A ten-minute gab [scroll down for audio links] on NPR's Talk of the Nation, subject: Learning from events in virtual worlds. The interview got wrapped up in the Peter Ludlow saga, of course; that's the big news items these days. I tried to steer the discussion to broader implications. I guess I got some of that in...
In the end, no sooner than I tried to dampen the flames of the Alphaville story here on Terra Nova, I found myself fanning them again {sigh}. mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
It sounded fine to me, Ted! Very favorably comparable to most everything else in the "Golly!" genre.
I wonder what's the next stop for the "mass media discovers VWs" saga. 60 minutes? Oprah?
And how many more years before we'll expect everyone to know what "avatar" means?
Posted by: greglas | Jan 26, 2004 at 21:54
By the time this has gone mainstream, the entire world as we know it will have changed so dramatically we won't recognize it. But it will have happened as we stumbled along in our day to day lives, so we won't really notice.
Posted by: anon | Jan 26, 2004 at 23:36
Is there a transcript of the discussion somewhere? The village in which I live has now reached its trigger level to have broadband installed but "the length of the telephone line between you and the exchange is too long for ADSL broadband".
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Jan 27, 2004 at 02:58
greglas > I wonder what's the next stop for the "mass media discovers VWs" saga. 60 minutes? Oprah?
As posted previously Oprah is looking to do a show on video games – however it’s from the ‘addiction’ angle.
www.oprah.com/plugger/templates/BeOnTheShow.jhtml?action=respond&plugId=B75500004
snip
“Are You Addicted To Video Games
Has an addiction to video games complicated your life or your child's life? How many hours do you or your child spend each day playing video games? Is playing videos games affecting your social life? Do you experience feelings of anger or withdrawal when not playing video games? Do you use the fantasy life of video games to escape from your worries and troubles?”
/snip
Ren
Posted by: Ren | Jan 27, 2004 at 03:32
greglas > I wonder what's the next stop for the "mass media discovers VWs" saga.
Well, CNN and MSNBC have shot interviews. And today there is this...
http://www.freep.com/news/mich/sims27_20040127.htm
Posted by: Peter Ludlow | Jan 27, 2004 at 11:12
RB>Is there a transcript?
If you go to NPR's main site you can buy one :/
That's the only written copy available, and I'm too cheap to buy it.
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Jan 27, 2004 at 13:23
We might have to come to grips with the fact that this latest twist in the whole "video games" awareness fad by the mainstream will go no differently than previous ones.
The whole DOOM thing again.....
The whole addiction thing again...
GEEKdom fellas, back in the box with yas !
JHL
Posted by: Jeff Lotton | Jan 27, 2004 at 15:11
The Sims online controversy also made it onto the BBC last Friday but I was unable to find the link.
One thing that I noticed in both the UK interviews but not on NPR was an ambush by the news person. The ambush with Dr. Bartle was the question about rapists and on the Sims broadcast they found a woman from New York who gave a number of choice quotes about S&M and other sexual practices that are either illegal or far from the mainstream.
My feeling is that it is incumbent on those of us who are serious about VWs to be ready for this sort of ambush because its going to happen a lot and how you answer will matter a lot.
It might even be worth posting a thread on ambush questions and useful answers.
Posted by: Tom Hunter | Jan 28, 2004 at 12:40
Henry Jenkins wrote about being ambushed on Donahue, a US talk show:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Jan 28, 2004 at 13:44
This is why people have agents...isn't it ?
JHL
Posted by: Jeff Lotton | Jan 28, 2004 at 15:17
Tom Hunter>My feeling is that it is incumbent on those of us who are serious about VWs to be ready for this sort of ambush because its going to happen a lot and how you answer will matter a lot
To this end, I have signed up for a half-day course they occasionally run for academics at Essex University, "Handling the Media Interview". Hopefully it will tell me what to do should I ever again find myself expecting to answer questions about virtual worlds but instead suddenly having to defend my job title.
Aside: in the UK, there are several meanings of the word "fellow", but generally it is applied to an academic who specialises in teaching, research, or being very distinguished. Some of the latter are very senior indeed. At Essex, fellows are only those who specialise in research or teaching (although I have dim recollections that a "fellow" may also be someone external to the university seconded to sit on its ruling council).
Officially, I'm at Essex to teach, which makes me a Teaching Fellow, but I'm the highest rank of this (equivalent to Senior Lecturer) which makes me a Principal Teaching Fellow. As I'm only part time, strictly speaking I'm a Visiting Principal Teaching Fellow. However, I can still call myself a Principal Fellow without being guilty of fraud, which is indeed what I generally do.
Unfortunately, sometimes people think I'm a Fellow of the "senior academic awarded a large sum of money to do their own thing" variety. It seems John Humphreys was under this impression when he interviewed me, which explains his opening comment, "I didn't know there was such a fellowship, Dr Bartle". My first reaction was to reply "Well you do now", but that would have compounded his misunderstanding (and probably have got me into trouble at the University for misrepresenting myself). I therefore babbled incoherently instead.
By the way, US academics are often surprised by the degree of respect they are accorded by UK media. This is because in the UK, the most senior academic post is that of professor, which usually takes years of research and/or politicking to obtain. In the US, ordinary tenured UK lecturer types get to call themselves "assistant professor", which is regularly shortened to "professor" just as "visiting principal teaching fellow" is shortened to "principal fellow". Thus, a US academic legitimately going by the name Professor Smith would be treated more deferentially by the UK media than they might be expecting.
Then again, they might suddenly be asked about their "chair" and find themselves having to clarify their job title much as I did on the Today Programme.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Jan 28, 2004 at 15:19