The Geek shall inherit the Earth

---

This is may be a bit off topic and not "In World" , but I – and you too for that matter - have just been insulted, albeit in a roundabout way and not very personally, by Ron Festejo.

Festejo is, if you didn’t know it, and I didn’t, creative director of Sony’s “Home”. Sony’s “Home” is, if you didn’t know it, and I’m almost certain most don’t, home to Sony Playsation’s own virtual world. Or soon to be. It was announced in May 2007 but, as of yet hasn’t really been seen in the wild.

Specifically Festejo says that Second Life users won’t be so keen on “Home”.

“We don’t have anything in there that’s appealing to that kind of geeky audience that you might find in Second Life”. That’s rather nice of him to warn us, but it’s the geek part that gets to me.

I want to childishly stamp my foot and yell “Takes one to know one!” I’m just afraid that exactly that might apply to Mr. Festejo.

I’m hoping that Festejo means geek in terms of someone who is obsessed with their computer and not what my Oxford tells me (“A person who is socially inept, boringly conventional, or overly studious”. In that case I have met a few in SL) But, based on the first definition, what I really wonder is where Ron Festejo has been in SL and where he met all the geeks.

I have met artists, hospital nurses, students, web designers, photographers, a bee keeper, some one who does pottery, sales assistants. Americans, English, Dutch, Swedes, Turks, Germans, Brazilians, Argentineans, Chinese.. you name it. I have talked to them about philosophy, SL – of course, family, football, elections, bee keeping (she did most of the talking though) and then a number of things I’d prefer not to mention here.

But I have never had a conversation anywhere in SL along the lines of using “nested if’s instead of switches “ in c++. I vaguely know I have a gigabyte of RAM in my PC, but don’t ask me if it’s PC 2700 or PC 3200. (Actually do, it’s a good chat up line.)

I’m not totally inept on a computer, but in SL I still end up pushing the picture frame I wanted to set up through the wall of my house, nailing it to the neighbours’ door and then wonder where it has gone to. And, considering some people I have met in SL, I’m judged to be a bit techie!

I am not going to get into the name calling game either, but consider this:

While I am not one to play with statistics as currently 64 percent of other bloggers do at least 34 percent of the time, I’d like to point out that if you google “geeks” and “Second Life” you get about 230,000 hits. Do the same using the term “playstation” you’re up at 516,000. I rest my case.

---