Monday, July 03, 2006

The Shape of Things To Come

Now here's a chilling thought.

Are the little techno tyros and Gimme Jimmies of Generation Yn the shape of a scoiety to come, or just an exageration of our worst behaviour IRL when we're granted the anonymity and license that an online persona gives?

Karen Traviss recently blogged about some pretty horrendous behavour by the virtual worlds equivalent to the green crayon scribblers and the impact that that has on the REAL flesh and blood people behind the screenname.

Scott Jennings has had a lot to say on the relationship between the devs and the players. Or at least, on their respective perspectives on each other when they get up close to Oz's Curtain.

Now Mark Wallace has a look at bullying in MysSpace, cloning and the 'It's Just A Game' attitude not only of the commentators but of the people producing the VWorlds and the people inhabiting them.

Given that VWorlds are huge social spaces in which people are expected to behave within a set of social rules which *most* would recognise as 'good behaviour', even when the purpose of being there is to rip the spines out of the enemy, shit into the neckhole and then use the carcase as an unguided biochemical weapon, it surely can't just be me that finds 'rude' people ingame to be such an extreme pain in the arse?

If these people are reflecting, even in part, something about their own RL values, Heaven help us when we need to interact with them in the Real World. The question is, are they reflecting a part of their personality that they feel they have to suppress IRL or do they actually think that being rude, hurtful and downright imbalanced is 'alright' as 'everyone is doing it'?

1 comment:

Almagill said...

On the whole my experience has been similar, that the good outweighs the bad, both in terms of quality and quantity.

But it is interesting just how far people think they have license to go just because they are targetting an onscreen persona, completley forgetting that that persona is an integral part of the individual behind the screen.