McGonigal

 McGonigal's The Benefits of Alternate Realities discusses the various ways alternate reality gaming encourages players to improve their lives. The first claim McGonigal makes is that alternate reality games involve "Wholehearted Participation". Wholehearted participation occurs because "compared with games, reality is hard to get into. Games motivate us to participate more fully in whatever we're doing" (McGonigal 124). As a result, players will be more efficient, while having fun at the same time. In order to support this claim, the author cites several examples of alternate reality games that successfully encouraged enthusiastic participation in normally unpleasant tasks. For instance, Chore Wars, which is mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 7, involves competing against other people to complete the highest amount of chores. In reality, people rarely enjoy chores, but Chore Wars turned chores into a desirable experience through the offering of prestige and virtual gold(that can be redeemed in actual reality). Also, McGonigal describes how the innovative school Quest to Learn motivates and nurtures students through games and challenges that actually make learning fun.
 The author's second claim states that alternate reality games give "meaningful rewards when we need them the most" (McGonigal 148). According to McGonigal, "Compared with games reality is pointless and unrewarding. Games help us feel more rewarded for making our best effort" (McGonigal 148). For example, the iPhone game, Jetset, entertains and rewards frequent fliers. The game helps them laugh about their experience rather than stress about it, and it also allows them to collect virtual  souvenirs while moving up in rank. McGonigal explains that this type of reward is more effective than frequent flier miles because players can enjoy it instantly and experience positive emotion.
 McGonigal's third claim is that alternate reality gaming allows "more fun with strangers" because "compared with games reality is lonely and isolating. Games help us band together and create powerful communities from scratch" (McGonigal 172). For example, the Smithsonian Art Museum created the game "Ghost of a Chance" to improve membership experience by more closely connecting members with each other and the museum itself. Players have to collaborate on online forums to create pieces of art that represent the lives of the ghosts supposedly haunting the museum.
 I definitely agree with all three of McGonigal's claims, because I have definitely found that alternate realities are often much more interesting than the real thing. I also believe it's important to continue studying the benefits of these games because, like McGonigal's examples show, alternate reality games can have very positive impacts on players' lives.
      

Fictional Character

I'm not entirely sure about the specific details of my fictional blog character. I'm pretty sure I want to write the blog in first person, because it really allows you to get in a character's head. I'm tempted to make my character a man, simply because I think it would be a challenge, but I'm not sure I could pull it off. So, right now, the potential names for my character are Calvin or Callie. I'm wondering how far in depth I should go in writing the character, since I'm not sure what story context the character will have to exist in yet. Should I just brainstorm personality traits and a brief history?

Anonymous

For the past several years, Anonymous has been creating chaos and mischief through a variety of mediums. They communicate in chat rooms, hack government/corporate/private websites, create memes, record videos, and stage protests/demonstrations. Despite the high magnitude of media attention anonymous has received, their motives are still unclear to the majority of the public, myself included. However, after reading Quinn Norton's "Anonymous: Beyond the Mask" series, I believe I have a clearer understanding of the group's construction, purpose, and goals. First, it's important to understand that Anonymous is not a hierarchical organization that relies on the concept of leaders and followers. Instead, Anonymous consists of individual anons that participate in equal opportunity conversations in chat rooms or through other means of communication. As a result of this loose/fluid type of organization, Anonymous's goals are constantly changing and evolving. However, one of their original and most important goals is confronting corruption, abuse of power, and hypocrisy through lulz. From the description Quinn provides, I view lulz as dark humor that draws attention to what Anonymous considers important problems. Often, lulz involves methods like prank phone calls, exposing targets' personal information on the web, and hacking/defacing websites. But, over time, Anonymous's goal changed from simply exposing the lulz through pranks into more moral/political activism, because the group wanted to find out if it could truly make a difference in the world. For instance, Anonymous has participated in revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as the Occupy Wall Street movement. Their methods included providing virtual toolkits that allowed protesters/revolutionaries to fight censorship, drawing media attention to issues, and encouraging/offering advice to protesters online. I think Anonymous has succeeded in making a difference, even though their plans are not always successful. They make a difference simply by drawing attention to previously obscure issues/problems through media coverage, social networks, and their own media creations.

When examining the case of Anonymous, it appears that a certain level of anonymity is possible online, especially when participating in actions involving large numbers of people. As stated in Quinn's article, the authorities are not capable of identifying and punishing all of the millions of anons. However, they are perfectly capable of punishing a few. While many people view the concept of anonymity on the web as valuable and important, I do not believe it is completely possible. Browsers and websites constantly track web users movements, and the government/authorities can often easily find the personal information of anyone they wish. As a result, I do not think anyone should assume they will always remain safe and anonymous on the web.        

My Online Identity

Unlike some internet and social network users, I use my actual name in all of my profiles. However, this is not because I'm trying to adhere to Facebook's rule of truthfulness, but more because I'm somewhat uninventive and uninterested. I don't put a lot of work into cultivating my online identity, even though one of the purposes of sites like Facebook and Twitter is to control how you want to present yourself to other people. Instead, my friends are the ones who create my online identity. Since I never post on Facebook and rarely tweet, the only visible activity is comments or messages from my friends or pictures I've been tagged in. So, I guess I've given up control of my online identity and allowed it to become whatever my friends wish it to be.