Terra Nova

China Uses Prisoners to Farm Gold

Another reason to be against gold farming. Thanks Dmitri Williams for the heads up. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam)

 

Terra Nova

With our recently confirmed "broad mandate," I imagine a show about an exodus to a new world, featuring one of the leading actors from Avatar, might actually be within our core jurisdiction.  (Plus, if we start getting hits from fans of the show, maybe we owe them a little bit of chatter?)

I dunno, though, has Terra Nova (the tv show) really got legs?  Once you get past the dystopian back story, it seems like it's more or less "Land of the Lost" or "Jurassic Park IV" -- another guns and dinosaurs story.  Not exactly BSG.

Still, they had me at "Terra Nova" -- so I'll be checking it out.

Preview via Hulu:

Sophomoric Stances

I'm thinking about a paper for a conference on ethics and games being set up by Harry Brown this October, and I'd like to kick out a concept (about which I know nothing, so it fits here) to see what your reaction is (if any): Maturity. I'm getting older and older, you see, and online shenanigans seem to be losing significance. Once thrilling, then annoying, now boring. What's happening?

Maybe it has nothing to do with age; maybe it's a stance with respect to goofing off that changes often according to circumstance, even if there is a general trend such that older people lose interest. What's your Sophomoric Stance? When Mia gave us all those neat examples about cheating, did you feel outrage, or titillation? Or maybe you just rolled your eyes and muttered, "Kids."

I feel this urge to challenge what seems to be a standard analysis of online transgression, in which transgression is either celebrated as significant revolution or vilified as significant crime. I'm not concerned about the revolution or crime part, but the significance.

Gamification II: Rate-a-Terrorist

What distances the true terrorist from some wannabe? His forum posts, of course. And how is that to be measured? With forum Likes, of course. With gamified terror forum rankings, the best of the best can get leaderboarded and waterboarded! Gamification >> all! (Thanks to student Peter Winland for the tip.)

Where were you when OBL was reported dead?

Apparently the major media outlets were the last to let us know. While they scrambled to put on their ties and do their hair, the metaverse was spreading the information we cared about. I'd bet a quarter that most people got the news first from a descendent of UO: Twitter, FB, or an online game.

Where was I? Sanctum, home of the Guardian faction in Rift.