Just a quick note.

I have spent almost two months relatively blog-free while playing World of Warcraft.

Previously — my last blogging slump — I had devoted a lot of time playing Blogshares while my blogospheric output dwindled, though even then I had begun to wonder whether Blogshares might hold some lessons for those interested in the fifth generation of warfare.

Lately, I’ve wondered something of the same about World of Warcraft — but barely. Instead, I’ve made some mental notes about WoW and how the game may reveal some things about our society and habits of cognition. For instance, WoW is incredibly racist; i.e., each race in WoW — gnomes, night elves, humans, dwarves, orcs, trolls, etc. — has particular limitations or special traits not shared by other races. No one playing the game seems the least bit bothered by such a method of categorization.

Instead of trying to find the ways World of Warcraft might illuminate the subject of the fifth generation of warfare, or else trying to find some material for Dreaming 5GW — some lesson — in my two months of obsessive game play in that other world of warcraft, quite the opposite has occurred. My distance from the blogosphere has given me perspective, and I’ve had a surprising realization.

The Blogosphere is an MMORPG: a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Those who have never played such games may not understand what I mean by that; but so it goes.

I have also wondered whether the blogosphere may ultimately be little more than that. But then, do we really comprehend the concept of MMORPGs? Hah.