[MD] Food for Thought

[Case]

[Arlo]
A better question is "Who am we?". Sherry Turkle may have part of the answer
for you, SA.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html

[Case]
Nice article it gives something of the idea. It was written in 1996 and
games have evolved quite a bit since. World of Warcraft is I believe the
fourth title in its series. The first three Warcrafts were strategy games
are whole different genre of game than WoW. 

WoW is played online. In MMORPGs a character's interactions with other
players and non-player characters is governed by a set of values such as:
Health, Agility, Intelligence, Armor Class, Strength, Wisdom, Speed,
Dexterity. These values increase slowly as the character plays. By slowly I
mean it would take a new player playing about 3 or 4 hours per day maybe a
year to max out their stats. As these numbers increase characters can go to
new places, fight tougher enemies, earn more money. In Everquest various
innovations have made it possible for characters to gain in statistics
almost indefinitely and some of the 'Toons (short for cartoon) I play with
have been playing for up to 7 years. 

The world is three dimensional and highly interactive. You can pick things
up, open doors, walk to buildings, order a virtual beer. On the seemier side
you can find 'toons whose players will talk dirty to you. This is called
cybersex or being cybered. But sex is uncertain because the sex of a 'toon
does not necessarily or even probably indicate the sex of the Real Life
player. 

People know each other in game and form guilds to help each and communicate
more easily. If players want to, they can actually speak to each other in
the games and talk about what to do next. But much communication is done
through chat channels which are like in game instant messages.

There is an in game economy where prized booty is bartered and sold with in
game money and a black market of goods and gold that are bought and sold for
real world cash.

Case and User of Case