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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

 

Freedom to surf

Surf the web, that is. Part of coming out of my shell involves reaching out to the wider world, and the hour or so a day I have on the computer at the public library has been getting onerously restrictive. Enough. I decided I really, really wanted to pay for a borrower's card at the WVU library for a year and get access to that system, which has fewer restrictions, plus, there are other resources and references I can use, and I can even check out books!

A few months ago, Orson Scott Card reviewed Runequest of one of the Massive Multiplayer Role-playing Games (MMRPGs). My brother (one of them) was heavily involved in Everquest for a while; for all I know he still is. I've tried a few others, since I've had a long-standing interest in role-playing and in computers, and yes, they can be addictive. Someone commented that if people devoted the time in these to their real lives that they do to these, they could accomplish a lot more in real life. Well, yes, I agree with that, too, but I've been working on ideas in social economics and justice for long enough, and have developed enough theories that no one cares to discuss with me, that I've been wanting to try them out. So, I skipped over Runequest as not quite what I'm looking for (I'm on an approximately $0 dollar budget and have to use OPCs (Other People's Computers)) and searched for some more. I found Cantr II as fitting better with my philosophy and style. I'm not a hack-em up and accumulate stuff kind of player, and I don't have the reflexes for high-speed, real-time action. I do mean to try out a few of my ideas on how society could and should be in simulated interactions before I go out and inflict them on the real world. And no, I'm not telling which character I'm playing.

And I can't afford to get too addicted; because I do have other commitments and necessities and limits. Just for one, my Independent learning interests are just as important, and hopefully potentially someday more useful. But there is a certain overlap here. Children play in order to learn, and there are all too many grim, serious, sobersided adults who have forgotten how to play.

After about two years, someone has finally taken interest in my dormant Sapience Knowledge Base and taken the trouble to follow the tracks I left for anyone who wanted to learn more about it. (Yes, I'm talking about you, A). I'm enormously pleased.

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