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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.")
The only thing I hate about the REAL LIFE MMORPG is the freaking admins..
Every time I try to PK or steal.. they are on my tail.. can't get away with ANYTHING! Maybe i'm just bad at it.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
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.
I think I speak for many of us when I say: "Life is good."
Mm, I don't know. I'd feel better about it if I could figure out how to restore from a saved version.
Cheat codes hell... I'd be happy with a damn rulebook.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
"To what extent can an online game substitute for real human interaction?"
The majority of the time you are interacting with real human beings. What else would we be interacting with: dogs, apes, squirrels?
When people come accross someone who can find enjoyment in life without the hassles of looks, body weight, body fluids, the horrible effects of aging, they are jealous.
These are all things that normal people worry about, and when they don't understand how a gamer can be so happy in life and not worry about these things, they have to find something wrong with that person; they have to call them a gimp or a failure, a freak and a loser.
Online human interaction can be more fulfilling than "real world" human interaction, if it is done in a structured environment with interesting tasks and many solutions.
And no, it isn't only more fulfilling for those who are "socially inept". It is more fulfilling for anyone; where what matters is your intellect and your creativity.
When you say that a gamer is "socially inept", what you are saying is that they are poor at playing the game you want them to play; they may not even want to play it. Yet, you taunt and jeer them because you can not understand why they are so happy.
What are they so happy? They have every reason to be very very happy, and these are good reasons. They are successful at what they want to do. They have many aquaintences who they go on grand adventures with. Now only this, but they are able to give so greatly to others. You can make someone's day -- a real human being -- by your "in game" actions. You can make them smile; you can make them feel loved; love in the sense of brothers and sisters; the love of a companion: male or female does not matter.
And it is not a false sense of love. It is love that is as real as the love of your mother and your father for you, and you for your brother and your sister and your fellow man and fellow woman. It is love between real people, and it really matters. It is real.
Yes, if a gamer has obligations to a spouse or children, or to paying the bills, then it is wrong for the gamer to ignore these obligations, or to treat them with disdain. These are obligations, the results of choices you have made, and you must live with them.
But for those of us who are not yet so obligated, there is no reason why we should bind ourselves to this dying and decrepit world. There is no reason why we should be what society wants us to be, or what the people who are hip and fashionable and popular want us to be.
When we can interact with real human beings and when we care about others as brothers and sisters, and treat them with the love and respect that they are due simply in virtue of being persons, we do a great thing.
No one can take this away from us. No one can tell us that what we do does not matter, or is not real.
No, we may not be helping to eliminate hunger in Africa by playing this game, but what the fuck have you done to eliminate hunger in Africa? You haven't done a damned thing.
I can make someone's day. I treat others with the utmost respect. I can make them happy. I can make them laugh. I can make them feel loved. I can make them feel worthwhile. I can comfort them when they are down. I can help them up when they are in bad times. And they do these things for me.
This is what matters; helping real people, and helping them in tangible, real ways.
Yes, criticize me for not giving money to staving children in Africa, but first, tell me, just tell me, is what you have done in this world so much greater than what I have done? Have you comforted and inspired so many people? Have you loved them as human beings? What the fuck have you done for Africa? You do what you do for yourself.
It is as real as anything else in this world; the perceptions are as real; the emotions are as real. The people are real.
Why won't you let us be happy? We give you our bodies for 40 hours a week. What won't you let us live?
For the love of God, why won't you let us LIVE?
So that's what it means when they say "REAL" gamers never restore from saved versions.
I'll put it this way: There may be other games that let you have sex, but the feedback is sooooo much better in "Real Life".
Enjoy!
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
- fresh fruit all year (all sorts, yum yum)
- central heating / air conditioning
- cold drinks (refrigeration)
- effective medecine
- expect my children to survive to adulthood
- music all the time (kings did have live muscians)
- Movies, videos
- lots of books
- cruise ships
- jets planes
- public transportation
- cars
- radio (TV sucks - cancel your cable and spend the time playing more real life)
Even with a crappy job you have it good. Is anyone actively trying to kill you? Are you in danger of starving to death? If not, stop whinning and get out and do something!Life is as intersting as you care to make it. Get off your butt and do something.
A few things I do, to make life more interesting:
Most people have to work, but that still leaves lots of time to pursue many intersting real life intersts.
Anarchists never rule
It doesnt change the fact that no matter if you live in a jungle or in a cubical its hard work, and its not fun.
"Hard" work makes you less lazy. Being lazy, laying on a couch, watching TV all day, eating grapes, is not "fun" either. Doing only "fun" things, will make them boring. There needs to be a balance. Consider this: If you were never bored, how would you know you just had fun? An opposite CANNOT exist without the other.
Then again, work is what you make it. The more you resist it, the less fun you will get out of it. Not because the work itself is bad, but because YOU RESIST!! You are being fooled by your own feelings. The work in itself is not bad, just as the icecream is not happiness itself. The thought of eating an icecream, makes happiness rise in you. It's already in you, you don't really need the icecream.. With the right attitude and knowledge, any work can become positive and rewarding. If not, maybe it's time to change?
I recommend yoga, auyrveda, meditation or just a good walk in the woods. You'll get a new perspective on life.
Life is what you make it. It may sound cliche, but that's because people just say it, they don't live it. Then the words mean nothing and are lifeless. Live it and see for yourself.
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/