Spurred by a particularly shoddy article we read in Lalitha’s class, I’ve written what ended up as kind of a continuation of Bread and Circuits. It’s also kind of my first channeling of theory-voice. Not sure I do it well. Probably I ought to read some Zizek.
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This somewhat stream-of-consciousness post was written in late March, begun my last day in Australia and continued on the flight home. It has been modified slightly to fit this space. Speaking of Jon and Katina, I owe you each a letter overflowing with thanks for being such incredible hosts and showing me around Sydney; my life after break was a one-two punch of conferences, and I still haven’t recovered. Letters are forthcoming.
The first thing I did upon waking to the sound of parrots this morning was check my email, and found I’d gotten mail from a former WoW guildmate saying he was beginning a blog about the game. I went to read it. About three posts down, under some writeups of guild activities, it became clear that this was more generally a personal blog — and there was a post documenting how one day recently his depression had gotten so bad recently that he’d checked himself into an emergency room.
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I finally got myself set up to play Virtual Horse Ranch. Not sure what the hold-up was; I think when I first tried it, the game did not appear to respond to my registration… I pressed “submit” and nothing much happened. Regardless, I finally got back to it, got it to work, and am setting myself up in my usual way for a game whose mechanic focuses mainly on money: spending as much as I possibly can, and regretting it on subsequent turns. (Hey, the costs of bankruptcy in virtual worlds don’t usually include not eating or being thrown out on the street, so I figure why not live a little.)
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if (conformity=1, playfulness=1)
then subject=”fan”
if (conformity=0, playfulness=1)
then subject=”geek”
if (conformity=1, playfulness=0)
then subject=”consumer”
if (conformity=0, playfulness=0)
then subject=”activist”
What do you think, sirs?
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