I finally have a "cool" look

I was finally told by a Whyvillian (someone who participated in our 2008 after school club) that I have a cool look. After two and a half years of being on Whyville, I finally achieved this?! The look? A Goth body with flowing hair (flowing hair seems to be "in" these days), crossed arms and a half-smile for a little attitude, anime eyes (to contrast with the Goth look), an emerald necklace of my own design (a popular seller on Whyville), face paint from a character in the Naruto anime series, and of course my medals for long-term participation on Whyville.

Is this when ethnographers feel a measure of success - recognized as 'cool' in their society of study?

Recent Whyville Presentations 2008

This spring and summer we've presented many times about our research on Whyville. Here are a few titles - with papers being written this fall.


AERA: March 2008

Fields, D. F., Giang, M. & Kafai, Y. B. (2008, March). Girl gamers in virtual worlds: Portraits of participation and positionings in a tween gaming club. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Cook, M. S., Fields, D. F. & Kafai, Y. B. (2008, March). “Should I get this skin color for my head?” Conversations about race in a tween gaming club. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.


Cultures of Virtual Worlds: April 2008

Fields, D. F. & Kafai, Y. B. (2008, April). Race, gender, and trading face parts: A case study of identity construction in a tween virtual world. Paper presented at the Cultures of Virtual Worlds Conference, Irvine, CA.


ICLS: July 2008 (see http://www.isls.org/icls2008/ for pdfs of papers)

Fields, D. F. & Kafai, Y. B. (2008). Knowing and throwing mudballs, hearts, pies, and flowers: A connective ethnography of gaming practices. In V. Jonker , A. Lazonder, & C. Hoadley (Eds.) Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Utrecht, Netherlands: University of Utrecht.

Kafai, Y. B. & Wong. J. (2008). Real Arguments about a Virtual Epidemic: Conversations and Contestations in a Tween Gaming Club Paper


Games + Learning + Society: July 2008

Fields, D. F. & Kafai, Y. B. (2008, July). How does someone become a Whyvillian? Issues of race, gender, and trading face parts in a case study of tween play in a virtual world. Paper presented at the annual conference of Games + Learning + Society 4.0, Madison, WI.


ISCAR: September 2008

Fields, D. F. & Kafai, Y .B. (2008, September). Projectile throwing as a tool to mediate relationships: A connective ethnography of a gaming practice in a tween virtual world. Paper presented at the biannual conference of the International Society of Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR), San Diego, CA.

Try a New Avatar Look for a Week

So based on our research on race in Whyville (see the papers section of our blog) in our *new* club this year we are currently having a try-a-new-avatar-look-for-the-week experience. We were actually surprised at how resistant the 4th-6th graders in our after school club were to this idea so we sweetened the deal by making a contest - to be judged at the end of the week. Clams, a cheat, and the chance to help me pick out my new Scion (I've been saving for awhile) are first prize.

Part of the idea is to see how having a different look on Whyville will change how people act with you. One of the leaders of the club switched from a girl to a boy and was flirted with pretty soon thereafter (and insulted as a newbie - our club members went to defend her).

So far one boy has made his avatar a girl, a girl has gone from a cute tan girl look to a green pimpled monster with gracefully tipped wide-brimmed black straw hat, and one girl slapped on a bunch of total newbie parts. I myself became Goth for a week. *Very* different from all of my previous looks. What do you think?