Jane McGonigal applied psychology book on the life lessons in gaming is reviewed in the Economist. "Frustratingly, few of the book's other examples are as convincingly argued as World of Warcraft." The review will also state that it will be a while before a game designer wins the Nobel peace prize. Her frequent mentions of her own games also "lend the book an air of self-promotion."
This is an article about a British court ruling about privacy, identity and journalism and their lack of privacy on the internet. Strangly this week a US Court ruled on a similar case but said FB statements cannot be used to fire an employee. Interesting the differences in the UK and US rulings.
This is Lee Sheldon's (the points professor) blog. He gives a little more insight into how he uses the points system and also provides notes and afterthoughts.
I do not know what type of comment I should add. Probably the best thing to write is a question - how seriously do you think one should take the idea of being a citizen of a virtual country?
Honestly with all of the society games available online I'm not surprised that this idea has not gained more popularity. Most social networks are full of people who just want to belong. This is the perfect way to belong to something and aid in the creation as well.
interesting: in the new book, turkle, "takes a considerably darker view, arguing that our new technologies - including e-mail messages, Facebook postings, Skype exchanges, role-playing games, Internet bulletin boards and robots - have made convenience and control a priority while diminishing the expectations we have of other human beings."
This article seems both scary and revealing. We knew racism was not really about race, but fear, power, and human nature. Now we have seemed to have backed our way into proving it.
Y'know if the gamers assume that the female dwarves are Chinese players and they go out of their way to kill with added anti-Asian slurs that would be racist. But they are also female dwarfs. I guess these players can also express their misogynistic tendencies to boot. Nice.