Gaming Site Reviews.. Real Life?

jbp8 writes: "There's an article on GameSpot reviewing the ultimate MMOG - real life!" The article gives real life an Editor's Choice award, focusing on issues such as leveling up ("Typically, a character will learn of the numerous viable career paths available by undergoing schooling. This can be a long and tedious process, equivalent to the sort of 'level treadmill' monotony that characterizes almost all MMORPGs") and player death ("..a serious issue in real life, and cause for continued debate among players, who often direct unanswerable questions on the subject to the game's developers.")

Comments

Heh - Real LIFE?

[mcrbids]

I've recently discovered "GTA: Vice City" and have been playing a fair amount of it.

The realism I find amazing - it looks very much like real life. (but I sure wish real life came with a Paint-n-Spray!)

Anyway, I was bike-riding with my 14 Y.O. son (yes, I'm that old) and I saw a neon "Open" sign out of the corner of my eye. And the pinkish-red color was just like the color on the bright, moving icons for health found in Vice City.

And the thought crossed my mind as I rode along - "Get health?" followed by the immediate "D'oh! - real life, move on" thought...

I don't wonder within a few years psychologists officially recognize a mental disorder of "Video Game/Reality dissociation" or something...

(Notice above, I said "in Vice City" as though it was a place and you didn't even notice!)

ask Martha Stewart.

[zymano]

also look up the Enron coat and ties.

Games are fun because you can lose !

[HanzoSan]

Life is not fun because you arent allowed to lose.

You don't pay your bills and you'll be a homeless bum. You live in the woods and you can get killed by animals or diseases, like I said you cannot afford to lose in this game because you only get ONE life.

At least this world is fairly reasonable and you can figure out some of it after a few years.

Its taken me my whole lifetime to figure this world out and I still cannot say I have it completely figured. Please share your wisdom with the masses.

Im not so sure failure is no an option. Im not suicidal but if you really think this world is no good you CAN leave. The best part about leaving is you dont know where your going.


You can't leave if you dont know where you are going, you could leave right into the firey pits of hell.

The real world is serious because all sane people know you arent allowed to lose. Insane people like Bin Laden who want to run around in caves, they lose when the bomb falls on their head.

Re:It *is* real human interaction

[MyHair]

That's somewhat disturbing to me. This phenomenon of online socializing deserves a lot more psychological study and philisophical debate, but I won't even try to analyze it myself. I'll also avoid judgement (for the most part) and just post my personal experience and opinion in my little world.

Online socializing has never been "real" to me. I was on 300bps dialup BBS systems back in the early 80's, and I've done a lot of online messaging over the years and met quite a few people that way (BBS parties and some online dating). To me, people are completely different online versus real life. Some people intentionally misrepresent themselves (as in the classic guy-impersonating-a-horny-teenage-girl), but even those who are trying to present their true selves are altered by the sense of anonymity or the lack of body language and other instant feedback. "LOL" just doesn't get the whole message accross.

When I tried online dating I never felt like I knew anything about the girl until I met her. To me it was like two different people (appearance description jokes aside). Someone who was appealing in email was frequently unappealing personalitywise in person.

I had an email penpal female friend for a couple of years. We confided a lot in each other, using each other as a safe way to get the perspective of the opposite sex and helping each other through insecurities and perplexing actions by our dates. Even though I shared things with her that I haven't shared with others, I still don't feel like I know her. It's entirely possible that we wouldn't be able to stand each other in person. I really appreciated her help and vice versa, but it never felt like a real life friendship to either of us. I wouldn't have considered letting her stay at my place or borrow my car if she had been into town on business, for example. A real life female would be offered the use of my place and car, assuming I trusted her.

I do get some social enjoyment out of online situations. I laugh at myself about it. Slashdot, for example. I enjoy being modded up, and I take it a bit personally sometimes. I like when people reply positively or thoughtfully. But it's still very different from real interaction.

By the way, I never take game interaction seriously, but the only MMOG game I played was WWII Online which didn't lend itself to role playing or extended socialization. Way back in the BBS days there were some MUD-like games, but I didn't take those seriously, either.

The anonymity and privacy online does help in some cases, though. I'm a fat white guy with a very sloppy apartment, but you can't tell that by reading most of what I type. And I judge other /. posters by their ideas, grammar and spelling. Back in the BBS days I met a shy girl at a BBS party who was deaf. You'd never know it online, but she was very shy in person because of her being deaf. I think she liked that the BBS made her identically functional to everyone else there.

On the other hand, with instant messaging today, slow typers might be judged poorly when they're slow to respond and/or mispell things (too slow to correct everything) or use poor capitalization or grammar (again because they're trying not to be too slow).

Re:I am not making this up

[HanzoSan]

Life isnt about loving or hating it, its about what you accomplish in the time you have to experience it.

So you dont like life? Invest your life in a useful way which benefits the world.

So you like life? Invest your life in a way which benefits the world.

If you are useful it doesnt matter if you like life or not, you still accomplish your mission and are successful at whatever you decide to do with yourself.

Re:It *is* real human interaction

[mark-t]

An insightful post, but with a notable flaw:

But for those of us who are not yet [married with children], there is no reason why we should bind ourselves to this dying and decrepit world.

Although virtual worlds exist that allow us to escape the mundanity of this "dying and decrepit world" for a time, those who choose to value escapism more than this existence will ultimately find themselves with access to neither anyways. And nobody ever left this world regretting that they hadn't spent more time playing video games.

Nobody's telling you not to play these games, but merely cautioning you about keeping it in perspective for reasons I won't bother mentioning here. The defensive tone suggested by your comments implies you've heard all the arguments anyways.

Enjoy your life.

Re:It *is* real human interaction

[mekkab]

True, but it would be difficult for me to misrepresent myself as a curious 14-year-old girl in person,

Shoot- I can't find the link, but last week from obscurestore.com a 28 year old man did JUST THAT- fooled people into thinking he was a confused teenage girl, and they gave him/her a place to stay! ;)

But that is not the norm.

Given that potential obfuscation is soo high on-line, I think people are either a little warier because of it, or don't care as much since they assume everyone is lying about something.

So I guess I'm concedeing (sp?) that online personas aren't expected to be "real"- then how can I claim that the "interactions" are a decent substitute for real?

I'll try to build up. First- detatched online personas are a great way of coming to terms with your emotional self and bring out pieces of you in a semi-public forum. In exactly the same way that most good fiction isn't REALLY fiction at all- its events in the writers life with the names slightly changed to protect the writer from libel. So online interactions allow to you express yourself to someone else and get as deep as you want, yet giving you the distance you may need.

Think of it as a confessional, or as group therapy. Having an outlet for free communication of whats going on in your emotional life is a fine achievment in terms of developmental growth (says who? says ME. What are my qualifications? I'm a guy who talks to people. So no, I have no qualifications, this is just a "feeling").
Sometimes being behind a mask allows you to be who you truly are.

To continue the build up- you are probably thinking "well, thats all well and good from a self-centered point of view, and true, people need to get their own issues worked out before they can form deep interpersonal relationships, but what about the interpersonal relationships they form online? How can those be real if there is always a mask?"

I guess to that, I have to come with a semi-copout. 1)- how do you know anyone is ever telling the truth * (to which you have already responded) 2)- how do you know the truth today is the same truth tommorrow? (I am a firm believer in the flexibility of peoples and their emotions. "I love you" last year may have held one meaning, and this year its different. Things change and people change.)
3)- Even if these relationships are a shadow of one in real life, they are close enough to fulfill a void and are controlled enough to allow the individual in it to distance themselves from it when they need to. That allows you to develop your sense of self both in and out of relationships- a VERY important skill (that some people never get).

So to recap- your best bet for an online relationship is actually a relationship-ette. Kind of a cop-out, I agree, but still it provides something. It's like flirting, the "appetizer" to the main course of a long and deep relationship.