how the real world has bled into the virtual one. I liked it better when they were just, you know games, "he says wistfully. He preferred the meritocratic feel of Ever Quest, before all the duping and the auctions and the bidding wars for powerful avatars. He liked the idea of on-line worlds as a place you migrated to when, like an immigrant, you wanted a new lease on life-just as three years ago, when, depressed and lonely, he first stumbled into EverQuest voyage had a good ending. A few months ago, the communications department at Indiana iversity in Bloomington called. They had read his work and wanted to talk. Weeks later, they offered him a fully tenured position in a new department. Castronova had still never published a single one of his Ever Quest papers in print; all his analyses had been distributed on-line "It's all PDFs and Web sites, he joked Like an avatar in the game, he had levelled up Clive Thompson writes about science and technology for The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and Details, and runs the tech-culture blog collisiondetection net Links "collisiondetection.net"-http://collisiondetection.net O Copyright 2004-Me, All Rights Reserved printed from The Walrus Magazine, Game Theories on 2004-10-28 17: 13: 32 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/printpl?sid=04/05/06/1929205how the real world has bled into the virtual one. "I liked it better when they were just, you know, games," he says wistfully. He preferred the meritocratic feel of EverQuest, before all the duping and the auctions and the bidding wars for powerful avatars. He liked the idea of on-line worlds as a place you migrated to when, like an immigrant, you wanted a new lease on life — just as three years ago, when, depressed and lonely, he first stumbled into EverQuest. His own voyage had a good ending. A few months ago, the communications department at Indiana University in Bloomington called. They had read his work and wanted to talk. Weeks later, they offered him a fully tenured position in a new department. Castronova had still never published a single one of his EverQuest papers in print; all his analyses had been distributed on-line. "It's all PDFs and Web sites," he joked. Like an avatar in the game, he had levelled up. Clive Thompson writes about science and technology for The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and Details, and runs the tech-culture blog collisiondetection.net. 1. "collisiondetection.net" - http://collisiondetection.net/ © Copyright 2004 - Me, All Rights Reserved printed from The Walrus Magazine, Game Theories on 2004-10-28 17:13:32 Links Index Page 10 of 10 http://www.walrusmagazine.com/print.pl?sid=04/05/06/1929205 10/28/2004