Another death in the family

Yeah, I’m playing fast and loose with the word ‘family’ but in some senses I think of the denizens of online role-playing environments as a big, somewhat dysfunctional family. Or club maybe…dare I say cult?

Anyway, I never met Candace Bolter, to the best of my knowledge, but she seems to have been a very nice person. More importantly to me, is the fact that people who never met her face-to-face liked her, and now miss her and remember her fondly. Its so easy to write off ‘in-game’ friendships as somehow no more real than our avatars…easy, that is, until we lose someone, and know we’ve lost them.

How many other virtual friends have slipped away with us assuming they just got tired of playing? Its a disturbing thought, isn’t it?

In Memory of Candace Bolter, aka Kale

Gamers are such a classy bunch

So for some reason I was over at 1UP.COM and I decided to read some of their message boards. I’m digging my PSP like nobody’s business so that was the section I made a beeline for.

The very first thread on the board was: ATTN: Trolls, Flamers, Fantards, Et Al.

Now I’m not in public relations, but is that really the right way to welcome new users to your site? This was posted by the kid (please god let it be a kid) that moderates that section. Beyond the tone, the term Fantard seems awfully…ick, to me. But maybe its just me. I guesss we’re moving away from “gay” being the ultimate put-down and moving on to “retarded.” I dunno, maybe its a good thing. The folks who’re mentally handicapped are probably less likely to be spending their time on gaming boards than folks who’re attracted to people of their own gender…

Anyway, for grins I clicked on the “report abuse” link in the message. No doubt the kid who moderates the board will just call me a fucktard and move on…