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?