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Protests, Politics And Parties In MMORPGs
The Importance of writes "LawMeme's James Grimmelmann has written an interesting piece on protests, politics and parties in MMORPGs. In particular, he talks about the 'tax revolt' in Second Life."
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Get a life?
I just heard this on the radio - Michael Moore, dead at 41! He was involved in a plane crash, flying to Texas to investiagte the Bush/Bin Laden families oil dealings.
Even if you didn't like him, you can't deny he made an important contribution to Communism in the United States.
I have a story... Back in my undergrad days, I happened upon a game called Everquest (maybe you've heard of it). To keep the story short, I don't remember much of my sophomore year. I got kicked out, and allowed reentrance only upon agreeing to seeing a school counseler once a week for a year. I pretty much ended up having to stay away from computers altogether to break my obvious addiction. Now flashforward to March of this year. I had just purchased a Motorola T720 cell phone, which can play games that you can download from Verizon. I decided to see what games were available, and low and behold... Sony had released a version of Everquest for cell phones! I couldn't help downloading it. It was everybit as addictive as the PC game, but fortunately much smaller, and the online play sucks. Still, I was taking off work early quite often this week. Gaming addiction is a strange thing. My counseler believed my addiction may have actually stemmed from my being uncircumcised, and kids at school making fun of me relentlessly. I thought that I had gotten over it, but the brain works in mysterious ways. Apparently, I was trying to make myself happy by playing video games. The chemicals induced in the brain in such a state are similar to those in cocaine.
...what with its open-ended gameplay, subscriber content creation, and clever Linux-based server-side technology. I was preparing to sign up for the free trial when I discovered it only runs on XP/2000. Pfffft!
I have in my hand a manual can opener bought back in 1986. I believe it was bought at some dollar store. I also think that was the 50 year anniversary marking the era where citizens in the U.S. had bitched about things not being "made like they used to." So why is it that I still have a functional implement made in the "disposable consumer item era" that still works very well after daily use for 17 years?
The disposable product meme is getting pretty old.
so effectively, we should tax the poor and middle classes more, because they after all, are not able to contribute as much to society as those who are rich? over here, its the governments who build things like staidums and roads. its the taxes i pay that go towards building something which is befenficial to society.
if someone wishes to build a build a building in which he or she will rent out office space to further load their coffers, they should foot the bill, as this is hardly a gift "to society". there is no selflessness in building something with will make its owner money.
we should be taxing the rich more, and tax the poor less. the rich can at least afford to contribute to society far more than the poor. and by contribute to society im talking about paying taxes to governments who will use that money for what they are suppose to use it for, providing services and facilities to those they govern.
dms0
-= world leaders choose world leaders not us, not a democracy, not a revolution! =-
It's pretty sad that people organize "protests" in a fucking -game- but won't stand up for their rights in real life. What is the matter with you people?
Yeah, and all the real-life idiots protesting the war in Iraq have really done a lot to change things, haven't they?
You complain about the futility of online protests, yet all the "real" protesters seem to have accomplished lately is making fools of themselves - blocking major highways for thousands of non-involved citizens, throwing up on government buildings, harrassing everyone they can see...And last I saw, the war was still on.
Delude yourself if you like, but protesting is not the way to effect change in the real world these days.