Why Do We Do This? (Computer Games / "Virtual" Worlds)

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

We have technology (computers) which allows us to create virtual, alternate worlds and where we can choose to spend a significant amount of time in, away from the "real" world.

How do you know this is the "real" world? Not to sound like the matrix or anything. How do you know your not in a fantasy world created by some super computer? Your brain is a computer afterall.

Why do we do this? It's an important question that must be asked. What we call the real world is full of games and illusions allready.. Someone said the whole world is a stage which makes us then all actors... all of us actors in the same mysterious game of reality.

A quote from the movie "eXistenZ" (1999) from the world's greatest game designer, Allegra Geller:

Allegra: You have to PLAY the game, to find out WHY you're playing the game."

Other reasons we do this is for the philosophical value, or because we all like to be entertained. Here's Chris Carter's take on virtual reality, "Harsh Realm" (1999)


It appears that 1999 was an important year for virtual reality philosophy in films, "The Matrix" and "The 13th Floor" were also out that year.

crowdedskies
reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

 

Just thought I would speak for the minority ? - I mean those who never play computer games.

I have never been interested in computer games and ,to be honest, I have difficulty in understanding the addiction to things such as Xbox and Playstation. It is scary to see how people are so taken over by virtual games. Apparently it is even worse in countries such as Japan.

Ironically, I consider the gamers to be the real-life zombies. It is really sad that so many clever people have fallen prey to the virtual world and have effectively stopped "living".

Why do people do it ? In my view it could be a subconscious acknowledgment of failure to shape their environment. Sadly the more they retreat into the virtual world, the more it becomes difficult to impose the will on the surroundings.

I know how it started. Before video games, we had the space and time to explore and play similar games in real-life. My college class-mates used to play Counterstrike type games with super-soakers on the top floor of a car-park (there weren't any other cars there, so nothing got damaged). My farm cousins used to play in the bushfields around their farmhouse. Sometimes the adults would make treasure hunt games for the kids during Easter.

For the adults, there were forest games like Orienteering where you have to find tags and checkpoints along a route through a forest. We did the same along disused railway lines that had been turned into public pathways. Other entertainments were crazy golf courses, a wooden fort, the art gallery,

When I was a teenager, I used to love a place called Hazlehead maze. It's a real maze made out of high hedges, but it cost at least £3 for one person to get in. All kids had to be escorted so that slowed things a bit. Then after a while, once the path was known, it really lost the mystery. Then I realized it was the junctions and cross-roads I found most interesting, and not the long passageways, short dead-ends or corners.

Then home computers came along, and the fun of exploring a maze came back. On a rainy weekend afternoon, I could create random mazes, not have to fork out £5 every time, and take as long as I wanted to explore, not get into trouble for being late home, plus it was cheaper than going to an arcade.

Then it just exploded from there on - everyone could do things that they didn't have time to do or could never do in real-life, like sky-diving into your own backyard

Started with pong and Atari was my first home system.

The first games were mostly imagination.

With every generation the first years were mostly crap until Doom came along.

Eventually we will create worlds that could rival the plane where we exist.

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


See, I would agree with everything you said up there, but I watch some pretty violent movies. And I've played some pretty sick console games too. It's pretty entertaining stuff to me, but I'm not that bad of a person. I have sympathy for other people and show compassion. How exactly is is bad for the soul?

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


we do this because we take after the people who created us and our virtual matrix

I think a lot of people seem to have the same preconceived notions about video games as many did 15-20 years ago. Maybe it's a generational thing, but if I get into a conversation with someone older than myself, the usual response is "oh yeah, video games, I remember Pong, but thats about it". I think many people would be surprised how much fun games are these days, especially once they'd given themselves time to get used to the way it works.

Modern games are so incredibly stimulating these days that they can become addictive, so in depth that your brain begins to feel tired after a while, so mentally taxing that the sense of achievement you get (particularly head to head against other people, not AI) is incredible.

Let's also widen the perspective a bit, there are hundreds and hundreds of games which are not remotely violent, but arguably just as challenging.
Take simulation games for example, Simcity is a great game, challenging and arguably increases decision making, budgeting and logic skills to name a few.
Going even further, a few years ago most simulation software was attached to multi-million pound computer in aerospace industries, but nowadays with the ever increasing power of consumer hardware means that anyone interested in driving a race car can get a very good sense of how it feels to do it for real, working in conjunction with motion rigs, steering wheels, and the incredible Oculus Rift VR headset. It's no surprise Formula One teams use simulation, as it helps with readiness and acclimatisation, and allows them to get a head start before they ever fire up the real car. Why do pilots use simulators? They work. They're immersive, they prepare you.


There's no doubt you can have "too much", but that's the same with anything, real life still rules!

RichAwake
I think a lot of people seem to have the same preconceived notions about video games as many did 15-20 years ago. Maybe it's a generational thing, but if I get into a conversation with someone older than myself, the usual response is "oh yeah, video games, I remember Pong, but thats about it". I think many people would be surprised how much fun games are these days, especially once they'd given themselves time to get used to the way it works.

Modern games are so incredibly stimulating these days that they can become addictive, so in depth that your brain begins to feel tired after a while, so mentally taxing that the sense of achievement you get (particularly head to head against other people, not AI) is incredible.

Let's also widen the perspective a bit, there are hundreds and hundreds of games which are not remotely violent, but arguably just as challenging.
Take simulation games for example, Simcity is a great game, challenging and arguably increases decision making, budgeting and logic skills to name a few.
Going even further, a few years ago most simulation software was attached to multi-million pound computer in aerospace industries, but nowadays with the ever increasing power of consumer hardware means that anyone interested in driving a race car can get a very good sense of how it feels to do it for real, working in conjunction with motion rigs, steering wheels, and the incredible Oculus Rift VR headset. It's no surprise Formula One teams use simulation, as it helps with readiness and acclimatisation, and allows them to get a head start before they ever fire up the real car. Why do pilots use simulators? They work. They're immersive, they prepare you.


There's no doubt you can have "too much", but that's the same with anything, real life still rules!

There's not only Oculus Rift headsets, there's also those 3D monitors with shutter glasses. Those are just incredible, capable of viewing anything from 1800's stereoscopic cards to present day IMax movies and video games with the same pop-out depth of field that you see in the real world. With "anything" being skydivers, going underwater, racing cars, timelapse movies, or NASA images of the Moon and the Sun. It's even possible to see the surface of Mars as if you were looking at it using a pair of binoculars.

Adrenaline or adventure junkies? Some kind of digital survival prep? Why not? Once I branched out into the newer on the market MMORPGs, poor ol WOW became really stale, though if you're looking for non group of friends or guild play you have the dungeon and pvp system to group you up and that it still seems to be the most popular of MMOs... If anyone was looking for a WOW replacement, I dunno about The Secret World for that, I'd say more Rift or Guild Wars 2. SW is a fun. Well, challenging, but the other two games mentioned probably would fair better to someone similarity to WOW.