I'm busy with my own games.
I've already admitted that I don't have the time for immersing myself into games
of this sort. For that reason I'm not only a novice - I'm destined to remain one.
As fascinating as all this may be, I doubt that I'm going to delve much deeper
into it.
But that doesn't mean that I'm above all this game stuff, or anything of an elitist
nature of that sort. Simply surfing the web is often a game - sometimes along
the lines of "let's see where this takes me", or "can I trace the
source of this joke", but especially when I'm examining personal web sites,
asking myself why people present themselves as they do, and how much of what is
presented actually corresponds to their non-online personae. Participation (and
even lurking) in various discussion forums can be game-like. Leaving myself open
for random ICQ chat is another sort of game - and one in which I'm free, if I
choose, to play with the personae I project. And of course writing these columns,
and maintaining a personal web site, are playful experiments. Not all of these
are particularly interactive, or social, though most of them definitely have a
social component to them. In a way they're do-it-yourself games - games that come
without the pre-packaged wrapping of an established online game.
Go to: It's all in the game.