I have never played “World of Warcraft”. The lure of escaping into a fantasy world where I could be anything I wanted, and behave any way I wanted always seemed dangerous in some way - I always suspected that the game would tap into some deep failing in my character; turn me into a couch potato.
I was wrong.
Last night I installed “Eve Online” on my other half’s macbook, and we took a look at it. It’s a “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game” in the same mould as World of Warcraft, but set in space rather than some version of middle earth filled with monsters and orks.
Eve is by far the most beautiful game I have ever seen; admittedly, I am no longer up-to-speed with the latest generation of console games, but it impressed me; and that’s no mean feat.
Within half an hour of dipping my toes into the game - running through the wonderfully choreographed tutorial - I began to realise the enormous scope of it - and the amount of time it would eat up if I became involved.
Perhaps it was fortuitous that I have been fighting headaches over the last few days (the remnants of a cold), and was forced to switch the game off after half an hour.
A little later in the evening I returned to read the recent blog posts of my friends - and while reading it struck me; what is the difference ? What is the difference between joining a pretend community of people interacting through an artificial communication medium dressed up as an interstellar space saga, and doing the very same thing through blogs and social networks ?
The only real difference is that the online community are not pretending to be starship captains, orks, archers, or pirates. They are (for the most part) being themselves.
The real world is - at least for me - always going to be infinitely preferable to any “virtual” alternative. Why go to the effort of inventing a false reality when the people, places, and experiences available in the REAL one surrounding us are so amazing?
Sorry, EVE Online, and Warcraft - you will not see me piloting a starship, or pulling on any Boots of Infinite Striding any time soon.