Does Fantasy Life Improve Real Life?
When was the last time you read a book?
Watched a whole night of TV shows?
Played every video game to 100% completion?
Went to every new movie that looked interesting?
Been a while, eh? Have you lost entire months in Home, coming out only for food and other basic necessities?
Me, too. I’m hooked. Home is yet another totally addictive ‘victimless crime’. I shall enjoy it to the utmost until such time as the rest of the world figures out that we are having too much fun, and then makes it illegal. Probably with very formal Congressional hearings and all that.
I love immersion into another world full of all the activities, excitement, and entertainment found in books and movies – but with the added appeal of being interactive. The thrill of being INSIDE the game – changing the scenery, controlling the actions, reacting to other players (not just NPCs) who are also into their roles – that is why all my recent game purchases are still sitting unopened on the bookcase.
Does being in Home help people cope with real life? Is Home even a representation of real life? I think, for many, it’s an extension of real life. It starts as an escape for many people; a search for entertainment. Many make their avatars look like themselves because it is still part of this real life – it still does not sink in that this is a virtual reality that does not have to resemble real life at all. Then the entertainment value becomes almost surreal in comparison to what they are accustomed to: in real life, books, television, movies, and so forth are “escapes,” yes, but they are not interactive!
The first stage of the Home experience: just sitting in a public space, observing what is happening, and then exploring some of the other public spaces alone.
Then the interactivity begins: wandering around Central Plaza and other public spaces trying to figure out how to meet people. On the rare occasions that someone is willing to talk, the conversations are cautious: “Where are you from?” “How old are you?” “Are you really a girl?” “What’s your name?” “May I add you to my Friend List?”
Again – the emphasis is on pigeonholing the other person in ‘real life’ terms. If the answers are, “I live in an apartment next to the Playground space, I am two years in HOME, I am whichever avatar, female or male, I feel like today, my avatar name is Keara, and I like to know more about someone before I decide on long-term friendships,” the other person will probably turn and run. They still cannot relate on a ‘virtual’ basis. For those people, Home will always be a representation of real life as an extension of their own lives. They will not be able to achieve the immersion in Home that takes the ‘real-life equation’ out of it.
(Can YOU do it? Can you go that far with the role play? Have you tried? Or does it make you uncomfortable? And, if so — why?)
We spend so much of our lives defining ourselves by things we have no control over. Do you believe you have free will? If so, answer this: did you choose your gender, your ethnicity, your language, your family, your place of birth, and your socioeconomic status?
Does it make you uncomfortable to realize that in Home you have the freedom to check-mark the “all of the above” box with that last question?
In real life, my body is old and facing health challenges. Why should I define my virtual life the same way?
So: role play? Yes. The ultimate Home experience, to many, is complete immersion into another world – another person – another personal history. Home has made it easy for us. For instance, you can purchase a personal space that is so much like the island of Moorea that you almost want to start speaking French. You can then grab the Hawaiian and Tahitian costumes for men and women in the Costumes store. You can do it alone – live like a lavish version of Tim Hanks in Castaway – and enjoy beach combing, kicking the ball (or talking to it) and ruminating on when the next hurricane will hit.
OR, for the real fun, you find other whimsical friends who want to spend an hour or two doing a remake of “South Pacific” and have a blast role-playing, ad-libbing some outrageous lines, and staving off real-world hunger for as long as possible. With all the items available for purchase in the furniture store, you can decorate that space so it becomes a turn of the century South Pacific back-water where you would expect to find Somerset Maughm seated on the veranda talking to Sadie Thompson. Or, you can go for Club Med style décor with lots of bottles and umbrella-adorned drinks all over.
Just like in a favorite game such as White Knight Chronicles, you can choose to role-play as male or female. any color, any race, any age. This was my big chance to be Keanu Reeves, so I took it. In fact, I would take Keanu Reeves any way I could get him!
Another $4.99 investment yielded hours of role-play fun: the Dolphy personal space. Not only do I get into it — so do my dolphys! My first dolphy, a female, fell madly in love with the young male I added. Sure, enough, after some interesting gymnastics in mid-ether (not sure if that sky is supposed to be water or air so I settled on ether, that staple of role-play games for decades now), a baby dolphy emerged to join the family fun.
Each day, friends who also own dolphys come to visit. We discuss, in all seriousness, the care, feeding, and training of those dolphys. Crowns, Tiaras, and trophies are cherished just like our kids’ Little League loot. And those races are so real, they might as well be the Kentucky Derby. You know that if you have been to a dolphy race you have, like in a good movie, suspended disbelief and actually voted for one of those critters and then screamed your encouragement to them to GO! GO! GO!
It is the little kid in us who loves to play. We all had our fantasies when we were little kids. Then, we got to middle school and we went from being the BIG fifth graders to the newbie in the middle school babies. Fantasy went out the window and we had to become the big, rough, tough, don’t-mess-with-me guys if we wanted to survive. Fairy princess costumes were replaced with survival gear: trying to disappear into the wood-work. Now, after all these years, the opportunity to play is here – in Home – with thousands of others who can live in a fantasy world and become one with the fantasy.
Some of the personal spaces tap into favorite fiction genres for many of us. The Neptune Suite is another fantastic $4.99 buy that is an enigma. What do we make of a place that is obviously underwater? And full of buildings that look like they sprang from a Robert Heinlein novel? 
Is this the surface of another planet? Or, could this be the lost civilization of Atlantis that sank beneath the surface of the Mediterranean when the center of Santorini island imploded centuries ago?
Is it a leftover set from the backlot of Universal studios where numerous sci-fi movies were made?
Whatever you choose, it can be fascinating role play. Picture the quintessential toga party! All those ancient Atlanteans talking, dancing on the game room platform, roasting marshmallows over that big built-in firepit, and gossiping about how Ulysses made a complete fool of himself over Circe. That’s when your only regret is that you can only have 11 guests at a time.
You get into character and run with it – like a Home version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” except you don’t have Clive Anderson there to keep you from going totally overboard with the dialogue and being sent back to your agent with a pink slip from the network in your hand.
I cannot say if Home has completely become my new reality and that I would rather be in here than out there. But I can say it has changed my view of humanity far beyond anything I could have imagined. Throughout my professional life, people were numbers and charts, market segments, and sets of demographics and psychographics that could be measured. The only non-industry people I was exposed to were people I paid for specific services: hair dresser, car detailer, maid service, dry cleaner counter workers, taxi drivers, etc. Nothing went beyond the most superficial of conversations. I was insulated from contact with people who were not driven by personal ambitions to succeed. Conversations were always industry-related.
Now, 55 years after I graduated from high school, I am finally exposed to people whose lives have been wildly different from mine. They went through life letting life happen to them rather than fighting for every inch of upward mobility. They filled the roles that society dictated to them. And they sought solace by surrounding themselves with friends, family, and community. Their motivations were totally different. And I missed out on a lot.
Has Home affected real life? Yes, now I talk to people, real people, in real life. Home taught me to love people and to care about what happens to them.
What an epiphany that has been.
The combinations of personal spaces and costumes in Home is incredible. You can be the unfortunate (and under-equipped) young man auditioning on the Loot soundstage. You can be the Egyptian tomb guardian in your queen of the Nile costume. Madame Butterly still lives, pining for Lt. Pinkerton in the Japanese Apartment while the sound system in my room plays Une Belle Di in the background. There are so many great opportunities in Home – you are in a virtual world – and, unlike the virtual reality of a movie theatre experience, here you are the star of your own show. You take the props provided and, in your own fastasy, you make them real. And, if you are lucky, you have friends sharing the experience with you.
I think Home will grow and spread as a measurable influence on people’s lives. Just as Twitter made its mark in the elections in Iran, Home is a sleeping giant that will wake up as its potential unfolds. Just as television was not the passing fad that was a common opinion in 1950, virtual reality is here to stay – and to grow.
And I shall stay and play!
January 22nd, 2011 by keara22hi | 11 comments
Keara is also known in Home as DarthGranny. She is a wicked little old lady with a wild sense of humor.
I love reading everything you write. This article has opened my eyes to new ways of looking at Home. Thank you!
Awesome Reading Keara….I love your stories
It is a powerful feeling when u start 2 realize all the things possible on home.Often u r only limited by your imagination,and no matter what u r into or your particular world view u can usually find other ppl with similiar interests.Its endlessly entertaining,and i often find myself leaving home 4 the day wiser than when i entered it that morning.So 2 answer the articles question,yes,at the very least it can broaden your horizons and if not change your point of view will at least give u some serious food 4 thought on many topics.I know of no other place where i could discuss “string theory”in the mid-afternoon,the political consequences of the mongol invasions of the 13th century around dinner time,and around midnight the ramifications of the U.S.”war on drugs”.Its an interesting place and an interesting time,truely the best thing going on the ps3 today.
One of the observations I have made in my foray into this fanciful place is that many people stick with the norm, they may deviate once in awhile by becoming a character in costume, but for the most part they come out into public as regular people. I myself rarely wear anything but my vast clothing choices, in different combination grant you, but still normal by out world standards. I admit I would never consider wearing some of this in real life though. I have many friends who wear crazy combos and change gender as well. I see Home as a way to express ourselves in whatever way we choose, as long as it isn’t harming anyone, GO FOR IT!!
As for it affecting peoples outside lives I have talked to many who have told me that it has enhanced their lives tremendously. Many people are shy and introverted and Home has given them a means to communicate with a level of anonymity of their own choosing. Others are handicapped or unable to leave their real life homes for extended periods of time and Home has given them a wonderful outlet to explore a world that they themselves have a good deal of control over. This is an incredible place we have here, full of fantasy and yet also reality. Once again Keara you have hit a home run with this article, full of imagination and insight, written as only you can. Keep up the good work I always look forward to your next one.
Home, is like many other Virtual worlds, in that it gives people freedom to ‘be’ themselves, no expectations, no pressure, just for that one moment, that person can be whatever he or she wants, and that gives a person a real sense of worth and power.
I would never have met you guys without the aid of meeting in a virtual world, I can have conversations as if you lived right next door to me. These places have broken down barriers, moving away from the Chatrooms of old, and we can now express ourselves more freely than ever before.
Virtual worlds bring ‘The Real World’ much, much closer And Home does this in very much the same way.
When I first started using Home I made my avatar look like my character Stryctnin who is from a series of novels I’m writing. I “role-played” as her and it helped me develop her character more. For the first couple of months most people didn’t know who I was. Only some of my closer friends in Home knew. I figured it wasn’t anybodies business but then I realized I was making friends based on a lie so I eventually told everyone and most didn’t care. It’s Home, there are no rules saying you hafta be what you are in real life. Go for it and use your imagination, it’s no different than when you were young on the playground having space battles with sticks…which I doubt kids even do that anymore.
Indeed. Excellent article. But wait…
Are you suggesting there is a realm known as “Real Life”?
Bah!
Gah!
In fact, bah AND gah! … and pfft.
Am having none of it, thank you very much.
Oh, and “role play”? That’s stoopid.
Well, Nos, next time I am running around in my Michelin-man costume with the light glinting off my bald head whilst klenting unsuspecting hoomans and stealing their bacon, I will try not to remember your words!
As someone who maintains three Facebook accounts — one for the human self, one for the Homeling, and one for the, ah, walrus — I very much appreciate the potential of Home for deep imaginative role-play. I also appreciate that much of this potential has been discovered, not by Sony and its third-party developers, but by the users themselves, playing with the tools they have been given. It’s amazing what creative minds can build from a costume, a set of avatar-modifications and an organizational structure. And it keeps taking off in new directions. ::bows::
I’ll just mention here that Commander SealWyf is currently organizing the Fifth Homeling Art Show, and a related poetry reading. None of which — “Commander”, “Homeling”, “Art Show”, or “poetry reading” — was explicitly created by Sony as part of the Home experience. They gave us the tools to built it (clubhouses, Echochrome, picture frames and text bubbles), and we supplied the imagination.
In a way, this publication is another example of grass-roots world-expansion. Without any official sponsorship, we are creating a body of commentary on the virtual world of Home, discussing it not only from a gamer’s point of view, but from a deeply human perspective. This was something that was never planned (or, perhaps, intended) by Sony when it created the Home product. It’s exciting times for all of us, seeing this publication take shape. I’m delighted to be on board.
Excellent point, Seal; it’s the social elements which keep bringing a lot of us back to Home, and many of those social elements are quite excellent. The Homeling Art Shows. LAIR’s “King Neptune’s End” game. Various groups like PSTalent, HSM and so forth.
Home’s just a hell of a lot of fun. To me, it truly is “reality TV.”
since ‘real’ life has pretty much proven to be futile to me, especially from being so small (ridiculed, mocked, etc.), home pretty much IS my life. sad, but there it is.