This is pretty funny and kind of cool. I logged in today to find out that there's a new activity on Whyville. Why do some people (i.e. avatars) move faster than others? By collecting data on how fast you can move in different parts of Whyville, and accumulating data as a community (you're awarded 4 clams for each data point you give - i.e. 'oriahsiri moved 300 pixels in 5.4 seconds) they're trying to develop theories about why some people move faster than others. Do too many face parts weigh you down? Does a higher salary make you go faster? It's kind of science, somewhat related to real life (distance = rate x time) but totally done in the context of Whyville.
I already tried to do my part but the 'ruler' and stopwatch aren't working yet, at least not for me. The room had a bunch of people though!
Debbie/Oriahsiri
Interesting. This is different from the red tide experiment in that it is really sort of a social science question--or at least it might be looked at in that way. If lots of face parts weigh you down for instanc, then there is a sort of balance that individual players have to make between looking a certain highly valued way (the tricked-out look with tons of parts) and moving around quickly and easily!! If you consider some people's (me, for instance)readiness to wear bulky, impractical, or uncomfortable clothing in my non-virtual life as an example, you can bet there will be some Whyvillians who will wear all the trendy face parts no matter how much it slows them down! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there is still the element of "getting paid to do 'science'" that most of the games include...