[MUD-Dev] It's just a game (?) [was: Information sharing]

[Matt Mihaly]

On Sun, 20 May 2001, F. Randall Farmer wrote:

> I am of the opinion that making generalizations about any
> equivalence between "canceling an online account" and a real-life
> suicide trivializes real-life suicide. This is especially sensitive
> to people who know people who have committed/attempted suicide.

As someone who was once institutionalized against his will over a
perceived suicide threat (It's written about in Rolling Stone's
Dec. 1994 issue if anyone cares. They did an article on that event in
my life because it involved the internet, which was new to the public
at that point.), I can testify to how completely ridiculous the
blanket comparison between cancelling an online account and suicide
is. Yes, I am crazy. Just ask the government.


> Personally, I have a huge problem attributing even imaginary life to
> my MMORPG characters, they are so alien: They are born adults, they
> appear at random in the world, they run/jump/carry/fight with
> superhuman skill, they type funny, they walk thru other characters,
> they die about 20 times a week, they can't speak/hear/touch/smell
> anything, etc.

Hmm. A character is a mental construction, to me. I have no problem
attributing imaginary life to my characters. Things like the fact that
they die 20 times a week are simply a result of being in a different
universe. For the same reason that I have no problem accepting that I
can't go off the path in Zelda (cause that's just the rules of the
world, like gravity in the physical world), I don't have a problem
accepting the differences between my virtual characters and my
physical character. Obviously I'm more attached to my physical
character, though the part of my physical character I care the most
about has nothing to do with perceived physicality (I don't really
believe in matter as anything more than a convenient fiction.) Indeed,
the part of me that I care the most about is not much different from a
piece of software.

 
> If anyone misses my characters when I stop paying the bill, it'll
> probably be Randy Farmer (the player) that they miss, not Oke
> Fahr-Flung, Vassal Loy-al, Male Grundim, Temporary Scout, or Another
> Fine Mule.  [Well, maybe my patron will miss those Phat XPs Oke's
> been getting him lately. :-) But that's economic loss, not personal
> loss.]

Sure, people will likely miss you, Randy Farmer, a lot more than your
character. That's mainly an argument for why "pure" roleplay is not
only not achievable, but not desirable, in my opinion at least.

I do miss characters, even when I know nothing about the person. A
character isn't separate from a person obviously, as anything the
person has the character do is rooted in the person. However, I view
the person-character relationship in the sense that -inevitably- the
character will change the perception (and thus reality) other people
have of the person.

Some characters I still miss though, and often talk about fondly as if
it was an old friend that I haven't seen in awhile. And in a way,
Randy, it is. At the least, the characters (one in particular) are
parts of me that I'll never experience in the same way again, and in
that sense, they are very real. When I think of myself as a teenager,
I almost think of me as a different person, because in a very real
way, it's not the same person. Is a river a thing, or is it separate
H20 molecules flowing past?


> Oh yeah: I don't think that "It's just a game."  It is more than a
> game, but it is much less than a life.

I disagree. It is a life. It isn't a life in the biological sense, but
that doesn't concern me. It is a life in the sense that part of a
person is put into that character. No, I don't think that Bob the
Dwarf is actually some 4 foot tall dude with a beard, axe, and
penchant for underground lairs (conserves energy you know). Bob the
Dwarf is, however, a convenient label for a very real thing, just as
"Matt" is a convenient label for me. When I talk about Voltaire, I'm
not talking about his ashes sitting in the Pantheon. I'm talking about
the idea of Voltaire. And if he
wasn't a life, no one ever has been.

--matt

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