Zerg Rush (more)
posted by Artw on Apr 27, 2012 - 46 comments

The Exterminator’s Want-Ad, a short story by Bruce Sterling, is a twisted first-person missive by a former K-Street lobbyist making his way in a post-collapse socialist regime of sharing. It's part of the Shareable Futures series of short stories and speculative essays at Shareable.net. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jun 24, 2010 - 41 comments

A South Korean couple meet online, make a real baby and neglect her -- to the point of starvation -- while raising a virtual child. [more inside]
posted by cedar on Mar 12, 2010 - 34 comments

Do you have a yearning to be online? Do you suffer from difficulty concentrating or sleeping, irritation, or mental or physical distress? According to doctors in China, you might have an internet addiction. [more inside]
posted by DiscourseMarker on Nov 10, 2008 - 25 comments

According to a new report, children in Sweden are becoming increasingly concerned by their parents' internet habits. "This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what's important to me. And when she's not at the computer she's like a lost soul. She just looks straight ahead and says nothing. I'm not doing so well." Dr Jerald Block from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland is pushing for internet addiction (and its three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations and e-mail/text messaging) to be included as a common disorder in the next update of the DSM (DSM-V). "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer... It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games..."
posted by chuckdarwin on Jun 26, 2008 - 66 comments

Kali.net (once one of the world's largest Internet gaming networks) is created. Makes money. BeTech buys Kali to impress investors. BeTech stops paying for upkeep. ISPs get peeved. No more Kali. Or is there? Is this a funeral or a phoenix? And is there anything else on the 'Net about this? I'm coming up with bupkus.
posted by ZachsMind on Dec 9, 2001 - 1 comment

Even IGN.com is going subscription! They're calling it Insider, and it's going to cost $20 a year or $10 for 3 months. "Features" include a printable pdf version of IGN, and some other things that seem like total garbage. However it remains vague about what you will keep as a nonsubscriber. I don't see this even remotely succeeding unless they restrict the very basic features of IGN (reviews, etc.).
posted by swank6 on Apr 14, 2001 - 8 comments