the corner office

I've never played a MMOG, and the closest I got to a MUD was downloading software on my Mac circa '97. I don't think I logged on anywhere, though. I played Diablo online in '98, and Unreal Tournament with other South Africans back in 2000, when I was living at our company's office-house and our 64k line was sitting idle at nights.

Despite my limited exposure and experience, online gaming, especially MMOGs, fascinate me. I've loaded up Ultima Online's home page a few times, and thought "should I?" Common sense keeps me away, because I can imagine it would be terribly, terribly addictive. But part of me reckons that much like Everest (or Kilimanjaro) appeals to some, it might be a memorable life experience to simply switch off from the Real World and devote 3 months to an online game. Completely immerse myself, submit to pure addiction, and enjoy the experience, and come out with a few battle scars and a helluva story for my grandkids one day.

If you, dear reader, think I'm nuts, then would it interest you to know that the Ultima Online market at eBay is currently sitting about about $3.5 million per annum? Check out Julian Dibbell's blog. He's a journalist who's trying to make a living selling Ultima Online goods, in the real world. Let me back up - that might not make sense. He's selling castles in the air. Literally. It's blowing my mind, that's for sure.

Extreme? Yes. While I'm no expert, part of me thinks that the Future is tied up in these alternate realities. These online worlds become an escape from the drudgery of reality, to the point where we can't tell the difference, like a freaky cyberpunk novel. It's already happening, and it's mind-bending. Not just because of the fantasy/sci fi possibilities, nor the technology that lets thousands of users interact like they do. It's the fact that thousands of people do interact - that societies and cultures form in this 'cyberspace', and that economies sprout up immediately after.

The fact that real-world economics mingle with these online economies simply underlines the fundamentally fascinating thing: how human nature always manifests itself in any interactive endeavour... both the good and bad bits.

If I join one of these MMOGs one day, I'm calling one of my characters Adam Smith.