Where everybody knows you (user)name
Virtually, you've got a group of friends out there who want to hang out, talk sports and compare cartoon features. It's part of the real world of a place called SportsBLOX, a virtual city of sports bars that launched today by a Pasadena company called Numedeon, made up of CalTech scientists who specalize in trying to socalize the Internet users.
“The purpose of SportsBLOX is simple: to give everyday sports fans an opportunity to have their voices heard,” said Jay Katsuyama, general manager of SportsBLOX. “Now, when sports fans want to share their point of view, or mix it up with another fan, they don’t have to wait on hold to their local sports talk radio show or post their thoughts on an obscure online message board. In SportsBLOX, everything is live. They can settle the score in real time.”
The concept starts with creating a person who looks kinda like you shuffle around to about 20 locations on the virtual city street and hang out to talk to others with similar favorite sports. Lansdowne would be where Boston Red Sox fans hang out, or they might stumble into Wrigleyville to see how those loser Cubs fans are surviving. The Steel Curtain would be for Pittsburgh football fans. Left Turn is for NASCAR fans.
Brackets is the "newest" establishment for those wanting to talk about the NCAA basketball tournament. The site also offers a bracket contest ($1,000 to the winner).
After registering, you create you own avatar (simple for those Wii people) that will be your representative in the city. You end up posing yourself as you get into each place -- normal, angry, cheering, praying, hitting yourself in the head (doh!) -- and start in on a discussion about whatever you want to discuss.
The rules are simple, as in most chatroom-like settings: Avoid profanity, no gambling, no one under 13 can register.