Well….. First of all, the article on WoW had some in depth information. However, it poses many questions that I am not too interested in seeking answers for. For example, The social structure of WoW and Second Life are unique… but when I fly around Second Life I have a 70% to run into some porn, gambling, online sex, and whatnot. I believe the internet, in it’s unregulated form, is a spawning ground for unethical interaction. For example, I can easily bitch at someone on WoW and then ignore them and be happy, this is unacceptable for my research in a virtual world. Not to mention, with an avatar representing you there is almost no way to prove what someone says is the truth. I just don’t know what to think of things like SL and WoW because they are so socially awkward that it is almost unappealing to study it.
My other stance, would be that social interaction on WoW and SL is unique in the way that it is how people would behave if they had choice of their looks, personality, truth, and so on. My avatar on SL is a big green blob monster, i have some friends and people tend to be very accepting of me. However, I don’t act the way I do in real life as I do in SL and WoW because there is no reason for me to be ethical or truthful. I am just ranting, but this is how I kinda feel.
Other online communities such as Facebook, Youtube, and the such prove a more acceptable place to study social behavior. In these communities you find actual people posting movies, music, and other bits of information to enforce and represent themselves. Instead of a made up avatar to represent, people create things to represent themselves. For example, some people post online journals on YouTube, many people blog in their facebook and myspace. There are many people out there communicating in ways that were incomprehensible in the past. I have spoken to so many Korean people on SL and so many austrailian people on Wow that I can say that I am comfortable chatting with people of other nations and be truthful to them.
So my stance generally is:
Secondlife: Unethical, untruthful, and can be useful for interaction with people you ACTUALLY know.
WoW: Unethical, competitive, and is great with friends
YouTube, Facebook: Useful and informative, and funny
MySpace: Eww….
Here is some more funny stuff:
god-action-figure.jpg (JPEG Image, 400×583 pixels)
List of unusual deaths – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Airtoons – airline safety cards, illustration, evacuation, instructions, cartoons, toons (toons)
Symphony of Destruction 
