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The internet has undeniably had a mjor effect on gaming since it became popular - forums like these are proof of that. News, demo's, screenshots and information from all over the world are easily available. Online gaming is a reality for the PC and will exist in some form or another for the current crop of consoles. The Dreamcast may have failed but Sega were the first to try online gaming. The internet has also ben of use to students, companies and many many other people and companies.
But is the cost to high ? I don't mean the real cost in terms of £ or $'s, but the dark side of the internet and the effects it has in the real world.
Are we, as a planet, really any closer because of the internet ? Are gamers any more of a community than they were before ? Not really, forums like these where there are a regular number of users who generally restrain from flaming each other are a rarity. In a wider context a divide exists between those with hand without internet access. Many people while away hours online chatting to people they never see on MSN or Yahoo....but might it be better to try it out in real life ? The level of anonomity allowed by the internet is both its blessing and its curse. Here for example, its all fun. We make up names and thats all, but for a minority it is more than that.
We can all, in theory, create a website, show everyone our interests....but some peoples interests are way off the bonds of acceptability. Hatred has flourished on the internet, as has exploitation, which leads to.....
Sex. Possibly the reason the internet exists despite its noble intentions. The sex industry is now the #1 business on the planet. The liberal groups would have us believe that the material has existed all along, that the internet just makes it easier to access, and that that is a good thing. Maybe it's healthier, as Hugh Hefner claimed when defending Playboy magazine, but maybe its all just a way of raking in the cash. in several online reports carried out by CNN and the BBC they found that a majority of sites of this nature were very close to being illegal. Even the legal ones are having a negative effect because they are causing even more demand for the material. The more demand is their then the more demand their is created for the illegal material that undeniably exists.
Policing the internet is impossible now, its out of control and slowly but surely killing itself. Fraud via onine retailers and credit cards is up every year, as are arrests relating to other crimes committed on the internet. Freedom of speech is a phrase bandied around by many users all over the 'net. If anyone disagrees with you or what you want to do then you just shout "facist narrow minded idiot" and carry on. Many laws relating to the internet existed before even computers did, they don't work and never did and allow terrorists, fraudsters, criminals and generally nasty people to go about their work with little fear of retribution.
Bringing us closer together ? We've never been further apart.....
I honestly believe that historians 50 years from now will look back on this period and be pretty daming of the internet and societies lack of interest in policing it. The only agency showing remote effort is the F.B.I whose operation: Candyman last month netted many dangerous people across the world.
But is the cost to high ? I don't mean the real cost in terms of £ or $'s, but the dark side of the internet and the effects it has in the real world.
Are we, as a planet, really any closer because of the internet ? Are gamers any more of a community than they were before ? Not really, forums like these where there are a regular number of users who generally restrain from flaming each other are a rarity. In a wider context a divide exists between those with hand without internet access. Many people while away hours online chatting to people they never see on MSN or Yahoo....but might it be better to try it out in real life ? The level of anonomity allowed by the internet is both its blessing and its curse. Here for example, its all fun. We make up names and thats all, but for a minority it is more than that.
We can all, in theory, create a website, show everyone our interests....but some peoples interests are way off the bonds of acceptability. Hatred has flourished on the internet, as has exploitation, which leads to.....
Sex. Possibly the reason the internet exists despite its noble intentions. The sex industry is now the #1 business on the planet. The liberal groups would have us believe that the material has existed all along, that the internet just makes it easier to access, and that that is a good thing. Maybe it's healthier, as Hugh Hefner claimed when defending Playboy magazine, but maybe its all just a way of raking in the cash. in several online reports carried out by CNN and the BBC they found that a majority of sites of this nature were very close to being illegal. Even the legal ones are having a negative effect because they are causing even more demand for the material. The more demand is their then the more demand their is created for the illegal material that undeniably exists.
Policing the internet is impossible now, its out of control and slowly but surely killing itself. Fraud via onine retailers and credit cards is up every year, as are arrests relating to other crimes committed on the internet. Freedom of speech is a phrase bandied around by many users all over the 'net. If anyone disagrees with you or what you want to do then you just shout "facist narrow minded idiot" and carry on. Many laws relating to the internet existed before even computers did, they don't work and never did and allow terrorists, fraudsters, criminals and generally nasty people to go about their work with little fear of retribution.
Bringing us closer together ? We've never been further apart.....
I honestly believe that historians 50 years from now will look back on this period and be pretty daming of the internet and societies lack of interest in policing it. The only agency showing remote effort is the F.B.I whose operation: Candyman last month netted many dangerous people across the world.
V.V.V.V.V. wrote:
> But it could be said that increasing the "policing" of the internet is
> the first step down the road to Big Brother rearing his ugly head.
Maybe so....but what have we got to hide ??
Any such policing is going to largely rely on computers, not people keeping massive card record system like hte old police/intelligence files. Unless a person was flagged up for suspicious activity then its unlikely that anyone would ever even see there record. I know that I've got nothing to hide about my time on the internet and I'd welcome a policing of it.
Big Brother is nothing to fear, it's just that theres hysteria over it. I'd trade a bit of privacy for security anyday.
> But it could be said that increasing the "policing" of the internet is
> the first step down the road to Big Brother rearing his ugly head.
Maybe so....but what have we got to hide ??
Any such policing is going to largely rely on computers, not people keeping massive card record system like hte old police/intelligence files. Unless a person was flagged up for suspicious activity then its unlikely that anyone would ever even see there record. I know that I've got nothing to hide about my time on the internet and I'd welcome a policing of it.
Big Brother is nothing to fear, it's just that theres hysteria over it. I'd trade a bit of privacy for security anyday.
But it could be said that increasing the "policing" of the internet is the first step down the road to Big Brother rearing his ugly head.
The problem with censorship is this: whose moral guidelines do we use in order to know where we should draw the line between what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?
People's minds and spirits are attracted to what they are interested in whether it's on the net or not.
I'm sure there are countless neo-Nazi websites out there, but I've never been to one - why? because I'm not a nazi.
Hatred and perversion will always be with us, whether we try to police it out of existence or not.
The problem with censorship is this: whose moral guidelines do we use in order to know where we should draw the line between what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?
People's minds and spirits are attracted to what they are interested in whether it's on the net or not.
I'm sure there are countless neo-Nazi websites out there, but I've never been to one - why? because I'm not a nazi.
Hatred and perversion will always be with us, whether we try to police it out of existence or not.
The internet has undeniably had a mjor effect on gaming since it became popular - forums like these are proof of that. News, demo's, screenshots and information from all over the world are easily available. Online gaming is a reality for the PC and will exist in some form or another for the current crop of consoles. The Dreamcast may have failed but Sega were the first to try online gaming. The internet has also ben of use to students, companies and many many other people and companies.
But is the cost to high ? I don't mean the real cost in terms of £ or $'s, but the dark side of the internet and the effects it has in the real world.
Are we, as a planet, really any closer because of the internet ? Are gamers any more of a community than they were before ? Not really, forums like these where there are a regular number of users who generally restrain from flaming each other are a rarity. In a wider context a divide exists between those with hand without internet access. Many people while away hours online chatting to people they never see on MSN or Yahoo....but might it be better to try it out in real life ? The level of anonomity allowed by the internet is both its blessing and its curse. Here for example, its all fun. We make up names and thats all, but for a minority it is more than that.
We can all, in theory, create a website, show everyone our interests....but some peoples interests are way off the bonds of acceptability. Hatred has flourished on the internet, as has exploitation, which leads to.....
Sex. Possibly the reason the internet exists despite its noble intentions. The sex industry is now the #1 business on the planet. The liberal groups would have us believe that the material has existed all along, that the internet just makes it easier to access, and that that is a good thing. Maybe it's healthier, as Hugh Hefner claimed when defending Playboy magazine, but maybe its all just a way of raking in the cash. in several online reports carried out by CNN and the BBC they found that a majority of sites of this nature were very close to being illegal. Even the legal ones are having a negative effect because they are causing even more demand for the material. The more demand is their then the more demand their is created for the illegal material that undeniably exists.
Policing the internet is impossible now, its out of control and slowly but surely killing itself. Fraud via onine retailers and credit cards is up every year, as are arrests relating to other crimes committed on the internet. Freedom of speech is a phrase bandied around by many users all over the 'net. If anyone disagrees with you or what you want to do then you just shout "facist narrow minded idiot" and carry on. Many laws relating to the internet existed before even computers did, they don't work and never did and allow terrorists, fraudsters, criminals and generally nasty people to go about their work with little fear of retribution.
Bringing us closer together ? We've never been further apart.....
I honestly believe that historians 50 years from now will look back on this period and be pretty daming of the internet and societies lack of interest in policing it. The only agency showing remote effort is the F.B.I whose operation: Candyman last month netted many dangerous people across the world.
But is the cost to high ? I don't mean the real cost in terms of £ or $'s, but the dark side of the internet and the effects it has in the real world.
Are we, as a planet, really any closer because of the internet ? Are gamers any more of a community than they were before ? Not really, forums like these where there are a regular number of users who generally restrain from flaming each other are a rarity. In a wider context a divide exists between those with hand without internet access. Many people while away hours online chatting to people they never see on MSN or Yahoo....but might it be better to try it out in real life ? The level of anonomity allowed by the internet is both its blessing and its curse. Here for example, its all fun. We make up names and thats all, but for a minority it is more than that.
We can all, in theory, create a website, show everyone our interests....but some peoples interests are way off the bonds of acceptability. Hatred has flourished on the internet, as has exploitation, which leads to.....
Sex. Possibly the reason the internet exists despite its noble intentions. The sex industry is now the #1 business on the planet. The liberal groups would have us believe that the material has existed all along, that the internet just makes it easier to access, and that that is a good thing. Maybe it's healthier, as Hugh Hefner claimed when defending Playboy magazine, but maybe its all just a way of raking in the cash. in several online reports carried out by CNN and the BBC they found that a majority of sites of this nature were very close to being illegal. Even the legal ones are having a negative effect because they are causing even more demand for the material. The more demand is their then the more demand their is created for the illegal material that undeniably exists.
Policing the internet is impossible now, its out of control and slowly but surely killing itself. Fraud via onine retailers and credit cards is up every year, as are arrests relating to other crimes committed on the internet. Freedom of speech is a phrase bandied around by many users all over the 'net. If anyone disagrees with you or what you want to do then you just shout "facist narrow minded idiot" and carry on. Many laws relating to the internet existed before even computers did, they don't work and never did and allow terrorists, fraudsters, criminals and generally nasty people to go about their work with little fear of retribution.
Bringing us closer together ? We've never been further apart.....
I honestly believe that historians 50 years from now will look back on this period and be pretty daming of the internet and societies lack of interest in policing it. The only agency showing remote effort is the F.B.I whose operation: Candyman last month netted many dangerous people across the world.