Living and Breathing in a Virtual World with “Play Money” April 19, 2009

Now I understand why the author of Play Money, Julian Dibbell spends a good portion of the “Acknowledgment” in his book emphasizing the point that this is in fact a “real” story (no pun intended).  Thank God for that clarification, because let me tell you, 40 pages into his book and I was still convinced that I was reading a science-fiction story.  The very idea that I was about to embark on reading the tale of one man’s life who sought to make real money in the virtual world sounded very interesting at the beginning, I mean very beginning, and I’m talking about five pages into his narrative beginning.  But quickly enough, I began to sink into this very odd place where the lives of people, like the author himself, were entrenched in this Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMO’s).  This whole dimension/world, whatever you want to call it, seemed very bizarre to me (understatement of the year).   

To be fair to the author and the book, this was the first time I had heard of the world of MMO’s, so you can imagine how I might have felt…lost, confused, dumbfounded… to say the least.  So here we have this author, Julian Dibbell, who for the sake of this book was actually conducting a project to see if he could succeed in making some significant dough in the virtual world.  But what about all the other people who Dibbell talks about in his book who were immersed in games like Ultima Online; I mean 10-15-20 hour a day type of immersions, what was their excuse?  And even Dibbell himself wasn’t exactly being forced into the job of playing these games.  As I recall, in the beginning of the book the author poignantly says:

                “Something had to give.  The twenty hours a week I was devoting to the game were no big deal

                Compared to the sixty, seventy, and even eighty hours some players put in…I knew then that I

                Would either have to quit the game cold turkey or find some way to do what was in principle

                Impossible:  Give the game a point.  Make it productive.  Turn the imaginary career into a real

                One” (pg. 7-8)

 

O.k. fine, I get it, games are a lot of fun.  I mean really, who doesn’t like a mean game of Monopoly, Tetris, or Taboo to get one’s competitive juices flowing.  But there is a limit isn’t there?   Besides the “fun factor”, the logic that many of the gamers in the book use is that gaming can be a lucrative financial business. In the cases referenced in the book I personally found the “financially lucrative” argument to be not so convincing.  The author himself gave up a year of his life to partake in this venture to make how much at the end?! Sure it may technically sound like a lot of people in the book were making tons of money, because in Ultima Online and other worlds like it, characters trade in the millions, making it sound like “netting 300,000 in two weeks” is a lot.  But in U.S. dollars world, 300k amounts to less than just $5.00!!!     

 

Reading about “Britannian real estate”, the upscale “Malas region”, and how people were paying upwards of $60 USD for suits of armor for their avatars, was all just, how do I put it in the politest way possible? W-E-I-R-D.   I still don’t fully understand why people end up spending all this time living in worlds that aren’t real.  I sincerely want to understand why? Why not take all the time and energy that one invests in games like Second Life and invest it into the “real world”?  Again, I’m not trying to sound mean or judgmental, but I guess I just don’t get it.  I just don’t understand why someone would want to spend the majority of their day riding around on unicorns, building virtual homes, and buying swords in make believe worlds?  

 

I DO understand that playing games CAN be a good way to relax, to get in touch with one’s creative self, and “yes”, to even escape from reality for a BIT.  But to make an entire life out of virtual gaming?! Now that’s a completely different story; something that I’m not embarrassed to say I don’t understand, even after all my reading. 

 

I encourage people to step out of Second Life for a moment and explain to people like myself, who really are curious, what all the hype is about.  Maybe through helping me understand the logic behind why people go into virtual worlds might lend a hand to me, and others like me, to cross over to the “other side”.  Now I wouldn’t go betting a million “gold pieces” on it…but hey, anything is possible, right?

#socialpulpit

 

Facebook: Home of the Arab-American Challenge April 12, 2009

Enamored with Facebook from the first day I joined it nearly a year ago; this social networking tool has definitely carved out a special place in my life.  And why shouldn’t it?  I use it to keep in touch with friends and family, to network with people, to post information on upcoming events, to keep up with news via posts from people that I am linked to, etc.  And now with Facebook breaking the 200 million mark of online users, which would make it the 5^th largest country in the world (if it were a country), its hard not to be swept into the “Facebook Madness”. 

 

Apart from being able to see pictures of my friends on vacation or watching a video stream of the American Idol contestants on a friend’s wall, Facebook has also proven to be a very successful platform for businesses, organizations, and social advocacy groups who hope to promote their brand and/or message.  Many of the particulars which companies/organizations find to be enticing when using Facebook include the ability for it to “reach”, the fact that it enables the “brand”/ “message” to interact directly with their fan base/supporters, that fact that it is personal, and of course, the fact that it is totally free.

 

So I asked myself the question, “Nadia, how can you use Facebook to help shed some light on an ethnic group who finds themselves subjected to negative stereotyping in this day and age”? Who am I talking about? ME ! One of the 3.5 million Arab-Americans living in the United States today.  As I searched and scanned many of the existing “Arab American” groups currently on Facebook , I couldn’t find a single group where someone who wasn’t Arab-American might want to join.  O.k., let me be a little bit more blunt, joining a group where the only thing available to the members is a link to Al Jazeera and a discussion board about “You know you are an Arab when”, is REALLY not fun, even for an Arab-American.   Therefore, with Facebook being the “networking monster” that it is, it would be a real shame not to utilize it to address the stereotypes plaguing the Arab-American community living here in the United States.   

 

 

So I’ve come up with a creative way to combat stereotypes about Arab Americans that includes using Facebook as the social networking platform in which the campaign will be conducted on.  The campaign will be supported by and organized through the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) on behalf of Arab-Americans.  The page, which will be titled, “I am Arab, I am American”,  will be an interactive forum where through the implementation of a game and contest, visitors will not only learn about Arab-Americans and their culture but will also be rewarded with prizes for their participation.  In the hopes of driving visitors to the page and building a large following, the “I am Arab, I am American” page on Facebook will be linked to other companies whose CEO’s/founders are Arab-American.  For example, networking with other platforms might include linking to Farouk Systems, Joseph Abboud, Del Monte Produce, and HSBC Bank.  Furthermore, by creating a contest that includes participation, members of the page not only get an opportunity to learn about Arab-Americans, but also have fun during the process and when doing so, become enticed to join because of prizes and coupons presented to them by partnering sites.    

 

 

O.K., so you havn’t gotten to the best part of the contest yet! Every time members of the page complete the interactive game on Facebook, their name will be put into a drawing for the grand prize, an opportunity to spend an entire week in Hollywood with the Arab-American of their choice: Tony Shalhoub (of The Monk) or Paula Abdul (from American Idol).  If neither of those Arab-American personalities sound appealing to them, they will be afforded the opportunity to opt out of “Hollywood Week” and accept the alternative prize, two first class round trip tickets on Emirates Air to any destination in the world (your choice).  The only catch is they have to fly by December 31, 2009. 

 

 

Quick question, which late Arab-American was a comedian and the founder of St. Jude’s Children’s Research hospital?  A right answer to that question on the Arab-American Facebook challenge might get you a $5.00 coupon for free Del Monte pineapples. Now who doesn’t like “free” pineapples?! Arab-American or not.   

 

#socialpulpit  

 

 

 

 

Opening Day at Nando’s Peri-Peri on 18th St. April 9, 2009

I have been walking up and down 18^th street in N.W. Washington for the past six months past the boarded up storefront with the “Nando’s Peri Peri Coming Soon” sign in the window. Soon??? How soon? It really felt like it was never “soon” enough. If you work in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C.  you’ve most likely heard people chatter about when that “freakin chicken” place was going to open?!! I mean come on, we had our first African-American President elected into office, Facebook has surpassed their 200 million user mark, and Bernie Madoff has been thrown into the slammer, all while that “chicken place” never opened.  With the economy tanking and businesses closing left and right, I had a weird hunch that Nando’s Peri-Peri was never going to open. But being the nosey Taurus that I am, I walked by it the other day on route to one of the two Subways that I always go to for lunch to see what was going on.  “Opening April 8^th”. “ “NO FREAKIN WAY”! So I ran back to the office and shared the “news” with my co-workers…Subway was going to have to wait…at least for a day.

We called Nando’s on April 8th, intending to go christen the place only to have an employee tell us that the food inspector sill has not shown up so they weren’t going to be opening till the 9^th!  Ok…so the 9^th it is.  I mean really, what is one more day in the grand scheme of things? So today my co-worker and I ventured out to see if all this hype about this famous Portuguese chicken place lived up to its reputation and the apparent cult following it has in Europe.

 

So we get there around 1 o’clock on opening day…can you say “S-M-A-R-T”! “Ohh look, Nadia, you made it right in time for the lunch rush”!? Honestly, it felt like I was waiting in line for a ride at Paramount’s Kings Dominion…the only thing missing was the marker with the height restriction;) But I had to wait; we came too far to turn back at this point. But in all honesty, the line really wasn’t as bad as it looked (15-20 minutes to get to the cashier)….I don’t know, maybe because there was so much buzz in the air that it really didn’t feel long at all.  Also, all the employees were super nice which was an extra added bonus.

 Now to the most important part, how good was the food? I got the ¼ chicken (spiced medium) with a side of Portuguese rice and a side of coleslaw and of course my fountain diet coke with 1/3 of the cup filled with ice. Ok, the chicken was “OFF THE HOOK”, meaning “REALLY GOOD”. You can get it in a wrap, between a bun, etc. I just decided to go with the traditional, “right of the grill and onto a plate” version. White meat can often run dry, but not at this place. It was tender and juicy, just right!   I tried a couple of the sauces that they have on the fixen bar and I wasn’t very keen on any of them.  Honestly, the chicken tasted superb “as is”.  Word of advice:  don’t bother lathering it with all the unnecessary condiments.  The Portuguese rice wasn’t very good at all, in fact, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The coleslaw was great, very light on the mayo and fresh tasting. But what really took the crown were their chicken livers!! Yeah you heard me! My co-worker ended up getting them and of course I had to try it. Ukkkkh! Was it good! But because liver has such a strong taste you might want to just order only one on its own and share with a friend.  The key though is that you have to order the chicken livers “medium” spiced.  Don’t forget! That’s key!

 

Was it worth the wait? Sure. But I will suggest to call ahead for carryout next time as opposed to waiting till you get to the restaurant to order (like someone I know who did).  The atmosphere was also surprisingly really nice.  I’m not sure Nando’s will kill my relationship with Subway but it definitely adds a new dimension to dining options in the Dupont Circle area.  Now if only an incredible sushi restaurant could open here, life would definitely be good;)