Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Salon.com Technology | Raking muck in "The Sims Online"

Salon.com Technology | Raking muck in "The Sims Online": "According to Ludlow, E.A.'s move was 'clearly censorship,' and other scholars of MMORPGS -- massively multiplayer online role playing games, a category that describes the online worlds of 'The Sims,' 'Everquest,' 'Ultima Online,' and new entrants 'There' and 'Second Life' -- who are familiar with Ludlow's site agree with his assessment. They say the situation underscores what is becoming increasingly apparent in the virtual world: There's a fundamental divergence between the interests of a community (typically high-minded goals like freedom of speech and assembly) and the interests of the corporations that run those communities (typically not very high-minded but otherwise understandable goals like making money and avoiding public association with words like 'prostitution')."

Understanding dystopia through simulation. I love it.

Obvious point: You don't want corporations running your life. In any way.

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