Pondering Virtual World Behaviour
by KrazyFace, HSM team writer
Imagine (if you can) that it’s 1987. The world’s media is obsessed with “the future”, which is apparently filled with killer robots sent through time, killer robots teaching kids in school and for variety, some reluctant killer clones trying to live a bit longer than they should. It wasn’t the best view of our future that humanity imagined, but we had fun doing it. The Utopian concept wasn’t something we seemed to warm to back then. They tried that with “Brazil” but, it all went a bit… wrong.
But what if you could pull someone from that era and drop them into our time now, and show them that it’s quite possible to live part of your life in a virtual world where no one can harm you, and you can be (nearly) anything or anyone you want to be. After the initial tech-shock, I’m sure they’d warm to the idea and become as accustomed to the technology and concept quite quickly as we regular Home users have already. Even though there are still people in this current time of virtual worlds that just can’t wrap their heads around it, I’d like to think that regardless of time period, most people have the ability to understand this idea.
It’s a concept that has many guises too, We inhabit virtual worlds in single-player games, in MMORPGs and of course, in perpetual online social worlds such as Home, IMVU or Second Life, to name only a few of the ways in which we can connect to each other on a global scale. We know that places such as Second Life have a heavier focus on things like user-produced product, which can really push the immersion if you ever “buy land” to build a shop and sell virtual things you’ve made for real money.
But since this is a dedicated Home publication, let’s aim our spotlight on that for now. So, being a citizen of Home is an odd thing. Firstly, you have to take all the manners, P’s & Q’s and general courtesies you’ve learned from actual real life society and throw them out the window. Let’s try not to throw away our moral compasses while we do that, though. We’ll still need those to function and act like a level-headed human being while we’re in there. But the tact that most of us use in our daily interactions in real life need not apply in the virtual. And why hold back your thoughts when there’s no physical repercussions to speaking your mind blatantly and truthfully?
Why indeed?
Let’s go back to the person zapped from 1987 to our space-year 2013 and our virtual environments. No barriers, no consequences and no physical harm for acting or speaking however you please. It’s rather tempting isn’t it, to just go bug-nuts like a kid in a candy store and let loose on anyone that crosses your path. It’s when that realization of what you’re experiencing hits you all at once, that (potentially) you can do and say whatever you damn well please, that people turn into what we’d usually refer to as “Trolls”.
Now, this isn’t a massive excuse for how some people conduct themselves online. Far from it. It’s rather more like the thought-process of the majority when we finally begin to grasp that concept of the virtual world. Just because you can say or do whatever you like, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. It seems almost everyone has to go through a maturing process to get to “acting normal” in any virtual world. And it can be a long, slow process.
I remember my very first visit to Home when its gates opened; after spending about an hour on creating my character I was dropped into the E.U Home Square from my shiny new apartment elevator and within five minutes was told, “You look gay.” I was honestly taken aback. The blatancy of this stranger who had suddenly begun taunting me for my choice in default clothes (not that there were any other choices) and my virtual appearance was such an out-of-the-blue thing for me I honestly didn’t know how to react. Rather than having any kind of verbal fight with him, I just muttered to myself about him being an expletive and steered my avatar as far away from him as I could.
In doing so, I bumped into two of my PSN friends who had also come to check out this new vision of the virtual from Sony. After a slow and disjointed conversation (thanks to none of us having an actual keyboard) we moved into the Bowling Alley. There we had a great laugh getting in the way of the people trying to play the game, making fun of some of the weirder avatar concoctions and speculating on how much bigger the arcade section could grow. We were all noobs, and we were all learning at the same time. Home back then was a bit like a kindergarten class, and its citizens much like children in their no-holds-barred attitude to each other.
Since then however, most of us have grown for the better, while some of us simply just left, never to come back. I don’t blame those who did leave. Home was a podium for unfettered free speech, and as such, presented itself as an unsavory palette to some.
It seemed Home had become a place to house those who were socially broken or unstable in character, for people who didn’t know how to conduct themselves properly in public. A hot-bed of creeps looking to “cam” with any random girl, or frustrated, desperate, immature males that got off on pixels. According to some (who, ironically, had never used Home) it was also a “Pedophiles’ Playground” and a place for the outcasts of society and dregs of mankind to have some kind of strange, pixellated orgy with each other.
The truth however, is just as apparent now as it was in Home’s frontier days: that when you take away the normal boundaries of modern society and put a person in a place where they can do as they please, most people, no matter how well adjusted they are, become excited or even intoxicated by the freedom and just cut loose when they get in there. These people aren’t “broken” at all — they’re merely allowing the revelation of “I can do/say/be as I like toward others” to take over their moral compass. The very same people can still be found in the real world holding doors open for little old ladies, or giving a passing smile in the street to strangers. It’s just that without those regular boundaries their true selves, thoughts and emotions can be let out, without even thinking of how others might feel or react.
It may be a hard thing to do, to keep that lip buttoned even when in the virtual. But the essence of you is still there, being projected to others. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is the right thing to do. Try to hold on to that moral compass, people. Your avatar is an extension of you, not a scapegoat.
July 1st, 2013 by KrazyFace | 14 comments
KrazyFace has been a gamer for longer than he can remember. In fact its been so long he's pretty sure he started gaming with rocks and sticks in a cave someplace off the coast of Africa, when it was joined on to France. However long its been, he's got enough experience behind him to know a good game when he sees one. He's also a bit of a Home addict, you'll find him in there whenever he's got spare time - or not playing a game.
TwitterShare
| Tweet |
Home reminds me a bit of my perception of the Wild West as I saw it on TV shows such as Gunsmoke with Matt Dillon and a couple of deputies like Chester Goode and Festus Hagen who kept order in Dodge City.
Most of the people were good folks trying to make a new life out west but there sure were a lot of bad guys (trolls) interfering with the folks lives at work or fun.
If one looks at Gunsmoke as realistic, perhaps <Home is the same and in time it will become civilized and people will be able to live a life (virtual) that is normal once civilized life in Home evolves just as it did in the old West. Time will tell.
I enjoyed the article as much as any other that I remember.
I like that comparison Fleetfoot!
Who knows, maybe all virtual worlds will find a way to “keep the peace” some day.
Great article Krazy, you made a lot of wonderful points here about human behavior. I have a lot of fun in Home, and though I do things here I would never have the chance or ability to do in real life, I have always been mindful that every avatar is a real person and I treat them all as though I was standing in front of a real human being. Basically with respect. I may have fun from time to time with a troll who is being particularly bothersome, but for the most part I stay away or report them if necessary.
I agree with your assessment of why many seem to act totally out of sync with their real life counterparts. I guess because I am older than most who come in Home I have a different perspective. And I was lucky to have met some wonderful people when I first arrived to help me acclimate.
Thanks! I guess age has a lot to do with it too Burbie, on a base level we learn to be more tolerant of people as we get older I think, that’s probably one reason you were more polite than some people can be in Home. The other is the fact you came into it with friends, I think the influence of good people in Home has a fairly profound effect on an individual’s behavior.
Great article Krazy! Those first days of Home were a trip! Nobody had a keyboard or knew what to do, or act. Also we all looked the same as most people didnt spend a ton of time customizing the way they looked yet. I remember picking the white default t-shirt to wear and saw almost everyone else picked the blue shirt. I think in that uniformness people acted badly.
What their excuses is today, I have no idea!
Heh heh, yeah. I remember joking about everyone in Home looking like a Gap commercial wherever you went. But y’know, they say uniforms *reduce* bullying in schools so who knows eh!
Must be that freedom thing again. ; )
I suppose I was lucky in having spent several years in Internet and BBS chatrooms before I encountered Home. Which is why, when I first stepped into Central Plaza, I was able to look around and say, “Hey, it’s a chatroom with avatars! What a great idea!” And I knew what to do with it.
Which was lucky, since this was deep in Home’s Dodge City days when you couldn’t walk across Central Plaza looking female without accumulating a crowd of trolls and pervs. If I hadn’t had my banter skills sharpened by chatroom life, I would have deleted Home and never returned. To continue the metaphor, the best way for a woman to survive Dodge City Home was to become Miss Kitty. Especially the Miss Kitty in John Meston’s classic, gritty radio scripts. Now THERE was a female role model!
Heh, they dont make em like they used to huh!
Well, sadly there’s still guys chasing pixels regardless, kinda makes you embarrassed to be in the same gender pool if I’m honest, but I love the fact you can hold your own against these types when you have to.
Maybe more of today’s girls could do with a lesson from Miss Kitty!
If shy people can come out of their shell on Home, imagine what the same power does to someone who is not shy? Most of us regulate the feeling that we would like to do whatever comes to mind. Some people feel no need to regulate and exercise their urges. And the fact that the receiver is an unemotional avatar seems to feed the urges.
I remember in elementary school this girl who would punch people in the arm. The receiver would hurt, but they would acknowledge her existence. That was her goal. She wanted to know people could see her. I think that same element of a need to feel present drives people’s behaviors in a way we cannot always relate to.
The other thing is we have no idea how old people are. I think that one piece of knowledge would change how we looked at Home.
A great article. Very thought provoking.
That, is a great way of putting it Deuce!
Age is rather infinite in Home, true, but I wonder (now you’ve raised the idea in my head) how “older” people would be received in Home if it was obvious enough. Although the question there for me now is, if you could look your real age in Home, would you want to?
My real age is not the one attached to my body.
Brilliant article full of the questions on most reasonable and level-headed users pixelated lips. I couldn’t agree more about keeping a firm grip on our moral-compasses.
And yes, if I could make my avi look my age and more like the real me, be it facial features and/or my full-figure, then yes, I would. Infact, I genuinely hope that Sony will introduce some kind of realistic body morping feature in the not so distant future. I’d welcome it.
If Home has a soul. You know it Krazy!
Anyone who makes it down this far from the top of these comments……… read the article again.
Ive read it twice it was just as good second time round lol. People use home to become something they are not in they day to day lifes, so a shy guy becomes outgoing, a person can live in palaces like a billionaire etc etc. But it does have its down falls as its usually life experiences that people arent used to. an unattractive shy person can become the other extreme an attractive player because they can and until something goes wrong they dont know where the line is. Ive seen and learnt so much of different life experiences that I wouldnt get to learn in my real life. Theres the thing though you have to learn to become a better person and hopefully the people around you learn as well.