Better to Rule in the Virtual World Than to Serve in the Real World
“Most people lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
–Thoreau
by ted2112 HSM team writer
For many people, their virtual lives are as deep and as important as their real lives. The advantages of our virtual lives: the ability to transcend many obstacles that are impossible to overcome in the real world.
In our digital lives we are mighty warriors, fam members and social leaders. We are fashion artists, writers, MVPs and well known community advocates. We are also, in the real world, slaves to the grind: caretakers, nameless employees, and disrespected consumers, average, stressed out and broke at the same time. It’s a funny duality.
We cherish our virtual time because it offers us a break from many of the restraints that keep us down in the real world — and perhaps this is the virtual world’s greatest gift. For many who embrace virtual worlds like Home, it is a way to enhance life’s experiences and even perhaps excel in many ways simply not available to us in the real world. Some of us will rise to Donald Trump heights in the real world; however, most of us won’t. But that’s the lesson here: that it actually doesn’t matter all that much. Donald Trump has built a bunch of buildings. Yeah, me too. In Home Tycoon.
A favorite blogger of mine is someone I consider to be amazingly talented. His videos are watched by thousands of people around the world and he has brought so much joy to countless people. What does he do in his “real” life? He works at a supermarket, stocking shelves. Is there anything wrong with working at a supermarket? Of course not. What I am trying to convey is that differences between what we do and what we really do help illustrate us as people. We all have vocations, but it is perhaps our avocations that define us.
A fellow musician of mine who was very successful in the ‘eighties, only to fall out of popularity in the ‘nineties, has reinvented himself online using social media in a way to keep in touch with fans. In the process he has become a virtual presence and a cult underground sensation that writes about all things music, and in many ways might now be bigger and more respected than he ever back in his “real life.” Through virtual channels, he has created something very real.
Many of my jobs have been similar. I have played the bass most of my life and it has been a valuable income source. Sometimes it’s my only job, sometimes shared with other far more boring things. The pay is pretty good, but the hours stink and it is light years away from my virtual life. For me it’s what I really do and have no illusions that I will ever be a rock star, but in Home I sure can live like one.
Our online handles are anonymous, and to many this is freedom to expand, explore and live a life far closer to who we really feel we are rather than what the restraints of the real world and the norms that come with it. If we make fools out of ourselves we won’t have to live down the consequences forever, trapped and defined by those choices; we can move on. We can take chances socially in a virtual world that simply aren’t possible elsewhere.
Take it from someone who has played in about a billion bars and seen just about every way humanly possible to make an ass out of yourself: there are advantages to virtual self-expression.
In this way we can create a wonderful environment for ourselves and enjoy a great community and friendships and use games like Home to help us be true to ourselves and all the good things that come with it. I have seen people who have overcome great burdens, both physically and mentally, and rise to a level that has humbled me.
I have also seen the opposite. I have seen a virtual world consume people whose real lives get bulldozed by the power of heights unattainable conventionally. Instead of their avatar becoming more like them, they become more and more like their avatar and get lost in the process. I have seen, firsthand, the allure of this kind of power that only exits in the virtual world, and people who confuse it with what in the real world we call respect and the hard work that goes along with it.
It’s tempting, don’t you think? So where does one thing end and another thing begin and does it really matter? To borrow and totally warp a concept from John Milton’s Paradise Lost: is it better to rule in the virtual world than to serve in the real one?
Does running a fam or club in Home give you real power, or is that power virtual as well? Does leveling up or earning trophies extend 
beyond the gaming world? Do you have more friends on your PlayStation friends list than in real life, or prefer Acorn Park over your local park?
If you could trade your real life for your Home life…would you?
Okay, I’ll stop with the questions. The answers will probably depend on whom you ask. All I can say is that balance is key.
Luke Skywalker once asked Yoda what was inside the dark side cave he had to enter. Yoda replied, “Only what you take with you.” Home and virtual realities in general are the same way: the template is blank and you must fill it in. It can bring out the very best or the very worst.
Whether supermarket clerk or Sodium champion, whether bass player or YouTube sensation, whether we are a rock star or just have the pixels like one, be it what we do or what we really do: it is still just us. Ultimately, we are what we really do, whether it be real or virtual. It’s just a matter of how we do it.
November 21st, 2013 by ted2112 | 9 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
TwitterShare
| Tweet |
Well said. Balance is the key for sure. Have fun.
Awesome article, a must read for anyone who uses Home with any frequency.
Great article!! I do live like a king on Home. I own several pieces of real estate,(some waterfront) and a yacht! It’s fun to imagine to be that rich and own so much, but it is just virtual life. In real life, I live in the suburbs and that’s my life and I am happy with it, but it’s fun to have so much in the virtual world! It’s tough if people get carried away and abuse that power in the virtual world as I have seen in an online game I play. But if the game closes someday, where does that leave them?
While I love my virtual life, I would not trade it for what I have in real life ever!
Love this! But Ted, something tells me when the zombie apocalypse comes, they’ll be headed towards your brains first ha! Yeah, my head’s firmly stuck in a fantasy realm…
Really though, this is a pretty serious point to make. While some of us do make extensions of ourselves into the virtual and make some kind of success of that, there are others that allow that very thing to drown them. Praise and awe from people can be a heady, ego-boosting thing for sure; whether that’s from an accomplishment from a game like being the best (or top 10) in the world, to creating masterpieces in something like Little Big Planet or Minecraft. Becoming a YouTube sensation or even embracing infamy from causing real-world problems via networks or computers (who can forget ANONYMOUS?) virtual worlds/environments and just the internet in general really is now a place where we can fully expose our ideas to the planet and potentially become something much more than “just” ourselves.
Always remember though, no matter how “normal” or even “unexciting” you may feel in your real life, you’re always someone’s idea of perfect.
I’m gonna quote/tweet that last line..well said KracyFace!
*Krazy…lolz
If you want to feel wanted in real life, forget to pay some bills, you soon have people sending you letters, calling on your phone and knocking at your door. On a serious note there are web sites that can help if anyone lives are taken over by virtual lives, because it is always about the damage that could be done by missing work because of an online event. Children seeing daddy dressed as a lady online or giving yourself such low worth that you think higher of the online you than the real you.
For those of you old enough to remember playing with GI Joes or Barbies they were just a plastic representation of a human and you took it from there and did the rest. Home is no different but there are thousands of people playing with you at the same time.
GI Joe or Barbie don’t tell you your socially inept, a noob or unwanted, also Barbie doesn’t morph into Ken. These are full grown adults acting out an element of fantasy and that’s where it should stay a fantasy. Setting a whole life around a virtual character ie websites, social networking or you tube, it’s only ever done for the progression of that character and not the community, unfortunately on home theres a lot of this done, not for positive reasons but more as a cheap wannabe minor celebrity reasons. And if home slows down or goes these users that think they are some sort of celeb are going to have a hard time adapting.