GoCrossCampus
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Many people comment on the irony of how the modern world makes people feel isolated despite giving them more means of communication than ever before. For example, I don't know anyone that lives in my neighborhood, and I think this is common. Social software doesn't help with this, typing "A/S/L" into an AOL chat room doesn't really enhance my social life, neither does posting a pic on Myspace.
Now think of the appeal of geographically local communication tools. For example, maybe a chat room would be localized so as to only cover a local coffee shop. People in the chat room could leave away messages about what they're reading, and others would comment on it. After a good IM conversation, people might walk a few feet and have a conversation in real life. I might meet someone everytime I go to the coffee shop, whereas now I might meet a new person every few months. "True social" software facilitates socialization in meat space and helps to break down the social barriers that prevent us from knowing our neighbors.
Another example, I would like to have a bulletin board that only covered the community where I live. Then I could post messages about the barbecues we have and I would finally be able to meet people that live around me.
Craigslist is "true social", and so are dating sites today. I would like to see the genre expanded.
Either Stone didn't ask whether there was anyone else doing this (unlike a NYT reporter) or the GCC founders lied to him, because they certainly know about Kirkland North. After all, KN's founders include the original author of the game at Yale.
So much for getting leads to reporters easily in a timely manner.
Wait for the reply. The NYT is pretty good in this respect. I've managed to nail them down to admit an advert for google jobs was dressed up as an article ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/1685662827/ from this hackernews article ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=70827
It does seem like GXC currently has more traction than KN though, although we've yet to see anything in the genre become a successful business despite at least a couple dozen attempts.
Don't believe everything you read in the NYT. They've run games at a lot of schools, but none of them really took off. Whereas the game Kirkland North ran for Stanford spread to a quarter of the student body in two weeks.
Don't even get me started on the NYT. Every time they mention the illegal wiretapping they still describe it as starting after 9/11, even though their own reporting shows this to be false. The whole paper is bullshit propaganda.
But they are trying by loading up on "press ammo". Compare
- http://gocrosscampus.com/press
and
"Could such a game augur the outcome of the next presidential election? Probably not. The armies of John McCain and Barack Obama have already been routed, and Hillary Clinton’s forces are trapped in New England.
Jockeying for control of the rest of the country are the armies of Representative Ron Paul of Texas and the comedian Stephen Colbert."
One aspect I love of online games is that they eliminate many of the social barriers of age, profession, race, and financial status. If a game like this can bring together a local community across those boundaries I think the entire society will be enriched.
Not sure how big a deal this sort of thing will be, but it's certainly taking off.