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Second Life?

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:55 pm
by Wind Swept
I wanted to bump the old thread, but it doesn't exist anymore.

Does anyone here have one? I just signed up for a new account because a bunch of guys in the GCOM department here have been playing around with it. ChrisFried Looming, if anyone wants to add me as a friend.

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:49 pm
by Caspian
I should get a first one before I start worrying about a second one.

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:10 pm
by eriador
Join the club Cas.

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:54 am
by Luet
Except he's not serious considering he has a wife and also a baby on the way.

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:06 am
by Eaquae Legit
I should get a first one before I start worrying about a second one.
Grad students don't get lives.

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:56 am
by jotabe
Grad students don't get lives.
QFT

Hence i can only allow myself having a second life. In my case, the game where i still hang out with my best friend (and ex :D ), FFXI.
I know, we are a minority compared to WoW. But story is great :D

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:44 pm
by SaintDrogo
I tried to download and play Second Life last week, actually, but my graphics card (nVidia) doesn't support it for some reason. I play WoW, but I have to re-install it thanks to windows vista. So uh... I know I've asked before, but... anybody up here play WoW and interested in playing on the free servers?

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:56 pm
by hive_king
My 40-something lit professor plays half-life, I really think it's going to get funny when we start discussing snow crash (the class is sci-fi & fantasy in literature)

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:24 am
by jotabe
I don't see how half-life can appeal to a lit. prof... i mean, the main character is a physics phd, and the game is about saving scientist from having their brains eaten by space mutants! :lol:
Btw, what is "snow crash"?

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:24 am
by Dr. Mobius

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:10 pm
by eriador
Best book ever!

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:37 am
by SaintDrogo
SNOW CRASH IS AWESOME!

That's what it is. I remember a roommate gave it to me when I lived in Wilmington. I loved it, went around for days pretending in my mind I was YT.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:26 am
by jotabe
Just reading the main ideas, sounds like a dystopy similar to the premises of Jennifer Government (which i haven't read either).

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:23 am
by eriador
Oh... but it's so much more that just a dystopia. It's an entire philosophy.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:59 pm
by SaintDrogo
Plus the Mi of Enki? Actually a studied thing, from what I've heard on the internet before. Pretty cool concepts, and I love when they snow crash people. The whole avatar thing was a little "duh, I lived through the 90s, I know what an avatar is!" but they do take it a step farther, I'll admit.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:11 pm
by eriador
Well, the Metaverse is pretty standard... but the whole idea of where our society is going in 50 years (and in 100 years in The Diamond Age) is compelling.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:18 pm
by SaintDrogo
I didn't read past Snow Crash. Not that it's in the same series or anything, but I read it at about the same time and got it from the same guy; you ever read On A Pale Horse? This dude walks in on Death and shoots him, having to take over his job.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:46 pm
by eriador
Is that a Stephenson book?

Anyway, I can highly recommend that you read The Diamond Age. It's a brilliant book. In some ways I think it's better than Snow Crash, though it's also a bit weirder.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:28 pm
by SaintDrogo
I honestly don't remember. It was one of thousands this guy had stacked everywhere, no semblance of order. The cover is orange, though, with a guy in Death's hood.

I'll definitely have to check the other one out. I've been at loose ends lately for something to do, so maybe I need a book.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:30 pm
by Eaquae Legit
On A Pale Horse sounds like it's one of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality novels. Own them, still haven't gotten to them yet.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:06 pm
by SaintDrogo
That, in fact, IS part of that series. One's for Time, one for Mars, one for one of the Fates, etc. That's the only one I've read, but I was intrigued by the idea. The other titles are like Wielding a Red Sword and something about a Skein, right?

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:59 am
by Mich
Is that a Stephenson book?

Anyway, I can highly recommend that you read The Diamond Age. It's a brilliant book. In some ways I think it's better than Snow Crash, though it's also a bit weirder.
I enjoy Snow Crash for its ground-breaking things, and accurate predictions of where technology was heading in the late 80's, plus I like throwing the fact that Stephenson pretty much coined the term avatar in our modern usage with that book. But I like The Diamond Age just so much more as a book. I love the characters more, although Hiro and YT always shall remain close to my heart, I love the predictions it makes further with technology, I just love the story.

So, yeah. Read Diamond Age, Drogo. And maybe check out some of The Baroque Cycle. Cryptonomicon is worth a look, too, although it's not quite as memorable, other than the fact that it mentions the Palouse. :p
On A Pale Horse sounds like it's one of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality novels. Own them, still haven't gotten to them yet.
Also true. Not by Stephenson, but Anthony. Also good.