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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.")
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!)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
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.
/. 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.
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
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).