Though Linden Lab's announcement of recurring price increases for some spaces was, generally speaking, met with little in the way of happiness (see the forum responses; log in required), it did amuse me to read Virtual World, Real Anger. Maybe they should read what Sarah Nerd wrote and compare it to what they found:

...He continued that since coming to Second Life he has observed two categories that can lead to anger: (1) betrayal by a trusted friend or loved one and (2) the discovery that an avatar has been misrepresenting his or her accomplishments, abilities and experiences...

The contention, again, by Sarah and others is that the trust placed in Linden Lab was betrayed. This lead to anger, which even lead to Sarah Nerd being banned for 30 minutes by Linden Lab.

And by the way...

Isn't betrayal causing anger something that is patently obvious? Did they honestly expect virtual worlds, subsets of our own reality, to be any different than the greater reality? It boggles the mind.

There is nothing virtual about betrayal.

As I mentioned here, and as you may clearly see on the right side of the page now, I am presently reading 'Homo Ludens' by Johan Huizinga. A recent comment by friend 'jesbacon' - someone I actually know and who knows me - got me thinking about something. He and I worked at the same place for about 6 months, and we drank lots of coffee during office hours (and lime vodka after hours). But we played games.

At the time, I was knee deep in Asheron's Call with some people from other departments. Another guy in our department was playing Everquest (he later got hired to work on it). 'jesbacon' was playing Diablo, as I recall... was it a necromancer? I don't remember that well, I was busy shoveling pizza at lunch and talking about the Asheron's Call guild that I had somehow become a... king of. Tar-un, as I recall. { Read more }