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Towards a Theory of Place in Digital Worlds

Posted by Zonk on from the introspective-navel-gazing dept.

Following last month's State of Play Conference, Gamespot has a good discussion of some issues brought up at the conference, as well as some analysis by Cory Ondrejka of Linden Labs. From the Article: "There is no spoon ... is a tempting shorthand, made all the more powerful by its association with the Matrix. It is also clearly wrong. There is a spoon, just not one that you can eat with. Digital worlds are very real places." Relatedly, Cory Doctorow has up today a short story on Salon.com (registration required) that takes place inside a MMOG.

3 of 16 comments (clear)

  1. I dunno... by nekoniku · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I like P.K. Dick's comment (in the novel "Valis") that "Reality is that which, when you ignore it, does not go away." On-line games pretty definitely go away when you ignore them. Plus you can't level up.
    nn

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  2. What about News sites deticated to online worlds? by kuwan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So when are we going to start seeing news sites pop up that do nothing but cover the news that happens in an online world. Imagine digital reporters and journalists that have characters within the game world that do nothing but observe the events. Reporters that follow the top players and take "pictures" of events, sort of like the Paparazzi . They then report to the "news" sites their coverage.

    Note that this would be different from someone who plays the game and then does a write-up of their experiences (1st person). A site like this would have other people, reporters (3rd person), that observe the events and then write about them. This type of alternate-universe news coverage may be a little ways off, but I'm sure we'll see it someday.

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  3. You mean like this? by Orne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    City of Heroes Paragon Times newspaper, containing recent events in game, interviews of participating players commentary...

    Sure, it's a game feature run by the creators, but the intent is there... right now, its being used as a means to move the plot along, to keep players informed of what new enemy groups are forming and what may be coming down the pipe in expansions, all done from the perspective of being inside the game.