Annalee Newitz’s latest “Techsploitation” addresses reality RPG (role-playing-games) with a funny address to Tribe.net:

Yet another kind of reality RPG is Tribe.net, an uncensored online community that resembles Friendster in almost every way except for the fact that there is no autocratic dictator named Jonathan Abrams running the thing and deleting the accounts of people who freak him out. At Tribe.net you log in and create an identity for yourself, complete with as much or as little real information as you like. You can be an entirely fictional creation, complete with fake photos, or you can document your every little personality quirk, from a love of data mining to a predilection for farting quietly in movie theaters. The game of Tribe, such as it is, is to accumulate as many friends and tribal affiliations as you can. The more often you log in and post messages to tribe discussion boards, the more friends you’ll get and the more satisfied you’ll be. It’s like creating a group of Sims characters. “You” watch “yourself” moving around in a social space, and “you” interact with a bunch of other “people” in “rooms.”

Who are all these people on Tribe anyway? As if I were some wide-eyed social critic from the late 1980s, I find myself discovering once again that people are different online than they are in person. Shy people are eloquent. Sexy people are boring. I have two busy friends, whose presence I often miss in real life, whom I now get to see nearly everyday on Tribe.

“Wow, Jason and Liz are so cool!” I think as I read their Tribe posts. “I wish they existed in real life!” And then I realize they do exist; I saw them last year at a party, and they are indeed as funny and smart as their “selves” on Tribe.

Am I confused or just happy to see them? Am I going to the store or is this just a game? I’ll have to decide.

(Bolding for the sentence that humored me the most)