Joi Ito -- veteran MUD player and World of Warcraft maven -- is in the fishbowl at SXSW's Studio SX.The glass box sits in the tradeshow area and shows off a revolving collection of SXSW celebs and experts. Every 15 minutes, there's someone new. In a week or two, the film crew expects to get all of the footage online.
So the takeaway from Ito's chat? Don't expect the Internet to be around in five to 10 years. If the infrastructure behind it doesn't stay simple and open, it won't last. And of course, everyone wants to know about Ito's take on game addition. He pretty much says it's time to move on. Addiction is a problem, but, hey, isn't it all over? Both online and offline? No doubt, he'll talk more about this later today with Justin Hall, developer of MyWare personal surveillance gaming, at a panel on the continued blurring of life online and off.
