Comments on: Just a Hop Skip and a Jump

By: Bob the Tomato

Bob the Tomato — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 08:19:20 +0000

Very true Harvey, I read the articles in question and it certainly wasn’t the game that I knew and loved.

I don’t doubt for one moment that there are a small dodgy minority abusing the system, but as a general rule people soon settle in to a particular group of players that they feel most comfortable in, reflecting their own real life…..

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from that last statement.

By: Cristiano

Cristiano — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:46:59 +0000

Just out of curiosity, why not branch out into something like Second Life, which has a very diverse community already developed in ways that follow TSO to a degree. As the environment is based on RL, a different type of society develops than in online RPGs. FF XI is an interesting game, but I don’t think it has the depth of society to warrant covering it from the perspective you have covered TSO.

By: Harvey

Harvey — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 11:01:52 +0000

A promising start, but methinks the good professor feels he has an axe to grind since he was booted for cause.

I’ve played since beta in three cities… found at most 6 people who were such jerks I had to boot and ban ‘em, never been scammed (although there were a couple of laughable attempts), and had exactly one run in with the mafia which was cleared up in less than 12 hours with a simple note to the boss. And no cults have tried to recruit me.

If my experience had been nearly as negative as is pictured here, I wouldn’t have stayed a week.

By: CherryBomb

CherryBomb — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 10:21:35 +0000

“So I pose this, why don’t ya’ll start a rogue server of your own, and link up the various media studies, comp sci, poli sci, philosophy, etc. etc. depts. Across this meat world in a shared experiment space.”

Sounds good to me.

By: Bae

Bae — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 09:57:21 +0000

Do you guys really think you’ll be able to handle all the animated violence in Final Fantasy? Just something to take into consideration before you bestow your presence onto another online gaming community. Hopefully there’s something interesting to write about in Final Fantasy like the horrors of the BDSM community, and it’s detrimental affects on consenting adults in society as a whole.

On a side note, I think a lot of people have lost a lot of respect for you guys, your blog, and any of your future ventures. It’s bad when your most loyal supporters turn on you because you can’t even keep your stories straight. I hope in the future you’re able to look back in retrospect and see that this will have caused you nothing a aside from repuation worse than those “unstable” people who frequent the articles you write, or, in the very least, that you learn to lie more convincingly.

That, of course, was mostly for the professor. Best of luck to you at Final Fantasy, Squirrel, though I question your true motives for moving away from TSO.

Sorry, RB, but while I understand your loyalty to the professor, frankly, you’re wrong. “Bad stuff” is posted here because the professor doesn’t have an academic interest in “the relationship between the real and the virtual worlds” nor does he care a whole lot about the social aspects of gaming for the majority contrary to his claims. Evangeline and the seedier side of online gaming frequent the blog in the name of sensationalism. More than anything else, someone wants people to actually read the things they write. The professor dropped the academic aspects and took a different path. Any unbiased writer interested in the academic and social aspects of online gaming would have roughly the same percent of “good” and “bad” as we see in the game itself. He gave The Sims Online a “National Enquirer”, and I’m really surprised anyone attempts to argue it’s anything more. From what I hear, the entire academic community disagrees with the professor’s statements and his course of action.

Bae

By: Herald YUKCY

Herald YUKCY — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 06:53:22 +0000

Uri stop giving VAN attention its sooooo retarted i swear its the hardest thing to keep all this shit quite from friends ect.! I offerd u a good happy story long time ago u neva responded!

By: Urizenus

Urizenus — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 23:59:34 +0000

>Guess what, we’re bored of all this negative crap

Well here’s a novel idea, Mr. Tomato: If you are bored with it, stop reading!

By: the hanged man at askee dot net

the hanged man at askee dot net — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 23:45:17 +0000

academic mmog?
In an interesting article over in The Alphaville Herald, squirrel makes a proposal for ‘rogue servers’ to “link up the various media studies, comp sci, poli sci, philosophy, etc. etc. depts&rdqup; that have been taking an interest in …

By: Dyerbrook

Dyerbrook — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:20:22 +0000

The spelling is Catherine, and that’s my mother. Sorry to disappoint. But I do I have a full head of hair LOL.

By: Storm

Storm — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:04:00 +0000

Amazing how these things work Dyer..i’m sure you got a whole head of hair…hope you do…

My source (10:35:54 PM): anyway, Dyerbrook outed himself in the Boston Globe article
andy_s_tso (10:35:58 PM): omg
My source (10:36:00 PM): outed *her*self
andy_s_tso (10:36:03 PM): That fool?
andy_s_tso (10:36:05 PM): Yes…it’s a she
andy_s_tso (10:36:13 PM): So she admitted finally?
My source (10:36:33 PM): yup, her name is Katherine something, 47 yr old freelance writer
andy_s_tso (10:36:41 PM): *is so good*
andy_s_tso (10:36:44 PM): hehe

Who predicted correctly Kathryn? … You acuse us of being false…but hehe, this is to much.

Storm