The difficult question is this: do virtual worlds (and virtual communities) now have more controls, gates, filters, rules, because a single generation's unique and unreproducible historical experience has become an inflexible structural precedent that defines all future online sociality, that is the
From the "It's not always about WoW" department, here's a heads up about several interesting worlds that came onto my radar while adding them to the Virtual Worlds Review lineup this year. The best way to put the assertion (and this is all it is at this point; and again, please keep in min
I'm not saying that they shouldn't invite someone like Dr. Amen to speak. I think that they should, but they should strive for the same level of rigor that Ray Kurzweil brings to the table. Ray's talk was, if anything, even more preposterous than Dr. Amen's, but extraordinary claim
AC05 happened this last weekend. Although last year's conference was specifically focused on digital worlds, this year's topic of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence Augmentation provided plenty of fodder for TN readers. First of all, Vernor Vinge - who's book "True Names" described t
Via Kotaku comes mention of a survey conducted by Bowen Research on the role emotion plays in the game experience... The best way to put the assertion (and this is all it is at this point; and again, please keep in mind that there are a number of familiar exceptions) is that the practice of game sof
But still, why magic rather than technology or the supernatural or even history? All of them can easily separate the real from the imagined without distracting the player. Why magic? The best way to put the assertion (and this is all it is at this point; and again, please keep in mind th
I'm sick with sadness and I need your advice. I don't think my player cares about me any more. After we first met I thought that the relationship would be wonderful. He spent lots of time with me, sending me mail, taking me to interesting places in Ironforge--the auctionhouse, the postbox just insid
We're really delighted to welcome Joshua Fairfield into our little band of misfits, outcasts and ne'er-do-wells. Unfortunately he doesn't really fit our mold: he's got degrees from Swarthmore and the University of Chicago, he clerked for Hon. Danny J. Boggs, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circu
When Roy Trubshaw and I worked on MUD1, we saw it as a means of giving people freedom. For players, freedom to do and to be; for us, freedom to make our imaginations real (well, OK, virtual). Most of the early UK virtual worlds that followed had that same sense of idealism. After our "high ener
When Roy Trubshaw and I worked on MUD1, we saw it as a means of giving people freedom. For players, freedom to do and to be; for us, freedom to make our imaginations real (well, OK, virtual). Most of the early UK virtual worlds that followed had that same sense of idealism. After our "high ener