From: Ross A. Finlayson (raf@tiki-lounge.com)
Date: Sun Jul 08 2001 - 17:10:23 MDT
Miriam English wrote:
> At 02:01 PM 08/07/2001 +1000, Damien wrote:
>
> >This neatly answers the woman journalist on this week's ep of AFTERSHOCK
> >who told Emlyn and the other males that VR and uploading was the pitiful
> >flesh-denying dream of those awful meat-body-hating nerd boyzzz.
>
> Yeah, I really winced when she said that. :-)
>
I play computer video games with other people every day. I never thought of it
that way myself. In a way, the comment would make the people serious about VR
and uploading defensive, or have that connotation, if they did not consider
themselves those things, or if they did. That statement would probably be a
result if the speaker felt defensive about the concepts and felt that a
possible way was to use deprecatory words.
>
> >As Barbara Lamar instantly commented while watching the show, women have
> >not been noticeably averse to watching movies or using the telephone.
> >Indeed, and
> >it's hard to see why women should reject an immersive extension of such
> >mediated experiences, one that enhances and enriches both the sensory
> >bandwidth and the imaginative possibilities.
>
> Exactly!
> If VR fulfills its promise for communication then I think women will use it
> similar to how the telephone is used. If anybody else here visits
> multi-user virtual worlds they will have noticed the high proportion (about
> 50:50) of women there already.
>
Many people use the phone every day, as they have for hundred of years.
I went to some of them, the community chat rooms or multi-user virtual worlds,
they have good technology for those. Those are about community and not
competition. It is like talking on the phone, which in a serious way, is like
being there in person.
In a way, I think it's about programming VCRs. Also, it's about whether to use
a VCR if not watching or viewing tapes. For example, people have cameras, they
are mostly the electronic and digital cameras, they can record to tape.
I think there is also a large concept of telepresence. For example, playing
card games or other games with other people using the computer terminal is like
having an automatic shuffler. I play some military games with the other people
who play them, but only three or four games. For example, over the years, they
have had many varieties of the types of perspective in the games. I think it's
really interesting to imagine gameplay. I think the best part is that they are
so friendly. Basically, the players have a preference to win the game. In
some of the games, they actually track who plays, and that way people can play
against many skill levels, with the team and competitive play. People have a
rational separation between the games and reality. The games are part of the
reality. I practiced at the same game, and have a good record, so I play good
people who are well-skilled, as thousands of people play at a time. They have
rankings for everybody who plays the game, I play the guys in the hundreds and
two hundreds. That is for playing several times a day. I am probably one of
the older people that play the game.
In terms of telepresence, the players are actively participating in the outcome
of the game. Depending on their level of seriousness about a game, they will
play for hours. For example, I will play for hours to use a strategy to win
the game. It's like other forms of competition.
The games, there is the first person, then the third person perspectives on
them. So, I am thinking about the second person, and think that basically that
the second person perspective is the other part of the first or third person
perspective.
Sometimes, I think recordings of the games would be entertaining if I wanted to
watch an action movie. The fantastic single-player scenerios have great
rewards. Then, there is the complete "persistent game" realm, where the point
of the games are interaction.
Then, there is the different consideration of the communications that are not
games. For example, there are not so many of the coffee machines accessible
from the game. Basically that is the difference between a fax machine and a
Sega.
So, it's good that there are standards. Many of the games are
developer-friendly, that way, people can make their own game scenarios.
> >Um, that last sentence sounds rather stuffy and abstract--guess I'm just
> >one of those damned boyzzz after all... :)
>
> Not a bit of it. :-D
> I have had a high regard for your writing for a very long time.
> You are anything but stuffy!
>
>
> >Anyway, welcome to the list, Miriam!
>
> Many thanks :-)
>
> ---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
> Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
> A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
> ---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
> http://werple.net.au/~miriam
> http://members.optushome.com.au/miriame
> Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
I have written to Miriam before, we took part in some of the Internet community
VRML activities. Also, they interact with the science fiction community in
Australia, I've heard about that.
I have subscribed to this list, "Extropians", for a couple years. Oftentimes,
they'll have recent news of advances in science and technology. They talk
about some current events, mostly future oriented current events, also, there
is various discussion, and talk about "Extropians." I was interested largely
for talk of exotic superweapons, for example as they have on other newsgroups
about "science fiction" and "science fiction" technology. Then there is talk
about human rights. The Extropians seem to have progressive attitudes about
making better the quality of life using technology. Also, the readers are very
intelligent themselves, so people post entertaining thoughts, to the community
environment.
The high technology aspects I think are really great. The point is to make
them great quality of life aspects. They readily are.
For a year of posts for this mailing list, there are about twenty thousand
posts. I have read thousands of them. Anyone could have heard about
Extropians, for it was in the Wired magazine, as it has interesting features
that would be expected, that was years ago. I started reading it a couple
years later, "Extropians", where so I post sometimes for what I read.
So today, if you get the equipment, the e-mail from the list can go anywhere on
the surface of the planet, except where the e-mail devices are not allowed.
The 3D virtual community is everywhere, many people play the 3D computer video
games. There are many hundreds of thousands of active games. In that way, the
measures of the populations are many and varied.
Time for coffee!
Have a nice day!
Ross
-- Ross Andrew Finlayson Finlayson Consulting Ross at Tiki-Lounge: http://www.tiki-lounge.com/~raf/ "It's always one more." - Internet multi-player computer game player
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