maztec
01-18-2004, 07:46 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/15/technology/15SIMS.html
There's the article. Free subscription to read it.
For what it's worth, the overall article was interesting, but mostly just one guy blowing his horn.
Now, here's the part I found reaallly Interesting:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Within the game world, the 80,000 Sims Online subscribers are a relatively small group. Electronic Arts has said it has failed so far to attract the expected audience in part because it released the game last year before the software was quite ready. But Sims is seen as the forerunner of a new game genre whose goal is to let people play in social environments that more closely approximate real life. In those worlds, experts say, the overlapping of fact and fiction becomes both more significant and harder to sort out.
"Part of the original reason people went to these games was for a sense of time out," said Sherry Turkle, a psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied Internet role-playing. "But as these spaces get more integrated with real life the kind of boundaries people want are still being negotiated."
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, I added bolds and italics...
Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting article.
Another interesitng quote:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Everquest, the most popular of the games among Americans, has 430,000 subscribers who spend an average of 20 hours a week in a vast medieval kingdom. (Its addictive quality has earned it the nickname Evercrack.) More than two million South Koreans play Lineage, where princes and elves fight for control of feudal villages.
And the line between "reality" and fantasy is blurring. The currency of several online games can now be regularly purchased for real dollars on Internet auction sites, allowing people to buy their way into a higher level much as they might pay to get a child into a better nursery school. A Sims cheetah, the kind of rare-breed cat that Mr. Ludlow owned, is selling for $25 on eBay. The high-end rate for Sims "prostitutes," about 500,000 simoleans, fetches about $15.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Now, I have to admit I was slightly disgusted with the section on teenagers allowing to be prostitutes within the game.. If it's not legal for them to be a prostitute in the state they're in... and they actually act out these things in the game... but can't RL.. shouldn't the RL laws cross over? Sticky subject http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Guess it depends on where you live globally. I really don't care what people do online. But find the legal questions very intriguing.
More fun stuff:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Game companies are not like phone companies, which have a legal obligation to carry all speech over their lines. They are more like a private club, which can reserve the right to expel members at will. And the Constitution does not protect speech once it has been signed away by contract, which is what players do when they subscribe.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
But in the end, I feel Peter Ludlow in the article is just sounding his own horn to get a bit of attention. Albeit it raises good points and is an interesting article, the man is an addict (I'm not addicted to Uru, REALALLYY!! Where's my Uru baby?) He needs to get some sunlight (OW BurnINGG BURRRNNING!).
Now don't get me wrong. I'm all about Uru Live and things going well. I really want to see this take off and take off well. In fact Uru just flat out kicks ***. But, I felt I should go ahead and put this article here as an interesting tidbit from a somewhat similar realm.. Albeit I don't want Uru to be "SIMS: Uru, it ain' Myst Baby!" But the multiplayer game play for non-experiential points has similarties <g>..
maz
[This message was edited by maztec on Sun January 18 2004 at 07:59 PM.]
There's the article. Free subscription to read it.
For what it's worth, the overall article was interesting, but mostly just one guy blowing his horn.
Now, here's the part I found reaallly Interesting:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Within the game world, the 80,000 Sims Online subscribers are a relatively small group. Electronic Arts has said it has failed so far to attract the expected audience in part because it released the game last year before the software was quite ready. But Sims is seen as the forerunner of a new game genre whose goal is to let people play in social environments that more closely approximate real life. In those worlds, experts say, the overlapping of fact and fiction becomes both more significant and harder to sort out.
"Part of the original reason people went to these games was for a sense of time out," said Sherry Turkle, a psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied Internet role-playing. "But as these spaces get more integrated with real life the kind of boundaries people want are still being negotiated."
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, I added bolds and italics...
Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting article.
Another interesitng quote:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Everquest, the most popular of the games among Americans, has 430,000 subscribers who spend an average of 20 hours a week in a vast medieval kingdom. (Its addictive quality has earned it the nickname Evercrack.) More than two million South Koreans play Lineage, where princes and elves fight for control of feudal villages.
And the line between "reality" and fantasy is blurring. The currency of several online games can now be regularly purchased for real dollars on Internet auction sites, allowing people to buy their way into a higher level much as they might pay to get a child into a better nursery school. A Sims cheetah, the kind of rare-breed cat that Mr. Ludlow owned, is selling for $25 on eBay. The high-end rate for Sims "prostitutes," about 500,000 simoleans, fetches about $15.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Now, I have to admit I was slightly disgusted with the section on teenagers allowing to be prostitutes within the game.. If it's not legal for them to be a prostitute in the state they're in... and they actually act out these things in the game... but can't RL.. shouldn't the RL laws cross over? Sticky subject http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Guess it depends on where you live globally. I really don't care what people do online. But find the legal questions very intriguing.
More fun stuff:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Game companies are not like phone companies, which have a legal obligation to carry all speech over their lines. They are more like a private club, which can reserve the right to expel members at will. And the Constitution does not protect speech once it has been signed away by contract, which is what players do when they subscribe.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
But in the end, I feel Peter Ludlow in the article is just sounding his own horn to get a bit of attention. Albeit it raises good points and is an interesting article, the man is an addict (I'm not addicted to Uru, REALALLYY!! Where's my Uru baby?) He needs to get some sunlight (OW BurnINGG BURRRNNING!).
Now don't get me wrong. I'm all about Uru Live and things going well. I really want to see this take off and take off well. In fact Uru just flat out kicks ***. But, I felt I should go ahead and put this article here as an interesting tidbit from a somewhat similar realm.. Albeit I don't want Uru to be "SIMS: Uru, it ain' Myst Baby!" But the multiplayer game play for non-experiential points has similarties <g>..
maz
[This message was edited by maztec on Sun January 18 2004 at 07:59 PM.]