Thesis on Planeshift

[Vorcrean]

Hi all, for those who havent meet me in the game, I\'m Vorcrean, one of the Admin of PS French Community and Forum http://www.zelphira.com/planeshift

In real life I\'m also a student finishing a master degree at the LSE (London School of Economics) in Information System. In order to complete my master, I have to write a dissertation/thesis (10.000w) on any subject. As a long time player and admin of ps, I naturally chose to study the game and more specifically the french player.

The subject of my work is \"Are virtual communities real communities? A study of Planeshift\'s French Players\"

After getting their authorization from them I\'m now reaching the final stage of my work (50% done). I thought it might interest some of you to take at look at it. you can download a draft of my work at http://eleves.mines.inpl-nancy.fr/~creange/Draft3.doc (160k). I\'ll handle it on the 1st of september. If you have any comment, I\'ll gadly add them (& you\'ll get credit for that of course ;-) )

The final work will be freely available from my website.

 

[Xordan]

At the beginning of section I.4:

In the title of this section, I used both the words ?Electronic?, ?Virtual? and ?Online?.

You can\'t use the word \'both\' when talking about more than 2 things

Should be:

In the title of this section, I use the words ?Electronic?, ?Virtual? and ?Online?.

Edit: introject and asynchronistic are incorrect. Not sure what you mean, maybe interject and synchronistic?

Looking good so far

[steuben]

oddly enough i project that in three to four years there will be an economic analysis of Yliakum. like ones that have been done for eq.

[Androgos]

PlaneShift started 1994 as a MUD

[Kada-El]

I\'ll look forward to reading the complete thesis, good luck!

Maybe you\'ll find this article  of interest. There are some very good points and interesting perspectives about communities and social gaming.

[acraig]

PlaneShift is a bit of an interesting study.  In most games the community grew up through the game.  It seems with PlaneShift much of the community is \'around\' the game.  Even though there is nothing near a complete game, there are still people that get together to talk about things, share artwork discuss ideas etc.  I think it\'s a different type of community where it grows with the game. Who\'s to say what the face of the community will be next year?

[Kuiper7986]

its interesing that you say that.

The development and growth of this community is like the history of earth.

In the beginning we are single indivduals, then we start to ban together to from guilds. The guilds form because we have one common theme/goal which is the game. From those small guilds larger guilds form or the guilds ban together to form an alliance.

Like history, man, than more man, than man work together, than more man ban together to form a government and so on...

[rifft]

Is that true though? Have we really achieved anything together? I mean in the end we can see that all act in their own self interest. That is, I\'m not saying that altrusim does not exist, what I\'m saying is that absolute power corrupts absolutely.  As for the thesis, I\'m unable to view a copy, it\'s a bad link, or simply no longer where it was linked. That\'s unfortunate since it would be an interesting article to read. Anyway, I think humans band together for survival, since if we did not, the stronger, faster and more cunning predators would have cause our extiction long ago. Anyway, not sure how much sense this makes since I\'m drunk at the moment, though I did feel strongly enough to respond.

The above are all very interesting points, I find it unfortunate that I take a pesimistic view of the human race, though it could simply be the current political/world view I have. Anyway, good night all, since I think I\'m going to stop my rant.

[sashok]

LOL  philosopher in the making



p.s.

The community here is not very tight if I can say that.
Just like a lot of other game communities I noticed is the constant battle to be the coolest.  At some point when people reach certain level of cool, where everyone knows them, they either can\'t hold that kind of power and break themselves or get broken by other unknown forces of the community
But I am sure this is the same deal as in real world(grade 9-12 especially)

[snow_RAveN]

Thats so true sashok20


And id never thought id live to see that day that i say this but  in section 1.5 the qoute about dying part theres a spelling error there \"worth\" should be worse of something like that ...

[Levski]

Hmm, I don\'t think so Sashok.  You view the people here on the PS forums, but this isn\'t everyone you know.  Most people stick to their guild forums nowadays and don\'t come here often.  You are just viewing another \'clique\', if i may say that, of Planeshift.  Who might or might not be striving to become cooler.  And you have to remember, we are not all 14-18 year olds here.  I\'d like to think that by a certain age most people mature enough to realize that popularity isn\'t what matters in life (unless you are a businessman or politician, neither of which I am).

Regrads,

[sashok]

yeah, the thing with guilds I agree, however,
majority of people here are in fact 14-18
and I am just viewing this forum in particular, the community bonds that people may have in guilds are another story I guess

[Vorcrean]

Woa never thought my tiny post will generate so much reactions.

The reason why i choose to focus on french forum and not this one is linked to what levski said. There are many small groups on this forum: rp people, dev people, people seeking tech help, infos about cb,... and it lacks unity.

But people have achieved something: no matter what time it is, there always people connected to the game. Even if the app is closer to a chat than a game, guilds created a huge RP. Stories are happening in PS, and i really thinks there might be communities here. The reasons why people join the game might be various: entertainement, seeking for social contact,... but does it really matter? I guess not, as long as people agree on some common rules. It\'s like the real world: we do not seek the same things and we make rules to ensure everybody can live in this world

 

@ to everyone noticing typo mistakes: thanks. As you might have guessed, English is not my native language.

@Xordan : Yes \"introject\" & \"asynchronistic\" looked curious when i first saw them, but there were used by big bosses in the (rather small) academic world of communities studies. As we said at home \"In Rome, do as as Romans...\"

@Androgos: Thanks for correcting my mistake. I knew it was earlier than 2000, but i couldnt find the \"historical\" post anymore.

@Kada-El: Thanks for the article i\"ll definitly will take a closer look at it (i quickly read it, it looks very interesting?) and will try to integrate some ideas in my work

@Rifft: just check the link, it works fine. You must have Word (or any compatible text processor) to read it. But since it is host in my french school and since they\'re all in holidays, the network might be disturbed from time to time.

@Snow_Raven: yes worst not worth of course. What can i say? oups?

[Monketh]

Ah, us 14-18 year-olds have this place covered.
As for popularity, I\'m content where I am now, that is, somewhat famous.  ?(  Likely I\'ll be more forgotten when the community expands.

[Halvord]

*squirms away from Monketh*

*hides in a cave for two years*

What do you mean its now 16-20?!  Dang it!