On Jul 30, 2020, at 7:30 AM, Adrian Farrel <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I consider myself reasonably social, by local standards :-), but by that I mean in meatspace. Back when MUDs were a thing, I took a look once and didn’t see the appeal. I just dipped in to the gather.town space and, quite apart from the tumbleweeds
blowing through, I also don’t feel drawn to the simple pleasures of navigating a chunky-pixel avatar around gamespace, when I could be doing something else. It’s not like we lack for ways of connecting with one another when we want to, so hanging out in a
rerun of Ultima II doesn’t seem like it brings a lot to the table.
I see the value of trying to recreate casual, spontaneous social interaction in the virtual setting, emphasis on “trying”. It would be wonderful if it worked, but as far as I can tell, it don’t. Not everything physical works virtually. Not everything
virtual works physically. At least, not at this point in our technological evolution.
Never mind me, I’m just a curmudgeon.
—John
P.S.: I reserve the right — of course — to change my mind!
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