There was a discussion this week on XMCA about fantasy and reality, whether and how people differentiated, and whether or not virtual reality gaming was a place where those lines got blurred. The discussion can be accessed at their archive site, linked here.
Here is my post and my proposition. Life in WoW is real. It may not be material, but it is real.
And, btw, DING lvl 44.
Re: [xmca] Experience: material, ideal, real, imagined in MMOGs
From: Polin, Linda (Linda.Polin@pepperdine.edu)
Date: Sun Mar 05 2006 - 22:29:32 PST
Hi Mike and X'ers,
I am both playing in and writing about an MMOG at the moment, with a group of doctoral students who are no doubt lurking on this list.
I'm playing in World of Warcraft (or World of Warcrack, as it is often called for good reason). I am very interested in the way in which the designers have shaped interaction and play, with regard to both the client interface for playing, and the sociocultural structures around tasks and interactions in the game play. [I'm also playing in Second Life, but that is a very different creature.]
In WoW, I've played alongside 12 year olds and old farts like myself; college kids complaining about the bandwidth in the dorms, and mommies who periodically have to go AFK BRB (away from keyboard; be right back) to change a diaper. So far none offers any evidence of confusing what you are calling reality and fantasy, although almost all have remarked on one occasion or another about the immersive power of the world to 'wow' them (pun intended) and engage them deeply. Everyone who plays has a story about losing track of time in significant ways. That is immersion. And I think Michelle's remarks with regard to "flow" come the closest to describing what is going on.
Is it material? Because there is an economic system in play, and objects of desire, there is real work happening, and I am NOT referencing only the "gold farmers" in China using game characters to gather game gold to be sold for real money to players who want an easy way to get ahead in the game but lack the time or tenacity to do the grind work. There are also in-game activities analogous to real work and real world life.
Real work: For instance, the guildmaster of my guild is a day trader who spends a lot of time working the Auction House (in-game EBay kind of thing) to make the game money he needs to support his character's needs (e.g., trick out his ride, in this case a white tiger). There are guilds that players belong to, which function as both family and school in a way reminiscent of the Brazilian "Samba schools" Seymour Papert described. Here though, instead of preparing for Mardi Gras competitions with other Samba Schools and having fun, it's about preparing for competitions with other players and having fun.
Real play (within play): For instance, at the recent Winter Veil Festival I got to drink strong ale, and after two drinks, my screen was a bit blurry. After three drinks, it was significantly worse and my mouse actions were less accurate. I was drunk, albeit virtually so, and my game play was impaired.
I would propose that, within the game world, these analogous elements make it a KIND of real world, rather than a fantasy world. There is a very real, game-specific culture that players rely upon to make their way in that world. There are real relationships, real traditions and ways of being in the world, real identity markers, divisions of labor and opportunities for collaboration, sub-cultures, mediational objects with embedded histories that support new learners, etc etc
etc. WoW is fascinating to me because it is NOT a blurring of reality; it is an ALTERNATE (not alternative) reality, an alternate
real culture. By virtue of having a discernible culture, is it not real?
There is an immense amount of material to talk about here, but this is an interesting turn on XMCA and I'm hoping we'll have some 'time' to discuss more. I'd point you to our blog on this, but it's not yet ready for prime time consumption.
Why must we refer to reality as if there were only one possible? =grin=
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