"Video game meets Internet at the cutting edge in Linden City, the virtual capitol of Second Life"
Linden City? Now that's a new one on me. The author begins on the violence and sadism in video games, "Video game violence makes a Quinton[sic] Tarantino movie, such as "Kill Bill," look like "Bambi." and then moves straight on to the 'plague' of Internet addiction. Internet addiction is certainly a problem for some, as is gambling and alcoholism and television, that's true. Families are broken up over all these things. I'm not sure if plague is an accurate description, however.
First equating violence and sadism with video games (haven't you ever played Harvest Moon, honey?), then sounding off on Internet addiction. Then digressing for a moment to gamers "In my book --- for those who can recall the word "book" --- all these saps are losers", before drawing the inevitable piece of arithmetic:Second Life = "Video game meets Internet".
Congratulations, our addiction to Internet violence and sadism makes us all saps and losers, while college kids laugh their way to the bank. Charming. You know, if I wanted to experience any sadism, I'd make a blog post on the web. That usually works pretty well for me.It's pretty plain that the author's either never seen Second Life, or never understood what she was seeing - possibly her only exposure to video games may be the press and a few websites, which sure would explain a lot. Might want to save heaving those stones over in the meantime.
[Update 3 December 2006: The item we're referring to over at lawfuel has apparently been removed.]
1. Wow: just wow.
That article is arguably the most poorly written and confused mass of mis-information and confusion I've read in a very long time.
The author is amazed by the fact that universities have courses in video game development. Apparently thinks the Linden Lab website for Second Life *is* Second Life. And can't differentiate between a job in Second Life, and a job *supporting* second life (the Italian speaking liason).
An hour of research could result in enough information to understand all of these things so that you could intelligently comment on them. For example, you could compare university degrees in computer game design to similar degrees in movie and television writing and production. In fact, at some levels today these crafts are nearly identical. A bit more research could reveal that movie special effects and computer game visual design are almost the same profession now. That major game development projects look a lot like movie production projects, and are beginning to cost similar amounts of money.
But apparently, this person who claims to read more than the supposed "video gamers" they are lambasting, didn't even begin to read enough to figure these things out. They couldn't even take the time to form a cogent argument: they just started babbling and insulting people.
Thanks for pointing this idiocy out, Tateru.
Posted at 10:27PM on Dec 2nd 2006 by Tomas_Hausdorff