The ↑Mana’o Project is “an experimental open access anthropology repository.” It is just some months old, but there already are items as far back as 1891, including some classics. Of course the frequency of items gets bigger and bigger as … Continue reading →
After his brilliant “From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-industrial transitions from leisure to work” (↵2003) ↑Hector Postigo has published an already promised piece plus has yet another one on the topic in the pipeline: POSTIGO, HECTOR. 2007. Of mods and … Continue reading →
Imagine a world where speaking or writing words can literally and directly make things happen, where getting one of those words wrong can wreak havoc, but where with the right spell you can summon immensely powerful agencies to work your … Continue reading →
the day ↑DRM went down on its knees again As far as I understand the matter, it now is possible to decrypt the contents of ↑HD DVD and ↑Blu-ray Discs, because for both the same root/master key is used. For … Continue reading →
Technological politics and the networked PC However, the best illustration of the kind of positive cultural politics envisaged here concerns the culture of game modification. Games players write and exchange ‘mods’—modifications to games programs that include new twists of storyline … Continue reading →
computergame violence as a result of economical competition Media coverage on the amok run in Emsdetten on 20 November 2006 already dwindles away, but the discussion on computergames is going on—and I direly hope that it will go on for … Continue reading →
gamemodding as post-industrial unwaged work ↑POSTIGO, HECTOR R. 2003. ↑From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-industrial transitions from leisure to work [.pdf | 88KB]. ↑Information, Communication & Society ↑6(4):593–607. abstract: In the closing weeks of 2002, video games were featured in … Continue reading →
The New York Times’ David Barboza has written an article on chinese gold farms, called ↑Boring Game? Hire a player which is available online via the International Herald Tribune: FUZHOU, China One of China’s newest factories operates here in the … Continue reading →
↑Edward Castronova, who rose to fame with his ↑Virtual worlds: A first hand account of market and society on the cyberian frontier (↵Castronova 2001—see also ↵Castronova 2003 and ↑terra nova) has written his first full-length monograph [↑Overview]: ↑CASTRONOVA, EDWARD. 2005. … Continue reading →
Quite a time ago, while drinking beer at a party organised by our students, I told a fellow anthropologist about game-items from Everquest being sold at ebay (see e.g. Castronova ↵2001 and ↵2003). All I harvested was an amused smile … Continue reading →