BEER Ch. 7, part 2: point of DeepArcher

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Sorry for another belated message.

Wandering "around a spectacularly detailed environment" manages to  
make me shiver, as I remember how my daughter started playing this  
kind of software in either the fall 2000 or spring 2001... She was  
seven, about the same age as Maxine's sons. The Hotelli Kultakala  
(Hotel Goldfish) software was implemented by two dudes from Helsinki  
for young people. For the international version, they changed the name  
to Habbo Hotel, later just Habbo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habbo

I remember how thrilled my daughter was to have an avatar of her own  
and make friends in that virtual world. I enjoyed the occasions when  
she allowed me to visit the Hotel with her...

Yet this software was soon corrupted by commercialism, as kids were  
lured to acquire more and more features in that world. (My daughter  
left Habbo after a year or two.) Then, credit-stealing hackers; fake  
avatars by adults to rob the kids; pedophile spottings... A sad story  
indeed.


Heikki

Quoting Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>:

> No namecheck for the Miller brothers' Myst
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst>  (1993), but that's as clear a precedent
> as any for this "wander around a spectacularly detailed environment"
> software - that plus Second Life <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life>
> , which combined multi-user interaction, avatars, and the ability for users
> to contribute new elements to the virtual world. Second Life didn't launch
> until 2003, but as the Wikipedia article notes:
>
>
>
> "During a 2001 meeting with investors, Rosedale noticed that the
> participants were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative
> potential of Second Life. As a result, the initial objective-driven, gaming
> focus of Second Life was shifted to a more user-created, community-driven
> experience."
>

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l