extra 1086 clams from my account, as soon as the money had been earned (they watch the bank account carefully, I guess).

I guess virtual cars can be frustrating too, but I wasn't expecting virtual ownership to be such a pill!

Debbie/Oriahsiri

Science Learning reports

Virtual Playground for Millions reviews the three categories of online science games (casual, collaborative, and community) available for users of Whyville.net, and examines the instructional and social significance of each in a 10-week middle school study.

Life in the Times of Whypox focuses on Whypox, a virtual epidemic that took place in Whyville, and how it impacted community life during and after its scourge.
Download PDF here

Patterns in Scientific Problem Solving reports on teens' use of the virtual simulators in Whyville.net during the outbreak of the Whypox disease. Results show that a select number of online players use different approaches, scientific and engineering models, to improve their prediction performances.

Of Monsters and Sick Computers looks at children's folk conceptions of a computer virus such as Whypox and what connections exists between virtual and natural viruses.

Where in the World is the Science in Whyville? Analyses many of the potentials for science learning in Whyville, including participation in science games, responses to the virtual epidemic of Whypox, uses of simulators to understand Whypox, understanding of computer viruses based on Whypox experiences, and uses and influences of player-developed "cheats" on science games.

Community Dynamics reports

Synthetic Play examines gender differences and similarities in gaming on Whyville in an after school club. It compares and contrasts the different approaches that boys and girls employ in designing their avatars and in socializing with others online and offline.
Download PDF here

Tracing Insider Knowledge Across Time and Spaces looks at how a secret command that can only be learned by talking with other people is learned by after-school club members both online and offline.
Download PDF here
Stealing from Grandma or Generating Cultural Knowledge? looks at teen-created cheat sites where kids post answers, guides, and advice about how to succeed in the games on Whyville. We discuss the impact of these sites on kids' learning and the Whyville community as a whole.
Download PDF here

Your Second Selves checks out kids' tools for building avatars (i.e., an online 'look') on Whyville and how there are social constraints to making cool looks even though there are almost unlimited options for designing parts for avatars.
Download PDF here

Blacks Deserve Bodies Too looks at how kids choose to represent race in their avatars (online images of self) and what they have to say about being white, black, or latino/a in Whyville.
Download PDF here

Methodology reports

Mixed Methods for Mixed Reality creates an integrative model to combine qualitative (interviews, observations, field notes) and quantitative data (tracking logfiles, surveys) to understand the multiple facets of avatar creation, play, and evaluation on Whyville.
Download PDF here

early results on speed in Whyville

So I finally got the ruler to work - it's pretty fun. I already had one person race for me and recorded two pieces of data. Then I went to the data upload site where they told me what I recorded "oriahsiri ran 500 pixels in 6.7 seconds" and I had to divide the distance by time to get the speed and submit it.

Then I went to the graphs - here's one. I don't think there' much of a correlation.

But here's a really nifty thing! You can see which data points you entered! In part of my other life as a graduate student I'm working on a project where kids are analyzing statistical data about socially relevant issues (race, income, crime, school 'scores'). They're not collecting their own data, but if they were, and if they were dumping it all together in a collaborative thing, how cool would it be to pick out your own contributions! I was proud of my two data points, seen in the picture here.

:)
Debbie/Oriahsiri

new 'science' research on Whyville

This is pretty funny and kind of cool. I logged in today to find out that there's a new activity on Whyville. Why do some people (i.e. avatars) move faster than others? By collecting data on how fast you can move in different parts of Whyville, and accumulating data as a community (you're awarded 4 clams for each data point you give - i.e. 'oriahsiri moved 300 pixels in 5.4 seconds) they're trying to develop theories about why some people move faster than others. Do too many face parts weigh you down? Does a higher salary make you go faster? It's kind of science, somewhat related to real life (distance = rate x time) but totally done in the context of Whyville.

I already tried to do my part but the 'ruler' and stopwatch aren't working yet, at least not for me. The room had a bunch of people though!

Debbie/Oriahsiri

Keeping up with Fashion: St. Patrick's Day on Whyville

Well, we've been talking about identification and avatars, and March 17, aka St. Patrick's Day is a case in point for me. First, there's a Whyville party (and probably fashion contest as usual). I don't know whether I'll be able to make it, but today I spent 256 clams on my new Irish look. I have to admit, it parallels my own practice on St. Patrick's Day because it's my birthday. Being both Irish (descent on both sides), red haired (first in four generations on either side), and born on March 17, this has always been an important day for me. Before I understood genetic, I actually believed my mom, who would tell people that I got my red hair because I was born on St. Patrick's day (actually since both parents have brown hair, I was quite a surprise coming out of the womb!).

So historically I would always dress to the tee in green, shamrocks, pins, etc. on March 17. In fact, I had an entire set of shamrock jewelry (necklace, earrings, pins) from my great-aunt before it was stolen in high school. And you wouldn't believe the number of birthday cards there are for people born specifically on St. Patrick's Day! I know, because I've probably been given them ALL.

So I had to dress up not just in person (I made sure to wear all three pairs of socks with clovers/shamrocks, shamrocks & Guinness beer this week) but also in Whyville. After all, some kids took the time to make face parts special for the occasion - I'm only sporting a small percentage of them! I tried to make my own emerald necklace but it hasn't been approved yet.

Supporting the fashion economy of Whyville,
Debbie/Oriahsiri

Articles, Papers, and Books, oh my!

Journal Papers and Book Chapters

Kafai, Y. B. (In Press). Synthetic Play: Teens Gaming Together and Apart in Virtual Worlds. In Y. Kafai, C. Heeter, J. Denner, & J. Sun (Eds.), Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Computer Games. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Kafai, Y. B. & Giang, M. T. (In Press). Virtual Playgrounds: Children’s Multi-User Virtual Environments for Playing and Learning with Science. In T. Willoughby & E. Wood (Eds), Children’s Learning in a Digital World. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.

Conference Papers and Presentations

Fields, D. A. (2007, April). Learning by Cheating? Investigating the science in cheat sites for informal educational mutli-user virtual environments. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Feldon, D., Kafai, Y., Fields, D. A., Giang, M., & Quintero, M. (2007, April). Mixed methods for mixed reality: Overcoming methodological challenges to understand user activity in a massive multi-user virtual environment. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Kafai, Y. B., Feldon, D., Fields, D. A., Giang, M., Quintero, M., & Peppler, K. A. (2007). Where in the World is the Science in Whyville? Symposium to be held at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Kafai, Y.B., Feldon, D., Fields, D., Giang, M., & Quintero, M. (2007). Life in the Times of Whypox: A Virtual Epidemic as a Community Event. In C. Steinfeld, B. Pentland, M. Ackermann, & N. Contractor (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Communities and Technology. New York: Springer.

Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. (2007, July). Tracing Insider Knowledge Across Time and Spaces: A Connective Ethnography in a Teen Online Game World. Paper to be presented at the 8th Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Kafai, Y. B. (2007, July). To cheat or not to cheat? The Purposes, Politics and Psychology of Cheating in Gaming. Symposium to be held at the Games, Learning, and Society 3.0, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kafai, Y. B., Cook, M., & Fields, D. A. (under review). “Blacks deserve bodies too”: Design and Discussion about Race and Diversity in a Teen Virtual World. Paper submitted to DiGRA07.

Kafai, Y. B., Fields, D. A., & Cook, M. (under review). Your Second Selves: Avatar Design and Identity Play in a Teen Virtual World. Paper submitted to DiGRA07.

Fields, D. A., & Kafai, Y. B. (under review). Stealing from Grandma or Generating Cultural Knowledge? Contestations and Effects of Cheats in a Teen Virtual World. Paper submitted to DiGRA07.

Forthcoming

Kafai, Y. B. (Accepted with Revisions). Of Monsters and Sick Computers: Children’s Folk Conceptions of Computational Viruses. Journal of Science Education and Technology.

Quintero, M. (forthcoming). Who Visits the Virtual Center for Disease Control During an Online Epidemic? A Study of Player Resource Engagement in a Multi-Player World. Unpublished Master Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.

Dark Skin in Whyville- new popularity?

Hey, so this is my first attempt at a post on cool news and ponderings about Whyville happenings. We recently finished a paper on race and avatar design in Whvyille, and I can't help but notice some neat looks that kids have designed. I've recently noticed a lot more cornrows on dark skinned faces on Whyville, like this one above. A new trend?

*Plus*, I have to say that my "rich brown head" on Whyville (one of only two face parts that I sell) is very popular, or at least seems to be. I think I've sold over 20 of those heads in the past month. Is this a sign, as some kids have hoped for in their Whyville newspaper writings, that peach skin might not be as dominant as before? I'm trying to get a cool looking matching skin body approved too, but no luck so far.

What this blog is all about

Studying Life on Whyville.net

The purpose of this blog is to make our current research publicly available and to solicit feedback and comments on our work. Led by Yasmin Kafai at UCLA, our group studies many different aspects of life on Whyville.net, a large scale multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) with over 1.5 million registered players aged 8-16. Whyville encourages youth to play casual science games in order to earn a virtual salary (in ‘clams’), which youth can then spend on buying and designing parts for their avatars (virtual characters), projectiles to throw at other users, and other goods. The general consensus among Whyvillians (the citizens of the virtual community of Whyville) is that earning a good salary and thus procuring a large number of clams to spend on face parts or other goods is essential for fully participating in the WhyvilleKafai & Giang, in press). Social interactions with others are the highlight for most Whyvillians and consist primarily of community (ymailing (the Whyville version of email) and chatting on the site where users are visible to each other on the screen as floating faces (see the figure to the right Whyvillians chatting on the beach). The work presented here will analyze various aspects of life in whyville including science learning, avatar creation and virtual identity, the role of cheating in advanced participation, and flirting and dating through Whyville.

In the past ten years, multiplayer games have increased in popularity with now millions of players spending dozens of hours or more online each week. With the growing popularity of online games, discussions about their educational value have been initiated among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers (Glazer, 2006). There is an increased need to more fully understand these complex communities as promising models for learning and literacy (Gee, 2003).

Upcoming Conference Presentations (Summer 2007)

Upcoming Conference Presentations

April:

American Educational Research Association
Fields, D. A. (2007, April). Learning by cheating? Investigating the science in cheat sites for informal educational mutli-user virtual environments.

Fields, D. A. (2007, April). WhyCheats: The presence and absence of science in online cheats. In Y.B. Kafai (Chair), Where in the world is the science in Whyville? Informal science in a multi-user virtual community. Symposium

Feldon, D., Kafai, Y., Fields, D. A., Giang, M., Quintero, M. (2007, April). Mixed methods for mixed reality: Overcoming methodological challenges to understand user activity in a massive multi-user virtual environment.

June:

International Conference on Communities and Technologies, East Lansing, MI:
Kafai, Y., Feldon, D., Fields, D. A., Giang, M., Quintero, M. (2007, June). Life in the time of Whypox: A virtual epidemic as a community event.

July:

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, New Brunswick, NJ:
Fields, D.A., Kafai, Y.B. (2007, July). Tracing Insider Knowledge Across Time and Spaces: A Connective Ethnography in a Teen Online Game World.

Fields, D.A., Kafai, Y.B. (2007, July). Illegitimate Practices as Legitimate Participation: Game Cheat Sites in a Teen Virtual Community.

Games, Learning, & Society 3.0, Madison, WI :
Kafai, Y.B. (chair), Consalvo, M., Fields, D.A., Satsicz, T., Zimmerman, E. (Under review). To cheat or not to cheat? Practicies, purposes, and politics of cheating in online games. Interactive symposium