"There isn't a corporation in the US that's a match against the power of the federal government"
If you mean that they don't have the military power, then you're right. On the other hand, I think corporate power in America, and corporate influence over government in America, is at an all-time high - and that the balance of power in American government has shifted to corporations. The rise of lobbying, the decline of public interest in non-local/personal issues and the recent Republican hegemony have all benefited corporations. They don't have to match the power of the federal government because it works for them.
The only problem I have with the Dead Sea effect theory is that it seems to me that the new hires referred to at the top must be the talented engineers who found it so easy to get another job when they got fed up at their last one. If those people aren't pooling at some fantasy company or leaving the industry altogether, then they must be moving from one Dead Sea to another.
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to suggest Dungeons and Dragons Online. I played for around 6 months (aka as long as my marriage could take it) and found it was a lot of fun and had many players who know PnP and were into the game because of the similarities, especially as compared to WoW. Admittedly, I hadn't played PnP in 20 years but I've looked for computer versions of DnD before and nothing else came close. I actually think that the combination of "real-time" action, in-game voice chat and single-click action improves game flow dramatically over PnP, while the developers have done a great job of mixing up challenges and limitations so as not to make the game a simple click-fest.
Just to mention a few of the thoughts expressed in this thread, there are many great non-damaging spells (sleep, web, rays to lower most monster attributes) and the quests are set up to require the skills sets of several character classes after a while. I'm not a great or very frequent gamer, and I imagine that many have valid criticisms of DDO, but I for one heartily recommend it.
"Living publicly" - I love it! One of my core ideas about humanity is that we profit collectively by the exchange of information/experience/etc., and that the profit depends on the quality (truth, accuracy, detail, etc.) of the information.
Your friend's experiment raises some great questions - why should there be secrets? What are people hiding and why? If they're hiding from other people's biases, let's fix the biases, not hide from them. And so on...
If the web and/or corporations are forcing us to express the truth of our lives (and didn't we cross the whole "public/private life" false dichotomy years ago?), or simply capturing it when we do, I dare say that's a good thing, even if the motivation behind it isn't.
Slashdot Mirror
"There isn't a corporation in the US that's a match against the power of the federal government" If you mean that they don't have the military power, then you're right. On the other hand, I think corporate power in America, and corporate influence over government in America, is at an all-time high - and that the balance of power in American government has shifted to corporations. The rise of lobbying, the decline of public interest in non-local/personal issues and the recent Republican hegemony have all benefited corporations. They don't have to match the power of the federal government because it works for them.
The only problem I have with the Dead Sea effect theory is that it seems to me that the new hires referred to at the top must be the talented engineers who found it so easy to get another job when they got fed up at their last one. If those people aren't pooling at some fantasy company or leaving the industry altogether, then they must be moving from one Dead Sea to another.
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to suggest Dungeons and Dragons Online. I played for around 6 months (aka as long as my marriage could take it) and found it was a lot of fun and had many players who know PnP and were into the game because of the similarities, especially as compared to WoW. Admittedly, I hadn't played PnP in 20 years but I've looked for computer versions of DnD before and nothing else came close. I actually think that the combination of "real-time" action, in-game voice chat and single-click action improves game flow dramatically over PnP, while the developers have done a great job of mixing up challenges and limitations so as not to make the game a simple click-fest. Just to mention a few of the thoughts expressed in this thread, there are many great non-damaging spells (sleep, web, rays to lower most monster attributes) and the quests are set up to require the skills sets of several character classes after a while. I'm not a great or very frequent gamer, and I imagine that many have valid criticisms of DDO, but I for one heartily recommend it.
"Living publicly" - I love it! One of my core ideas about humanity is that we profit collectively by the exchange of information/experience/etc., and that the profit depends on the quality (truth, accuracy, detail, etc.) of the information. Your friend's experiment raises some great questions - why should there be secrets? What are people hiding and why? If they're hiding from other people's biases, let's fix the biases, not hide from them. And so on... If the web and/or corporations are forcing us to express the truth of our lives (and didn't we cross the whole "public/private life" false dichotomy years ago?), or simply capturing it when we do, I dare say that's a good thing, even if the motivation behind it isn't.