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The SL cultural gapDecember 13th, 2006 |
Reading recent discussions here and on TerraNova with Prokofy and other SL users, as well as this post over at in The Grid prompts me to some thoughts on the “culture gap” between SL and the rest of the MMOsphere.
In the Grid suggests that
It’s no secret, of course, that the Linden Lab staff gets irked when people refer to Second Life as a ‘game,’ and so do a lot of long-time residents; maybe what this chart is revealing, then, is that the rest of the MMO community is finally catching on to this, and deliberately placing them outside of the traditional gaming sphere of conversation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I think; most would agree, I believe, that Second Life is an utterly different experience than most of these online videogames, while the games themselves are mostly better/worse variations on each other. Perhaps ten years from now, we’ll see yet another web just as strong as complex as this gaming one, but with Second Life at its center and the subject of MMO as a communications platform being its unifying theme. Or, hmm, maybe we’d actually see such a web now, if Second Life were to be placed in the middle of a new Google Touch Graph. Anyone out there want to try it and send me a screenshot of the result? I’ll definitely post it as an update if someone does.
Which I don’t agree with. I mean, even the premise that SL is “an utterly different experience” feels wrong to me, given that the currents of social and user-content-based worlds are far far more intertwined than that, historically and likely into the future. (Uh, hello, Cory Ondrejka used to make arcade games).
So I see it as an interesting take on what the graph means. As someone who visits both worlds regularly, I can tell you that for all the disdain that many of the gamers have for SL, they still TALK about it all the time, with in fact as much discussion going towards SL as towards, say, Pirates of the Burning Sea, or D&D Online.
Whereas I think the opposite is not true. As an example, CopyBot discussions happened aplenty on places in the center of the graph, and folks who run may of those central sites jumped in on the comments elsewhere: people from my site, TerraNova, Broken Toys, f13, Psychochild, Zen of Design, to name just a few, all participated. I rarely see something from the SL cluster point back. Where’s the discussion on the ramifications of Eve Online happening within the SLogosphere, of the Leeroy Jenkins meme, of whether Entropia is a scam or a brave experiment?
If anything, this reinforces for me a certain insularity that exists; as a whole, the community of SL tends to see SL as highly exceptional, whereas those within the larger cluster don’t. I think in general they see it as part of a tradition that includes AlphaWorld, OnLive Traveller, Cybertown, Habitat, LambdaMOO, and many others. This (and the emphasis on “non-game” and “evil tekkies” and whatnot) has resulted in strange cultural gaps. I worry a bit that the fact that SL as a community largely talks to itself and (yes) the Web 2.0 techie crowd is causing it to become a bit more insular that it ought to be.
There is no doubt that the gaming world, as you point out, could benefit hugely by embracing more of the SL way of doing things as regards UCC; however, the PRIMARY lessons that SL seems to fail to absorb are ones that severely stunt its acceptance: instant enjoyability, guiding users, rewarding experiences on a regular basis, obvious interfaces, a premium on seamlessness (no lag, no disruptions, etc). if I had to pick which side would benefit more from a cultural exchange, there is zero doubt in my mind that it’s the SL side.
Over on Second Thoughts, Prokofy’s post about Why the Geeks Got To Go throws this culture gap into sharp relief.
In the discussion of the blogosphere graph, I pointed out neighborhoods that are webbed together but nonetheless clearly visible. You can trace a path easily from pure gamer sites through devs to game studies folks or serious games people; had I left in the mainstream gaming world (consoles and so on) almost any MMO blog would be two hops away from sites ranging from political activism to digital art to general technology news. The central web is far from a monolithic community — it’s tightly webbed, but it is very diverse, even in this highly reduced graph. It also has a ton of institutional knowledge and history.
When I look at SL itself, what jumps into stark relief lately is this whole “techie versus users” thing, this sense that there is an inherent culture clash within the system itself between the techies who made SL and the people who are creationing business, emotional connections and so on within SL. Make no mistake, SL is far far more on the techie side of life than the entire central clump in the MMO blogosphere graph. It is born out of techie ideals, it derives its press from techie sources, and its early adopters are far more geeky techie than the average MMO game player.
Now, their users now aren’t, it’s been pointed out to me several times. This means, to me, that the culture gap between the game MMO sphere and the SL citizens is really not as big as it seems.
Hell, the gap between the MMO devs and the SL devs is probably bigger. Why? Because the games are not made to fulfill some lofty technical ideal or some cyberlaw-based philosophy or grand technolibertarian governmental ideals. They are made for mass market entertainment, and as such, they tend not to bother playing around in what they regard as useless intellectual masturbation. They’ll be happy to watch SL, like many other ventures into user content creation, get arrows in the back, and then adopt the smallest, most constrained set of features from it in the slickest and most mass market way possible.
Consider this quote from Prokofy’s post:
for young people, or newly-enabled and tekkified old people, especially women and non-Americans who have taken to SL by leaps and bounds, these old fuddy-duddy concerns like “skepticism triggered by the historical failure of things like LambdaMOO or VRML” don’t compute. What the hell is LambadaMOO? I never heard of it until I branched out from SL into geek-world; I’m certain I wouldn’t recognize VRML if it bit me in the ass; but I have a full and engaging Second Life.
Taken in isolation, this reads like someone who has stars in their eyes so big they cannot see around them. Now, I know that in aggregate, Prokofy’s opinions are more nuanced and sophisticated than that. But I do wonder if the lack of connections to the rest of the ongoing discussion is a big part of the problem. Because the game folks have zero trouble or cultural issues referencing anything from MUD1 to PLATO, Medievia to TinyTIM, The Realm to Blaxxun. Plenty of people had full and engaging virtual lives in Cybertown or WorldsAway or even The Palace — if not on a commercial level, at the least on an emotional level. And much of the point that Prokofy is trying to make about virtual property rests on the emotional value, not the economic value.
Prokofy points out that
The geeks of Web. 1.0 once shook their heads that their bosses and leaders didn’t use email; today we who use email, too, shake our heads that they don’t get the value of a 3-D life online. But fortunately, increasingly, we’ll be making do without them and their purchasing decisions and their gate-keeping and barrier functions. Thank God, there are no more webmasters; everybody can be a webmaster.
But that’s not how it’s actually happened. Email was adopted, but remained in continuous use, and folks who helped define its initial protocols are still active contributors to tech today. I think we can expect history to keep being an ongoing tapestry, honestly, and that means that the geeks won’t be superseded because they are being built on. Regarding SL or anything else as exceptional in this absolutist manner means not examining the foundations on which you are building. (And I can tell you for a fact that the SL management and development team certainly knows their virtual world history).
At the recent Project Horseshoe, the working group on online ended up asserting that
Generally, our problems all fall into the very broad category of Institutionalized Hubris and Ignorance. We do not share knowledge, and we are not very open to knowledge that others try to share. Culturally, we all need to open ourselves up to actually learning from the mistakes of others. Practically, however, we need to begin by solidifying, clarifying and then sharing our hard-learned lessons.
(Expect the working group’s report to be posted in the next day or so, by the way. I will link it here when it goes up).
Most critically, this leads to people who ought to be pulling in the same direction instead pulling against each other. This shows up very specifically in the disdain we see flowing in both directions.
(In particular, though, it rankles me a bit to be lumped in as a techie elistist by Prok in this latest post. I don’t think of Clay Shirky as being particularly on the techie side either. Not all tech-savvy people are cut from the same cloth. In this essay Prok conflates several different points of view and lumps them all together under “tekkie.” Copyleft is a separate issue from atomicity, which is a separate issue from property, which is a separate issue from community, which is a separate issue from hype. And it is possible to have nuanced opinions about each of these issues individually.)
As I said in a comment on that post:
Frankly, many of the comments sound… well, parochial. They are so absolutely centered in just one way of doing things, when there is not yet One True Way for online worlds. I don’t mean that as a slam; I’m just trying to point out that you seem to be implying that you & others “get it” while those who have been working hard in this field for years to decades and who are trying to point out some of the pitfalls “don’t get it.” Frankly, that’s silly and shortsighted. Everything you have said about emotional connection, frontiers, bringing in the common people — every word of it is something that I, and others have said already. We’re ON YOUR SIDE on this, but also have been around long enough to be able to point out some of the realities.
I hope you and those like you CAN walk around those pitfalls like they weren’t there. But I guarantee that five years from now, you’ll look back and say “damn — look at those huge pitfalls — we didn’t even notice, but it’s a good thing we walked left in the darkness right then.”
It is entirely possible to agree with Prokofy that the emotional connection to an object or entity in a virtual world grants a certain type of reality to it whilst also saying that under the logic of code AND law, they have no ownership stake in it whatsoever. And it’s not, as Prokofy says, “backsliding.” It’s about complex issues that have multiple angles from which to view the same thing.
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We will be announcing our startup in the next couple of days, and when we do, believe it or not, I hope you’re among those who are interested.
[...] Alec Austin (alecaustin) wrote,@ 2006-12-13 14:55:00 Entry tags:c3, mmogs, second life More notes on Second Life Raph Koster’s got a lot to say about the culture gap between MMOGs and Second Life, and most of it sounds about right to me. The UI concerns that he brings up are probably going to be one of the centerpieces of my research production for next semester.(Post a new comment) [...]
[...] A fascinating discussion on SL as one of many multiplayer experiences can be found at raphkoster.com - if you’re interested in sociology (and who wouldn’t be!) then have a read through. The premise of the article is that SL residents could perhaps learn a lot of useful lessons from other MMOs. [...]
[...] Buried in the comments on Yet Another Second Life Post on Raph’s blog, Raph says the following: I am glad you think of me as enlightened. We will be announcing our startup in the next couple of days, and when we do, believe it or not, I hope you’re among those who are interested. [...]
[...] Raph Koster said (here and here) he will announce his new studio soon. I’m not exactly sure where he’s living nowadays (California or Texas?), but this should be interesting to watch. I half expected him to get snatched up by one of the new studios (BioWare Austin, Green Monster Games, etc), but there’s something to be said for being your own boss I do expect to see games where you have to apply a little brainpower. No straight hack-and-slash from Raph. Maybe an MMOBFS (Massively Multiplayer Online Bird Flight Simulator)? [...]
[...] Suddenly, all that time Raph has been labouring talking to gamers and Infamous Antagonists on his blog seems to make sense — if a new and different thing and better thing will come out of it. An interesting discussion on whether games or worlds are better is going on here. [...]
[...] Previous 20 Вт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:41 yettergjart: Давно мы фигнёй не занимались Your Birthdate: July 31You don’t love lightly. For you, love is always a serious undertaking.However, you are able to love many types of people. You can bring out the best in almost anyone.Love surprises you often. You never know when or where you’ll find it next.Number of True Loves You’ll Have: 2Number of Times You’ll Have Your Heart Broken: 1You are most compatible with people born on the 4th, 13th, 22nd, and 31st of the month.What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?via opposto Tags: фигня ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:37 iten: Мне бы в небо. После воскресного разговора мне запала в голову одна мысль, от которой я никак не могу освободиться. Pigbig сказала о конкретном человеке, о том, что этот человек пытался «прыгнуть» в другой социальный класс, но не довёл дело до конца, не смог. Я слушал и думал о себе: о том, к какой страте я принадлежу, о том, был ли у меня такой прыжок. О родителях я уже писал – у них было образование, но их жизнь совершенно не была связана с академической средой или чем-то подобным. Получается, что я, отучившись в университете и аспирантуре, связавшись с работой в университете, вроде как поднялся на социальном лифте немного повыше. Хотя это моё ощущение можно вполне оспорить: в нынешнем обществе столько разных систем иерархий, что мой путь наверх вполне может быть сведён к нулю, в силу невозможности сравнить позиции. Опять же, этот мой путь не был продуманным шагом: я получил образование, а потом устроился на работу в соответствии с квалификацией, не думая при этом о том, что так я приобретаю какой-то неведомый статус или избавляюсь от «проклятия» социального происхождения. Правда, мне иногда приятно было думать о том, что я поступил в университет, а некоторые из тех, с кем я учился в школе, не поступили и, в полном соответствии с законом социальной преемственности, отправились, допустим, на завод. Всё же я могу сказать, что мой статус стал немного выше, мои занятия более интеллектуальны, диапазон разговора шире. Однако, вот что меня заботит: насколько я действительно вписан в ту среду, в которой я сейчас нахожусь, насколько я согласен примерить на себя какие-то достижительные маркеры, вроде «защиты диссертации», насколько я не плебей? Я ведь чувствую собственную планку, чувствую отсутствие того, что можно обозначить тривиальной метафорой английского газона, за которым ухаживали целую кучу лет: я вырос среди книг, но это скорее случайность, чем закономерность, и я не являюсь результатом тщательного воспитания в определённом духе. Может, я тоже плохо и неудачно прыгнул? Для меня это очень интересный вопрос: однажды, в компании, мы спорили до крика о том, может ли человек преодолеть ту социальную среду, в которой он вырос. Музыка: Дэвид Боуи Jump, they say ссылка Оставить комментарий | 1 комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:25 a_k_e_l_a: Тоскливое Иногда очень хочется свернуться калачиком у кого-нибудь на коленях. Чтобы гладили по головке, перебирали спутанные волосы на затылке и нежно шептали на ушко, что меня любят и что все обязательно будет хорошо. И пообещали купить петушка на палочке. Осталось найти такие невъебенные колени, на которых я бы поместилась.Нет в жизни совершенства.ссылка Оставить комментарий | 2 комментарияВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:27 d_a_p: Aerae Интересный пост о SL и похожих разработках.Анализ интернетных сообществ с точки зрения разработчика.( Автор поста Raph Koster сам недавно открыл Start-Up Aerae)Особенно мне понравился вот этот граф расползания новостей по блогам
Tags: nosup, sl ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:21 yettergjart: Оправдание рутины Обменявшись с aletehia репликами о свободе и рутине (http://yettergjart.livejournal.com/156798.html?thread=1630334#t1630334 ), я подумала о том, что только недавно - на своём сорок втором году - начала как следует чувствовать огромный освобождающий потенциал так называемой «рутины»: повторяющегося, автоматического… Устойчивого и защищающего в мире вообще так мало, что по-настоящему перевести дух можно только внутри того, что делается и повторяется якобы “само собой”. И ДУМАЕТСЯ в этом - причём о самых общих и отвлечённых вещах - великолепно. «Рутина» прекрасно освобождает нас от всего, что не-она, - надевает на нас эдакий защитный футляр. Именно внутри такой защитной конструкции и разворачивается самое разнузданное внутреннее разнообразие!! Честное слово.На самом деле удивительно, как с течением времени начинает восприниматься в качестве надёжного источника свободы то, что в начале жизни ничем, кроме окаянного закрепощения, не казалось. Рутина. Работа. Жёсткое расписание. Сидение дома (в противоположность (а) странствиям, (б) хождением по гостям и вообще (в) разговорам. Тот же возраст. А сегодня у меня очень остро и ясно переживалась мысль об освобождающем потенциале – самом, наверно, большом и надёжном из освобождающих потенциалов – неизбежной смерти. Tags: выращивание свободы, из разговоров с френдами, оправдания ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:25 eigi: Пеку рождественские пирожные. Опять начался мой крестный глазурный путь.ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:19 jekfat: Новое слово Мой коллега - шеф-редактор детской программы - сегодня заметил, что у нас в стране с детьми работают либо педофилы, либо педофобы.Второй термин пришелся по вкусу многим, работающим с детьми на ТВ. Tags: ТВ, дети, работаCurrent Location: Москва, дом ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:26 another_kashin: Из переписки с читателями ссылка Оставить комментарий | 7 комментариевВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:20 francinemarine: Три слова ( Original Soundtrack Shrek ) Настроение: indifferent Музыка: Rufus Wainwright Hallelujah ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:13 alexclear: Макс, с днем рождения!ссылка Оставить комментарий | 2 комментарияВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:14 yettergjart: О незащищённости …чувствую я, человек вообще – новичок в мире, сколько бы ни прожил. Ох как прав поэтому мой френд nemo_ru, сказавший недавно (http://yettergjart.livejournal.com/155935.html?thread=1628959#t1628959 ), что в опыте есть что-то успокоительное. Есть, конечно: всякий опыт (глубоко и неизбежно случайный по самой своей природе) создаёт нам видимость опор, видимость надёжности – видимость очевидности. Tags: из разговоров с френдами, экзистенциальное ссылка Оставить комментарийВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 01:03 sali_revised: пока привезут макароны Первое место уже больше года таки удерживает комбинация циниковские чесночные гренки + Массандра. За второе готов поспорить альянс щупалец осьминога с Джеком Дэниэлсом. Единственное, что обидно — как бы ни стремился к культурному росту, а все равно идти за активированным углем.ссылка Оставить комментарий | 2 комментарияВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:53 im_foto: Ещё немного и слово “контакт” исчезнетбудет: индекс-принтв 70_ые Ральф Гибсон издал книгу “Контакты”, где на разворотах слева на вылет были контакты, а справа Фотографии, можно было следить за “мыслью” и почерком, почти сотни ФотографовЕсть контакты (или вернее негативы) с которыми не работалиа выбросить вроде жальСССР, Москва 1985(м.б. 1986) “Коррозия Металла”: Паук, Сакс, Боров и др.(+ Миша Молочников!) Tags: архив, рок ссылка Оставить комментарий | 2 комментарияВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:55 alexclear: В комментарияхЛОХИ И НИЩЕБРОДЫ.ссылку надыбал на топе blogs.yandex.ruссылка Оставить комментарий | 14 комментариевВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 00:19 a_k_e_l_a: О работе и государстве Во-первых, о работе. Нахамила шефу. И не терзають меня совести угрызения. Вот совсем и не терзають. Дело было так - в очередной раз заученным и заунывным тоном поинтересовалась у начальства, а как, собственно, обстоят дела с перерегистрацией любимой организации (ебись она конем!). Дела, разумеется, не обстояли никак, как, впрочем, и 1,5 года назад. И тут шеф выдает фразу на-гора:- А когда, собственно, ты сможешь подключиться к процессу полноценно, а не сидя дома?- ??????- Ну, когда ты сможешь выезжать? (Интересно, ребенка, подразумевается, я должна таскать с собой или куда его девать?)- А какой процесс ты имеешь в виду?- Ну… перерегистрацию.Стервенею. Все понятно - в очередной раз пытаемся спихнуть свои обязанности на меня.- Вообще-то, перерегистрация организации не входит в обязанности главного бухгалтера.- Не входит.- Впрочем, я готова хоть сейчас. Но - за дополнительную плату.В ответ - тишина и озадаченный шефов взор, полный бессильной ярости. И нехуй! ( Во-вторых, о государстве. ) Tags: Политика ссылка Оставить комментарий | 6 комментариевВт, 19 Дек, 2006, 03:46 samir74: Москали сегодня акцию провели на Мете - человек 15 новых голосов голоснуло, потоки ругани, все такое. Закидали мету антиукраинскими, антирумынскими и антисибирскими агитками.Эта ночь - черная луна, наибольшая активность сил зла. Так что неудивительно, что бесы в них именно сегодня так забегали, и их на очередное сатанинское дело потянуло.ссылка Оставить комментарий | 5 комментариевПн, 18 Дек, 2006, 15:46 piony: [...]
[...] умные тексты. Ударение на слове длинные :)(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) egmg 2006-12-18 10:38 pm UTC (link) 2ое и 3ье не существенно, носложнее. Я не слышала про не-резидентов.(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) d_a_p 2006-12-18 10:46 pm UTC (link) Да, с Магистерской быстро неесть Латвийское гр-во тоже, это что то меняет ?(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) egmg 2006-12-18 10:51 pm UTC (link) ну просто на магистрантов,вариант. Ну или искать где-то самому грант.(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) d_a_p 2006-12-18 11:01 pm UTC (link) Ясно, здесь та же петрушкаto this) (Parent) (Thread) egmg 2006-12-18 11:04 pm UTC (link) мне жаль, я бы Вас приняла сto this) (Parent) (Thread) d_a_p 2006-12-18 11:08 pm UTC (link) Ну хорошо, буду считать себясильно в жизни помогает, но чем-то приятно :)(Reply to this) (Parent) d_a_p 2006-12-18 11:11 pm UTC (link) Думаю, Вам надо сюдаstudying aspects.http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/12/13/the-sl-cultural-gap/#more-869(Reply to this) (Parent) (Read comments)- [...]
[...] Amid the increasing chatter as to whether Second Life is hype or substance, the centrally satisfying aspect (at least to me) is that it’s worthy of debate by smart folks. As the service signs up resident #2,000,000 (w/ likely 500,000 of those active users), here are a few thoughts on the press, SL’s growth and its future.1) Hype can either be the result of willful misleading disinformation or expectation outstripping reality. Second Life is a firm case of the latter. A reporter listens to Philip’s vision, sees examples of some really amazing stuff in world and gets excited about the possibility. People are hopeful, they love the idea of a user-created world filled with meaning. They imagine what they would do in such a space. They write a glowing article. But what they describe isn’t always what SL is today, it’s what they imagine it could be. No different from its residents, whom i’d suggest are 20% there for what SL is today, 80% for what it could become.2) The press cycle is being driven by folks outside of SL. Bloggers, companies, media are the ones driving this story, not Second Life. Well, with the exception that Philip seems to really like speaking at conferences. That being said, I think SL hasn’t managed their messaging optimally and have been too willing to sell into the froth. Philip needs to add this statement to every interview and speech he does:”The growth is really exciting but Second Life is a hundred year project to build a virtual world.”This perspective and sense of timeline would give a needed credibility boost to the nature of this project. And it’s not inconsistent with how other CEOs handle similar situations. Eric Schmidt at Google has said it will take 300 years for Google to accomplish its mission. It sounds noble and cognizant of the challenges which remain. A humble stroke that Linden’s press sometimes leaves out.Oh yeah, and stop the “walk your avatar to the virtual Amazon store” idea. It reminds me of the folks who suggest the avatar should walk to the mailbox to pick up email.3) Fix the search and UI. Two of the most important aspects of the user experience - the UI and search - are just begging for revamping. You could probably double retention rates if these were improved. The UI was originally designed by James Cook, one of the smartest folks I know, but its crying out for a wholesale rethink.4) N+1. I used to tell Philip we needed to design for the N+1 user — what could we do to the product which would continue expanding the reach. While the world has certainly grown, at times it would appear that the team is still developing for the same user type, believing more and more average consumers will evolve to demonstrate those characteristics.Raph Koster had an interesting post on the SL cultural gap which reflects how SL doesn’t listen so much to ideas from outside of its world. In some ways this is what has allowed SL to be successful - if Philip, Cory and others had listened to all the skeptics in 2000-2004 SL would have evolved into something like 3d parlor games accompanied by avatar chat. As a strong-willed founder who believes in his vision, Philip is going to follow the path he believes in right. And the degree to which it is correct will always be the greatest determining factor in SL’s success.Labels: secondlife [...]
[...] Долбозлобъ (d_a_p) wrote,@ 2006-12-19 00:27:00 Aerae Интересный пост о SL и похожих разработках.Анализ интернетных сообществ с точки зрения разработчика.( Автор поста Raph Koster сам недавно открыл Start-Up Aerae)Особенно мне понравился вот этот граф расползания новостей по блогам :)(Read comments)Post a comment in response: From:Anonymous OpenID Identity URL: Log in? LiveJournal user Username:Password:Log in? Subject: [...]
Terra Nova and its centrality in that game sphere map resurfaced on Raph Koster’s blog. This time embedded within a substantial essay suggesting that Second Lifers are insulated from the broader MMO tradition. It is a nuanced essay that deserves reading and comment there. If I had to abbreviate the point, however, I would choose this passage:
[...] Link | Leave a comment | Add to MemoriesRandom linkiesDec. 23rd, 2006 | 08:36 pmposted by: _mikeAwesome graph at Yglesias’s. Agree, disagree, ignore his commentary, it doesn’t matter; but it is the quintessential political graph.Raph Koster griping about Second Life’s insularity (from TN). One of the reasons I don’t read TN as much as I ought is the interminable tiresome debate about just how different SL is from everything else that’s ever happened ever–for a while Richard Bartle would lay the “we resolved that one ten years ago on MUD-DEV” smackdown on anyone who didn’t show enough history, but he’s apparently distracted or gotten bored of that one.And… oh, yeah: on the MMO shop talk front, Three Rings is getting new office space, which is damned neat. Dunno how effective it actually is as a space to work in, but it’s fun to look at, at least. (and they’ve got a flagship product and associated theme, which makes it easier. to say nothing of whole-heartedly embracing schtick.)Tags: games, mmo, politics [...]
[...] This guy was a loser because he didn’t mystically know which ‘essential’ add-ons make the game usable. At this point, it seems useful to point out Raph’s post where he essentially described those who talk about Second Life as insular and detached from reality. [...]
[...] This guy was a loser because he didn’t mystically know which ‘essential’ add-ons make the game usable. At this point, it seems useful to point out Raph’s post where he essentially described those who talk about Second Life as insular and detached from reality. [...]
applications (as here, here, or here) which do offer some interoperability between Web and world. This guy was a loser because he didn’t mystically know which ‘essential’ add-ons make the game usable. At this point, it seems useful to point out Raph’s post where he essentially described those who talk about Second Life as insular and detached from reality. Second Life is a good idea that is hampered by overwhelmingly complex UI, an utter lack of direction, and movement that feels like wading through
Penguins and Puffins Nate Combs Terra Nova and its centrality in that game sphere map resurfaced on Raph Koster’s blog. This time embedded within a substantial essay suggesting that Second Lifers are insulated from the broader MMO tradition. Continue reading “Penguins and Puffins” December 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (30)