Hey, my name is Joshua Sirkin and I am a Junior in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I am from Bethesda, Maryland, about 15 minutes from Washington, D.C. Being an engineer I tend to spend a large amount of time online and I feel that the way that I live my life has been greatly affected by computers.
An internet related phenomenon that interests me is online poker. Back home a large number of my friends play all the time including a couple friends that play as their sole source of income. It gives a completely new twist to the game when you can’t see the other person’s face. A good online poker player has to learn to read people in other ways by seeing how they play, how fast they bet, how much they bet, and how tight they are with their money. Although most people might think of someone sitting at home playing online poker as being antisocial, I know some people that have made new friends online that will give them advice and even in some cases lend them some money online. I even know one person that went and rented a house for a summer with a friend he made online.
The most similar online space from Wallace that I would say online poker takes place in would be in a metaworld environment. While the graphics are fairly limited to the table and the deck, players can pick their own avatars and there is a text based chat between players. They are playing a game with a screen name that other players learn to associate with a certain personality and style of play. And although the poker players are playing for money, many would still argue that they are playing a game that requires skill, patience, practice, time, and most importantly interaction with other players.
1 comment:
Josh-
Your post really caught my eye, I have fallen victim to the plights of online poker. When my laptop crashed over winter break last year, my younger brother and I had to share a computer. This proved to be a problem; every time I “needed” to go on the computer for important online activities (AIM, Facebook, etc.), my brother was playing online poker.
I found what you said about actually using online poker as an actual source of income interesting. Even more fascinating for me, however, is the fact that there is actually strategy that accompanies online poker (I thought it was just clicking a few things on a screen and praying that you pushed the right button).
A few things I think you might want to ask yourself while contemplating the world of online poker might be: how addictive is online poker? Why do people put so much trust in “friends” they meet while playing online poker? Do the moderators and/or makers of online poker programs give certain players unfair advantages, or are the cards each player gets truly random? Other than the case of your friends, does online poker have the power to alienate you from your social circle if not everybody partakes? Can people become addicted to online poker?
Overall, I really enjoyed your post, and I look forward to reading more =).
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