Comments on: Defining “Real”

By: FEMAELSTROM

FEMAELSTROM — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:52:34 +0000

I have always said that Home and all it’s facets are real. Home is real because we do experience the stuff we send our avatars out to do. The reality is that when you meet someone, they are real, some body says something, it makes you mad or laugh. When you buy something, you don’t get a physical item, but you do get the entertainment of using it and having fun with it. I equate that to a movie, you walk in and pay and walk away with nothing but the memory in your head. Home is real and on so many levels. I love the reality and think that in this Home has a depth and value to so many of the more than casual user. Thank you for the comment on my writing, I just say what is on my mind, but I am glad that there folk out there that like it. Thanks Jin.

By: Gary160974

Gary160974 — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:13:15 +0000

Its actually quite dangerous to consider social MMOs as anywhere near reality. They take an person and turn them into a person they cannot be in they real life. There are several ways a social MMO will use to get users to repeat actions usually through a rewards system. In effect, the social MMO rewards users to perform repetitive tasks and entices the player to play regularly and workman like. A social MMO encourages making friends or joining clubs that then become social obligations to the user. The danger lies in, are you addicted? Addiction has lots of symptoms but mainly its, can you go without it, do you think about it lots when your not doing it, and could you give it up now if required. Thats when it becomes an issue, as an addiction can cause anxiety and depression. Its hard to become addicted to a normal game as theres usually an end to a game and very little social interaction. A social MMO should not be a lifestyle choice and you should not need to change your lifestyle to use one. Remember the countless hours you put into this could simply go down the drain. All of your efforts merely result in a bunch of ones and zeros stored somewhere.

By: Godzprototype

Godzprototype — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:59:39 +0000

I love these kinds of discussions. Choices are made real by our imagination. I don’t believe you could ever put a hard number on how many choices we can make.
There are all of the other senses to consider. Being human should be very similar to a symphony in action. And a touch of the Heisenberg uncertainty principal.
What is real, is what you accept as real.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:50:51 +0000

Very interesting read Jin. Thanks for the kind words, I love to write, it is as simple as that, and Home is a very inspiring place to use for it. Home has so many facets and stories, as many as the people that inhabit it. My family doesn’t really understand what I do here or have found here, though they love the fact I am writing for this magazine, they haven’t a clue how I find things to write about.
Great article, very thought provoking.

By: KrazyFace

KrazyFace — Fri, 31 May 2013 07:52:33 +0000

Deep man. And also touches on religion at the end there, which I’ll avoid for the obvious reasons. But the reality/not real part…

It’s a very good question; what is real. Because if reality is just a physical reaction to things, then any dreams we might have will only ever be that -- dreams. However, we already know this not to be true. As humans we can dream, think of the future and where we’d like to be when we arrive there. It’s precisely this that makes us so unique, because we have control over it. Don’t just dream it, BE it. We can imagine something (at which moment it may not be “real”) but we can then act on those thoughts and make them real.

Then there’s the whole alternate realities thing, can we exist in multiple places at once? There’s every possibility. If you told someone from 1975 that you can take a walk on a beach with a friend while you’re in New York and they’re in Tokyo, they’d phone the doctor, right? Say the same thing to an MMO user and it’s a normal statement to make. Put that on a grander scale involving multiple realities and you begin to wonder which YOU is “the real one”.

OUR reality is based on what we know right now of OUR time system, the molecules and particles we know of and how they work and what our eyes see as real. We can’t see the infrared, but we know it’s there, so just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. What else exists under our noses that our human parts cant detect?

And if they can’t detect or have awareness of us, are we real?