a) I have done about three hours of research on the addictive nature of RPGs.  Some of the sites that I have found very informational are below:

http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/080915.html

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre20061110...

I have also researched such games as second life, but did not save the links.

b)I contributed two hours towards putting together the Memo tonight in a group setting.

Today I research an article highlighting the addictive nature of Everquest the MMORPG and contributed on the white paper memo's solutions part of the project. I also with Jim's help, edited and finalized the memo to turn into class tomorrow.

October 6, 2008 4:32pm – 5:30pm

Hicks Library

Aswin Selvaraj, Jim Vogel, Andrew Greeson

The goal of the meeting was to define the problems and possible solutions of our topic, and then assign people to the different areas.

We discussed the different parts of our memo and who would be writing each section.  We then discussed how we were going to proceed with our subject matter and decided to work towards the main issures plagueing game users from addiction to the game to lack of social life and well being.  We made the decision to divide the parts of the group as follows:

Aswin:

History and need of RPGs

Evolution of earlier forms to today’s RPGs

Types of RPGs

Jim:

Issues with the way s RPGs are being used today

                Users missing out on actual life

Issues with the development of the games

                Games are made to be drawn out for months, years…

Issues with monitoring game play

                Actively participating, but not monitoring abuse

Andrew:

Probable solutions of the addictive nature

Recommendations

For our next meeting we plan to meet Thursday, October 9, 2008at the Hicks Library at 7:30pm to mesh the work we have done individually for the memo that is due on Friday.

Our whole group met at 9:30 in the classroom, Kelly M., Daniel B., Ben B., and Lauren D.  We chose the topic chat room security and safety of primarily teenagers; focusing mainly on people posing as someone they are not in a chat room, and the consequences of their actions.  The goal of this meeting was to begin gathering research for our project and to get ideas for our proposal.  We delegated the task of writing the blogs to Lauren.  We decided to meet Wednesday night to write our memo.  In the mean time, we are going to gather information on our own and come prepared Wednesday night.

I believe that downloading music and music videos illegally is terrrible wrong.  Most of the users don't know or don't want to know that it is illegal. These songs are copyrighted meaning that they are illegal to be downloaded from programs like limewire or Aries. If you buy the music or music videos then that's the correct way to get the music.  Some people know that it is illegal and still do it, accordding to recent research it is agaimst the law.

Also downloading music and music videos really harm the artist.  If you are stealling one of your favorite Artist music from Limewire, then you are not helping them at all.  Basically you are stealing form the Artist. That is really wrong.

This drastically cuts the amount of CDs sold. Therefore, record companies are spending less money to promote new artists.  This hurts well-known artists as much, but it makes it much harder to break new artists because no one wants to invest money into a new band, especially when its core audience is people who will most likely steal the product. Overall, the music industry is decreasing . Basically you are stealing form the Artist. That is really wrong.

There have been a handful of cases in which users in Second Life, a role playing game were found to have been creating or exchanging child pornography, which has led it to be a common target for media outlets. This includes both real-life photographs and virtual recreations of pornographic scenes involving children, which are illegal.

Although this problem could occur on any internet site which allowed material to be freely uploaded, it is much more difficult to deal with on Second Life because of its strong support for content crossover. The problem is compounded by the full customizability of Second Life avatars; it is easy to create an avatar which has the height and stature of an adult but appears child-like with regard to body development, or vice versa, and a person's belief regarding the age their avatar appears to be may not match the belief of other people.

For my white paper project I would like to investigate businesses using Facebook to find out more information about potential and current employees.  I can see both sides of this argument and would like to find out more information about it.  It is a good way to find out about daily activities and the social life of the employee, which can in a lot of cases affect a person’s work.  However, a person’s life is their own personal business and as long as a person shows up and does their work, they should be able to have any kind of social life that they want and their employer should not be able to access that information if the employee wants to keep it private.

There seem to be many reasons for college students to enjoy using Face book, like writing on someones wall, constant contact with your friends, ability to post pictures and also letting others post their information on your site. But,  there are also problems that may arise from this freedom and ability to just post whatever you want whenever you like. I think that users and members need to think about what could happen with the materials that they place on Face Book before they actually post these items.

Some of the problems that could arise are: Members placing pictures of themselves, you, and others on your site, which you may not want placed on your site. People asking you to become a member of their group, when you don't know what the group is or does. Members can write and post things on your wall that may be damaging to you or someone else.

For example I have a friend that justs posts pictures onto my site without asking me if this is ok with me or not. I think that they should atleast ask me first if, I care that they are placing pictures of whatever they are posting on my site. This is common curtesy I thought. You could end up having pictures of people on your wall that you are not really fond of and you may not want the pictures there.   

Ms. Sarah Hassert,