Recent Comments:
Why mainstream media hates the Internet, games, MMOs and you
Massively
Feb 13th 2008 12:07AM Tateru, that's part of it. The budget to buy big ads on TV makes gaming appear respectable, which makes mainstream journalists more friendly toward covering it.
I just don't see the journalists as motivated by economic threat, though. What they're mainly interested in is promoting mainstream, middle class norms, and promoting the idea that anything that deviates from those norms is dangerous or stupid or both.
Why mainstream media hates the Internet, games, MMOs and you
Massively
Feb 11th 2008 2:20PM Tat, I think you're half-right here -- the mass news media are selling fear, but they're not looking to eliminate a rival. They're selling fear for its own sake -- "be afraid" gets people to watch the TV news.
The other motivation: The mainstream media is powerfully normative. They ridicule and condemn oddball behavior. As long as MMOs are a niche pastime, the mainstream news media will be there to point a finger and laugh at MMOers, or condemn the community for being a haven for pedophiles, pornographers, perverts, organized crime, drug dealing and terrorism.
The good news is that this will pass. The bad news is it'll take 10-15 years, until MMOs become mainstream and the mainstream media itself is playing. At that point, MMO gaming results will probably be included as part of sportscasting.
Farewell, Second Life Insider
Second Life Insider
Nov 1st 2007 2:49PM Glad to hear they're not cold, clammy hands.
Geek Meet: Gadget Makers Edition
Second Life Insider
Jul 1st 2007 2:47PM Nick Wilson at Metaversed.com deserves most of the credit for pulling this event together.
More on THAT blog post
Second Life Insider
Jun 6th 2007 5:12PM There is no slavery or forced sex in Second Life.
There's slavery and forced-sex *roleplaying.*
It's just like TV or the movies, except the writers, audience, and actors are all the same people.
Just Askin': What will you do about voice/text segregation?
Second Life Insider
May 27th 2007 7:08PM As far as roleplaying goes, I brought that up in an interview with Joe Linden -- he said people will, basically, act with their voices, using voice to enhance the illusion rather than detract from it.
He also said we're going to see people using their voice for creativity: Comedy clubs, singing groups. I instantly thought of the possibility of doing live theater -- or, you might say, live machinima -- in Second Life. That's pretty exciting.
I'm reminded of the transition from talkes to voice movies 80 years ago. Silent movies weren't simply movies with the sound turned off (like clicking the mute button on your TV), they were a completely separate art form than talkies, one related to dance, an art form that was born, flourished, peaked, and died in the space of a quarter-century or so. Artists like Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin understood this, they never quite adapted to talkies.
The first decade or so of talkies were vastly inferior to silent movies, in part because the technology was inferior -- the camera made so much noise you couldn't move it, and directors felt the need to fill the air with dialogue every minute, and so you had movies where nothing interesting was happenng visually and the soundtracl was filled with inane prattle every minute.
Moreover, silent movies were a universal art form: They could be appreciated in New York, Paris, Rome, or Africa without any need for dubbing or subtitles.
Just Askin': What will you do about voice/text segregation?
Second Life Insider
May 27th 2007 3:36AM I expect we're going to see whole text-only continents open up to serve those who prefer text or can't have voice. And I think that's great. Even though I'm an enthusiastic advocate of voice, I'll probably want to visit those continents because some of my favorite people in Second Life will live there.
Second Life optional viewer update
Second Life Insider
May 25th 2007 11:29PM The notification that came up when I started SL said the new version improved performance an stability. That seemed to be boilerplate language for every update. We'll see what's actually new in this one.
110 hours of population irregularities
Second Life Insider
May 15th 2007 7:06PM FWIW, I tried to set up a third account the other day, tied to the same billing method as my other two. It got rejected.
SL: "Ziggy Figaro"
Business Attire Thoughts
Second Life Insider
May 4th 2007 5:06AM Also: I've spent quite a lot of time shopping for clothes in Second Life. I chose those suits because they're the best I've been able to find (SF Design.)
My point is that I've invested a lot of time and effort into my avatar-that-looks-like me, more than many people who walk around with purchased killer-robot or elf avies.
