Since it all fell apart (a year or two now, doesn't much matter) I've been feeling really weightless, and adrift
Kinda like the character in my book feels with little to ground him in RL (pr:Ree Elle? or Are Elle?)
BUT at times stuff comes up that makes me really wonder about life, and policies that drove me away from my former life (video games).
Like Xbox Live. I never cared about Xbox Live gold and playing online but in principal I paid dues and was gold for a while, but never played a day of online multi-player. There's no value to it at all. One could end up feeling resentful. But it never mattered, there were other policies that were ruining the Xperience.
So it came up a couple days ago that someone posted something to the Xbox online forum, forums.xbox.com
But because he'd put his real name, and a mod had redacted the information, that person's feedback lost some of its meaning.
But the people MS is trying to bring to the platform are casual gamers that are very pro-social networking.. and need it in their games for self affirmation, and just connecting with other people with games as the vehicle, not the focus. Obviously MS wants you to get Kinected and video chat with people, but on a fundamental level it should be up to the people what popular social network or method people use to connect to each other.. without Xbox Live gold there's no online play anyway, and once they have Xbox Live gold, they have access to facebook, there's the personal information that is effectively banned to non gold members. Is it only about the money then or ancient Rhinosaurus policies, their total ignorance in how to treat the 20-30 million strong XBL community? asking themselves why the other 20-30 million won't pay them for XBL Gold.
For whatever reason it really pissed me off.
http://kotaku.com/5741733/the-pope-would-like-you-to-be-yourself-online
Then this happened.
Essentially as a good catholic, or whatever (I'm Anglican but it still applies), you really shouldn't hide behind an online persona or use one to create a false image of yourself. Frankly there are so many websites that don't we all have several such personae that are perhaps too difficult to manage so that something central like Facebook only makes sense? I asked on the forum if it wouldn't be easier to use your facebook account to log into XBL (it is the same email anyway for some of us)
But Microsoft doesn't even allow you any other option than a generic gamertag. In this electronic age where even the Pope (and American president) is tech savvy, most people have some kind of reflection of their RL selves online. It is social networking. It is difficult to do without your real information especially if you intend to meet people online for game sessions and chatting.
The risks of meeting the wrong people are real, and it can get messy, that's life. MS isn't your parent, and frankly to be on Xbox Live you should be mature in the first place. Having to assume a gamertag may strip you of some of that maturity/dignity.
So I wonder then with a push for social networking, so much that they allow Twitter and Facebook apps.. why are they still anal about our profiles being a reflection of our RL selves?
I really don't know why it has always bothered me or why it is boiling over now that I don't even have an Xbox anymore, or a gold Xbox Live account, but seeing someone getting their post edited to remove their real name.. please. Is it 2011 or not?
Kinda like the character in my book feels with little to ground him in RL (pr:Ree Elle? or Are Elle?)
BUT at times stuff comes up that makes me really wonder about life, and policies that drove me away from my former life (video games).
Like Xbox Live. I never cared about Xbox Live gold and playing online but in principal I paid dues and was gold for a while, but never played a day of online multi-player. There's no value to it at all. One could end up feeling resentful. But it never mattered, there were other policies that were ruining the Xperience.
So it came up a couple days ago that someone posted something to the Xbox online forum, forums.xbox.com
But because he'd put his real name, and a mod had redacted the information, that person's feedback lost some of its meaning.
But the people MS is trying to bring to the platform are casual gamers that are very pro-social networking.. and need it in their games for self affirmation, and just connecting with other people with games as the vehicle, not the focus. Obviously MS wants you to get Kinected and video chat with people, but on a fundamental level it should be up to the people what popular social network or method people use to connect to each other.. without Xbox Live gold there's no online play anyway, and once they have Xbox Live gold, they have access to facebook, there's the personal information that is effectively banned to non gold members. Is it only about the money then or ancient Rhinosaurus policies, their total ignorance in how to treat the 20-30 million strong XBL community? asking themselves why the other 20-30 million won't pay them for XBL Gold.
For whatever reason it really pissed me off.
http://kotaku.com/5741733/the-pope-would-like-you-to-be-yourself-online
Then this happened.
Essentially as a good catholic, or whatever (I'm Anglican but it still applies), you really shouldn't hide behind an online persona or use one to create a false image of yourself. Frankly there are so many websites that don't we all have several such personae that are perhaps too difficult to manage so that something central like Facebook only makes sense? I asked on the forum if it wouldn't be easier to use your facebook account to log into XBL (it is the same email anyway for some of us)
But Microsoft doesn't even allow you any other option than a generic gamertag. In this electronic age where even the Pope (and American president) is tech savvy, most people have some kind of reflection of their RL selves online. It is social networking. It is difficult to do without your real information especially if you intend to meet people online for game sessions and chatting.
The risks of meeting the wrong people are real, and it can get messy, that's life. MS isn't your parent, and frankly to be on Xbox Live you should be mature in the first place. Having to assume a gamertag may strip you of some of that maturity/dignity.
So I wonder then with a push for social networking, so much that they allow Twitter and Facebook apps.. why are they still anal about our profiles being a reflection of our RL selves?
I really don't know why it has always bothered me or why it is boiling over now that I don't even have an Xbox anymore, or a gold Xbox Live account, but seeing someone getting their post edited to remove their real name.. please. Is it 2011 or not?