Masters Work by Ben Walker
This study looks to detail the notion of community and social structures that support RuneScape a... more This study looks to detail the notion of community and social structures that support RuneScape as a social entity. This is accomplish using a survey of around 1200 players, semi-structured interviews with over 40 of the respondents. The two limitations of this approach are bias towards the 'main' version of the game, RuneScape3, and the lack of direct comparative ethnography through participant observation. However, comparative ethnography by proxy was achieved through the structure of interviews. The main findings of the study are that the overall community of RuneScape is like that of a nation, with an 'imagined' notion of itself. In actuality the community is fragmented into thematic sub-community groups catalysing around the RuneScape clan system, which closely parallels communities of practice structures. Players are bound to these communities and RuneScape as a whole through a messy assemblage of bondage, comprising of gameplay and social bonds. Therefore, RuneScape, as an MMORPG, is not addictive in and of itself, because of a mix of gameplay and social factors binding players to it. Game designers need to appreciate that MMORPGs represent messy assemblages combining gameplay and social elements, meaning that changes they make impact on players lives.
Undergraduate Work by Ben Walker
This project investigates the spatiality of digital community through the use of a case study on ... more This project investigates the spatiality of digital community through the use of a case study on the Furry Fandom. Given the lack of geographic literature on digital spatiality it relies on work from other disciplines, supported by geographic theories of relationally constructed social space. The Furry Fandom is a predominantly digital community that has strong ties in physical space in the form of its convention culture, resulting in a more focused relationship between physical and digital space. The research was conducted using a survey and individual interviews with members of the community who were accessed through the communities digital spaces, since this gave access to the largest possible sample population. The technologies which enable the existence of digital space have enabled the Furries to exist since they provide a level of distance which allows individual’s constructed fursonas to come to the fore, interact and form community space. A combination of relational space theory and the spatial triad is used to illustrate the formation of the social space of the Furry community both within the physical and digital. The study’s overarching conclusion is that community social space has become much more imagined and abstract.
Prostate cancer alone afflicts over 40,000 men in the UK annually (Prostate Cancer UK, 2013). Up ... more Prostate cancer alone afflicts over 40,000 men in the UK annually (Prostate Cancer UK, 2013). Up to this point the effectiveness of detecting and localising abnormalities has been through manual processes which are subject to human error. As a consequence the need to negate such errors has led to research towards an automatic localisation method specifically aimed at prostate cancer; highlighting the potential of such research to expand to localise other types of cancer. To this end the prototype application has been development to act as a research enabling tool which optimises the image analysis, which would be required to expand automatic localisation to different cancer types. This is achieved through the building of 3 modules, for the visualisation, in 2D & 3D, and reporting of internal prototype information.
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Masters Work by Ben Walker
Undergraduate Work by Ben Walker