Shirky, Jenkins, Coleman {Update}

A few weeks back on Terra Nova (Link) I first learned of a virtual worlds/Second Life-centric blog-based discussion that emerged from the recent debates surrounding Second Life. The “synchronized punditry”, as Terra Novan Liz Lawley dubbed it, included Beth Coleman, Henry Jenkins and Clay Shirky. Having gone a few rounds with Shirky over on Terra Nova, I opted out of chiming in on this conversation. Instead I decided to wait and then summarize the three primary positions and add my own thoughts.

Having read the various entries several times, all I can say is that I can’t justify the time. I did start and spent quite a few hours on such an entry, but there are far too many things with which I take issue; most of them Shirky’s. And besides, I don’t think anything I have to say will make a difference. It hasn’t yet.

As proof of the fruitlessness in trying, here’s one issue in particular I’ve tried to sort out: When is Shirky going to perform due diligence in regard to World of Warcraft, a game he frequently uses for comparative purposes? Though it’s been pointed out that WoW’s “adoption” numbers are similarly suspect (Link to Terra Nova; Link to Valleywag comment), he’s apparently ignored that fact and continued with his apples-to-oranges comparisons. Recall that it was “adoption” that was of significant concern in this matter, and that Shirky has implied that “millions” of people have “adopted” WoW, and it is this assertion which acts as the foundation on which much of his argument is based; nevermind that MMOG’s have traversed a different developmental arc and are unlike Second Life in many other ways.

When asked again about WoW’s “adoption” statistics in the comments of his own recent entry, he continues to ignore the issue. It couldn’t be more obvious to me that he doesn’t want to be caught with his foot in his mouth yet again.

Furthermore, when an effort is undertaken to find some way to perform an apples-to-apples comparison, he puts in a token effort and then bows out; content to rehash his previous observations and conclusions elsewhere. What happened to intellectual rigor? What happened to the fundamentals? Apparently those things aren’t as important anymore.

Consequently, it seems to me that for Shirky this is no longer an issue of getting at the truth but instead of defending a position using conclusions based on the same kinds of misinformation that started all this.

{Update: Having spent all that time I mentioned it’s difficult to turn it off. While I’ve not posted more here, I have posted on another blog – howardowens.com (Link), a “media” blog – that is, imo, giving Shirky a bit too much credit and not exercising the kind of skepticism for his words that they’re now praising him for having in regards to the press’ coverage of Second Life. My comments there are fairly long, so I thought it worth pointing them out here.}