As I started to read Play Money, I was extremely happy to be reading a book that was not dark and complex. The reading was easy to follow and Dibbell was keeping me interested with his explanation of his gaming experiences. I was never big on online roleplaying games. I did not have my own computer at home to spend a lot of time gaming and my school blocked most gaming websites. However, when I was in middle school, my friends and I discovered a website that was not blocked called Miniclip. One of the games that we played was Club Penguin. My whole grade, about thirty-six girls, became obsessed with this interactive game.
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On Club Penguin, each gamer has a penguin avatar that they can dress up, play games for coins, which you could use at the Club Penguin shops, interact with other penguin avatars and live in your own personal igloo. This virtual world that my grade discovered was an escape from school, where we could interact. Although it started as a joke, we all came to love playing on Club Penguin, and for a large portion of the year, we spent countless hours interacting with other penguin avatars. It is not as advanced as other interactive gaming websites, but it was a fun way to communicate and be whoever I wanted to be.
After a while, the Club Penguin phase died out. I personally stopped playing because I preferred playing sports and interacting face-to-face as opposed to through avatars. I did not for the connections with other gamers like Julian Dibbell did in his gaming experiences. I would not be able to game for a living the way the Dibbell managed to because it does not appeal to me (plus I don't think someone could make their living off of a game such as Club Penguin). I prefer human interaction and physical activity to video games because it is more real and personal. Some people game so often that it becomes their life. There is a difference between gaming for fun and gaming for a living. I can understand gaming for fun, but gaming for a living scares me because it reminds me how close we are to a world similar to the one described in William Gibson's Neuromancer. Although technology is advancing towards more immersive 3-D worlds, I am content with face-to-face interaction and games that involve physical activity.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that after a while, virtual worlds and other immersive video games "phase out" or "die out". It's a strange phenomenon and can affect what appears to be the most popular of games and worlds. Runescape is one virtual world that I can recall being wildly popular in middle school but then just randomly fading out at some point. I don't believe it was because we were growing up and maturing to an age where Runescape was no longer cool. I think that it was simply that the games lost their luster. They were no longer new and exciting and the activities in the game became more of a chore than a fun outlet. It appears to have happened to many virtual worlds and video games. As you point out, Club Penguin appears to have also experienced the "phasing out". Thus the phasing out process may be a topic worth studying for gamers who make businesses out of virtual worlds.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you that virtual worlds are only entertaining for so long. But I do believe there is something to be said about a game that can be lucrative. If I were going to make money on Club Penguin, and I could have fun doing it, I would play. But the question is whether or not the days and weeks spent online are worth the little funds that are generated. I believe personally that making money playing a game will always outweigh the incentives to wake up early, get dressed, go to work and sit there all day. I don't know if after this book has been read by a larger population if it will be the source of an influx of internet gamers, but I certainly am thinking twice about calling online gaming frivolous.
ReplyDeleteThis conversation interests me because several media theorists claim that later generations of gamers will not "put away the toys."
ReplyDeleteI do not know yet. Are such toys the analogue of the physical toys that children used to set aside by age 11 or 12? Or will games like Club Penguin and Runescape give way to more sophisticated fare for older players?
Neither your or my generation can answer that one. It will take those who come after you, when these virtual worlds are more evolved.