On Wednesday I’m heading off to The Future Laboratory’s Autumn 2005 ‘Trend Briefing’; unsurprisingly, alternate reality gaming is in, and while Mind Candy isn’t giving a presentation, we are going to be featured in one, so we have a few free tickets.
Observant readers will note that their flyer doesn’t actually mention ARGs – rather, it talks about ‘Live Urban Gaming’. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to the number of three letter acronyms the media industry can come up with for the same things, but I do know it hasn’t been reached yet. Despite the fact that LUG doesn’t sound as good as ARG (plus it is identical to Linux User Group), ‘Live Urban Gaming’ does sound a bit less threatening than ‘Alternate Reality Gaming’ to marketeers and suchlike.
(Incidentally, I will be speaking at the Montreal Game Summit about ARGs in November. More on that later.)
Another morning session is about ‘Ladults’, and tells us how a typical ladult is, “secure in his new-found masculinity, he’s ditched the ‘shirt over jeans’ look for a lifestyle and attitude that [is] ‘butch-modern'”. What’s wrong with wearing a shirt over jeans now? Has the fashion industry decided that this is bad? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this mentioned, I recall seeing the notion purveyed in the Times a few weeks ago.
It’s a bit mystifying to me. There are two reasons why guys don’t tuck their shirts in (unless wearing a jacket, etc) – it’s uncomfortable, and it looks bad on most people. Either would be enough, but both together? It’s not going to happen.
mssv 