61–70 of 158 posts
Well, it's kids playing make-believe, and in a physically active way, I'm all for it.
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“If someone says we are playing, it strips away everything we made, it strips away the reality,” said Ms. Aarniomaki. it looks like playing to me as well, and not sure why the community would see that as a problem. even professional sports players know they are playing a game. an interesting and unusual perspective for sure.
There are analogies for keeping similar illusion alive, like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling "The matches have predetermined outcomes[11] to heighten entertainment value[12] and all combative maneuvers are executed with the full cooperation of those involved...These facts were once kept highly secret but are now a widely accepted open secret. To promote and sustain the willing suspension of disb…
A virtual horse is just a webpage for a fictional horse. There are usually pictures of the horse that hobbyists find on the internet/buy on forums/illustrate themselves [1]. The horse obviously also has a name and usually a description of its personality. Horses sometimes age "in real time" but most stables seemed to have a somewhat arbitrary aging rate (e.g. the horse would turn 4 within a few weeks of its "creation", but after that age normally). Horses can also be registered in a database called "Virtual horseback-riders society" [2]. You can use the "Virtual horseback-riders society" to advertise your competitions. A horse/horseback-rider can usually participate in any competition by just signing up (by sending an email to the organizer) and the winner is randomly picked. Another way to interact with other stables is by "taking care" of somebody else's horse - meaning you write a story in a guestbook about what you "did" with the horse, e.g. "I took Cupcake for a walk in the forest. Cupcake was in a bad mood and really reluctant to leave the stable, but cheered up when it saw a patch of grass". You can always create a new horse (obviously, you just create a new webpage), but to be in with the cool kids, you "buy" horses from other hobbyists. The "best" horses are ones that have a long family tree that has been documented in the Virtual horseback-riders society database. There is no currency, there are "selling topics" in the forums, where you try to provide compelling arguments as to why you should get the horse.
The forums were pretty active 10-15 years ago and most hobbyists were girls in their early teens. The community is much less active and older now. However, the community is more tech-savvy than back in the day - people have their own domains and use a database to track their horses (back in the day, most pages were static sites hosted on Freewebs). Some stables have been running for 15 years, the most iconic one being Ionic [3], a stable with around 800 horses.
There is probably something to be said about virtual stables dying out as the Internet has become more centralized. Virtual stables also introduced a lot of young girls to coding and for example, the owner of Ionic works in IT now.
[1] http://www.seppele.piirroshevoset.com/hevonen.php?id=298
So as an occasional (male) rider of real horses, there's something I've always wondered about: how did the recreation become so gendered? Up until about the middle of the 20th century there was still utilitarian and military horse riding. Men would learn to ride. Now it seems to be culturally associated almost entirely with young upper-middle-class girls or middle-aged women. Is this the result of toy marketing (My L…
Further anecdote: in elementary school, we had trips to farms. I would think that it's not out of the ordinary for other schools to have this as well, which could be one factor how kids get interested in horses or farm life early on. Feeding a horse or a sheep, which tended to be the only animals interested in humans, can feel like having an exotic pet. Though horses are probably cooler because you can ride one.
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I have a hard time imagine a area where boys would be allowed to have a similar community with that skewed gender ratios. The common assumption is that any gender segregation is caused by the minority being discriminated against. If competitive hobbyhorse riding officially became a sport here in Sweden it would have to follow some recent laws dictating affirmative action within the sport organization. A minimum of 40…
So if 40% of boys were not interested, it would be denied to girls? That seems noble in intent, but draconian in application.
So as an occasional (male) rider of real horses, there's something I've always wondered about: how did the recreation become so gendered? Up until about the middle of the 20th century there was still utilitarian and military horse riding. Men would learn to ride. Now it seems to be culturally associated almost entirely with young upper-middle-class girls or middle-aged women. Is this the result of toy marketing (My L…
Speaking as a bystander, there appears to be an inherent, magnetic attraction for some young girls. It's not exactly recent. Black Beauty well predates MLP.
So as an occasional (male) rider of real horses, there's something I've always wondered about: how did the recreation become so gendered? Up until about the middle of the 20th century there was still utilitarian and military horse riding. Men would learn to ride. Now it seems to be culturally associated almost entirely with young upper-middle-class girls or middle-aged women. Is this the result of toy marketing (My L…
Speaking as a bystander, there appears to be an inherent, magnetic attraction for some young girls. It's not exactly recent. Black Beauty well predates MLP.
There is also a virtual equivalent to hobby horsing called "virtual stables". A virtual horse is just a webpage for a fictional horse. There are usually pictures of the horse that hobbyists find on the internet/buy on forums/illustrate themselves [1]. The horse obviously also has a name and usually a description of its personality. Horses sometimes age "in real time" but most stables seemed to have a somewhat arbitra…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say there's a bit of a difference between martial arts and a toy pony. I know martial artists who can break a dozen cinder bricks with an elbow; that's a serious pursuit. I'd say there is a serious difference between that and riding a toy stick. This extends to many other sports and activities: you can practice at a serious level or an amateur one. The difference here is that I see no serious level for this. Same…
> I know martial artists who can break a dozen cinder bricks with an elbow; that's a serious pursuit. I'd say there is a serious difference between that and riding a toy stick. What difference would that be? Real-world application? No-one hires martial artists for demolition work. They're both recreational activities. Doing them well is difficult enough that your ability can be (and is) assessed competitively. Seems…
Is it recreational in some way? Sure. But again, it has real benefits, while I don't see any in riding a toy stick (aside from enjoyment gained).