Archive for 'Philosophical Issues'
Bearded Eggheads Talk about Virtual Journalism and Stuff
Henry Jenkins just posted part one of a two-part interview with our own Nutty Professor — Peter Ludlow. In it Ludlow has some not very nice things to say about the Avastar, and some marginally interesting things to say about civic responsibility and virtual journalism, and also where the Herald fits in the magic circle [...]
Full StoryAgeplay in Second Life: Interview with Jailbait Manager Emily Semaphore
In real life, Emily Semaphore is 35 and works as a librarian. In Second Life, she roleplays as a 13 year old girl. Together, with Ian Manray (her real life husband, who she met in SL!) she manages Jailbait, a Second Life club dedicated to age-play – often involving cybersex between the participants. In this [...]
Full StoryValley-Meme and the Crashed Drawing-Room
A pointy-eared polemic by Prokofy Neva Robbie Dingo’s Whisper Box Near Magellan’s Crash While it seems like a credible concept, the good professor’s “new media” concept reveals too much Chomsky-reading, and not enough McLuhan. Far from having a new streaming interactive pushme/pullyou immersivia to replace the old one-way pulp-and-electron media, we have something far more [...]
Full StoryThe Return of the Salon and the End of Mass Media
Pointyheaditorial by Urizenus Sklar Denizens of the internet have long noted that many online meeting places have served roles like those of the literary salons and coffee houses of the 18th century. Online conferencing systems like The WELL and Mindvox, MUDS and MOOs like Xerox PARC’s LamdaMOO and MediaMOO, and graphical social spaces like The [...]
Full StorySpotted in the News: That Other Book on Virtual Worlds
The Economist gets down with Ted Castronova this week, calling his new book an “illuminating guide to these new synthetic worlds.” We agreed back in October. If you haven’t already bought your copy, now’s the time — you only have three more months to read it before the Doomsday Book appears.
Full StoryBook Review: Synthetic Worlds
Author Ted Castronova demonstrates approximate size of words used in his new book (photo by Cory Linden) Run, don’t walk, to Amazon.com (is that even possible?) and order your copy of Edward Castronova’s Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games today. For anyone interested in deeper thinking about MMOs than just whether the [...]
Full StoryCmdrTaco takes on Blizzard.
There is an interesting story in slashdot, by one CmdrTaco, who was forced to change his WoW name by the game owner Blizzard Entertainment. Why? Because ‘Cmdr’ is a title he hasn’t earned. Never mind that “Commander” isn’t even a title you can earn in the game and never mind that CmdrTaco is this guys [...]
Full StoryHerald Pundits Give Rise to Intellectual Hand Wringing
You may recall that some weeks back we reported the EVE Online heist in which a guild was infiltrated and $16K US in assets were ripped off. All legal in the game. Heartless Herald Editor Walker Spaight was overjoyed: “it doesn’t get much better than this.” But former Herald reporter Neal “Love Beast” Stewart wasn’t [...]
Full StoryIlluminating SL’s Spiritual Side
story and photograph by Buttery Shortbread Avatars of all denominations and spiritual beliefs have a new place to worship in Second Life, at the Interfaith Temple, built only about a month ago by Athel Richelieu, who is not yet out of his teens in his first life (though old enough for SL proper, to be [...]
Full StoryBig Brother Linden is Watching You!
Big Brother — more demonic and horrifying than even Orwell could have imagnied. (pic stolen from Pirate Cotton’s site) There’s been some buzz on the forums lately about the extent to which the Lindens monitor convos in SL. I’ve always just assumed that in-game communications are unsafe, but perhaps that is a bit of paranoia [...]
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