Two points from Greg Lastowka's presentation this morning at the University of Minnesota's GRAVEL program, that made me re-think (yet again) what is happening in these spaces:
1. Ignatius of Loyola conceived of immersion as an important spiritual tool. If you have spent time at Georgetown University, this will ring some bells.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court has already affirmed the existence of a magic circle, albeit negatively. In PGA Tour vs. Martin, the court said that a certain rule is not 'essential' to the game of golf. That implies that some rules are, in fact, essential to golf, and that these rules would receive some kind of respect from the court. The EULA lives, in other words.
Thanks, Ted!
The bit about Ignatius was actually from Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (2001). Interestingly, Ryan doesn't seem too keen on VWs as immersive narratives. I take it that she thinks the degree of player authorship and the need for constant player intervention breaks the authorial power required for immersion.
I think the weird thing about the Martin decision was that the Supreme Court found the "essential" rules of golf not to be the essential rules the PGA (as a private entity) claimed, but the essential rules according to a broader societal understanding of golf. Scalia's dissent seems baffled by that idea -- because why can't the PGA just claim it is playing a different version of golf where walking between holes is important? I'm not sure what to take away for EULAs -- but you could draw some interesting analogies...
Posted by: greglas | Feb 25, 2004 at 09:07