After a careful, mature, scholarly, 3-minute discussion interrupted by a YouTube video of an electric rabbit, the founders of Terra Nova would like to announce nothing.
You see, an issue came up. It was said that virtual worlds are dead, and TN, as the blog of virtual worlds, has lost its way. It must therefore focus on something more current. Games, social media, Lady Gaga - something.
However, casual examination - it's the only kind we know - reveals quite clearly that virtual worlds have not died but rather have undergone a powerful and gushy sporogenesis. When the world stepped on MUD, it went Poof! And now its children are everywhere.
Birth is messy and Terra Nova has best served its purposes by getting its hands dirty. It's most fun for us, and least work, when we can write about things we don't understand at all. Sure, it's a big category, but we aim high. Like, who understands Farmville. Really. And Twitter - who knew chat would turn into that? Our puzzlers are sore just thinking about it. Sore in a good way.
Therefore why should we avoid such subjects just because we are "supposed" to talk only about things that look, today, like World of Warcraft looked in 2004? If folks think that's what Terra Nova is about, we need to correct that misunderstanding. TN has always tried to live on the frontal messy edge of online social media gaming stuff. That has not changed.
Reflecting on our lack of innovation, therefore, we offer the following Policy Statement (tm):
"It has come to our attention that some in the Terra Nova community have been laboring under the misapprehension that there is a meaningful ontological distinction between, say, Second Life and FarmVille. We regret the confusion and would like to clarify that discussion here is and always has been open to any topic related to digitally mediated spaces dedicated primarily to forms of social play, generously defined."
There, we said it.
Now, at some point, when we decide to do some work on the blog, we will clean out the sidebars. A lot of old information there. We'll also rewrite the About page to reflect our failure to become a blog dedicated to the virtual worlds of 2004. And we will be getting to that bit of administrative work soon. Right around noon the day after tomorrow; or next week. Actually, we'll get back to you on it. But soon! Very soon!
Bully! Bully, I say! I, for one, would welcome such a non-change, and would fully support continued reading of and commenting on posts that are in a wider vein. Vain? Vane...
More TN posts! That's what I'm for. Y'all are some really smart, funny and interesting people, no matter how wide your professed and joyous ignorance.
Bully!
Posted by: Andy Havens | Apr 27, 2011 at 15:57
Hear, hear! I've for some time abandoned that distinction!
http://bit.ly/k8Qiqo.
In fact, I believe that quite a few posts didn't make this distinction either, but it's glad to see this as "official", now!
Posted by: Leonel Morgado | Apr 28, 2011 at 14:07
I remember back in 2006 or 7 when I was writing an undergraduate paper on EVE Online Goonsquad recruitment through somethingawful and I stumbled on to this blog. There was a whole world of research that was just finding its form. Until i ended up here, all i was really left with was a few papers on Everquest, my experience with Final Fantasy 11, and that I was a fan of video games.
I've found a lot of great stuff here over the years that has helped me get on my feet. As I take my first timid steps into the academic environment, I still remember how I felt when I happened upon the blog through a copy of Synthetic Worlds I found at Book People in Austin, TX.
The work on Terra Nova is just as important now as it was, perhaps moreso. I hope to see the great gamification debate stir up around here soon. It's just sitting there, waiting.
Posted by: Nick Lalone | Apr 30, 2011 at 00:59
For some reason, the idea of regarding FarmVille as a virtual world, makes me want to curl up into a foetal position on the floor, and begin uttering profuse, traumatised sobbing.
Has Richard Bartle experienced this reaction to FV's spurious elevation to virtual world status, yet? ;)
Posted by: Petrus | May 25, 2011 at 17:22