I’m in the papers today!
I gave a phone interview to Hian Hou, a journalist from the Straits Times’ Digital Life supplement. Actually, he was one of the first (if not the very first) journalists who ever interviewed me.
This time it wasn’t about blogging but Second Life and why it isn’t taking off as well in Singapore, compared to games like World of Warcraft and Maple Story.
There are different schools of thought on this, but in any case, I don’t like to play games which make me feel pressurised. Judging from my coordination skills and reflexes, or lack thereof, I am much better off in a virtual world which lets me do my own thing.
Many years ago, I used to play games like Dune 2 and Command & Conquer. Even then, I got tired of sticking to the storyline. I preferred playing one-on-one with the computer, leaving behind one enemy unit at the far end of the map (so the game wouldn’t end), while my troops continued to harvest more spice than we could possibly consume, erect more buildings that we wouldn’t even need, and build more vehicles than we’d possibly require to eventually eradicate that hapless remaining soldier (when I finally got bored and wanted to finish the game).
Coming to think of it, I do tend to gravitate towards less violent games like Sim Earth, Sim Tower, Sim Ants, Sim Island, The Sims, Civilisation and Alpha Centauri, although I haven’t touched any of these games in years.
I didn’t expect myself to featured in a column, nor to be classified as an ‘Explorer’ but I guess if the cap fits … 😛 Thanks!
Technorati Tags: Second Life, StraitsTimes, computer games
Comments
yeah, i was surprised to recognize someone in the papers!! haha.. good fer ya!
I like your quote about how you have to “find your own friends, your own goals”. SL mirrors RL in that sense.
Congrats 🙂
It’s good that you reiterated that it’s not a game, but the problem is that open-ended systems might leave newbies hanging and wondering what’s the point of it. I think it would have been nicer if reporter published down your SL name or the SL Singapore group details… that might have given people a good starting point once they logged in. 🙂
What level do you play C&C?
I was just simmering at the article on secondlife that I completely missed out that small bit about your interview.
I’m glad that you were interviewed. At least there is a bit of a balance there 🙂
hehe, now you’re famous again!
I just tried second life (using a female avatar) and frankly the experience has not been too good. It’s a complicated game (too me a bit too long to remove the yellow green patches) but more importantly I hadn’t played the game for too long when people started hitting on me. That completely turned me off. I will still try the game but I’m quite wary of it now.
It’s my first time playing such games but surely this doesn’t happen too often does it?
Hi numentally: Er, I can’t remember! Was there a level? I think I made it to the final game, if that helps. Or at least somewhere near the end. As I said, I ended up playing custom games with the computer. Also that was yonks ago!
Hi elvadrieng: Hitting on you? 😛 Maybe they just bumped into you. Newbies are quite clumsy and it’s usually unintentional.
Also, many people tend to be friendly in Second Life. They will chat to you even if they don’t know you (which is 99.99% of the time unless you already have lots of friends in Second Life).
Everybody else so far: Thanks!