Despite Their Recognition Amongst Youth ages 6 14

This dissertation endeavors to deeply perceive the features of Minecraft servers explicitly created for youth through three research using blended strategies research. Human-Laptop Interplay (HCI) research shows that sandbox-fashion virtual world games like Minecraft operate as interest-pushed areas where youth can discover their creative pursuits, build technical experience, and type social connections with peers and near-peers. Minecraft raiding servers Despite their recognition amongst youth (ages 6 - 14), we all know little concerning the social and technological options of "in-the-wild" Minecraft servers that current themselves as "child-pleasant" or "family-friendly." The goals of this work are three-fold:1. To research the rhetoric of kid-/household-friendliness and the socio-technical mechanisms of such servers (Examine I: 60 servers), 2. To know the lived experiences of server staff who average on such servers (Research II: Eight youth and 22 moderators), and 3. To explore a design paradigm for technological mechanisms that leverage the strengths of a kid-/household-friendly server neighborhood whereas additionally supporting moderators' practices (Examine III) I draw from interdisciplinary theories and structure this dissertation round two primary arguments about child-/family-pleasant Minecraft server ecosystems. First, I argue that they're instantiations of play-based affinity networks created by adults that promote alternatives for youth to explore their pursuits and social connections. Second, I argue that the social and technological mechanisms reflected in the server rules and moderators' practices are characteristic of servers that self-describe as kid-/household-friendly. Examine I contributes a taxonomy for understanding server rules and an empirical characterization of three server genres - kid-/family-friendly (n1 = 19); basic-family-friendly (n2 = 20); and general (n3 = 20) in Minecraft. Minecraft raiding servers Examine II reveals moderators' motivations and socio-technical practices in child-/family-pleasant servers. The findings show that grownup moderators encourage youth-led creative roleplays, help the pursuits of young players (e.g., Hogwarts digital world, virtual Pleasure Day celebrations, and so on.), and supply mentorship to youth moderators on their servers. Examine III theorizes the potential for automated prosocial instruments in play-based areas by way of a Discord Bot called "UCIProsocialBot" within OhanaCraft, one in all the child-/family-friendly server communities. Together, these findings provide a set of social and technological features that will substantiate a mannequin for designing kid-/family-pleasant online playgrounds. This work theorizes that child-/family-friendly servers can actualize constructive youth development when their self-narratives, social practices, and technological mechanisms are aligned with adolescent developmental needs.

Minecraft raiding servers