Response to “Who Am We?”

Getting sucked into virtual simulations in not a rare occurrence. When I was in high school most of my best friends played World of Warcraft religiously, every night, for hours at a time. Thankfully my computer was too low-tech to play WoW, or else I may have been sucked into the same virtual prison. Sherry Turkle in her article Who am We? describes player’s of MMORPG’s, or massively multiplayer online role playing games, but the games that she describes are a little different from WoW. In WoW, players level-up their character, making them stronger and faster through various means like gaining experience to acquire skills or arming their characters with powerful weapons and armor. But the object of WoW is not to be realistic. Everyone’s characters look “cartoonish,” as do the enemies, and the deadly magical spells and gigantic swords played by superhuman warriors adds to the fantasy. Teamwork is encouraged in WoW, actually it is very necessary, but unlike the MMORPGs, or MUDs that Turkle describes WoW is not about forming strong relationships. The players of Turkles study are playing to form strong social bonds as well as to let their inner voices come out in a virtual alter-ego. Although my friends spent days (some…literally over a year of game time) chasing dragons with hundreds of people for a two inch purple sword, the MUDs that Turkle describe do seem far more dangerous. But this obsession or even addiction to immerse oneself in false reality is a relatable one for almost all people. Some people go to the movies, some people take drugs, and some people write. Writing by ones self is a very different way to let inner voices to the surface of consciousness than playing games, because it is private. Creative writers can contruct their world around them and play god with their diverse array of characters. Unlike the games, the writer can completely manipulate his or her world. Technology has delivered us the blog so that a community can cluster around a sect of writing arts. Some people spend hours and hours a day on their blogs, like the game players, and identities can easily be concealed so that the author can let out their most intimate and candid thoughts. In my opinion writing is often a more productive form of expression than games because of the limitless creativity it offers, not to mention a finished product one can look back to or even profit from.