All this madness is founded in addiction. It is becoming semantics to argue if a game is real or not anymore. Because it is becoming so realistic. The people you interact with are real. This is what counts. Your not just playing a single-player fantasy experience. What brings it to an all new level is that it is real. That its live with other people through a different body and experience. Your arms, fingers, and eyes merely become an interface and you are immersed in another world for all intents and purposes.
The real core of it is addiction. Addicted to the positive emotions and feelings extracted from these experiences. Its critically simple that when rewarded our minds create pleasure that we seek out over and over again.
A sword, regardless of its independent value, wouldn't be worth killing if there wasn't a world that made it real to exist in. So this implies that the real reason someone valued the sword was to have that sword in that particular world. An equally rare sword in a less popular game world wouldn't be as worthy. The addiction to the experience creates these perceived values. Perceived friends, marriages, alliances, and experiences.
In this way they should be looked no differently upon than a drug. What is the purpose of a drug? To help you (or force you) to escape reality. Hmmm... interesting parallels. And the qualities of addiction are present. You take away a hardcore MMO player of WoW or example and they WILL experience withdrawals. The psychological addiction is to blame.
Cancer sticks, beer, wine, it doesn't matter. People find things to be addicted to.
Lets also consider that we can't be surprised that there was 1 psycho killer out of 3.5 million people. People kill people every day and it far outweighs that ratio. Not that its right or good. But the sheer numbers of the population of that game world and the diversity... its bound to happen by statistics alone.
That has got to be one the best posts I've ever read.
"your average joe-psycho can hop in and get pissed off in record time." That is frigging classic.
And im not being sarcastic.
LOL.
Thats right. Now the spyware is going into the hardware. Now they can track our location. Which means they'll be able to track traffic patterns, congestion, lifestyles, spending habits, frequent and popular areas, demographics, studies, and more.
It will be a massive mining operation of information. For sale, for study, for research... who the hell cares. Nothing good can come from it.
People won't stop using cell phones because the technology is put in them to track. Most people are ignorant of the devices they use every day. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence people will even deny so they can continue to be in complete convenience without hassle.
Maybe rock stars shouldn't be so rich. Maybe the recording industry shouldn't exist in its current form. I think what we are seeing is the death of the recording industry or its attempt at fighting evolution. It is becoming extinct through the power of information. In the light of the freedom (whether that freedom is warranted or not we can freely share bits) to share information their profits diminish because we realize that music is art. Art is to be shared to all as a gift to the world -- and good art always finds a way of doing that. The purest passion behind art is to create not to make millionaires. That's the reason for all the shit music that we have today. Because its all about the money.
Maybe we would see some real talent come out when there wasn't the glimmer of fame and fortune to hold onto. Maybe the P2P, file sharing, piracy, and ripping is all part of the world saying how pissed off we are that we go to work every day for 60 years and not make as much money as some half-wit who got lucky making a song that they can't even sing LIVE.
I support artists I like. But maybe the artists should get real too. Maybe they should get off their expensive hot rods and mega sized cribs and get with the f'ing program and realize they are just a bunch of performers who do less for the world than the person who serves me my Big Mac so that I can fix someone's computer.
No one really thinks the recording industry deserves to make billions of dollars. No one really cares if P-diddy or 50 cent makes their million. That's why the songs get ripped, filleted, and spewed across in bits across the net; because a convicted "yay" dealer can become a millionaire.
So MUCH for the American dream... its been tainted by filth who twist it to their own sick purposes. And worse we EAT IT UP! We just can't get enough. Keep pirating, America... paint it f****ing black.
The more DRM they cram the more cracks will come. You can't stop the flow of information. It is the very WILL of the people of this planet.
Slashdot Mirror
All this madness is founded in addiction. It is becoming semantics to argue if a game is real or not anymore. Because it is becoming so realistic. The people you interact with are real. This is what counts. Your not just playing a single-player fantasy experience. What brings it to an all new level is that it is real. That its live with other people through a different body and experience. Your arms, fingers, and eyes merely become an interface and you are immersed in another world for all intents and purposes.
The real core of it is addiction. Addicted to the positive emotions and feelings extracted from these experiences. Its critically simple that when rewarded our minds create pleasure that we seek out over and over again.
A sword, regardless of its independent value, wouldn't be worth killing if there wasn't a world that made it real to exist in. So this implies that the real reason someone valued the sword was to have that sword in that particular world. An equally rare sword in a less popular game world wouldn't be as worthy. The addiction to the experience creates these perceived values. Perceived friends, marriages, alliances, and experiences.
In this way they should be looked no differently upon than a drug. What is the purpose of a drug? To help you (or force you) to escape reality. Hmmm... interesting parallels. And the qualities of addiction are present. You take away a hardcore MMO player of WoW or example and they WILL experience withdrawals. The psychological addiction is to blame.
Cancer sticks, beer, wine, it doesn't matter. People find things to be addicted to.
Lets also consider that we can't be surprised that there was 1 psycho killer out of 3.5 million people. People kill people every day and it far outweighs that ratio. Not that its right or good. But the sheer numbers of the population of that game world and the diversity... its bound to happen by statistics alone.
That has got to be one the best posts I've ever read. "your average joe-psycho can hop in and get pissed off in record time." That is frigging classic. And im not being sarcastic. LOL.
Thats right. Now the spyware is going into the hardware. Now they can track our location. Which means they'll be able to track traffic patterns, congestion, lifestyles, spending habits, frequent and popular areas, demographics, studies, and more.
It will be a massive mining operation of information. For sale, for study, for research... who the hell cares. Nothing good can come from it.
People won't stop using cell phones because the technology is put in them to track. Most people are ignorant of the devices they use every day. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence people will even deny so they can continue to be in complete convenience without hassle.
Never underestimate the laziness of the populus.
Maybe rock stars shouldn't be so rich. Maybe the recording industry shouldn't exist in its current form. I think what we are seeing is the death of the recording industry or its attempt at fighting evolution. It is becoming extinct through the power of information. In the light of the freedom (whether that freedom is warranted or not we can freely share bits) to share information their profits diminish because we realize that music is art. Art is to be shared to all as a gift to the world -- and good art always finds a way of doing that. The purest passion behind art is to create not to make millionaires. That's the reason for all the shit music that we have today. Because its all about the money. Maybe we would see some real talent come out when there wasn't the glimmer of fame and fortune to hold onto. Maybe the P2P, file sharing, piracy, and ripping is all part of the world saying how pissed off we are that we go to work every day for 60 years and not make as much money as some half-wit who got lucky making a song that they can't even sing LIVE. I support artists I like. But maybe the artists should get real too. Maybe they should get off their expensive hot rods and mega sized cribs and get with the f'ing program and realize they are just a bunch of performers who do less for the world than the person who serves me my Big Mac so that I can fix someone's computer. No one really thinks the recording industry deserves to make billions of dollars. No one really cares if P-diddy or 50 cent makes their million. That's why the songs get ripped, filleted, and spewed across in bits across the net; because a convicted "yay" dealer can become a millionaire. So MUCH for the American dream... its been tainted by filth who twist it to their own sick purposes. And worse we EAT IT UP! We just can't get enough. Keep pirating, America... paint it f****ing black. The more DRM they cram the more cracks will come. You can't stop the flow of information. It is the very WILL of the people of this planet.