Examining Gender, Race and Body Image in a Virtual World

I came to this world and no one would talk to me despite how many times I tried to say hi.

This world also was rather empty, what I thought to be a person was a bot talking to me.

This place I entered people were actually nice and friendly and genuinely looking to meet people to just chat with. I didn't expect such fast answers.

I asked the person questions about whether they used Second Life often and he responded saying that he did use it often to just chat, something I found quiet interesting. I asked these new acquaintances where would be a good place to go to.

I had a hard time finding people that weren't robots to talk to, unfortunately. 

Someone oddly said my name.

While this person just leaves.

I thought this overall was a very interesting experience. I was able to talk to various amounts of people but my avatar didnt really affect it too much because my account name is "JeffreyYi". I think this might have affected the results but regardless there doesn't seem to be too many people in SecondLife, at least not that I could find!

Identity in the Context of Virtual Worlds

I thought that the CNN article was very interesting in its approach of explaining how people interact within virtual realities. Virtual realities give people a way to escape from the social constraints that are places in the physical world. People are able to better further express themselves in ways they aren't easily able to in real life. Further, you can explore so many types of personalities or sides to yourself without even knowing. This is easily capable through being able to pick your physical appearance, physique, job, economic status, and even gender.

I believe that virtual realities genuinely provides a unique experience to all types of people. There's a common perception that only introverts and nerdy people play these types of games but that isn't true at all. People enjoy having a way to freely express themselves in whatever way they chose without being judged. I think this is most commonly seen in Robbie Cooper's photographic book. He got pictures of people who play in virtual environments and the avatars in which they chose to see if there was a common trend in appearances. It turns out that people in fact generally don't look anything like they do in real life, magnifying the fact that people enjoy the freedom of expression in these games.

As someone who has played games for a long time, I also am exposed to the negative impact that virtual worlds have on people's lives. People sometimes get so lost in these virtual worlds that they lose traction of the real world. This is where gaming and virtual realities can become a problem. Although it is a great escape from the world, people have to ensure that it is merely a temporary escape for personal enjoyment. With anything there is a problem of addiction, namely for games such as World of Warcraft.

Virtual environments are further being used for educational purposes such as that of Second Life. It is exciting because it also allows for students to chose and personalize their avatars to their liking. In addition, it also allows for chat histories to be saved which is a great tool for learning environments. Also people can interact just as easily as they can in the physical world.

They have been using Second Life to explore the topics of gender, race, and identity. Something that I think is fascinating. However, there are also drawbacks of using virtual programs like Second Life for educational purposes. The instructor is not able to see how well people are interacting with each other and the experience that the person is having because the instructor can only merely see a virtual avatar of the person sitting behind their computer. However, despite drawbacks this is exciting for education purposes in the future.

Final Project: My Boston Tea Party Ship

This is the picture of the Boston Tea Ship that I decided to use for my final.

Here I found a nice open space to build my boat.

This is the size of my boat that I laid out with wood.

Working on the base of my ship.

Finished the base of my boat. Starting to look nice.

Adding a black layer of coal to add the color that is shown in the original ship.

Added double gold layer for more colors and to match the color of the original.

Adding a fence to the deck of my ship!

Frontal view of the ship!

Putting in the deck of the ship.

Deck complete! Need to add the mast and finish the interior now.

Added stairs that go to the inside of the ship.

Nice even lighting to go inside of the ship.

Adding the three masts that are in the picture.

Mast complete!

All three masts are done.

Added tea crates to the deck of my ship.

Added tea crates in the inside of the ship.

Inside view different angle.

Added furnaces to the inside of the boat.

Created captain quarters. 

Tada! With a nice view of the ocean as well.

This is our final where we had to build and replicate the iconic Boston tea boats! It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://immersiveeducation.org/@/bc

My Final Area

Here is a link to an article that better explains coordinates in MineCraft. http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Coordinates?cookieSetup=true 

The coordinates for our group project is -500/111/730

The dimensions we used was 39 by 12 blocks.

Final Project: Local Old Boston StateHouse

Here I started to build the Old Boston Statehouse by laying down my foundation of 39x12 blocks for the base.

Working on the walls of the Statehouse.

Finally done with the walls. The dimensions are 39x12x13.

Here I am working on the roof with a refined stone. I also am making it staggered steps to portray a slanted roof.

Finished roof.

Finished one side of windows.

Placing the windows in the side of the statehouse.

Here is a view of the side of the statehouse so far

This is the balcony on the side of the statehouse.

Addition to the top of the roof.

Side profile of the completed statehouse!

Finished State House.

This is the picture I used to create my replication of the Statehouse.

This is my replication of the Old Boston Statehouse in minecraft. It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Boston College in eSports!

Here is a picture of us (Chris & I) representing Boston College in Los Angeles this past weekend for the Heroes of the Dorm tournament. It was a crazy surreal experience and having the ability and chance to represent our school was very fun and memorable. We played Arizona State University for the semi finals, where the winner of the entire tournament would take home $450,000 in scholarship money.