See this penultimate paragraph in the November 27, 2006 ShadowRAM article from the trade magazine Computer Reseller News:

Should this Second Life schtick really be named "Mid-Life," as in "midlife crisis," as in "What adult in the business world wants to communicate in a fake world with fake names and avatars besides someone having a midlife crisis?"



Would you like to comment?

The published email address is shadowram@cmp.com

The full text of the article is here:
http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DNYH1YN4SAP1QQSNDLQCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=194500287

(The article is publicly available, but its discussion requires registration).

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OpenUru.org: An Uru Project Resource Site : Twitter : Perfect Speed Is Being There.

Mainstream journalists are completely clueless regarding any media phenomena since the 1980s. Nothing new.

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Sören Nils 'chucker' Kuklau; KI number: 196082
MYSTcommunity & MYSTlore
I write soeren says. You don't.

Yes. What fool would want to communicate in a fake world (like, say, a web page) with a fake name (such as "shadowRAM") besides some total moron having a mid-life crisis?

Seriously... "shadowRAM?" Come on... I've heard two-year olds come up with more interesting names.

And yes, this is a flame-fest, but I'd say the man brought it on himself by being a naturally-occuring idiot. They grow in the wild, you know? In huge bunches. All spouting their wonderful spite on the world around them.

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-Whilyam

Umm, where does he insult Cyan and Uru? Second Life I can understand, but Uru is so much more than just "avatars with fake names besides someone having a mid-life crisis".

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Ian A. Pertwee in Cavern - KI# 374362
Ahnotahm - Il quartiere
Not talking as a mod unless I say so

Trust me when I tell you: The best policy is not to respond to this person.

He will only take the most "outrageous" snippets of your e-mails or forum posts, pull those comments out of the context in which you originally wrote them, and publish them in a way that supports his arguments or makes you look foolish.

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MOULa 26838 | Prologue Video Project: On Hold pending Minkata support
Visit rel.to to explore Myst, Uru, and D'ni communities!

Be polite and intelligent. I would expect no other from those here.

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OpenUru.org: An Uru Project Resource Site : Twitter : Perfect Speed Is Being There.

Yeah he probably guiltily wants to enjoy Second Life himself. Don't take it personally, folks. There's no way you're going to change his mind even with the most polite and well-worded response. Folks like this will believe whatever they want to believe until they decide otherwise on their own.

And for the love of all that's holy, do NOT mention Uru. He's probably never even heard of the game. If you don't want him to come down on you personally, just ignore it and get on with your lives.

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Ignorant people make the space monkey angry.

That should be in a fortune cookie, it fits the situation so well.

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Ken Telinome | KI: 00113405 | Orca Live

He suggested I'm having a mid-life crisis, I'm going to need to go into therapy.



For once I find a gaming community that doesn't want to disembowel its developers on the street, and it turns out that community worships its developers like some kind of better-than-God-dieties and burns people down who don't submit to this kind of worship like they're on some kind of crusade. He asked a question to make a point in that paragraph. Anyone who has any experience on the internet would know that's not a flame. But then again, if it were an actual offense-intended-flame, I'm sure people would be turning the other cheek to it.

I this person did intentionally mean to insult those of us who use this forum, I have only one thing to say. I the words of my eight year old son and Bill the Cat, "THRRRRRUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP! :p"


I have a question. Don't you have to have grown up to have a mid-life crisis? My family says I haven't grown up yet, so what does that say about me?

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

He was calling into question the good judgement of the corporate folk who would organize a business meeting in an interactive virtual reality using the word 'fake' to trivialize it. But instead surround corporate CEO's giving and taking questionable stock options with HD cameras and 102-inch plasma monitors in a corporate studio to relay a meeting around the world via satellite, and it's respectable.

Well, okay, so Sun probably does questionable stock options too, but hey.

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OpenUru.org: An Uru Project Resource Site : Twitter : Perfect Speed Is Being There.

(*_*) wrote:

For once I find a gaming community that doesn't want to disembowel its developers on the street, and it turns out that community worships its developers like some kind of better-than-God-dieties and burns people down who don't submit to this kind of worship like they're on some kind of crusade.

I had to read that a couple of times before I realized that there wasn't an OR between the two types of players you held out there.
I guess that is understandable. Haven't we have all heard from plenty of other gamers that do want to disembowel their devs AND other people who worship their devs and get all crusade-y when anyone challenges them. And those two groups play the same games and sometimes take turns with the roles.
Oh, well. I'll pass on that one. I do think it is funnier the way I read it first.

I would like to assume that the bit about us worshiping Cyan is meant as an exaggeration. I don't think there is really anyone here that worships Cyan. WE may have some personalities that do want to BE WORSHIPED, but that's not the point this time.

The analyst ShadowRAM quotes looks like he's making fun of Sun for trying to market themselves via SL and use that platform to show how much like normal people they really are. But I like JWPlatt's spin on it, too.

But there is also something that maybe ShadowRAM missed. Imagine how profitable Sun would be if they could do all their business via SL. Free real server with every virtual one you buy from Sun in SL, and the IRS gets to figure out how to collect taxes on the virtual one.

Yup it was absurd. But maybe that was the point (both from Sun and ShadowRAM).

And as to replying to author of the article. I don't even know if it would be smart to lash out on him here. If I was an aspiring media intern looking for an opportunity for an article, I'd be trolling the forums and blogs and whatnot for SL and games like SL looking for threads just like this to 'compile' arguments for whatever point anyone is trying to make.

And there is always the possibility that (*_*) is new here and hasn't done an online game where wanting to disembowel the developer isn't a natural extension of the bit where they gave us sharp pointy things to disembowel the mobs or even each other in the game.

We don't have weapons, an economy or even the basis for one. We don't get points, gain levels, farm resources. There is no political structure in the game mechanics of the game that gives one player more mojo in the game than another. No spell casting to learn (super jumps not withstanding) Heck, from what I've seen from UU and the Preview, the more people in a age at a time is actually worse than being alone.

So what drives us all together here? I'm here for the community and the possibility that the end has not yet been written. And what I consider really interesting puzzles (when I get them).

As for the people who are going to be here after Live launches who joined GameTap to "blow stuff up" (and that is fun): by the end we will have people who at times hate Cyan and GT and Turner for the game OR who will worship Rand and Co, because they had a little too much of the Kool-Aid (at least that's what the other group will say). We'll have hundreds of more problems with each other because of that and all the hundreds of other things going on here or there. And maybe that part of massively multiplayer online games is what made Sun's 'press conference' part of the Theater of the Absurd.

Reviewing the article, I feel personally it has little to do with URU, or Cyan or the quality of work and creativity going on in the URU Live launch, and series. The author is using the normal hype and lingo of such writers and that is certainly his pervue and right. I cannot connect Second Life and the use of avatars with the way that URU and Cyan is working with them, as it is a totally different direction and purpose.

The essence and soul of URU and the Myst series from my long study of them is that they do not just "simulate" life, they create a reality that is true unto itself, and which has depths and nuances that extend beyond what is available in modern day life, realms of opportunity and meaning that expand the player's own sensibilities and consciousness and which make us more self realized and also allow us to reach, through our own imagination stimulated by the rich story context, into areas of our own imagining and imagineering that helps us be more our own selves, not less, and not somehow belittled as the author of this article implies.

I feel no need to challenge an industry observer for his thoughts that have some interesting points, and indeed as I have said, Second Life has no appeal to me at all, while URU has remarkable qualities that I watch and appreciate and thank Cyan for daily.

In general, I find that the realm of storytelling and "other worlds" has been with us humans since the dawn of history ....and offers avenues of self realization, expressoin and release that daily life and the trials of survival repress or do not allow. This is part of the iniminatble and indominatible human spirit I feel,and part of our birthright as thinking and feeling creatures, creatures who dream and love and dance and reach for the Moon and the Stars and for the magic of might have been and once upon a time. Without such dreaming, our modern age with its massive machinery of production and consumption might snuff out many tender spirits, and souls, my own included. I have surived on the fringes of this modern megalopolis to a great degree by discovering and inhabiting the realms such as URU is among the best, not to escape but to survive.
The writer of this article could perhaps really need such healing himself, but may be also just writing for his or her audience. Who can know...but it was an interesting read.

IMHO only, and shared for my own resolution on this, and not to influence anyone else. Thanks for the links and the sharing of this.

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URU MOUL Lives

Everybody is aware that Second Life is a completely different game, yes?

Anyway, I agree it's on the verge of hypocrisy...but, a second life just like my own wouldn't be too exciting. But a second life like Uru - that'd be awesome.

I agree with the wise counsel given by others above - leave the journo be.