Sweet heaven! I haven't put anything up here for noone to read lately! Well.. I have been suffering the grind of poverty stricken unemployment and, while I've kept up an active virtual life, I've not felt spunky enough to bang out any snappy commentary on life online. I have some thoughts percolating. I am curious how the parlous state of the economy is affecting online fun. My benchmarks are pretty dated and I'm not able to afford a spiffy new computer to run WoW even. So I may just put this on ice and pursue my blog fever some other way.

Unemployment means that while you have all kinds of time with noone breathing down you neck, you have ample worries that distract you from enjoying VR.

Wow! They changed the format. I like this better. I'm looking for a job 24/7 so my ability to analyze cultural trends has been sadly deflated. I would like to comment on the computer game industry as a whole. An analogue to global finance capitalism, the computer game industry is driven by short term profit taking and endless growth. And like modern capitalism, it's hard-wired for failure. People have been happily buying and selling stuff and inventing things for as long as handicrafts have existed. But this idea that we're supposed to buy a new computer every two years to run games that are artificially hyped is insidious and unsustainable. This is why I'm still playing Neverwinter Nights. First it's a great medium for virtual storytelling. Second, it's stable as all get out. Windows users sadly are starting to have some trouble with running it on Win-7 but there are workarounds apparently. Windows users have always had to put up with this kind of thing and are usually fairly adept at dealing with it. Anyway- long live classic games! See you in fantasy land.

Virtual Pets don't have the advantage of not jumping off cliffs like real ones do.

I have not abandoned this

Life's a real twist sometimes. It's not like I haven't had any deep thoughts. I just need a couple hours to put them down.

Exasperation

My virtual life is a total time-suck. Two dear friends seem to have figured that out at about the same time. I'm drawing back and doing more art and writing. Not to mention job search. Can't forget about that.

Death By Cliche

Why is it that so many people participating in vr insist on constructing an avatar that's a dreary melange of stereotypes. Yes, I've become an AvSnob. Men are the worst offenders of course, but how many female toons do we need to see with absurdly long skinny legs topped with a bubble butt and two liter capacity boobies before we throw down the penalty flag?!