rebootied

• grains of sand in an oyster


• little bits of soil still clinging, somehow, to my spinach


• small stones between my shoe and sole


• people who use hashtags and at-symbols in Facebook; it doesn't support that, and they're annoying everywhere they ARE supported, so knock it off


• people who "Like" their own posts and their own responses; what happened? did they mis-click? are there other times where they DON'T LIKE what they've written?

I've been outside. It's overrrated.

Traditionally Outside receives extremely high ratings by those who like to see others play it, and these people are in many cases comfortably ensconced Inside themselves. Outside was released many years ago, it was in fact the first massively multiplayer game, and yet it has always managed to avoid the double-edged Retro tag. In its favor, continual user updates have kept Outside current; there are always new things to see and do Outside. Participants are permitted, to some extent, to modify their own areas of Outside, which is a large part of the fun of the game. However it seems that in the end one is modifying Outside largely for the sake of it, and having done it, there is a distinct feeling of "now what?"

In terms of the traditional target age content metrics, Outside is remarkably high in sex, violence and challenges to traditional values, despite the strong child-focussed marketing it receives. Many would go so far as to say that for a child to develop the ability to cope with Outside is essential, as long as the harm incurred is not too debilitating. Children injured playing Outside are usually comforted by parents, and soon encouraged to go Outside again; this leads to the conclusion that somehow Outside has escaped any and all of the usual moralizing that surrounds the videogaming industry. One might say that Outside gets a free pass from the Jack Thompsons of this world.

That aside, how does Outside actually rate? ( Read more... )

"Facebook finally let its users turn off Beacon last week, but the legal fun is just beginning, according to one expert."