Final Summary

The world of Cityville was quite a very interesting journey. During my journey through this world I worked my way up to almost the the pinnacle of city building. I made new friends from countries ranging from France all the way to China. I am very proud of the final outcome of my city. The vast amount of buildings and structures that I acquired were top rate. I learned that online interactions can be very random. The most memorable I would have to say was when a fellow gamer named Maxiell who was a French man first came across my city. He showed me all the strings in this virtual world. Virtual worlds are becoming more and more profitable though and creators are becoming more and more aware of this. They have found ways to implement ways to advance your ways through these worlds by paying actual real life money in exchange for experience points and other things that are exclusive to those who pay. Well Maxiell told me of a way to advance your way through the game without having to pay all the time. He said all I had to do was send him my credit card information and he would be able to unlock all the content with just one straight payment of fifteen dollars. So I told him I would get back with him the next day. So the next day when I log in his account is deleted. The creators of Cityville creators then send out a message shortly there after elaborating on a scheme that gamers were trying that sounded very similar to what Maxiell was trying with me. I was very happy because I felt like I had dodged a bullet in a way. But at the same time I didn't because I really didn't have any intentions on giving him any money. My mother taught me much better than that. The virtual world assignment was a very enlightening experience. I must say I did enjoy myself to a certain degree.

Sexuality

The component of sexuality wasn’t as strong in my virtual world as I would have liked for this post. Many people in this world are goal and task oriented and the need for social stimulus and personal communication isn’t as high. Well I would say that communication was at a decent level but the realm of talking about personal preferences and sexual matters weren’t as evident. Some people would be outright hardcore about their sexuality from the jump though. I actually came in contact with a hardcore lesbian who would only accept women as her friends. I tried to send her an invite and she had some harsh words for me to say the least. She explained that she was not interested in any male genitals and did not want to have anything to do with any male player in the Cityville realm. She was outright and extreme about her love for women and women only. I had to respect it because I feel the same, but did not deny request from male players because I felt that the game was more based off of advancing your city by any means necessary which basically means make as many friends as possible. Also I came across a female gamer who was very interested in getting to know me better. She actually lived in Lima, OH, so I entertained the conversation. She often times sent me request for gifts and help in expanding her city. I was always one of the first to help her out because she was one of the few gamers that was willing to send me pretty much any item I needed for my city. She was the exact opposite from the lesbian gamer. She was much friendlier to males.

Question:
Did you come across any gamers in your virtual world that had sexual views that strayed from the norm?

Race Card

In the world of Cityville the factor of race is quite evident because of its vast popularity throughout the world. Cityville is played by people in other countries so therefore it is easier to distinguish between race and culture just by their language regardless of what their character in the virtual realm looks like. I myself made my character a white American and I somewhat wonder what it would have been like if I had made my character from Spain or Lebanon. I feel like in any virtual world people will always feel much safer in it than in the real world so therefore they feel like they can voice their true honest opinions on how they feel about other races. Some people in these worlds can be outright outspoken about their dislike for other races. This always sours the online experience because we have came along in our society to make our differences a non factor in harmonizing with one another. I recently logged onto the game and came across a very hateful message myself. I had been off of the game for like a week because I was out of town for a funeral. I log back in and I have over one hundred request for invites and gifts from other friends who are players on the game. One guy had sent me over twenty requests by himself. He was from France and seemed to take the game very seriously. He thought it was right to call me a lazy American because of my lack of responding right back to his request. I found it quite entertaining and wanted to know what else people from other countries would say to stereotype our lifestyle. For the most part I have learned that those in other countries are not too fond of the US, which really isn’t a surprise to me because many Americans seem to have a superiority complex and believe that are lifestyle should be the standard set for everyone. Race is often times linked to history and past occurrences. So I could see why people often times would say things about other races that probably don’t pertain to that certain person that they are addressing but they have already established this as their belied from past occurrences and experiences I noticed that many gamers from the other countries only went about playing with others from their own country. I prided myself by playing with players from as many different representing countries as I could. Cityville is a very interactive game because your whole livelihood in it comes from your interaction with others. So the more people you know and are friends with on there the more your likelihood for success is.

Question:
Was race a large factor in your virtual world? Did you have any interaction from players in other countries?

Gender

In the virtual world Cityville, gender is indeed a factor that comes into play. When I first logged on to the game I could notice it of the bat. Women’s cities were often times “pretty” as people would say. I felt this way because they were nicely decorated with flowers and trees and any ornamental structure that helped with appearance. The cities were nicely organized and it seemed as if they put hours and hours of work to keep it this way. The Cityville game charges different amounts of experience points to get these decorations and some of them are very expensive in an experience point’s point of view. You can get all types of items with these experience points. You can buy new buildings, animals, energy, and even snow flakes to come down from the sky. Many of the female gamers I came into interaction with were very polite and helpful. I had logged on around 8 AM on February 3rd and met a girl named Maria from Spain. Her city was very nice and put mine to shame I must admit. She had been on the game much longer than me to my defense. She was very talkative and wanted to know how the weather was here in the states and things of that nature. We got to the subject of relationships and she said her and her boyfriend had just broken up. I had then asked her about Valentines Day and what she was going to do. Apparently in Spain Valentines Day is a very big event. They have festivals and carnivals that come second to none in her opinion. I found this interesting but then squashed the conversation dead when I said that Valentines Day because it finds a way to make me feel awkward and has done so ever since I was a young buck. Later on I met a man named Maximus from France. He seemed to speak English somewhat properly but I could tell from his sentence structure he did not know it all the way. His city was set up more to be an efficient business machine. He had fast food restaurants, apartment complexes, and even toy stores scattered all over. He even started his own burger joint in my city and frequents it very often to supply it with goods so it can function to its fullest potential. I noticed that many male gamers would come in and assist my city growth. They often times watered plants, chopped down trees, help construct buildings, supply my businesses with tourist, or even collect money from residents in the city.

Would you make yourself highly accessible in a virtual world?

+identity trap+

In my first blog entry about my virtual world of Cityville I will tackle the subject of identity. In my virtual world I decided to be a white, obese male who was an avid gamer. On February 1st at around 12 PM I was on the virtual world working on my city. The Cityville game is very unique in that you can build your own city up but you can as well help others build their cities up and vice versa. My city was coming along very well and many people seemed to want to be my friend and I believe that this was because they felt that I had nothing better to do with my time so I was a hard core gamer who could help them get bonuses and build their cities up quickly. I remember interacting with a fellow Cityville gamer who was a black female from Australia. I found it very enticing in the interaction with her because she was very polite and very helpful. The way she spoke to me was if we knew each other very well. I did indeed help her with her city and she was very appreciative. Being American on this virtual world was very interesting because it seemed as if several other countries were represented in this world. I was friends with people from Asia and I have no idea what their names were because they were written in their language and I am not equipped to decipher that. In many instances people would initiate contact with me first. Especially after I wrote on the games fan page and gave the game a rave review. I said that I was a avid gamer and played every day and night. People wasted no time to send me a friend request and reap the benefits of my so called virtual world obsession. The interactions in this game were very interesting because people often times give you something to get it back in return. If you don’t send something back within the next few hours they will get very inpatient and send you messages asking you for items. I found myself doing the same as well just to keep my city buzzing and up to par on the game. Some of the task you partake on in the game varies from watering plants to building police stations and post offices. An interesting feature that forces you to interact with other people is that when building structures such as post offices or police stations you need to hire police officers and officials to run these buildings. This makes you send request out to your friends on the game and ask for their services to fill out the positions. I found this a nuisance at times because people would often times be so backlogged with request from others that it takes for ever for you to get your building filled with officials. Eventually they get finished so I can’t complain.

If you were on a virtual world would you send people messages and ask them to send you gifts so you could advance faster?

Welcome

Welcome to the Reuben X: We built this city!
Cityville will be the topic of convo.
for now...
The virtual world that I have chose is called Cityville.
I chose it because I heard some reviews from friends that were pretty positive in nature so I figured I would give it a shot. I would like to see how interactions with complete strangers will come along. We especially with those from other countries. I am intrigued to see the etiquette and behavior of people from different cultures.