With all my pretensions to being a queen, unqueenly is what you would call me on any average day. I'd like my clothes and accessories to be simple and comfortable,
since I have to run around for cabs, autos and of late, public transport. There is no way I can walk around on pencil tip heels (the roads of Hyderabad would not permit me to do that) nor dress in loud colours (by nature I prefer remaining discreet). So when N sent me a Sorority Life invite on Facebook, I dilly - dallied for sometime and then made the plunge.
Hell, I discovered I could make lots of money just by clicking on those buttons called 'organise events.' Great. Soon I had a bank account, and each time I deposited money, I wished it was for real. I could pass various levels and publish my success stories on my wall. (Friends were flummoxed for sometime.) Somebody would pop up on facebook chat and I would ask them to scoot, coz I was busy playing and putting money in bank and acquiring lots of glam. Heck - I wasn't even gonna wear most of those clothes in real life.
I was hooked. Every morning, I would exhaust all my accrued energy on the game and wait for it to replenish so that I could quickly move to next level. Soon, I got a car, two more and then there was no looking back. For someone who gazes at all the audis and mercs in hyd, this was some kind of vicarious satisfaction.
However, something was not altogether right. I discovered I was losing money and confidence. Further investigation showed that I was being attacked by people whom I didnt even know. Worse...I didnt know how to retaliate. I was informed that I was losing because of my limited house (the number of girls on your side and the glam that they have helps you fend off attacks from others.)
But I grew over it in time. What mattered was the money and glam I was acquiring. Soon with the passing levels, I could play some interesting games which now keep me occupied. Consequently my progress on sorority life has become slower. Now I am a Level 41 Diva and the last I checked, I had close to 5 million dollars in my bank account. Only catch is that all of it is not real.
That brings me to the whole point about this - why at all do we have an online life? Why are we more of netizens and less of citizens? Is it the fact that our online alter ego can be all that we are not in reality? Does it offer a medium which remotely approximates to real life? Is that why we dabble in it? Is that the logic behind our addiction to constantly updating our online status? Or is it just our gregarious nature?
4 comments:
Like you said, it's just fun in a simulated world. Again, what you can never get in real life is provided for online in games like these. They are designed to grow on you: they provide entertainment, tease your brain...In short, they keep you wonderfully occupied.
On the flip side, they encourage isolation, leading you to prefer playing a lone game to human contact:-)
The last paragraph aptly summed up the game - life is very much like this actually. We think we are something and imagine we are going somewhere with our name, fame and position. The truth is like the game itself, all of it is not actually there - it will all go sometime.
And yes, screens have a devious way of mirroring our fancies - be it the silver screen movies, lcd screens of out tvs and computers or any other. I agree that that are just visualisations of our fancies and unstated desires. And of course, far far removed from reality in every sense.
Don’t we all live vicariously through others’ experiences one way or another? For example, I am addicted to travel shows on TV. I know that these programs are probably a poor substitute for the real thing. But when I do get up to enter my real life, I have a sense of well being much like when I am actually traveling.
So, I’d say if your vicarious experience is a source of mental and emotional replenishment that is not easily achieved in real life, why not indulge in it?
Don’t worry! We are surrounded by a lot of people who will not hesitate to jolt us back into reality, if needed.
I guess there are two points which would sum up as to why there is a possibility of someone indulging into games (now online with online friends):
One, we cannot afford somethings in life but we can have them in virtual world. Mind likes it. So, its good.
Second, we all like adventure. We all like to do something of our own and quickly too! In games, we get it.
We all played games - earlier with human friends & now with their virtual counter-parts. Its one more option given to explore, which dint exist so freely and abundantly earlier. So, its left as a choice to users.
A balance of online life with real life, would sure give a satisfaction of existing in both the worlds...
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