DISQUS

Micha Ghertner · 1 year ago

What complete N00BS! Level 75 isn't possible yet, until the release of Wrath of The Lich King when the level cap will be raised to 80. Get your geek facts right, geeks!

Will Wilkinson · 1 year ago

I love this comment.

daniel1 · 1 year ago

Furthermore, level 70 tells you next to nothing without specifying the tier of your gear. (My facetious reaction was exactly the first posters', it warms my heart that it was already there.)

Secondly, night-elfs aren't as male-dominated as you might think. World of Warcraft has a LOT of female players, which is an interesting cultural sign all by itself.

daniel1 · 1 year ago

Secondly I'd just like to point out that the world of daily internet content was pioneered by geek subcultures (chief among them gaming) before the media-political complex moved in.

As to the main point, are we arguing about the existence of the meta-status, or its relevance? I feel like Henry's assertion resonates as true... for high school. When you're younger than 18-19 and at your most sensitive to these things (both because of hormones and because our schooling is structured like the prison system) then the monolithic meta-status dimension is something you're aware of and care about. My hardcore videogame geek status was something to do, for sure, and provided me an alternate status dimension where I was the 14 year old hotshot/clan leader/web developer, certainly, but it's not like I didn't know where I sat compared to the people I was physically surrounded by every day. Then, of course, as all nerds know, you go to college or you get out into the wider world, and you no longer give a damn--which is attributable, most likely, both to the less-superficial nature of adult life and to both your ability to comfort yourself with social surroundings of your choice and of the moderating effect of the right of exit on peoples' social dealings at large...

The glib final flourish would be to say Farrell is being childish, and that Serious Adults know we all benefit from the increasingly vast marketplace of everything, but I think a slightly more interesting idea would be that social democrat-types WANT us to be stuck in high school forever because their conceptualization of social order demands monolithicality (it's a word now!) in order to ensure (i.e. control) distributional outcomes.

John Thacker · 1 year ago

their conceptualization of social order demands monolithicality (it's a word now!)

Why not say that their conceptualization requires that the social order be "totally ordered" instead of just "partially ordered?" Those are the standard mathematical terms.

daniel1 · 1 year ago

I'm, sorry, I have failed you. Am... am I not sophisticated enough to post here? Should I leave?

daniel1 · 1 year ago

(You could be totally ordered but in a non-monolithic way--the point is that a single status game would seem to facilitate total ordering in a way that multiple is just crazy talk.)