Major Issues in Cyberworlds - Essay Example

It would drop by and assist me even though I have not asked for it. Their avatars would come over and help me clear a field or build a house, or even run a business. This added to the social interactivity of the game. By helping each other out with the tasks, we managed to get to know each other quite well in the cyber world in that we functioned.

It was fun to relate to one another in this world because we could not see what the other looked like at the moment and we did not care. As long as the game avatars did as they were told by their controllers, the game was a peaceful and friendly one. That is perhaps the reason why I sometimes find myself spending as much as 12 hours a day playing the game. My friends and I go on adventurous treks through the forests in this game and accomplish a lot thanks to the power of cooperation.

Due to the numerous fun activities that can be done within the virtual world and the fact that I can interact with other people in the social world who may or may not be on my friend list, I find that I enjoy being a part of this virtual reality.

It is because of the easy access that my friends and I have into each other's virtual world that I found myself realizing that a virtual world can exist and the place becomes real because my friends and I can see it on our monitors and we can touch each other through the virtual world action lists. This means that what is virtual to most has become a reality to us. That is why I disagree with the statement from our reading that dictates that: “... place” and “virtual” cannot coexist: there is no “place” in the virtual beyond the metaphor“.

The two places can exist because the technology exists to make the place real for the game participants. Everything from the headset microphones to the personalized avatars allows us to communicate with one another instantly and share concerns that for the bystanders are “virtual” concerns but for the players are “real” concerns. We need to find real-world solutions that can be applied to virtual settings so in effect, the two worlds can and do exist for the player.

The only concern I have about the game is that because it encourages so much virtual activity on the part of the participants, sometimes we lose track of time and can no longer interact outside of the virtual world. As everyone knows, real-time interaction is still important and although simulated in the cyber world, still forms a more solid foundation of trust and friendship among people. That is because avatars, for all of their technological savvy, are still just that, virtual representations of the real thing.