“Bow down before the one you serve
You’re going to get what you deserve!”

I particularly like old “Uncle” Jack’s reaction.

UPDATE: The video has since been removed from YouTube. It was actually a clip of Sarah Silverman presenting at the MTV awards in which she ridicules Paris Hilton to much laughter and applause. Except from a tearful Paris Hilton who was herself sitting in the audience. The “Uncle” Jack I mentioned was of the “Nicholson” variety and who seemed particularly amused at Ms Silverman’s musings. If you search for Silverman and MTV, you’ll probably still find some references to it.

In a comment to the previous post, Razor wrote “IM IN UR P00TER PLAYIN WIF UR BITSEZ”. After I’d written the last post, it occurred to me that while I was very familiar with this meme seeing as it crops up in just about every internet gaming forum imaginable in one form or another, I didn’t know where it originally came from. T’interweb to the rescue.

Rather than being another MMO related term, it actually comes from multiplayer RTS games (reportedly Starcraft but possibly also from Command and Conquer or Red Alert) and is a message sent from player A to player B when player A is destroying player B’s base while player B is ignorant of the fact. The message purportedly goes “I am in your base killing your d00ds” or suchlike. The Encyclopedia Dramatica (CBA2L) goes onto elaborate:

This line can be used in many situations. You can use it to tell your friend that you are fucking his wife, to tell a convenience store clerk he is being robbed, or to your colon right before you shove your severed cock up your own rectum.

Coffee. All over keyboard.

If you look around the lolinternet, you’ll probably come across quite a lot of these sayings in one form or another, especially photoshopped pictures of kittens. The one below tickles me though:
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This is slowly filtering through the metaverse. In what can only be considered a marketing coup, Blizzard are hitting the mainstream by getting a 14 day free trial of World of Warcraft distributed with this coming Saturday’s copy of The Times. And not just the trial either - they’re also giving away an eight page game guide to get players started.

The Times. Giving away a video game guide.
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Back in January, I wrote a post about a raving christian loony site that really had a chip on its shoulder about goths and the goth subculture. After meeting up with some of the South London Danger Squad on Thursday (prior to heading down to Brixton Academy to mingle with goths, rockers, emos and students at a dangerous, soul-corrupting and hated-by-God Nine Inch Nails gig), this site came up in conversation again and I thought I’d check up to see whether it was any less “under construction” than it had been a couple of months ago.

It turns out there have been several updates, not least of which is a list of dangerous bands and artists that should be avoided at all costs for fear of eternal damnation. Surprisingly and much to much to my disappointment, NIN weren’t on this list.
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Digital Ethnography…

Marvellous!

(Via Alice)

Did you know that God Hates Goths?

I’d like to take the opportunity to address the points raised on this website that’s still under construction but as I haven’t stopped laughing yet, I don’t think I’ll be able to. Still, for what it’s worth, let’s have a look.
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Is access to online worlds changing our notion of spirituality? asks Newsnight Business Correspondent, Paul Mason on the BBC website. Eh? Why the hell would you care, Mr Mason? For a start, you’re a business correspondent so where’s the link with a) spirituality and b) online worlds. Or World of Warcraft which is the only online world you’re discussing in the article. And what the fuck are you talking about anyway?

In theory, I should be very interested in this article because it’s allegedly about Philosophy and about virtual worlds, both of which are interests of mine. But when Mason asks the question “where are we when we’re online”, I find myself not giving a shit. Oh yeah, and about the assertion that we’re possibly not “sad, inadequate losers” - way to go with the generalizing stereotype there, buddy!

The funny thing is that in reading the article, even though we’re told that Dr Lizbeth Klastrup has a Level 60 Tauren Druid in WoW, you get the impression that nobody in being interviewed has the vaguest idea what the hell they’re talking about.

“In the great epics of western society you have the valiant hero who dies to save his people, group or country - in the game world, the movies players make about their experiences, they tell hero stories where they cast themselves as the valiant hero who dies in order to save his group and make them successful - in a way that is not possible for people to do in real life.”

When people make movies of their characters in WoW, it’s invariably because they are using WoW as a tool to tell a story and not because they are in anyway reflecting their ingame experiences. Those videos are normally quite dull affairs showing people engaging in PvP (Player vs Player) combat where they are the hero by dint of wtfpwning their opponents. No story whatsoever.

And about the people who “slay dragons”? In a game like World of Warcraft, they’re not heroes. Not in the traditional, mythical sense? A player in WoW isn’t anything like St George, Bard or Beowulf. Real heroes slay dragons by themselves, saving the day, rescuing the princess and freeing the people from a reign of fire. You want to kill a dragon in WoW, you’d better find yourself 39 other people to help. You are part of a large group and not a single fucking one of them will ever get called a hero. If they die, they’ll get called a ‘noob’ and given grief about how they let the side down and the only heroes are people like Leeroy Jenkins which is a hero status borne out of notoriety.

There’s nothing about being another indistinguishable character in a 40 person raid group that’s going to make a person a hero or awaken previously lost spirituality. In fact, the “intense emotion” and spiritual feeling felt by players of online worlds is probably no different to that felt by members of the same sports team. The main difference between the two? There’s more chance of becoming a hero in a sports team.

I’ve managed to miss just about every exhibition they’ve had at the Science Museum because I’m that crap.  Lord of the Rings, Hitchhikers Guide, you name it.  But I’d be foolish to miss the Pixar Animation exhibition starting on April 1st.  Must book it now.

 (via Pixel Kill)

The ultra-controversial game series Grand Theft: Auto is one of the top then nominees in the Design Museum/BBC2 Culture Show’s “Great British Design Quest” to find the most popular British design of the twentieth century. It’s up against that other great (but less controversial) British video game institution, Tomb Raider. Oh, and Concorde, the Spitfire, Red Telephone Boxes, Routemaster and the London Underground map. Which frankly means it won’t stand a chance but it amuses me that it’s made it into the top 10.

In the mean time, amuse yourself with this video of GTA for real:

Very funny indeed. But don’t watch if you don’t want the ending of Harry Potter 6 ruined for you.