Expanded Thoughts on the Use of Electronic Mediums for Tabletop Gaming

For my ethnography, I had chosen to study tabletop gaming communities. This makes sense, seeing as I am an avid gamer. Back at home, Metro Detroit Gamers used to (perhaps still does) run board gaming sessions at the local public library. These helped to cultivate further a love for tabletop gaming, as it exposed me to games outside the standard Monopoly or Risk fare. Eurogames like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride. Deck-building games like Dominion. Nowadays, the mother of one of my high school friends manages a weekly meeting at the local laser tag's party room, which pulls in a solid group of people.

But my history isn't the focus of this post. My intent is to highlight the increasing availability of electronic means to play tabletop games. While it can't compare to the camaraderie the physical table, there is much to be said for online gaming. For many, it provides a cheaper/free alternative to purchasing a physical set of the game and playing. While the legality of such arrangements tends to be questionable, some methods of avoidance have cropped up. Some programs accommodate the latest expansion by censoring its card text or providing low resolution art until a certain date. Others just provide the engine, allowing the community to source the necessary materials.

In any case, the biggest change is that these services remove the need for travel, or even to have a core group of dedicated players. Now, one can advertise their search for fellow players, and engage them over the internet, instead of needing to trek for what could be upward of an hour for the local game store.

Electronic tabletop gaming will never be able to replace the experience, but it provides a suitable substitute for those who cannot get the real deal.

A few methods of playing tabletop games online:

http://roll20.net/ (RPGs)
http://www.octgn.net/ (Card games)
http://en.boardgamearena.com/ (Various board and card games)
http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/ (Physics engine that simulates the movement of cards and pieces.)

Taking a look back: is Facebook really causing polarization?

A few weeks ago, I spotted a headline in one of the New York Times that the college offers: Facebook Finds Opposing Views Trickle Through. This was about a week after we had been discussing the "filter bubble", the idea that one's choices of sites and online contacts limits their exposure to ideas contrary to our own. This idea received the minimum of contest, to my memory. It would make sense for one's Facebook circles to be largely composed of those with similar political views as our own. However, the claim that they put forth is that it is the users themselves, not so much Facebooks arcane mechanisms, that cause the construction of this safe space from contrary opinion.

Of course, to take this study's claims at face value would be foolish. Given that it was Facebook itself that ran through its own data, which it is using to proactively defend its own reputation, the report is suspicious. This academic blog post by Christian Sandvig outlines the study's weaknesses rather well.

In any case, we are left with the same set of questions as when we first discussed this:

• Does the internet create safe spaces from the opinions of others?
• Do these isolated spaces cause radicalization of opinions?
• Given that this trend in media is seen as simple market behavior, could this simply be human nature?
• Similarly, how much of this issue is caused by conscious decision, as opposed to basic instinct?
• What other sites/mechanical forces are limiting our exposure to contrary information? Google/other search engines? Newsfeeds?