Shadow Footprints

Link: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/07/unpacking_the_zeitgeist.html

Imagine thirty years of Future Shock in 1977.

One of the more popular multi-person internet games is called "World of Warcraft". When you join, you start out with limited resources, and you need to collect gold and magic weapons and kill monsters and go on quests to acquire loot and gain higher levels (which come with whizzy new abilities). A bit like that new-fangled Dungeons and Dragons game everyone's talking about, except using a computer instead of dice and rule books and lead figurines. (Yes, there are several million people doing this right now. This isn't rocket science.)

Charles Stross explains what has been happening in World of Warcraft recently, specifically gold farming and the advertising of those services.

You need to read the article.

The question he asks is:

at which step in this narrative would my 1977-era audience first say "you've got to be shitting me!" ... and when would they start moaning and holding their head in their hands?