Writing Assignment 11: Internet Gaming and Virtual Worlds

I would have to say that the concept of these virtual communities an interesting one. Who would have ever thought that something as simple of a concept could be so appealing to so many individuals. If I’m not mistaken, second life is a simulation of an economy within society. And from the article in Newsweek, Joi Ito said, “Yes, it's just a game, The way that the real world is a game." So basically he’s saying that virtual worlds are simulated forms of real-life, as real-life is a game. Does anything sound wrong about that or is this a good tool to see how people may actually be within a society when there is anonymity and an allowance for the bending of rules when the consequences aren’t real for acts of misbehavior. I don’t know maybe my perception of the virtual worlds is unclear, the article about the rape in cyberspace was like reading Greek to me and I just couldn’t follow who was who and, I don’t know.

Anyway, the fact that it seems as though people are spending so much time on the programs is that it appears to distort their perceptions of what’s real or tangible and what’s not; this is pure insanity. How are these games so appealing that people won’t even get up to eat? Like in “The Unreal Estate Boom” article where the man paid “real” money for an imaginary house and property, WTF. The article said he spent more than a week’s earning of wages from his actual (real) job to make this purchase. I would say that this is a major intersection of where real-life and “virtual” economies have crossed. Part of an example within a search for virtual economy on Wikipedia was that an attorney was banned from second life in 2007, this guy sued the developers on the basis of, “depriving him of his land” keep in mind this is imaginary land.

However, Edward Castronova, is an economist at Indiana University in Bloomington, whose interests now are mainly in creating such economies for experimentation purposes. His latest is a simulated world known as “Arden”. Arden’s purpose is to run economic experiments. Basically, it’s to develop an economy and incorporate aspects of the real world, such as inflation and aspects of supply and demand.

The purpose of these experiments are to test the affects of how laws will influence individual behavior, and also to test new forms or assumptions of marketing theory. I think Castronova is heading in the right direction and the “virtual” economies are something novel and there’s a need for them to be dissected, analyzed and interpreted. This is something that can benefit us but we need the reasons, we needs reasons as to why these virtual worlds are found to be so appealing, what is it that makes individual users act in certain ways when it comes to involving themselves. Is it the fact that it’s something to just take up time or that its fun? Or is it the society has become individualized into practicing these games or virtual worlds secluded and distancing that real life contact or face-to-face interaction that appears to be dwindling away in the coming generations. Either way, this is something that requires the devotion of research to obtain a better understanding what really occurs with the usage of these "virtual" worlds in relation to the human psyche.

References:

Dibbell, J. (January 2oo3). The Unreal Estate Boom. Retrieved 4 November, 2008, from Wired Web site: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/gaming.html

Levy, S. (2008). World of Warcraft: Is It a Game? Retrieved 4 November, 2008, from MSNBC Web site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098