Talking about new media reporting and games.
Julian Dibbell: the hook of these stories is maybe completely done in the terms that we’ve seen so far (e.g., “this is the future! there are people with stores in Second Life!!!!” but thinks there is still a tremendous amount of fascinating stuff to say; that imagination and simulation are really important still.
Bernhard Drax, reporting from within a virtual world
Ta-Nehisi Coates. normalizing gaming, normalizing virtual worlds. Talks about how he was comfortable blogging about Michelle Obama, music groups, politics, and so on, and then he decided to add blogging about World of Warcraft–was curious and anxious about what would happen when he did. Surprised at the positive and substantive responses. Is attracted to stories that tell him something about himself, so why not talk about being a gamer, too? Great quote: “I used to wonder if when I died, I would want people to say, ‘Hey, he was a great frost mage’, but now I’m thinking that would be ok, it would be ok.” On joining a guild of academics and writers in WoW: “The prospect of not having a 14-year old tell me I was so ghey was so enticing”. The journalism question for him is this: what is it that makes the social part of virtual worlds satisfying to him?
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