Document Title
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Micheline Hilpert
Anthropology Student, Florida Atlantic University

Cyberculture: An Ethnographic View of One Society

Abstract:
The Internet is presenting new forums for social interaction. Online role-playing games are a special case because users are not only able to socialize with people of similar interests, but are actually able to work together to achieve communal goals. This interaction leads to strong and often lasting friendships.

This web-paper is a description of the social setting found on an online role-playing game focusing on a single copy of the game Meridian 59. The objective of this project is to show how the Internet is changing the town square from a real place to one found in the virtual world and how this change is having a dynamic impact on the way people socialize and make friends.


    Contents

  1. A Brief Ethnography of an Online Culture: Sacred Haven in the World of Meridian 59
  2. The Internet as a social space
  3. An Explanation of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games
  4. Meridian 59 as a Program
  5. Gaming Servers
  6. Avatar Creation
  7. A warrior's life: a fanciful narrative of an avatar's life
  8. A Day in the Game, a detailed description
  9. Meridian as a Game
  10. Detailed description of character building
  11. Cultural Rules of Sacred Haven, M59
  12. Player alignment and conflict
  13. Guilds as PsudoKinship groups
  14. Real life friendships made while playing M59
  15. Human/Computer interface
  16. Player Demographics
  17. Player with disabilities
  18. Conclusion
  19. Bibliography and Links
  20. Glossary
  21. Starheart's Real World Avatar (about the writer)
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Glossary


Meridian is a trademark of Near Death Studios, Inc