[geeks] Ubuntu partition on Bootcamp Mac?

[Jon Gilbert]

On Jul 30, 2007, at 10:04 AM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> Ah, video games.
>
> For some reason, when you mentioned OpenGL, I thought you might be
> trying to get work done.  Sorry, but I'm wholly clueless about getting
> better performance out of games.

What games? What are you talking about?

Apparently you don't know what Second Life is. So I'll educate you.  
It's a 3D virtual reality persistent world. It's not a game; there's  
no "objectives," "points," "lives," or any other characteristics of  
games. The only similarity between it and a game, is the fact that it  
is in 3D and you have an avatar that represents you within that world.

Now, because the users of Second Life can create custom-programmed  
objects, many people within SL make and sell games. There are casinos  
with Texas Hold 'Em. There are SLingo parlors (a Second Life  
interpretation of bingo). There are RPGs that go on within it as  
well. My favorite is the chess club. You can buy a really sweet chess  
board for a few bucks. A lot of people use Second Life for purely  
recreational purposes, and the people who make and sell games and  
other recreational items within SL profit handsomely from those people.

Or is it just that, to you, it's not "work" if you are spending long,  
frustrating hours programming something that is in 3D as opposed to  
2D HTML/Flash sites?

I make a fair bit of income from scripts (programmed objects) that I  
create within Second Life and sell to in-world entities (companies,  
governments, individuals, etc.). Anyone who thinks that's not "work"  
is stupid, no offense. I know quite a few people who make their  
entire incomes from SL.

Besides which, gaming is a $12 billion/year industry (bigger than the  
movie industry), and that's not even counting all the computer  
hardware sales that are driven by it. So, you better get off your  
little "games don't matter" high horse, thinking that "people who  
actually work don't play games" or some nonsense.

-
Jon Gilbert
PGP fingerprint: 7FA9 B168 73CA A698 DD9E  2DF2 EE1A 3E73 3119 741F