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One Journalist's Second Life
Jerry23 writes "The Second Life Community Convention site is carrying pre-release excerpts from O'Reilly Publishing's 'Only A Game: Online Worlds and the Virtual Journalist Who Knew Too Much' due out in 2006 (direct link to 10-page PDF). From the introduction: 'When virtual journalist Peter Ludlow was banned from the digital world of The Sims Online for being a bit too good at his job, it wasn't the end of the story but the beginning of the headlines that would capture readers around the world. Only A Game follows Ludlow's career as a virtual journalist as he and colleague Mark Wallace take us behind the scenes into not just The Sims Online but a fascinating universe of worlds that are far more colorful-and, at times, more disturbing-than their creators would have you believe.' As online *worlds* grow to earn their name, the last line of the PDF asks the million dollar question: 'How big is your game?'"
O'Reilly MAKE magazine editor Philip Torrone has already casually commented that MAKE is thinking of putting out some SL How Tos. Now I'm totally looking forward to something like the O'Reilly Metaverse Developers Conference =D. That's got to be on its way sometime, with an eye to Web 3.0 ;-).
Do the terms of service include:
- You are NOT allowed to warn people about scams?
- You are NOT allowed to talk about in-game events and activities?
I see this as one of the three items of major history in MMORPGs:
1. Character banned for embarassing (to the company) virtual newspaper
2. The killing of the unkillable Lord British
3. The almost-killing of the "unkillable" Sleeper monster dragon, with cheezy, tawdry, last-second reset by an employee to prevent this "travesty"
I'm sure little goodies like this will keep coming around every year or two.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Hey, if you're a stupid person, you deserve what you get! All of these people wanted something for nothing, and all got scammed because they were greedy. In short they learned a valuable life lesson for almost nothing.
MMO's ARE NOT safe little games. They're almost as nasty as living in Real Life because there are just as many people there preying on others as out your front door.
To go with your example, it's like buying a bottle of cockroach soda and being surprised when *GASP* there's a cockroach in there!!
Anyone who joins into any multiplayer game comprised of more than one person they do not know, who doesn't expect to get abused or ripped off if not careful is a complete fool and deserves what they get. -That's- why the games are so popular, because they're just like Real Life in your interactions with other people. And yes there are evil people in the world. Deal.
This journalist aparently cannot. (And yes I've read not only the PDF, but his journal. And you'll notice that he's just as big a bastard towards other players as they are to each other).