I'll Break Your Face Like A Glass Ceiling

My favorite thing to destroy are excuses. Lame ones especially. [My own included.]

When someone presents biological gender differentiation as a reason for inequality - in political representation, math scores, physical prowess, whatever - and leaves it, hanging there, like nothing needs to be said or done...I HATE that.

Cause you know what that is? That's a lame excuse.

What do you do when you're not as good at something as you'd like to be? You fucking work at it!

If we as a society notice that there are big gaps between men and women, black and white, short and tall -- all those things that are biologically determined, and which we as individuals can't control -- that's when it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to do something about the inequity that is often the result of those differences. And when we don't do something about it, that is us just being lazy, and satisfied with something less than our full potential.

That sucks for everyone.

[An image posted by alert reader Gaeyia]

There's A Bomb Under My Skirt

For real.


I love how gender equality is born of necessity rather than competence.

Minion Mutiny

via videosift.com

Dark Knight Take Two

I saw new things the second time around:

Bruce Wayne always wears a suit.

Mr. Fox, despite having worked as Bruce's second-most trusted accomplice for some time now, still addresses him as "Mr. Wayne."
Harvey Dent is the White Knight. Batman is the Dark Knight. Harvey Dent poses as Batman, but is really Two Face. So Batman is the Dark Two-Faced Knight. He is Dark on both sides.

Harvey Dent's TwoFace suit is a costuming fucking disaster. Why would you do that?[Note "burned" side of suit. Ugh.]

Audio Visual Magical

Girls Game Too

We've been trying to tell you...we want to play!

KZero Insight

This map of "virtual world" communities created by the marketing research firm KZero really pissed off the SWI.
Here's some of what they had to say about it:

EC: i don't see WoW on the chart. fascinating how blind serious professional people are to immersive gaming for adults. the reality - that WoW might change our world more than SL - is too threatening to believe. its like the looming bankruptcy in the social security system. if we believe it is really going to happen, we'll have to do something major right now. so instead we choose to ignore it. (and btw, fire the consultants.)

MF: WoW or any other game are never on any KZero research. I wonder if they're doing simliar research for "game worlds" or if they're just ignoring anything thats a major mmo altogether. What is the link? They've got hello kitty mmo on there - wont that be an MMO?

EC: [MF] you don't understand. games are for kids. adults don't play games. so, webkinz is in there. but LOTRO - - see, that's an activity for adults, and adults only do serious things. and those 500,000 Conan players and 9 million WoW players are just weird hobbyists and geeks, they don't count. only kids play games. glad i could straighten you out on that misconception there.

EC: i wish i could be alive in 2100 to see the extent to which people of this era misunderstood how virtual reality was really going to be used.

MB: Tell you one thing it is unlikely KZero will be around either.

TR: Fixed!

Animals!

One of the many distinguished graduates of my department is a producer for EA...She's responsible for the fuzzy wuzzy creatures' appearance and behavior in the new Sims game, SimAnimals!

Congrats, V!

[And really, can we get some bigger screenshots to post, please?]

I'm So Serious

Bravo, Mr. Nolan.

A revolutionary film.

A record-setting opening night.

A hero for our times. [And I don't mean Batman]

Game Ad Insanity Game Ad Insanity

In case you didn't get it, this is an ad for Duke Nukem Trilogy. It includes three titles: Critical Mass, Proving Grounds, and Chain Reaction. So, there are three games included in this release. And they're all Duke Nukem.

I Have More To Say On...

Gaia Online adds another $11m to make a space where kids can fight! [LOL]

Nintendo keeps thinking ahead of the game [and giving me reason to stay on their proverbial jock].

The video game industry is crawling its way out of the Dungeons & Dragons. [Umm yeah, it's called Tetris.]

A new conception of "manliness"? [That's funny, most of the men I know are such pussies.]

Quotas for women in science are a lame excuse for change, consciousness and men being willing to actually compete. [See above.]

Blizzard wins their battle against the gold farmers. [Yay!...?]

Milla da Killa Transforms Herself

My friend and idol Milla da Killa has become The Utopianist! [As if your life wasn't utopian already, chica.]
[Did you notice that it says: "Anti-Extravaganza"?]

And, *sniff*, she's moving to Savannah. [It still amazes me what we'll do for love!]

(Thanks for the use of your photo, Will.)

Finally In The 21st Century

My mentor and mind-melder LGIV gave me a new Nokia N78, so I've finally entered the 21st century of mobile communications!

Isn't it pretty?
[A note to you, LG - You've given me more than a means of communicating: open doors, windows, new pathways.]

(Thanks for the photo, Paul Tan!)

Google Lively Sucks My Mac and Other News

Listen, Google.

As one of the so-called innovators and supporters of creativity and information flow, the fact that you only released the PC version of Google Lively is...well, sucks.

In awesome news, $345 million has been invested in virtual worlds this year. And that's just the bill for building and developing them.

Meanwhile, the QQ Coin is making the Chinese Yuan cry.

Inter Oper... Just Get My Avatar Outta Here!

Three cheers for IBM & SL who've finally broken the cherry!

Moving avatars from one world to another is a lame replacement for real human teleportation, but hey, it's a start.

I can just imagine the terrible virtual stand up comedy about this...

"So, hey, I just teleported in from Azeroth and boy are my fingers tired!

And when I got here, the SecondLifers got really mad when I pwned their island mayor! What can I say? He looked Horde to me!"

But seriously...

The issues of avatar/real human security seem to be at the top of everyone's lists of concerns. But the real question is, what happens to the cultural diffusion? Expat warriors clubs? Night Elf Rogue Raids in the red light district?

The conventions of behavior in virtual worlds is about as heterogenous as on Earth, so it'll be interesting to see how the code of social acceptability responds. AND will this be the driver of inter- and intra-world regulations?

I don't know. But I am pretty excited that the paper I co-wrote on this topic has been "traduced" en Francais!

Neat-o promo video of the event!

A Little Virtual Legitimacy

Even those of us more inclined towards real world experimentation with virtual worlds [hunh?] can appreciate the academic and political legitimacy of an edited journal.

Happy Birthday "Journal of Virtual Worlds Research"!