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How Virtual Worlds Improved My Real Social Life (Or "Those Internet Weirdos Can Actually Make Good F
By Rachel Blackman
When I was a student in high school, my parents were worried that I had a problem. I wasn't sleeping much, I was spending money on new habits, I was receiving odd phonecalls from people my parents didn't know, and I could never really clearly explain what I was up to. All the classic signs of every parent's worst fear were there.
Yes, I had discovered online gaming.
All joking aside, online gaming and virtual worlds are a part of modern life. From Everquest to World of Warcraft, their popularity is on the rise. Countless people immerse themselves in these alternate lives every day. They put aside their mundane identity and concerns, all the stress of the office or classroom, and don the guise of a great warrior, a powerful mage, or a skilled craftsman.
It's often a way of acting out an impractical fantasy: after all, there's little call in the real world for a skilled weaponsmith any more, much less an armed and armored knight. And sometimes people get too drawn into these fantasies. There have been countless articles written about how online gaming can be a bad thing. How it can swallow you whole, and damage your social life. But managed responsibly, online gaming can actually improve your social life offline, or "IRL" – In Real Life – as many gamers refer to reality outside their chosen virtual world.
My own gaming interests lie in an old and increasingly-forgotten area of online virtual worlds: text-based games. Dating back to the 1980's, text-based virtual worlds are less the glitzy graphical games of today, and more like a cooperative writing project. The objects you make, the places you explore and even the things you say and do are all described entirely in prose.
The particular virtual world I've participated in for years is a fantasy game called Firan (http://firan.legendary.org/), rich in politics and intrigue and set in a vaguely Greco-Roman world. In my years on the game, I've played a number of roles, from an apprentice weaponsmith to a young would-be housewife, from an elderly noblewoman to the heir to one of the thrones. But the best role I've played in connection with the game is that of myself, in interacting with other players.
Players on Firan share common ground to begin with. With a strong Greco-Roman influence to the game's world, many of the players have an interest in classical history or archaeology, or just watch a lot of HBO's "Rome." With the prose format of the game, many are aspiring – or professional – writers, or at the very least enjoy reading. But players come from all over the world, and all walks of life. I've become friends with players from all over the United Kingdom, from Australia, Germany and even Singapore. I've heard about their jobs, their hobbies, learned their opinions on current world events and politics, and learned more of their home and culture. The experience of speaking to these people online has broadened my world.
Beyond words on a screen, once a year any players who can make it gather in Maryland for a weekend. As we share food and participate in all sorts of games, we come to know the faces and minds of those who provide the voices for our fellow storytellers. Often friendships come away stronger; I've met my two best friends through these gatherings, and we now do many things together outside of Firan's virtual space. People have found roommates and job leads through their Firan friends. And there is even a wedding coming up between two players who met years ago at one of these annual gatherings.
The community is built not only around the shared story we craft, but also around the relationships we have as players. Laughter, encouragement, sympathy and even aid – such as to the players who were caught in the path of hurricane Katrina – are all part of that community and experience. Though there are quarrels and arguments too, just as in any social group. In a way, it has become a virtual family. Even those who have moved on from the game generally remain part of the greater family, staying in touch with the friends they made.
There's no doubt that online gaming can consume your social life if left unchecked, but in moderation it can also enrich it immeasurably. The friendships and bonds formed within virtual worlds can become just as strong and valuable as those formed in the office or the classroom.
And who knows? Maybe some year, I'll see you in Maryland.
About the Author
Rachel Blackman is a twenty-something software engineer and aspiring fiction writer. She also rides and cares for horses, in her not-so-copious free time.
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/33394.html
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