Comments on: The State of Play: Post 2 http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/11/the_state_of_pl.html Always Fairly Unbalanced Tue, 04 Oct 2016 13:18:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: lebenslauf http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/11/the_state_of_pl.html/comment-page-1#comment-55645 lebenslauf Thu, 15 Jan 2004 18:00:29 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3062#comment-55645 thanks for your site and keep it up. thanks for your site and keep it up.

]]> By: Candace http://alphavilleherald.com/2003/11/the_state_of_pl.html/comment-page-1#comment-55644 Candace Wed, 19 Nov 2003 17:02:19 +0000 http://localhost/wp_2/?p=3062#comment-55644 No need for apologies on rate of posting; I, for one, want to thank you on behalf of myself and perhaps other readers (I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but...) for getting your ass out there and checking out this stuff for those of us that don't have such initiative (or means). As I understand it from the selection, I *do* think there is a point that Castronova was trying to get across that may be important. I don't think we want to (or are ready to) rid ourselves of any line of demarcation between games and real life, including capitalism that seems to drive most of these games from the parent company's perspective. Having said that, I think your/Hunter's point that "hey, we have games in real life, how we demarcate this distinction (supposing one grants there is a line to be drawn) may be quite arbitrary" is vital too. If that's a fair statement of the point you/Hunter are making, then I think that is something to keep at the forefront of decision-making in these areas. One issue, that Castronova might be getting at, and without speaking for him, something that concerns me is that supposing there is a difference between the two realms, it *is* important to do our best to delineate where one ends and the other begins because the formats of these two realms is perhaps quite different and maybe they call for different rules to govern them. Why? One thing that jumps out at me is that we have long-standing structures that rule the real world, then we have other relatively youthful and malleable structures to rule the game-world. By the very relative youth of the Internet as opposed to other bureacratic structures, this might be something we also want to keep in mind when we're making policy decisions (overall, ruling social, legal, economic interests; virtual or otherwise). Whether it is a good idea to move towards assimialating the on-line game structures with rules (economic {including business}, legal, etc.) that we find useful and proper for real life concerns, I find an open and interesting question. I guess I'm not saying anything earth-shattering here. I can see two camps, but in my mind, these camps need not be diametrically opposed. The Castronova camp and the Hunter/urizenus camp (if I haven't corrupted them horribly through my ineloquence and/or ignorance) both give us some food for thought. No need for apologies on rate of posting; I, for one, want to thank you on behalf of myself and perhaps other readers (I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, but…) for getting your ass out there and checking out this stuff for those of us that don’t have such initiative (or means).

As I understand it from the selection, I *do* think there is a point that Castronova was trying to get across that may be important. I don’t think we want to (or are ready to) rid ourselves of any line of demarcation between games and real life, including capitalism that seems to drive most of these games from the parent company’s perspective. Having said that, I think your/Hunter’s point that “hey, we have games in real life, how we demarcate this distinction (supposing one grants there is a line to be drawn) may be quite arbitrary” is vital too. If that’s a fair statement of the point you/Hunter are making, then I think that is something to keep at the forefront of decision-making in these areas.

One issue, that Castronova might be getting at, and without speaking for him, something that concerns me is that supposing there is a difference between the two realms, it *is* important to do our best to delineate where one ends and the other begins because the formats of these two realms is perhaps quite different and maybe they call for different rules to govern them. Why? One thing that jumps out at me is that we have long-standing structures that rule the real world, then we have other relatively youthful and malleable structures to rule the game-world. By the very relative youth of the Internet as opposed to other bureacratic structures, this might be something we also want to keep in mind when we’re making policy decisions (overall, ruling social, legal, economic interests; virtual or otherwise). Whether it is a good idea to move towards assimialating the on-line game structures with rules (economic {including business}, legal, etc.) that we find useful and proper for real life concerns, I find an open and interesting question.

I guess I’m not saying anything earth-shattering here. I can see two camps, but in my mind, these camps need not be diametrically opposed. The Castronova camp and the Hunter/urizenus camp (if I haven’t corrupted them horribly through my ineloquence and/or ignorance) both give us some food for thought.

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