Creativity and New Media
October 27, 2018
Given free reign to let our imaginations run wild, the best example that I could muster up was largely inspired by the Second Life game. Back in middle school, I used to play an online rhythm-key dancing game called Audition Online by Nexon (the company that created Maple Story). Nexon, which was founded in South Korea, observed the extremely growing popularity of Audition in Korea, where it originated and made the move to file all appropriate documents to bring it overseas. In that sense, it may be fitting that the rise of new media technologies allowed for the globalization of culture, ideas, and gaming innovations to converge the obstacles of distance, language, and time.
More specific to actual in-game fostering of creativity, new media can definitely be seen as the trailblazer that paved the path for original self-expression within the in-game community. Users are able to create their own 'dancer' and then additionally customize their character using beats (the currency of the game) which are earned from challenging other players in games. Alternatively, as this is a freemium desktop application game, users have the ability to convert real money into bana cash, which permits for more stylized and 'better looking' accessories, clothes, etc. This feature allows players to be able to connect to their avatar as it may end up becoming a manifestation of the player's creative juices. Personally, I much preferred the cash clothes over the beats clothes, so I was able to effectively engage in an e-commerce transaction online to convert some real money into game money, thanks to technological advancements, and as a result, I was able to expand my options from a tiny selection of clothes to the entire shopping mall. This, effectively, allowed me to be more creative with my mix-and-matching of items in regards to how I wanted to present my character to others—whether it be an original reflection of my own personal style or a mashup of inspiration drawn from other user's characters. Ultimately, I was rather pleased with the final result of my character (pictured above), and if I ever got bored of it, I could go right back into the mall and purchase a new set.
2 comments
Wow this seems like a pretty cool virtual world! I have never heard of Audition Online but I think if I knew about it back in Middle school I would be so into it. One of my favorite platforms that I started playing a few years ago is Toontown Rewritten. It is a fan made recreation of the original toontown from I think Disney. It is so much fun! You create your character which is an animal that you can customize and then you go around to different maps and fight the cogs which are evil business men. Actually, now that I think about it, I really want to revisit it because it was so much fun!
ReplyDeleteHey William, after you mentioned "Nexon", it immediately caught my eye as I was a huge user for that game company as well. Hearing that you touched on Audition, it looks and seemed like an amazing game. It almost sounds very similar to MySims where you are able to establish a main character and create families within the game to almost make it seem like reality. All of these games sound extremely entertaining and creative and I wish I had a chance at it before it shutdown.
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