Skywalker was telling me about this virtual reality world that is slowly gaining in popularity and complexity.
He told me that various corporations and businesses are bidding for spots in virtual worlds now-- clothing designers that sell clothing for your avatars that you can exchange for virtual world currency, that you actually buy with real money (I think it's currently $1 for $250 of the virtual currency), cars, property, etc. People are starting to invest money in online property.
This is really disturbing to me. I feel that it caters to escapists, and is potetially addictive and dangerous. After all, you can be whomever you want. A child molester could pose, virtually, as a little kid. Etcetera.
Skywalker likes to think of the potential for missionary work. I'm not so sure about that.
What do you guys think??
6 comments:
Hmm, it kind of blows my mind. really weird.
My favorite is that for awhile one could order Pizza Hut pizza from Everquest II without breaking game.
SecondLife doesn't seem so much a game, however, as it does a bbs/chat type situation. What is the goal of the game? It definitely does strike me as escapism. Its a bit sad, really.
At the same time I'm terribly amused by it as it's very SciFi. It's a solid step closer to The Machine Stops in which all people live isolated, only living indirectly by means of what we would call the Internet. General apathy, desmise of the fmaily unit, and world destruction - here we come! C=
True.
UMMM. Pizza hut.
I used to love to play computer games,even role-playing games, so I can definitely see why it would be fun/attractive to participate in things like EverQuest.
Like anything else online, it has to approached with a certain caution.
If it's fun, though, I might want to try it myself.
It is probably harmless...but also pointless and likely wasteful. My video game addiction of choice is World of Warcraft. If I ever let it get in the way of my life my wife would quickly pull the plug.
I'm sure glad I married a great woman!
Yeah... I loved Civilization. Ever played that one? And I was once married to a man who loved the final fantasy series... that one's pretty fun.
But really, really time consuming, too ;)
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