Through out my childhood I was continuously surrounded by video games. Either from a commercial on television boasting the greatest next thing to my brother sitting in front of the computer for hours playing the new madden or hot new multiplayer game out at that time. I dabbled here and there trying some of the new games out and I have to admit I was quite taken by the Sims. But sooner or later with out fail, I would get bored and leave the disk to gather dust on top of our computer table. I would always wonder to myself when looking at my brother or fellow classmates, how could someone sit there for hours engrossed in a game that essentially, in my ten-year-old eyes, had no purpose. Reading Play Money by Julian Dibbell, all these questions came surfacing yet again. Reading pages after pages of someone entranced in a video game in a way opened my eyes to the virtual world that thousands of people live in every day. I can see the relationship that Dibbell was forming with other avatars online and how essentially that was becoming part of his life. How could you not consider someone you talk to for hours a day not part of your life. From reading Play Money I believe multiplayer games have a different sort of pull on people than say the normal sports game or single player games. These new found communities like Ultima Online and Everquest have thriving economies and complex interpersonal relationships. One quote that stood out to me from Dibbell writing states.
“There were strong, compelling pleasures to be found in wanting a thing you couldn’t have, especially a thing as lovely as a “fusion with fiction, a true Dreaming.”(Dibbell,150) These people playing Ultima Online are merely dreamers who are looking to escape into a fantasy land and maybe get away from their old lives for just a bit, but the question remains when does fantasy fuse with reality? People spend so much of their lives all encompassed with these games. Where do you draw the line and say enough and log off the computer after 15 hours of slaying dragons. So from all this self-contemplation and reading of Play Money I still have not drawn conclusion yet about these online communities. I feel unless you truly commit yourself to joining, then you will never know. They are places where you must experience it first hand in order to pass any judgment or criticism.
Hi Claire!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, I had a similar experience with video games. I occasionally played the Sims and I played/sometimes still play NBA Live with my brother. However, like you, I do not understand the appeal to playing MMORPGs. I could never sit for ten hours and play Halo or World of Warcraft unless someone paid me to do it. You raise a great question - where do you draw the line? As appealing as these virtual worlds and MMORPGs may be, people cannot lose touch with reality. Great post!
What keeps nagging at me is how makers of games, even really interesting multi-player ones, might structure them to avoid addiction.
ReplyDeleteI do not know how rewards might be structured so players could progress without spending so many hours on the game. But changing the parameters so luck and skill might compensate for hours spent could begin to make the games less addictive while retaining the fun to be had.