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was a virtual fi le with an angel; and in Coleman's (2007) Legend it was a
servant tied to a supercomputer. When one thinks about it, we are pretty
close now—Google provides a rough format for satisfying our wants and
Siri gives verbal responses to our questions (cf. Gay 2011). All we need is
some of those capabilities tied together in a virtual world format. The sec-
ond thing that comes straight out of Snow Crash is Hiro's escape from his
repressive (shithole) life. Without getting too specifi c, one has to wonder
what it would take to develop a similar feeling for potential participants in
presently developed countries. Finally, time travel remains the Holy Grail
in transportation (type time travel into Amazon.com and you get 114,201
hits). Going back in time is easy in parallel worlds. Going forward is a bit
more dii cult, but not impossible, and we're getting better.
NOTES
1. See http://www.economist.com/node/21541161. (Downloaded 10/8/2011)
2. Both books are available from Amazon.com —downloaded free on a
Kindle.
3. We are on record with the opinion that Metaverse is an extension world
(Zackariasson 2007, 165).
4. Zynga is now reaching 150 million unique monthly users (Winfi eld 2011), so
perhaps the number is conservative.
5. With regard to our personal existence, we both travel to a number of confer-
ences each year at both personal expense and utilization of our time. Some of
these conferences are pleasant—one should really see Rome, and it is pleas-
ant to spend time with comrades at NFF conferences. On the other hand,
there are others that are not so stimulating. Our premise is that they could
be organized and handled over the Internet with avatars—and pretty much
with presently available technology.
REFERENCES
Coleman, D. L. (2007). Legend . New York: St. Martin's Press.
Crichton, M. (1993). Disclosure . New York: Knopf).
Cross, Tim (2011). “All the World's a Game”. Economist , December 10. www.
economist.com/node/215441164 (a ccessed December 17, 2011).
Frasca, G. (2003). “Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology”. In
The Video Game Theory Reader , edited by M. J. P. Wolf and B. Perron. New
York: Routledge. 221-236.
Garvin, G. (2011). “Progressive Civility”. Tribune-Review , September 18, D1 and
D5.
Gaume, N. (2006). “Nicolas Gaume's View on the Video Game Sector”. European
Management Journal 24 (4): 299-309.
Gay, J. (2011). “You Cannot Be Siri-Ous”. Wall Street Journal , October 18, D6.
Halter, E. (2006). From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games . New York:
Thunder's Mouth Press.
Huntemann, N. B. and Payne, M. T., eds. (2010). Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of
Play in Military Video Games . New York: Routledge.
 
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