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Ever since computers have been around, man has strived to make it play games...
Games are used for our entertainment, and like most forms of entertainment are escapism. Escaping the realities of life and entering a gaming world where the rules are different. But with the advances in technology going in such big leaps now, how long will it be before we can keep our lives playing games and our reality separate?
One thing that brought this to my attention was an interview in PCGamer, the September 1999 issue (with the Tiberian Sun front cover) which was with Richard Garriot AKA Lord British. He is the creator of the Ultima universe. He believes that with Ultima Online a whole online world has been created. In the interview he talks about such things as having adverts in the virtual world, and allowing real businesses to set up in the virtual world. For example, in the online virtual world you could nip into a Special Reserve store, and buy a game, and it would actually order the game for you, and Special Reserve would send the game to your doorstep. And all this within an online video game...
Another thing with Ultima Online, and other MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) is that people are spending so much of their free time on these virtual worlds, simply because these online existences are more fun than reality. People are even spending REAL money buying gold (Ultima Onlines currency) off of other players. One person bought some virtual property on Ultima Online from Ebay for $5000 in REAL money! Is escapism to this degree right? If we are so pre-occupied with our virtual representations will we lose sight of who we are in reality, or our goals in reality?
Another thing in this interview was the fact that Richard Garriot wanted to really blur the boundaries of reality in a quite scary way. As well as having messages (presumably in the form of phone texts, e-mail, and pagers) telling you when your virtual assets are under attack, he has much bigger ideas. One of these stemmed from some goggles, which you wear when sleeping. They watch your eye movements, and know when you are dreaming, and once a dream has finished. When a dream is over they blink an LED into your eyes to wake you so you can remember your dreams. But what happens if you start to DREAM that the LED is waking you? It would take you some time to figure out if you really were awake, or still dreaming. Garriot had the idea of hooking these goggles up to a PC, so you play a game, and while you are asleep the PC communicates with you while dreaming. If in the video game your character was, say, in Russia, it would make you dream about receiving a package or E-mail from Moscow.
You may think this is ingenious, but however you look at it, it could be dangerous for people. You could begin to question what is real anymore, and if an individual finds their online existence better than their real existence, all they need is a PC (or console) and internet connection, and they can disappear from 'reality'.
Another example is Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights, due for release on GameCube. It has a sanity meter, so the more and more unbelievable things your character sees, the more they lose grip on reality. For example you may be fighting enemies, only to find they were not real, and just in your head, or you may check your inventory to find all your equipment gone, but it is just you losing your grip. This isn't as drastic as the stuff above, but could be developed further from here to incorporate some of the online ideas. Another thing that could be utilized is the sensor used on one of the N64 Tetris titles, which measured whether you were panicking, and would increase the tempo if you were. Just imagine playing something like Eternal Darkness, or Resident Evil, and the more nervous or anxious you got, the more your character became paranoid, and began to imagine noises behind you, or shadows moving in strange ways. This would undoubtedly create an awesome game environment, but would it connect us with the game too far?
Can the real reality begin to take the back seat while we indulge ourselves in 'realities' which, at the end of the day, only exist on our TV screens and monitors, while others who aren't as well off as us must suffer in their real lives. Games have always been a target for those looking for a scapegoat, but if reality and virtual worlds are blurred to this extent could games really start to breed people who have no grasp of what is real, and what isn't and become increasingly psychotic? We are all familiar with the mass media using Video games as a scapegoat for various things, from school shootings to ‘bad attitudes’. But if some of these ideas were implemented could we really say that gaming wasn’t affecting us or affecting our state of mind? If we can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is in a game, simply because games have invaded our reality, then how will we know whether we are acting in the game or in reality? Also, would our memories be affected? I have some pretty vivid memories myself of some things when I was really young and I also have some very vivid memories of some dreams I have had, but would the difference between them be blurred? We may begin to think things in our dreams actually happened, or things that did happen were just dreams. If games could communicate with our dreams as well, then we could begin to believe our games were more than just games, and were actually real too.
Obviously, none of these things will happen in the near future, but technology is moving so quickly these days. These ideas may seem like science fiction, but just look at the machines that we were playing games on ten to fifteen years ago. These ideas could well be implemented in our lifetimes, and if they were would you be opposed to them? And would the younger generation still be insisting that these new types of video games still don’t affect them and that the older people are always looking for a scapegoat? It could happen, but under those circumstances, would video games actually be a threat to society?
Your thoughts and comments on this topic please. Thanks for reading, even if you just took one look and thought, "No way I'm not reading that, it's way too long!"
Games are used for our entertainment, and like most forms of entertainment are escapism. Escaping the realities of life and entering a gaming world where the rules are different. But with the advances in technology going in such big leaps now, how long will it be before we can keep our lives playing games and our reality separate?
One thing that brought this to my attention was an interview in PCGamer, the September 1999 issue (with the Tiberian Sun front cover) which was with Richard Garriot AKA Lord British. He is the creator of the Ultima universe. He believes that with Ultima Online a whole online world has been created. In the interview he talks about such things as having adverts in the virtual world, and allowing real businesses to set up in the virtual world. For example, in the online virtual world you could nip into a Special Reserve store, and buy a game, and it would actually order the game for you, and Special Reserve would send the game to your doorstep. And all this within an online video game...
Another thing with Ultima Online, and other MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) is that people are spending so much of their free time on these virtual worlds, simply because these online existences are more fun than reality. People are even spending REAL money buying gold (Ultima Onlines currency) off of other players. One person bought some virtual property on Ultima Online from Ebay for $5000 in REAL money! Is escapism to this degree right? If we are so pre-occupied with our virtual representations will we lose sight of who we are in reality, or our goals in reality?
Another thing in this interview was the fact that Richard Garriot wanted to really blur the boundaries of reality in a quite scary way. As well as having messages (presumably in the form of phone texts, e-mail, and pagers) telling you when your virtual assets are under attack, he has much bigger ideas. One of these stemmed from some goggles, which you wear when sleeping. They watch your eye movements, and know when you are dreaming, and once a dream has finished. When a dream is over they blink an LED into your eyes to wake you so you can remember your dreams. But what happens if you start to DREAM that the LED is waking you? It would take you some time to figure out if you really were awake, or still dreaming. Garriot had the idea of hooking these goggles up to a PC, so you play a game, and while you are asleep the PC communicates with you while dreaming. If in the video game your character was, say, in Russia, it would make you dream about receiving a package or E-mail from Moscow.
You may think this is ingenious, but however you look at it, it could be dangerous for people. You could begin to question what is real anymore, and if an individual finds their online existence better than their real existence, all they need is a PC (or console) and internet connection, and they can disappear from 'reality'.
Another example is Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights, due for release on GameCube. It has a sanity meter, so the more and more unbelievable things your character sees, the more they lose grip on reality. For example you may be fighting enemies, only to find they were not real, and just in your head, or you may check your inventory to find all your equipment gone, but it is just you losing your grip. This isn't as drastic as the stuff above, but could be developed further from here to incorporate some of the online ideas. Another thing that could be utilized is the sensor used on one of the N64 Tetris titles, which measured whether you were panicking, and would increase the tempo if you were. Just imagine playing something like Eternal Darkness, or Resident Evil, and the more nervous or anxious you got, the more your character became paranoid, and began to imagine noises behind you, or shadows moving in strange ways. This would undoubtedly create an awesome game environment, but would it connect us with the game too far?
Can the real reality begin to take the back seat while we indulge ourselves in 'realities' which, at the end of the day, only exist on our TV screens and monitors, while others who aren't as well off as us must suffer in their real lives. Games have always been a target for those looking for a scapegoat, but if reality and virtual worlds are blurred to this extent could games really start to breed people who have no grasp of what is real, and what isn't and become increasingly psychotic? We are all familiar with the mass media using Video games as a scapegoat for various things, from school shootings to ‘bad attitudes’. But if some of these ideas were implemented could we really say that gaming wasn’t affecting us or affecting our state of mind? If we can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is in a game, simply because games have invaded our reality, then how will we know whether we are acting in the game or in reality? Also, would our memories be affected? I have some pretty vivid memories myself of some things when I was really young and I also have some very vivid memories of some dreams I have had, but would the difference between them be blurred? We may begin to think things in our dreams actually happened, or things that did happen were just dreams. If games could communicate with our dreams as well, then we could begin to believe our games were more than just games, and were actually real too.
Obviously, none of these things will happen in the near future, but technology is moving so quickly these days. These ideas may seem like science fiction, but just look at the machines that we were playing games on ten to fifteen years ago. These ideas could well be implemented in our lifetimes, and if they were would you be opposed to them? And would the younger generation still be insisting that these new types of video games still don’t affect them and that the older people are always looking for a scapegoat? It could happen, but under those circumstances, would video games actually be a threat to society?
Your thoughts and comments on this topic please. Thanks for reading, even if you just took one look and thought, "No way I'm not reading that, it's way too long!"
maybe its even happened to people on this very forum...
'I'll just go on for ten mins...'
(don't hold your breath...)
'I'll just go on for ten mins...'
(don't hold your breath...)
Yeah I agree alot of people are finding themselves lost on their PCs.
"I'll just go on for five..."
*1 month later*
*doorbell rings*
Grr abbb u larggh
*door smashed down*
*guy with bags under his eyes and a dirty beard comes and shouts and police in his dressing gown*
"I'll just go on for five..."
Oh dear!
"I'll just go on for five..."
*1 month later*
*doorbell rings*
Grr abbb u larggh
*door smashed down*
*guy with bags under his eyes and a dirty beard comes and shouts and police in his dressing gown*
"I'll just go on for five..."
Oh dear!
Ever since computers have been around, man has strived to make it play games...
Games are used for our entertainment, and like most forms of entertainment are escapism. Escaping the realities of life and entering a gaming world where the rules are different. But with the advances in technology going in such big leaps now, how long will it be before we can keep our lives playing games and our reality separate?
One thing that brought this to my attention was an interview in PCGamer, the September 1999 issue (with the Tiberian Sun front cover) which was with Richard Garriot AKA Lord British. He is the creator of the Ultima universe. He believes that with Ultima Online a whole online world has been created. In the interview he talks about such things as having adverts in the virtual world, and allowing real businesses to set up in the virtual world. For example, in the online virtual world you could nip into a Special Reserve store, and buy a game, and it would actually order the game for you, and Special Reserve would send the game to your doorstep. And all this within an online video game...
Another thing with Ultima Online, and other MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) is that people are spending so much of their free time on these virtual worlds, simply because these online existences are more fun than reality. People are even spending REAL money buying gold (Ultima Onlines currency) off of other players. One person bought some virtual property on Ultima Online from Ebay for $5000 in REAL money! Is escapism to this degree right? If we are so pre-occupied with our virtual representations will we lose sight of who we are in reality, or our goals in reality?
Another thing in this interview was the fact that Richard Garriot wanted to really blur the boundaries of reality in a quite scary way. As well as having messages (presumably in the form of phone texts, e-mail, and pagers) telling you when your virtual assets are under attack, he has much bigger ideas. One of these stemmed from some goggles, which you wear when sleeping. They watch your eye movements, and know when you are dreaming, and once a dream has finished. When a dream is over they blink an LED into your eyes to wake you so you can remember your dreams. But what happens if you start to DREAM that the LED is waking you? It would take you some time to figure out if you really were awake, or still dreaming. Garriot had the idea of hooking these goggles up to a PC, so you play a game, and while you are asleep the PC communicates with you while dreaming. If in the video game your character was, say, in Russia, it would make you dream about receiving a package or E-mail from Moscow.
You may think this is ingenious, but however you look at it, it could be dangerous for people. You could begin to question what is real anymore, and if an individual finds their online existence better than their real existence, all they need is a PC (or console) and internet connection, and they can disappear from 'reality'.
Another example is Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights, due for release on GameCube. It has a sanity meter, so the more and more unbelievable things your character sees, the more they lose grip on reality. For example you may be fighting enemies, only to find they were not real, and just in your head, or you may check your inventory to find all your equipment gone, but it is just you losing your grip. This isn't as drastic as the stuff above, but could be developed further from here to incorporate some of the online ideas. Another thing that could be utilized is the sensor used on one of the N64 Tetris titles, which measured whether you were panicking, and would increase the tempo if you were. Just imagine playing something like Eternal Darkness, or Resident Evil, and the more nervous or anxious you got, the more your character became paranoid, and began to imagine noises behind you, or shadows moving in strange ways. This would undoubtedly create an awesome game environment, but would it connect us with the game too far?
Can the real reality begin to take the back seat while we indulge ourselves in 'realities' which, at the end of the day, only exist on our TV screens and monitors, while others who aren't as well off as us must suffer in their real lives. Games have always been a target for those looking for a scapegoat, but if reality and virtual worlds are blurred to this extent could games really start to breed people who have no grasp of what is real, and what isn't and become increasingly psychotic? We are all familiar with the mass media using Video games as a scapegoat for various things, from school shootings to ‘bad attitudes’. But if some of these ideas were implemented could we really say that gaming wasn’t affecting us or affecting our state of mind? If we can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is in a game, simply because games have invaded our reality, then how will we know whether we are acting in the game or in reality? Also, would our memories be affected? I have some pretty vivid memories myself of some things when I was really young and I also have some very vivid memories of some dreams I have had, but would the difference between them be blurred? We may begin to think things in our dreams actually happened, or things that did happen were just dreams. If games could communicate with our dreams as well, then we could begin to believe our games were more than just games, and were actually real too.
Obviously, none of these things will happen in the near future, but technology is moving so quickly these days. These ideas may seem like science fiction, but just look at the machines that we were playing games on ten to fifteen years ago. These ideas could well be implemented in our lifetimes, and if they were would you be opposed to them? And would the younger generation still be insisting that these new types of video games still don’t affect them and that the older people are always looking for a scapegoat? It could happen, but under those circumstances, would video games actually be a threat to society?
Your thoughts and comments on this topic please. Thanks for reading, even if you just took one look and thought, "No way I'm not reading that, it's way too long!"
Games are used for our entertainment, and like most forms of entertainment are escapism. Escaping the realities of life and entering a gaming world where the rules are different. But with the advances in technology going in such big leaps now, how long will it be before we can keep our lives playing games and our reality separate?
One thing that brought this to my attention was an interview in PCGamer, the September 1999 issue (with the Tiberian Sun front cover) which was with Richard Garriot AKA Lord British. He is the creator of the Ultima universe. He believes that with Ultima Online a whole online world has been created. In the interview he talks about such things as having adverts in the virtual world, and allowing real businesses to set up in the virtual world. For example, in the online virtual world you could nip into a Special Reserve store, and buy a game, and it would actually order the game for you, and Special Reserve would send the game to your doorstep. And all this within an online video game...
Another thing with Ultima Online, and other MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) is that people are spending so much of their free time on these virtual worlds, simply because these online existences are more fun than reality. People are even spending REAL money buying gold (Ultima Onlines currency) off of other players. One person bought some virtual property on Ultima Online from Ebay for $5000 in REAL money! Is escapism to this degree right? If we are so pre-occupied with our virtual representations will we lose sight of who we are in reality, or our goals in reality?
Another thing in this interview was the fact that Richard Garriot wanted to really blur the boundaries of reality in a quite scary way. As well as having messages (presumably in the form of phone texts, e-mail, and pagers) telling you when your virtual assets are under attack, he has much bigger ideas. One of these stemmed from some goggles, which you wear when sleeping. They watch your eye movements, and know when you are dreaming, and once a dream has finished. When a dream is over they blink an LED into your eyes to wake you so you can remember your dreams. But what happens if you start to DREAM that the LED is waking you? It would take you some time to figure out if you really were awake, or still dreaming. Garriot had the idea of hooking these goggles up to a PC, so you play a game, and while you are asleep the PC communicates with you while dreaming. If in the video game your character was, say, in Russia, it would make you dream about receiving a package or E-mail from Moscow.
You may think this is ingenious, but however you look at it, it could be dangerous for people. You could begin to question what is real anymore, and if an individual finds their online existence better than their real existence, all they need is a PC (or console) and internet connection, and they can disappear from 'reality'.
Another example is Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights, due for release on GameCube. It has a sanity meter, so the more and more unbelievable things your character sees, the more they lose grip on reality. For example you may be fighting enemies, only to find they were not real, and just in your head, or you may check your inventory to find all your equipment gone, but it is just you losing your grip. This isn't as drastic as the stuff above, but could be developed further from here to incorporate some of the online ideas. Another thing that could be utilized is the sensor used on one of the N64 Tetris titles, which measured whether you were panicking, and would increase the tempo if you were. Just imagine playing something like Eternal Darkness, or Resident Evil, and the more nervous or anxious you got, the more your character became paranoid, and began to imagine noises behind you, or shadows moving in strange ways. This would undoubtedly create an awesome game environment, but would it connect us with the game too far?
Can the real reality begin to take the back seat while we indulge ourselves in 'realities' which, at the end of the day, only exist on our TV screens and monitors, while others who aren't as well off as us must suffer in their real lives. Games have always been a target for those looking for a scapegoat, but if reality and virtual worlds are blurred to this extent could games really start to breed people who have no grasp of what is real, and what isn't and become increasingly psychotic? We are all familiar with the mass media using Video games as a scapegoat for various things, from school shootings to ‘bad attitudes’. But if some of these ideas were implemented could we really say that gaming wasn’t affecting us or affecting our state of mind? If we can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is in a game, simply because games have invaded our reality, then how will we know whether we are acting in the game or in reality? Also, would our memories be affected? I have some pretty vivid memories myself of some things when I was really young and I also have some very vivid memories of some dreams I have had, but would the difference between them be blurred? We may begin to think things in our dreams actually happened, or things that did happen were just dreams. If games could communicate with our dreams as well, then we could begin to believe our games were more than just games, and were actually real too.
Obviously, none of these things will happen in the near future, but technology is moving so quickly these days. These ideas may seem like science fiction, but just look at the machines that we were playing games on ten to fifteen years ago. These ideas could well be implemented in our lifetimes, and if they were would you be opposed to them? And would the younger generation still be insisting that these new types of video games still don’t affect them and that the older people are always looking for a scapegoat? It could happen, but under those circumstances, would video games actually be a threat to society?
Your thoughts and comments on this topic please. Thanks for reading, even if you just took one look and thought, "No way I'm not reading that, it's way too long!"