Stealth attraction scam3/14/2024 ![]() ![]() Rather than having to dress up, call an Uber and trek over to a friend’s place on a cold winter night, I simply signed on to my computer and said hello. They came from across the country, from every manner of desktop setup and living arrangement - some attended from their parents’ homes, a few had their babies in the background. In the past, friends who didn’t live in town often complained about feeling left out now they didn’t have to be. The host mentioned in the invite that the guest list was longer than it would have been ordinarily, because the event was virtual and could accommodate everyone. The farther you walked away from them, the softer their voices got. Just as they do at real-life gatherings, people came together in clusters and broke apart. Instead of a fixed grid of floating heads, as you get in Zoom calls, there was a virtual map - a grassy hill, the Shire - and participants moved around it by hitting their arrow keys. That’s because the party was held on Gather.town, a new platform for online meetings. I said hi to the birthday boy, ran into acquaintances I hadn’t seen in a while and avoided others I didn’t want to talk to. The theme was “Lord of the Rings.” When I arrived, I could see that many of my friends were already there, bunched up in groups of five or six, as the host circulated among them. A few weekends ago, I went to a birthday party for a buddy of mine. ![]()
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