Tag Archives: portal

Anonymous continues to blur the boundaries between the internet and the real world

Some of the Guy Fawkes masked protestors in London
After calling for mass protests against Scientology in its videos a few weeks ago, did online collective Anonymous have any effect on the world? Well, around 500 people showed up to protest in both London and Los Angeles, with hundreds more in other cities. The majority of protesters in London wore striking Guy Fawkes masks like in the film ‘V for Vendetta’. Protests appear to have been peaceful and in good spirits – eyewitnesses talk of lots of shouting of internet memes such asThe Cake Is A Lie’ from video game ‘Portal’, and little to no problems with police. Overall an estimated 7000 people in 100 cities across the world protested against alleged human rights abuses by the church.

It’s fascinating to see that many of the protesters were in their teens and twenties. This, together with evidence of large youth turnout in the Democratic Presidential Primaries suggest that the internet is gradually starting to increase the participation of some young people with real world politics and protest, rather than diminishing it. And with Anonymous’ activities moving away from the legally murky waters of hacking towards peaceful protest, are we seeing a return of the protest-happy youth of the sixties, with the help of some www’s?

[picture by xerode]

Portal to a whole new world in gaming

At midnight on Wednesday, gaming company Valve unlocked it’s Orange Box software.  In addition to a new episode in the compelling Half-Life 2 universe, you also got a quirky/awesome multi-player game called Team Fortress 2, and this enigmatic concept game called simply ‘Portal.’

In it, you wake up in a small room, and are required to navigate several mazes in a sterile, psychological experiment-looking series of rooms.  The tests get progressively harder, challenging your spatial ability and your patience.  At times, you just want to break free…

I’d seen videos of it before, but nothing prepared me for playing it.  Overall, the game itself is way too short, but as a high concept of an aspect of gaming to come, it’s revolutionary.  I’ve only played through the basic missions, the more advanced ones await me.  But there are lots of puzzles, and me likely the puzzle.  There are also rumors that the character here will be incorporated into the Half-Life universe.  Now it’s time to start up Episode 2.

(image via Borkweb)