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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redmage" data-source="post: 92002" data-attributes="member: 3435">rebutting Lord of the HackersI submitted the following to the OP-Ed column of the NYT. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I must rebut the article posted by SHERRY TURKLE entitled Lord of theHackers. First I must say it is uninformed. Sherry seems to have formedan opinion about a specific subject and found facts that appear tosupport it. Any one with any type analytical training what so everknows that this method of forming a hypotheses is incorrect and leadyou to conclude falsely. Yes a programmer at MIT did write a game called adventure and yes manypeople do play and are still playing FRP (Fantasy role playing) gamesassisted by a computer or using the computer as a platform for thegame itself. But the assertion that the games are for computer geeksby computer geeks is dead wrong. I know personally people that playgames such as Dungeons & dragons that have never touched a computer.And the assertion that Girls don't do that sort of thing is dead wrongas well. I personally know many women that play such games. Theirare scores of people that play these games that don't use computersand their are scores of women who play such games. The reasons that these games lend them selves to be developed and playedusing a computer as a platform has nothing to do with the mentalityof a computer programmer. It is true that computers use 0's and 1'sto encode information. But all forms of information that we as humanscan produce or communicate can be encoded as 0's and 1's. The reasonthat these types of games lend them selves to be run on computersis because they are statistical driven games. Most games are. In actualityi cannot think of any games at all that cannot be made into a formof statistical probabilities. It also seems that the writer believes that the RPG world runs parallelto the computer industry. In the scope that is is male dominated anddesigned to be exclusive to females. I find this to be offensive stereotyping of a profession. It is obvious to me that this person has (A.)never played a FRP game and (B.) Has never worked in an IT position.I am an IT professional and I know women in all levels of the industry.It maybe true that men are currently in the majority of the filledpositions in the IT industry however that is true for a lot of industries.Their are industries in which women are in the majority Nursing, Daycare,Floral, just to name a few. But you don't see men running around complainingand pointing this out. It is also stated that things such as computer programming and FRPgames are geared toward the male mindset or way of thinking. Thatadolescent boys see programming as a game of a type that they haveone block of code that they conquer and then they move on to the nextblock of code. As a programmer this is an unrealistic perception ofwhat programming is about. In order to write a program one must firstanalyze the task to be performed then decide on a formula that wouldcomplete the task, then the programmer must take that formula andbreak it down to it simplest steps and implament them using a programminglanguage, after that the programmer must test the program agents alltypes of environmental conditions such as of the user inputs the incorrectdata. How much data can the program handle from any input source andcountless other conditions that are outside of the normal operatingspecification of the design of the program. Programming requires manyskills and is not a simple task. a programmer must be analytical,must be able to sort out information a divide it into logical segments.must be able to the use that information to formulate steps to accomplishthe intended goal. To suggest that women cannot do this or are notnaturally inclined to such task should be an offense to women everyware. What spurred me to write this rebuttal was a woman that was on dungeonsand dragons message board made a post that she would like some onethat was more eloquent with word then herself to rebut this article.I personally hadn't planned on it however after reading the articleI was sadend to see that anyone could have such a narrow focus onthe these things. Lumping J.J.R Tolkin D&D and roll playing gamesall together and stating that all people that do these thing are ofthe same mentality and must be men. To me that is offensive and itshould offend a great many people as well. This was not an accurateanalysis of any of the things mentioned in the article. As for the authors interpretation of J.J.R Tolkens Lord of the ringseries. Again I must say that she is dead wrong. In fact The bookswere written to establish the argument that of spiritualism versesmaterialism. The books were authored in a time of modernization ofAmerica that focused on materialism. The idea that these new scientificinventions and devices would make your life easier and more pleasurable.The books them selves are a direct contradiction to the advancementof computer technology and the possession of things. J.J.R Tolkinas other writers attempted to point out that we as humans have moreintrinsic abilities that are more profound and better then the advancementof science and technology. writer such as C.S. lewis and J.J.R Tolkinwere not for and were even agents such things. They saw the advancementof materialism as a direct undermining of the religious principleson which this country was founded. The author failure to understandthis only shows her lack of depth and preception. I personally don'tbelieve that she read any of these authors either but took her 10year old girl to go see the movie and decided that the movie was badan thought to write a slanderous article about it. The author also missed the psychological value of such roll playinggames such as Dungeons & Dragons. Roll playing has been a standardtool used in phychotharepy for many years. These games can teach peopleto have more confidence and have a better self image. The abilityto deal with character on a fantasy level exercises the imaginationand builds creativity. Games such as these are played by people ofhigh intelligence such as M. Joseph Young a member of MESA. To speculatethat the game is played by impresionable young boys and teaches themto dissociate them selves from reality is iresponsable. In fact thegoal of the game is to simulate reality in such a fashion as to makethe imagined world realistic. People who have played such games fora long time are able to litterate much better in my opinion then theaverage person. It teaches problem solving skills and many other things. in conclusion I must say to the author that writing about things thatyou have no prior experience and knowledge is questionable at best.Writing about things in which you have experience and knowledge without research is just plain foolish. Please refrain from forming opinionsof false assumptions and misinformation. Remember that the world wideweb is accessable by over 33% of the earths population. Their area great many divers groups of people who know a great deal about agreat many things. To go slandering a group of people without researchand without facts opens yourself to ridicule and discreadits yourself.It was once said ``It is better to not open your mouth and let peoplethink you a fool then to open it and prove them right.''Setting the record straight Redmage.</blockquote>

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