I am playing around with a couple of things now. First, I decided to try twitter, and made a profile there. I have to admit I fail to see the intense popular demand for details about what happens RIGHT NOW in my life. OK, I am occasionally an attention whore, but really - one thing is posting a good recipe and some angsty confessions here and there, but a minute-for-minute update on them is a little too far even for me.
What I do think is fun though, is reading about other people's experiences in different types of projects, such as work at or around conferences, a quest to reach a deadline, experiments with food, more general topics which is about something slightly beyond their immediate self. Subjective, but a subjective I can relate to without feeling we should be in a committed relationship.
Hence, I have for the time being decided to devote my twittering not to what happens here (it's same old same old anyway: I get up in the morning, eat, go to work, work, occasionally remember lunch, shop, make dinner, go for a walk or do some pilates, read, play games, call the family, fiddle with pictures on flickr or just on the computer, go to bed, rinse and repeat) but to what happens in Hyboria. So far I have been treated to a solid dose of genderconscious outrage, only tempered by extreme annoyance with the game performance. I am only at level 5 though - I know from WoW that I didn't really start liking it until around level 30. And I didn't understand anything about what was going on until level 50. Yeah, I am a little slow.
Anyway: I have put in a sidebar here, a little widget, that posts my twittering. I am by the way quite happy with the options of Blogger, now that I have finally gotten around to using them. Once over the hurdle of updating and moving my links from the old template to the new, I have become a fan of the options in the new template. I may get a little over enthusiastic for a while, but bear with me.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Understanding Games
Want to understand games, but can't get to the lecture? Well, go play this educational game about games! I have to admit I haven't gone through the whole thing, after a while they wanted me to actually INTERACT and that got too exhausting. But it's a fun idea, and should be interesting for academic gamers.
The game is a thesis developed in Potsdam, Germany, copyright is 2006-2007, so most likely submitted in 2007.
The game has been around for a while, and if you want to read more about the responses to it, Cory Doctorow has a pretty good description in Boing Boing.
The game is a thesis developed in Potsdam, Germany, copyright is 2006-2007, so most likely submitted in 2007.
Understanding Games is a diploma thesis project designed and developed by Andreas Zecher at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany. The project was advised by Prof. Boris Müller, Prof. Klaus Dufke and Mattias Ljungström.
The game has been around for a while, and if you want to read more about the responses to it, Cory Doctorow has a pretty good description in Boing Boing.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Gamers and researchers
For those of you who read Norwegian, forskning.no had an interview with a bunch of game researchers in relation to the book we all wrote in, recently published from MIT Press.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Investigaming
A nice resource for games and gender has been put together at "Investigaming".
It holds links and references to a lot of articles on games and gender, and is an invaluable resource to help old, failing game scholars such as myself. If you're one too, there's help to be had!
Carrie Heeter Project Leader and Editor in Chief
Brian Winn co-PI
Serious Games Initiative
Games, Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab
Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media
Michigan State University
It holds links and references to a lot of articles on games and gender, and is an invaluable resource to help old, failing game scholars such as myself. If you're one too, there's help to be had!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Some numbers - any good?
At random intervals I sit down and look around for good sources of numbers of players for digital games. They are hard to find, but ESA have some numbers which give a hint at a direction as long as we remember that their main interest is to promote the video game business.
Some interesting statements from their 2007 research:
Of course, as Luca points out, women 18 and up is a much larger group in general than boys 4-17. This means it should be no surprise that there are more adult women playing video games than there are young boys. It still marks a change though, as the market was, only a few years ago, dominated by young males.
Some interesting statements from their 2007 research:
Heads of Households – Sixty-seven percent of heads of households play computer and video games.
Women – Forty percent of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics. Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).
Seniors – Twenty-six percent of game players are over the age of 50, an increase from nine percent in 1999. This figure is sure to rise in coming years with nursing homes and senior centers across the nation now incorporating video games into their activities.
Parents – More than a third (35 percent) of parents play computer and video games and 93 percent of these parents have children who also play them. Sixty-three percent of parents with children under the age of 18 consider computer and video games a positive addition to their children's lives.
Of course, as Luca points out, women 18 and up is a much larger group in general than boys 4-17. This means it should be no surprise that there are more adult women playing video games than there are young boys. It still marks a change though, as the market was, only a few years ago, dominated by young males.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Researching Age of Conan
Are you a researcher and planning to play Age of Conan? There are a few of us who are planning to look in on that game over the summer. For Norwegians it's almost obligatory, after all. Nobody have made any decisions yet about server, method of organisation or anything else, but it can be a good idea to know some other n00bs when we start playing. Friends are the best buff, after all.
So, if you do game research and plan to play AoC on a European server, feel free to get in touch and I'll see about spreading the word once we have our games.
So, if you do game research and plan to play AoC on a European server, feel free to get in touch and I'll see about spreading the word once we have our games.
Outside?
A new MMORPG reported. Careful though, it's expensive and very addicting, and has the potential of seriously disrupting your relationships and upsetting your entire friends list.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Too cool for my shopping bags!
After a lecture in Copenhagen, a long and exhausting trip to NY, an online conference in the US WoW, several slightly delayed reviews which are now done only a little late and a long student paper by a luckily very thorough student (luckily because thorough means lots of reading, but it is worth it) I came to a grinding halt yesterday. So time to go do something wonderfully decadent, and I did it in one of my favourite places for decadence, a tex-mex restaurant right at the Hudson River.
It's a unique location for a New York restaurant, it has large and comfortable outdoor seating, very little traffic noise, a view of the water and a large part of the outdoor tables set under a little grove of trees, offering shade in the summer, the water supplying a cooling breeze. Right in front is the Hudson River Sailing School harbour, so sitting there, nursing your tequila of choice, you get to watch the boats and oogle the beautiful people walking, running and scating by on their way down Battery Park - one of the prettiest and best maintained parks in New York.
So, that's me up there, enjoying all these things and a drink, too. Life can be pretty good!
Oh yeah, the shopping bags! Well, new shower curtains and a cheap coup at J&R don't go with all the über coolness, so they had to be hidden well away for the picture!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Invisibility
Sometimes I have to go take a look in the mirror to see if I am still there. Then I have to go to the bookshelf to see if the books of my friends and wonderful co-game researchers are there too. Check if the Ph D's people were working on are finished. See if the conferences are still being organised. Just generally have a look around and check if my reality is still there.
Today was such a moment. According to Roger Travis a huge and important chunk of game studies does not exist. Or worse - we are some struggling souls fighting under the tyrrany of such evil gamer-hating monsters as Aarseth, Juul and Murray.
On my way around, checking, I am reassured of a few facts. I have studied gamers and gamers culture since the last milennium, long before gamestudies.org was established, before Espen published Cybertext, sufficiently early that finding Hamlet on the Holodeck was a relief, although I didn't agree with all in it. Two of the gamers I interviewed and was in contact with in that first major interview round have since had a chance to take their own Ph D's on games, one working as a researcher with a major game design company, the other as a designer and researcher on educational games. I have since argued for the gamers, against the formation of an exclusive discipline and in general for an increased respect for the intelligence of the users constantly for years. Not that I think my voice is that important, but, you know, I have not been doing it alone. I have had company in this argument since day one.
But I guess that's not good enough - you see, the people I am referring too publish in journals, talk in conferences and write books, and are very rarely to be seen in American news media. And that is, obviously, where a game scholar should be represented for somebody studying games to read their work.
Oh well. To be honest, I am in this not for the fame, but for the pleasure of pursuing good questions and sharing what I learn. Which I have been doing for a while now, with the generous and continous assistance of the gamers I study among.
Oh, and look, Travis has been blogging about games since April 2008. How sweet :)
Today was such a moment. According to Roger Travis a huge and important chunk of game studies does not exist. Or worse - we are some struggling souls fighting under the tyrrany of such evil gamer-hating monsters as Aarseth, Juul and Murray.
On my way around, checking, I am reassured of a few facts. I have studied gamers and gamers culture since the last milennium, long before gamestudies.org was established, before Espen published Cybertext, sufficiently early that finding Hamlet on the Holodeck was a relief, although I didn't agree with all in it. Two of the gamers I interviewed and was in contact with in that first major interview round have since had a chance to take their own Ph D's on games, one working as a researcher with a major game design company, the other as a designer and researcher on educational games. I have since argued for the gamers, against the formation of an exclusive discipline and in general for an increased respect for the intelligence of the users constantly for years. Not that I think my voice is that important, but, you know, I have not been doing it alone. I have had company in this argument since day one.
But I guess that's not good enough - you see, the people I am referring too publish in journals, talk in conferences and write books, and are very rarely to be seen in American news media. And that is, obviously, where a game scholar should be represented for somebody studying games to read their work.
Oh well. To be honest, I am in this not for the fame, but for the pleasure of pursuing good questions and sharing what I learn. Which I have been doing for a while now, with the generous and continous assistance of the gamers I study among.
Oh, and look, Travis has been blogging about games since April 2008. How sweet :)
Monday, May 12, 2008
White people like to publish
I guess it was inevitable. "Stuff White People Like" was a great and extremely funny blog when I found it the first time. Since then it's become selfabsorbed and self-promotory - typical white blog reactions to success I guess. And now it turns into a book.
The blog and the author was interviewed on Racialicious, and he appears very likeable, and yes, he agrees, the blog pokes fun of himself more than of anybody else.
But the whitest thing of all is to laugh at yourself and your friends, relatives and neighbours in public and get paid handsomely for it - or at least get published.
The blog and the author was interviewed on Racialicious, and he appears very likeable, and yes, he agrees, the blog pokes fun of himself more than of anybody else.
But the whitest thing of all is to laugh at yourself and your friends, relatives and neighbours in public and get paid handsomely for it - or at least get published.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sorry, crystal ball is DCed
Today's session in the virtual-and-real conference was specifically not moderated, and all the questions were geared towards predictions. I repeat them here for illustration purposes:
The responses were, as I could have predicted without a crystal ball, all over the place. If not at least 20 guesses were right, I'll be very disappointed. But that's how a decent sooth-sayer works - make so many guesses there has to be a hit, then say: "That's exactly what I said!"
Personally, I just kept quiet, so all I can say in 10-15 years is: "Didn't I hear about this before?"
As a team building experience, this conference was interesting, it brought together a lot of people from all over the US, and some from beyond. As scholarship? Well, let's say: I know in which context I can use this experience :)
1. Given that computer technology and Internet have stabilized, are current virtual worlds a technological dead end?
2. Other than WoW's are there really any long-term viable business models for virtual worlds?
3. Would standardization of software-data platforms be revolutionary, permitting migration across many worlds?
4. Could virtual worlds become living memorials for deceased persons, housing AI avatars of them?
5. Will virtual worlds create social and cultural alternatives that then thrive in the "real world?"
6. Which online games will become permanent features of human culture, like chess and Monopoly?
7. Will some virtual worlds declare political independence, like geographically based nations?
8. What as-yet unrecognized social functions could virtual worlds serve?
9. Could augmented reality (e.g. pervasive LARPs) be the next revolution, virtual and real world combined?
10. What will persist into the future from today's virtual worlds? Will they have a history?
The responses were, as I could have predicted without a crystal ball, all over the place. If not at least 20 guesses were right, I'll be very disappointed. But that's how a decent sooth-sayer works - make so many guesses there has to be a hit, then say: "That's exactly what I said!"
Personally, I just kept quiet, so all I can say in 10-15 years is: "Didn't I hear about this before?"
As a team building experience, this conference was interesting, it brought together a lot of people from all over the US, and some from beyond. As scholarship? Well, let's say: I know in which context I can use this experience :)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
WoW! Researchers meeting there?
Who'd have thought...
Well, I have to admit, The Truants never had 100 people online for a guild meeting, but Science has it, for the Convergence of the Virtual and the Real conference. I am struggling to stay unlagged from the jet lag, reading a hyperspammed guild chat, and keeping myself from getting too sarcastic about cliche questions. The panelists are struggling heroically to deliver good and thoughtful responses though, and the audience is incredibly well-behaved.
So, is it a good forum for a conference? Not really, typing is too slow and topics are zooming past like arrows from a well-geared hunter. Is it a fun event that people will notice, remember, refer to and talk about? Absolutely. In a few years it's going to be one of those "remember when we tried that..." things, as we giggle and ease ourselves into the professionally developed seemless virtual conference software.
Well, I have to admit, The Truants never had 100 people online for a guild meeting, but Science has it, for the Convergence of the Virtual and the Real conference. I am struggling to stay unlagged from the jet lag, reading a hyperspammed guild chat, and keeping myself from getting too sarcastic about cliche questions. The panelists are struggling heroically to deliver good and thoughtful responses though, and the audience is incredibly well-behaved.
So, is it a good forum for a conference? Not really, typing is too slow and topics are zooming past like arrows from a well-geared hunter. Is it a fun event that people will notice, remember, refer to and talk about? Absolutely. In a few years it's going to be one of those "remember when we tried that..." things, as we giggle and ease ourselves into the professionally developed seemless virtual conference software.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The King's City
For four hundred years "The King's City" for Norwegians wasn't Oslo, but Copenhagen. This is where Norwegians went for education, for a chance to gain a public service position, to practice the arts and develop as craftsmen and artists, this is where licences were written out - for Norwegian newspapers and just about everything else. This is also where the decision was made to sell off significant pieces of Norwegian land, to persecute Norwegian witches (the last one was burned in 1695, and most of the Norwegian witches were among the sami - here a lot of men were burned as witches as well), and to drag Norway into the war that got us handed over to the Swedes.
Still, with all it's conflicting history in the interwoven past of the Scandinavian countries, Copenhagen is my favourite Scandinavian city. I love the busy streets, a mixture of new, old and in-between, the bicycle lanes with their little special lights for bicyclists and the many, many different bikes. The Copenhagen idea of a family car seems to be a transport bike - a bike with a solid load space in front, frequently loaded with a woman and/or a kid, propelled by a grinning man taking his family to scool and work and getting a good workout too. I love the stores, as big and fancy as in much larger cities, and stuffed with Danish designer goodies: Clothing made for Scandinavian sized women and northern climate and northern tastes.
And now I am stuck in the hotel room, telling myself I have to finish preparing for tomorrow, when what I want to do is to go out into the warm sunny day, find a cool soda and a spot in a park and watch Copenhagen bike past me. This had better get good!
Still, with all it's conflicting history in the interwoven past of the Scandinavian countries, Copenhagen is my favourite Scandinavian city. I love the busy streets, a mixture of new, old and in-between, the bicycle lanes with their little special lights for bicyclists and the many, many different bikes. The Copenhagen idea of a family car seems to be a transport bike - a bike with a solid load space in front, frequently loaded with a woman and/or a kid, propelled by a grinning man taking his family to scool and work and getting a good workout too. I love the stores, as big and fancy as in much larger cities, and stuffed with Danish designer goodies: Clothing made for Scandinavian sized women and northern climate and northern tastes.
And now I am stuck in the hotel room, telling myself I have to finish preparing for tomorrow, when what I want to do is to go out into the warm sunny day, find a cool soda and a spot in a park and watch Copenhagen bike past me. This had better get good!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Time, space and value
Some years ago I read an article discussing the real values in modern society. Property and objects were losing their meaning, security, time and space were becoming the only real values.
This was such an interesting thought that I have been thinking about it ever since, when faced with displays of status-carrying objects, as it indicates that the concept of value is shifting. For a researcher playing around with non-physical objects and digital spaces, this idea of shifting values is interesting and captivating.
So now I am looking around, searching the net, searching books, trying to understand...
This was such an interesting thought that I have been thinking about it ever since, when faced with displays of status-carrying objects, as it indicates that the concept of value is shifting. For a researcher playing around with non-physical objects and digital spaces, this idea of shifting values is interesting and captivating.
So now I am looking around, searching the net, searching books, trying to understand...
Friday, April 25, 2008
"Let's fix this"
Going to Sweden for a year, I expected cultural differences, subtle, but I was certain they would be there. It was just a matter of recognizing them. But even so I wasn't always prepared. It wasn't in me to lean back, look detached at every instance and say "Oh, interesting, so this is how Swedes deal with this." I just got unhappy and angry, reacting like what I was: A foreign worker, "fremmedarbeider", feeling insulted by what I encountered.
It took half a year and some intense reading of the local newspaper to realise that what I faced wasn't a personal affront, but a cultural difference.
Sweden is a throughly regulated country. So is Norway, so what's new, hmm? The point is - Sweden is even more so, and they take a lot more pride in their organisation and their ability to make and follow their sensible rules. There are signs everywhere, reminding all of how to organise life simpler and better for all - bikes to the left, walking to the right, don't park your bike here, smoke over there, don't walk in the ski-tracks and don't run against the common direction. Being a good little Norwegian who understands that rules are there to make life easier for all, I didn't get annoyed by their existence. What got me was when the regulations started to make things really difficult. When the nurses didn't want to let me get in line for a doctor's appointment because I had a different kind of personal number - a temporary number and not a permanent one - when I couldn't get my computer hooked up to the printer because I had no precise affiliation at the University - when I couldn't pay my rent automatically because I couldn't get the right kind of account, because I didn't...
Not that I am a stranger to bureaucracy. Far from it, Norway has its part of it, and I am kicking angrily at quite a few regulations which are going to make me hurt when I come home after this. What I am a stranger to is how I get received when I try to understand it. Even so, it took a Swede to help me understand what troubled me.
In one of the local newspapers, they had a series of interviews with local people who chose to work in Norway for a while. At the moment Swedes are in the position Norwegians were in some years ago: It's economically a good deal to work in the neighbouring country for a while. The Scandinavian countries have always had this kind of common movable workforce - I come from a long line of migrating workers. But back to the interviews. There were the normal issues - Norwegians were like this, Norwegians were like that, and yes, I could see how that would be annoying to somebody who didn't grow up in Norway and Norway really isn't perfect. And then it hit me, the comment that made me understand that what I was facing was a cultural trait, not something that happened to me, personally. "I had this problem with my identity, so I couldn't get paid, but they said 'we'll fix that.' And so it all worked out, Norwegians are good at that."
I realised, suddenly, that what I had been missing was somebody saying "we'll fix that." Or perhaps "let's see what we can do" or "call me in 10 minutes and I'll get back to you on how to deal with this". Now this may sound like common politeness, but no, it doesn't mean that Swedes are rude or unfriendly, because they are in general a lot more polite, correct and friendly than Norwegians. We are a grumpy and far too direct bunch. It's more a matter of individual expectations of agency. Norwegians believe that they can fix something if they just figure out how things connect. Swedes believe that things can be fixed by following the correct steps.
It doesn't mean that things can always be fixed by some friendly person who knows how to manipulate the rules. Sometimes you get back 10 minutes later and what you get told is "sorry, but you really need to get A, B and C first". I find that what I miss is the belief that it's possible to do something, to be sourrounded by people who expect to be able to negotiate with their environment. Or perhaps I am just homesick.
It took half a year and some intense reading of the local newspaper to realise that what I faced wasn't a personal affront, but a cultural difference.
Sweden is a throughly regulated country. So is Norway, so what's new, hmm? The point is - Sweden is even more so, and they take a lot more pride in their organisation and their ability to make and follow their sensible rules. There are signs everywhere, reminding all of how to organise life simpler and better for all - bikes to the left, walking to the right, don't park your bike here, smoke over there, don't walk in the ski-tracks and don't run against the common direction. Being a good little Norwegian who understands that rules are there to make life easier for all, I didn't get annoyed by their existence. What got me was when the regulations started to make things really difficult. When the nurses didn't want to let me get in line for a doctor's appointment because I had a different kind of personal number - a temporary number and not a permanent one - when I couldn't get my computer hooked up to the printer because I had no precise affiliation at the University - when I couldn't pay my rent automatically because I couldn't get the right kind of account, because I didn't...
Not that I am a stranger to bureaucracy. Far from it, Norway has its part of it, and I am kicking angrily at quite a few regulations which are going to make me hurt when I come home after this. What I am a stranger to is how I get received when I try to understand it. Even so, it took a Swede to help me understand what troubled me.
In one of the local newspapers, they had a series of interviews with local people who chose to work in Norway for a while. At the moment Swedes are in the position Norwegians were in some years ago: It's economically a good deal to work in the neighbouring country for a while. The Scandinavian countries have always had this kind of common movable workforce - I come from a long line of migrating workers. But back to the interviews. There were the normal issues - Norwegians were like this, Norwegians were like that, and yes, I could see how that would be annoying to somebody who didn't grow up in Norway and Norway really isn't perfect. And then it hit me, the comment that made me understand that what I was facing was a cultural trait, not something that happened to me, personally. "I had this problem with my identity, so I couldn't get paid, but they said 'we'll fix that.' And so it all worked out, Norwegians are good at that."
I realised, suddenly, that what I had been missing was somebody saying "we'll fix that." Or perhaps "let's see what we can do" or "call me in 10 minutes and I'll get back to you on how to deal with this". Now this may sound like common politeness, but no, it doesn't mean that Swedes are rude or unfriendly, because they are in general a lot more polite, correct and friendly than Norwegians. We are a grumpy and far too direct bunch. It's more a matter of individual expectations of agency. Norwegians believe that they can fix something if they just figure out how things connect. Swedes believe that things can be fixed by following the correct steps.
It doesn't mean that things can always be fixed by some friendly person who knows how to manipulate the rules. Sometimes you get back 10 minutes later and what you get told is "sorry, but you really need to get A, B and C first". I find that what I miss is the belief that it's possible to do something, to be sourrounded by people who expect to be able to negotiate with their environment. Or perhaps I am just homesick.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tweet, tweet
I am far behind the curve, and slacking, obviously... Still, I am starting to see how it can be fun. What am I up to? Twittering, of course, the not-so-new craze of long-distance gossiping.
With my back protesting any posts that take more than 5 minutes, Twitter is perfect: I get 140 keystrokes to play with, to let the world know what I do, and I don't have to sit around reading long blogposts. Restrictions give freedom, and all that.
But already I am starting to wonder if there are "Twitter stories" out there, like the-phone-book, where all stories had to fit the sms format.
If there are none, we could make them. Collaborative twitter collections, each message an individual story, but each story connected to what happened before, somehow.
With my back protesting any posts that take more than 5 minutes, Twitter is perfect: I get 140 keystrokes to play with, to let the world know what I do, and I don't have to sit around reading long blogposts. Restrictions give freedom, and all that.
But already I am starting to wonder if there are "Twitter stories" out there, like the-phone-book, where all stories had to fit the sms format.
If there are none, we could make them. Collaborative twitter collections, each message an individual story, but each story connected to what happened before, somehow.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Stones and art
Those of you who read Norwegian, here's news about one of my talented sisters. Solfrid Olette Mortensen is an artist who started out working in textiles, but now weaves her patterns with whatever comes to hand. Currently one of her projects is being realised in stone, as she has drawn the pattern for the pavement in Farsund.
Next time you are out walking, look down, not up, and enjoy the mosaics upon which you walk. One of them is drawn by my sister.
Next time you are out walking, look down, not up, and enjoy the mosaics upon which you walk. One of them is drawn by my sister.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The day I got Second Life spam
It had to happen, of course. It was cleverly camouflaged as an offer to publish an article on Second Life, but it was not addressed to any journal, it was addressed to a sender. But because of past involvement with journals, I opened it.
What was in there was plainly an attempt to sell the business idea of Second Life:
I am sure that Linden Labs will claim to have nothing to do with this spam, and say it's some over-eager entrepeneur who wants to draw more people into their game and business. To me, it looks like a classic pyramide scam. Linden Labs may not have anything to do with it, but operators within SL are certainly not strangers to the fact that money can be made of selling the hope of more money.
It is a quite interesting little example of how the patterns of the flesh world repeats themselves in the digital world, and when we start talking about virtual worlds, scammers definitely belong. This is their arena after all, the dreams, the unreal, the potential and the possibly possible - that is what they sell to us, their tricks, and where better to do so than in an arena of possibilities?
What was in there was plainly an attempt to sell the business idea of Second Life:
Edm AB--- Greetings fellow Earth dwellers... My name is Anand Goberdhan and I’m here to share with you the possibilities that are available
Within the metaverse called secondlife. Http//www.secondlife.com is where you can find the system requirements and software to interact with the world... system specs aren’t really that out of the ordinary! I am running a pc that is two yrs old...half of its ram has went dead...and the video card i use was merely 80 dollars Canadian (a year ago to boot). It seems that a lot of people joined the revolution...shortly after a name I’m surprised i remember..a lady by the name of Anshe Chung officially became a millionaire off of a ten dollar investment in the metaverse.
I actually spoke with a woman who says she knew her... and she was a VERY GOOD BUSINESS WOMAN. I guess you could call her the Michael Jordan of the metaverse. As it stands she is officially the first online game PLAYER to ever earn a million online. I know, you’re wondering ‘why is he telling me this?,’ and the answer is very simple...
The first game player to make a million dollars MADE IT OFF SECONDLIFE. She accomplished this 2 yrs ago...they must have signed up 15 million new people since then. But (and i kid you not) this world is an entrepreneurs PARADISE. You can...run 50 shops... and have the money split up equally between multiple partners...
I am sure that Linden Labs will claim to have nothing to do with this spam, and say it's some over-eager entrepeneur who wants to draw more people into their game and business. To me, it looks like a classic pyramide scam. Linden Labs may not have anything to do with it, but operators within SL are certainly not strangers to the fact that money can be made of selling the hope of more money.
It is a quite interesting little example of how the patterns of the flesh world repeats themselves in the digital world, and when we start talking about virtual worlds, scammers definitely belong. This is their arena after all, the dreams, the unreal, the potential and the possibly possible - that is what they sell to us, their tricks, and where better to do so than in an arena of possibilities?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Don't you hate epiphanies?
Sometimes, as my sister says, "the coin falls down." You know the feeling, it's when you get the joke and you see how something works. But that's where the image ends, because you can't really talk about coins falling slowly or coins falling quickly - gravity is gravity and me being slow to realise something does not keep a coin suspended in free fall for ever.
Sometimes though, the image of coins falling is spot on, and today the coins were falling too many at the time. It was like I pulled a handle and they all came rushing - sadly not to stream into my hands and leave me rich and happy, but to cram themselves into the same little slot before I had a chance to appreciate any of them.
I had an epiphany. I have started to hate those, but it's how my research brain works. I sit around, looking at a stack of books, then I read them, randomly, looking for - something - then I write a little something totally unrelated, and I play a game and I surf online and I get involved with finding a pair of purple pants for my rogue (she really needs a pair of pretty epics, you know), and then I go listen to some lectures and before I know it time is running out. Do you think that's the stressfull part? Nooo, the stressfull part is what comes next. Because I start doing all kinds of stuff so I won't feel I have wasted my time, taking on work and booking trips and such, and THAT is when all the coins drop at the same time. Suddenly I see what I am looking for, and it's right in front of my eyes and I have to write it down NOW, but I have said yes to so many other things and I can't...
I hate it. But I live for it. Ambivalence and contradition. They feed me.
Sometimes though, the image of coins falling is spot on, and today the coins were falling too many at the time. It was like I pulled a handle and they all came rushing - sadly not to stream into my hands and leave me rich and happy, but to cram themselves into the same little slot before I had a chance to appreciate any of them.
I had an epiphany. I have started to hate those, but it's how my research brain works. I sit around, looking at a stack of books, then I read them, randomly, looking for - something - then I write a little something totally unrelated, and I play a game and I surf online and I get involved with finding a pair of purple pants for my rogue (she really needs a pair of pretty epics, you know), and then I go listen to some lectures and before I know it time is running out. Do you think that's the stressfull part? Nooo, the stressfull part is what comes next. Because I start doing all kinds of stuff so I won't feel I have wasted my time, taking on work and booking trips and such, and THAT is when all the coins drop at the same time. Suddenly I see what I am looking for, and it's right in front of my eyes and I have to write it down NOW, but I have said yes to so many other things and I can't...
I hate it. But I live for it. Ambivalence and contradition. They feed me.
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