To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
I don’t find Prof. Castronova charming — I find him scary, as I’ve noted in my many critics. Basically, he wants to use the addictive power of games to reach people viscerily through their autonomous nervous system, and control them in real life in the same fashion. I find that Orwellian, not innovative and exciting. He wants to gameify many things that aren’t games now in the belief that you will not capture people’s involvement because they will all escape to virtual worlds.
And for someone who titled his book “Escape to the Virtual World” he’s sure backpedalling now on the concept of “escapism”.
I’m failing to see how “escapism” and “finding a refuge” are really ALL that different. Sure, I realize “escapism” sounds like fantasizing being an elf all day or having cybersex with ballerinas who are really truckers in real life and then of course wasting your time in some grand sense. But…finding a refuge? That’s nearly the same thing. Science and art aren’t refuges; they are spheres of human activity in real life that pay them money, or contribute to culture and knowledge. We can’t yet make that claim for virtuality.