Reactions? Mitch Wagner on: Why I hardly ever go on Second Life anymore » Copper Robot

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Mitch Wagner's piece begins:

"Short answer: It’s inconvenient.

Long answer: I love Twitter and Facebook in part because they’re very convenient. I can use them from my MacBook Pro or my iPad or iPhone. I usually check them only for a minute or two at a time, as a little break between whatever else I’m doing, like taking a sip of water..."

Interesting point of argument re. convenience & commitment. With my schedule, I fall into the the convenience camp...

And you?

Academics study the avatar life and like what they see - The Denver Post

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Anthropologists are turning to MMPORG's as 'self-contained, programmed space[s] for data mining.'

Interesting article - pretty clear echoes of the work of Jane McGonigal, particularly in the question of how to harness gamer enthusiasm to difficult problems. One researcher, Rosa Mikeal Martey, an assistant professor of communication at CSU,
received $400,000 in funding to study Second Life. Martey's research findings show that players carry their 'real-world baggage' into the game environment, which the writer of this article presents as surprising.

Really? Surprising? I not surprised at all.