Virtual Worlds

Part 2:

A: YoVille

B: Everett

C: Everett is an outgoing and very social guy. He likes to push people's buttons just to get a rise out of them, but does so in an obviously joking way. He dresses sloppily, but takes pride in his home and spends his extra money on new contemporary furniture and home accessories. Everett comes from a poor background, but has worked his way out of the slum to be a network administrator. He hates the IRS for taking such a large portion of his earned success. Though he works in corporate America now, he aspires to be a successful hairstylist one day. Everett's only obvious fault is that he eats a lot of junk food and rarely exercises. He luckily has the genes to be a skinny guy, but will likely have health issues later in life.

D:

Part 3:

A:

B: The event was supposed to resemble something of a dance club/elaborate house party.

Part 4:

1: Objectives, (some) tasks, and explanations of progression in the game (like gifts, levels, and suggested actions.

2: Most of the environment displays non-text based info. The navigation between areas (picture of a house to go home), the interactive items like keys and easter eggs, and the interaction images like boxing gloves to fight someone.

3: The world is very color saturated, and comic-like. The sounds are very repetitive and simple. The motion is a smooth movement of the head, with the body motion trailing wherever the smooth motion of the head goes.

4: The game starts with a lot of annoying pop-ups telling you what you should do, and which of your friends you should bug to join the game. The game encourages you to get "new neighbors" by getting your friends to join YoVille. It also encourages you to visit your friends apartments in order to become better friends with them and gain experience points.

5: The only immersive features are at the social events. There are a lot of people walking around and talking, but still... the way that people interact is very cheap and represents what someone that is bored would do. The game is very limited as far as the boundaries that you can travel, and what employment you can have, so it's overall not a game that i can feel like "i'm there."

6: Most other avatars exist in the social room for about 2 minutes max. Interacting with them is usually as much as "hi!", a cheesy one-liner, or a game of tic-tac-toe, or at little as no response followed by leaving the current room.

7: The economy is partially based on doing simple tasks like going to work and visiting your friends. That earns you YoVille coins, but to earn cash, it seems as though you have to spend actual US Dollars on the game. Both coins and cash buy you items for your apartment, or accessories and clothing for your avatar to wear.

8: My favorite in-world activity is fighting with my friends. It earns me money, experience points, and i can also earn more money by taking photos while fighting with them.

9: A lot of objects have popups once you click on them, giving an RPG/turn-based-like feel to interaction. Some of the environments have an arrow pointing to what the objective is.

10: The HOH-Agency article relates to the limited space in YoVille. The navigation is not that pleasurable because after 5 minutes of exploring, there is nothing more to explore, and some of the places explored seem like a waste of time and aren't that interesting in the first place. Virtual worlds with an infinitely expandable space to discover is a lot more interesting and pleasurable.