Tactical Gamer - Blogs

"First and foremost, P2P game piracy is extraordinarily prevalent and geographically distributed [at least it was during the period analyzed]. However, the numbers in our investigation suggest that previously reported magnitudes in game piracy are too high," Drachen adds. "It also appears that some common myths are wrong, e.g. that it is only shooters that get pirated, as we see a lot of activity for children's and family games on BitTorrent for the period we investigated."

Virtual Video Ethnography

Neither the virtual ethnography nor netnography seem to pay special attention to the visual aspect of cyberspace, which seems contradictory, since the great popularization of the online medium is mostly due to its visual appeal, both in the use of the graphic interface and in the presentation of multimedia pages on the World Wide Web. As Steven Johnson says, it is from the moment in which the computer gains a visual interface that one can speak of informational aesthetics, where one has the windows, icons and images on the screen acting like a symbolic system generating and being influenced by a culture of its own (JOHNSON, 2001).

This is particularly important on considering the modern virtual worlds, where the interactions are not registered in texts, but occur dynamically on the screen by means of synchronically animated images, many times simulating the three-dimensional aspect of the offline world. Seeking to address the need of registration and interpretation of this vast interactive environment, Michael Strangelove proposes a new technique, which he calls virtual video ethnography:

This work describes my use of the computer as a camera and camcorder for capturing the action within the virtual world – a technique referred to herein as virtual video ethnography. Virtual video ethnography is in a long tradition lineage that utilizes communication technologies, such as recorders, camcorders and video cameras for exploring human action." (STRANGELOVE, 2007, p. 3)

Of the techniques and variants of ethnography mentioned, the one proposed by Strangelove is the one which places more emphasis on the visual aspects of the online medium, an environment for which he anticipates a great growth of possibilities, not only of dangers, but of opportunities for learning, creativity and research. According to him, recording the experience of virtual worlds from the “vision” of the ethnographer’s computer gives not only a precise registration of what he or she is seeing on the screen, but it also serves as a space of reflexivity, where the researcher can reflect about his or her reactions and framing of the research field.

His proposal is an heir of the visual anthropology, which develops itself right at the beginnings of the history of Anthropology as a means of visually safeguarding (in film and photography) information of threatened or transforming cultures and also as an attempt at registering in a more precise way the visual observation of a culture (RIBEIRO, 2005). In fact, the work of Malinowski himself was strongly based on photographs and his images of the natives of Trobriand are not a mere appendage of his ethnographic text, but an essential part of it so that his anthropological description is in fact encompassing (SAMAIN, 1995).

However, according to Strangelove, registration and preservation are just the more primary levels of the use of technique. More sophisticated arrangements permit (depending on the technical limitations of the virtual world studied) to record the video from multiple camera angles, giving a multiple perspective of what occurs in the field, not only from the ethnographer's standpoint, but also from a third person's. More than the amount of data, this technique would bring a whole new layer of reflexivity upon the ethnographic experience. At the same time, the players/users of the virtual world can also record their own versions of the videos, serving as a counterpoint to the researcher's "authorized" vision: “Adding an omniscient perspective to our actions within the virtual realm also brings a new dimension to the way we experience the self and construct our identities.” (STRANGELOVE, 2007, p. 9)

The ethical concern of the defenders of netnography is echoed by Strangelove, when he points out that the technique of virtual video ethnography with multiple perspectives is highly reflexive and can make the online behaviour registrations more responsible towards the communities they intend to interpret:

The ‘intense and authority-giving personal experience of fieldwork’ is extending deep into the virtual realm. In-game video recording provides a novel tool for authoritative virtual fieldwork of an emotionally intense and highly personal nature. The virtual realm needs to be approached as a distinct realm of human action, one not to be collapsed into some other category of the ‘real’ or even the ‘hyperreal’. (STRANGELOVE, 2007)

This way, the arguments cited by Wittel concerning the limitations of interaction and participating observation in the online medium could be offset by the use of the virtual video ethnography, as it is proposed by Strangelove. This technique is widely applicable in the online games due to the way the virtual images that shape the shared environment are created.

"the study of gaming is moving from the periphery of scholarly inquiry to take a central position in how we study and theorize social life. I continue to be surprised by the lack of scholarly interest in video games and interactive media more broadly given not only their massive and rapidly increasing impact worldwide but their usefulness for thinking through a range of key questions concerning selfhood and society."

"Riccitiello's tenure coincides with the collapse of the traditional video game industry. EA has struggled as consumers shifted away from packaged games to mobile and social games. The company has invested significantly in building its presence in mobile in particular, generating $1.5 billion in digital net revenue annually. But the company is still losing money." -- CNBC

"A survey of the past 2,500 years of art philosophy offers no support for the classification of games as art."

Originally Posted by BigGaayAl

Unfortunately I have neither screenshots or any video to show. So I'd like to start by saying, if you have any media or reports/opinions to add from this night, please post it here!
So yesterday we ran as an Infantry only platoon. The setup was: all on foot, the only vehicles allowed are a few Sundy's as redundant spawns. Our baseline-spawn was provided by our spawn beacons. Sundy's where used as offensive spawns and occasionally to grab a kit.

Our MO was very simple, although somewhat different than usual reasoning. Written as a "how to" guide, so other people can use some techniques that worked.

1) Set all beacons at platoon waypoint.
I would put the waypoint in a spot +-300m from the flag. All the SL's had to put their beacons exactly on that waypoint to assure they were up or down together, streamlining platoon organisation.

2) Designate squad-objectives with colored smoke.
The 4 smokes make it possible to set 4 sub-objectives for each squad. Usually three squads would provide a base of fire from ridges around the enemies we are attacking. One squad would be moving in the thick of it to capture a control point or destroy e.g. a sundy. Thus respecting the iirc 3 to 1 ratio accepted in military doctrine for suppression and flanking. (number of soldiers supressing vs number of soldier moving in/flanking)

3) Squadleaders place green waypoint on squad-objective
This isn't always necessary, but probably a good sop here, as only the bottom of the smoke is colored. Iit is easier for squad-members to find their way with the green waypoint. The smoke is used more as a means of communication from PL to SL.

4) Defend/attack objective until given new orders.
Whatever happens -WHATEVER as in even when things are completely fubar- squads hold or attempt to retake their objectives until further orders. This is key and this was working amazingly once the squads got into the habit of it. It was especially effective once people experienced that it worked. Once this happened, the platoon was on a roll it seemed.

When the squads stay organized in the middle of total combat chaos, what they did last night, then the gold wind blows.
Then the Platoon leader can make battle altering decisions on a dime. This is what armies all over the world focus nearly all of their training on; on retaining the ability to act as an organised unit in the thick of battle.

In the 'battle of Indar Comms" last night as one example,
we defended against first a suicidal zerg rush (armor+infantry) by raining down the holy annihilator fire on them in just awesome volleys of sparkly death.
After what seemed like a warcrime on our part, commited against them innocent TR smurfs :). The enemy got a foothold on our west flank just next to the base. Sundy spawns with armor supporting of approximately platoon-strength caused our west squad to die several times. The Battle was locked for long minutes in the very middle of the Indar Comm Array. All squads were admirably sticking to their objectives. The furthest squad was not on the front line, but they had a lot of AA at our spawn and covered our flanks. It looked like we were being overwhelmed, but somehow the battle stalled in a lethal back and forth were we fought over mere meters. All troughout the squad that was pushed off tried to regain it's ground assisted by the squad to whom's position they were pushed back.

Then at one point we gained a good 50 meters on them and they felt a bit weak. I asked all squads to rush them. It was glorious wave, rolling over a good bunch of enemies with beautiful violence.

So the end of the how-to guide got a bit into the aar:

It was a long session so I won't go into specific moments much. When we started doing this infantry only, and walking often 800m to reach an objective, our numbers in the platoon kept growing consistently. Showing that this is an attractive way for people to play, maybe even more so an attractive way for public players to join us in a meaningful way.

Once we started using the smoke designation system, I noticed squads moving together on the map like I have never seen before. More often than not, even when I didn't ask, the squads were uni-colored blobs on adjacent positions on the map. This is remarkable to me. Our numbers kept growing and pretty soon we had four full squads doing this.

It seemed people, squads, really got on a roll. They picked up the habit of rolling with their color :p, over the habit of deciding for themselves where to go. We were all getting shots, all getting kills, points for ammo, revives anyway, and it was working we were getting easy kills. We were flanking platoons moving perpendicular to us, and just murdering them as they struggled to realize in time the gravity of their situation.

I asked squads to trust the other squads to perform their role, and help them by performing their own role instead of trying got do the other guy's job. We used proximity to tell people 'hey dude you're walking with the wrong color, please go to your squad'. And they did so.

It was a total blast to platoon lead yesterday. We defended against attacks, as huge as one could possibly defend against. We took many points decisively. We got superior positioning on the flanks of enemies on countless occasions, allowing us to kill many many foes. I personally had an amazing sense of control as so many tactical options became available to me as the platoon got into this amazing groove. I recommend all platoon leaders have a go at this, or at least consider using some of the techniques found effective yesterday. One key remark here is that they have changed the rendering distance for colored smoke from +-50m to hundreds of meters. Without that this would not have worked. I think the use of the smoke, while a technicality, was really a key element to yesterday's kind experience. I recommend people on the platoon-leading list at some point invest in getting the 4 smokes.

Yesterday was for me truly the type of experience that I imagine when I think of TG. And I wish to commend everyone in the ps2 community for the way we are evolving our play, withe moment of relaxed play, and moments of more organised play mixing pleasantly imo. At the same time I see a steady increase in our ability to work together effectively.

I certainly was not the only one having a ball yesterday, that I know. Many of the public players that fell into the platoon asked for more information about our outfit, shared their appreciating in our playstyle. Some were quit vocal about it on voip too. Comments from public players included (paraphrasing): "Best organisation I've ever seen in this game" when one was comparing our play to their experience with other outfits, "Actually spotting and calling out directions", "Exactly what I'm looking for, "Thanks"...

As I said, 't was a ball. Thanks to the squadleaders, exceeding expectations.