Shall We Play A Game?
We have come to the end of a long semester in which we have discussed all manner of things – blogs, long tails, hardware vs software, even the philosophy of Search. In our last week before we delve into furious paper writing, we read 
by Julian Dibbell. Play Money gives several examples of how people can get rich by playing video games, yet, what it’s really doing, is discussing the value of play in terms of success and innovation(in honor of this being the last post, I will try to keep this near the 500-word minimum).
Play is vital. This is a heck of a claim to make and it’s one, I think, Dibbell makes quite plainly. Our heritage is full of play – card games, horse races, chess, backgammon, question & answer games. As children we play all kinds of games and let our imaginations run wild. As adults, notsomuch. As adults it’s 8:30a – 5:30p with a lunch break if you’re lucky. Innovation has to fill out forms, be processed, be approved or denied. Souls are lost in the grind. Then again, I guess that’s why it’s called the “grind,” right? You’re working hard to achieve all that a tiny cube can give you. Sure, you might achieve the zen state of flow, but flow does not give satisfaction. A state of flow removes a sense of time, space, and being. Any worker can get so good at their job that flow can happen, except I call it zoning out. Flow, I think, is more like focus – intense focus. It is the world around you fading away until all that exists is what is right in front of you. A good game will do that to you.
In his book, Dibbell talked about his experiences with Ultima Online – a MMORPG. His experiences showed him a world he didn’t know existed, but only because he never thought about it. Gaming takes all kinds and doesn’t judge…well, except for it’s own hierarchy – n00bs, gamers, and pros. A n00b is a new gamer, or someone unexperienced in a genre of gaming. I am not a n00b to gaming, but I would get my butt handed to me at any PC-based game, such as UO, Everquest, or even World of Warcraft, which I played in high school. I would define a gamer as someone who logs in serious hours for play – 20+ a week or more. A pro? These days, a pro gets drafted into the MLG, or Major League Gaming. MLG is an organization like an other sports organization -there are tournaments, cash prizes, solo competitions, or team matches. Heroes are made and the loser go home to practice. Dibbell learned first hand what it feels like to go against a pro. It hurt him bad, but it got him on his way to learning just how people use gaming to their advantage.
So what did he learn exactly? He learned that there is an economy to UO and that people in the real world make money off of fictional items. This, to him, was astonishing. People could pull in upwards of $1-3,000 a week if they knew what they were doing in selling “gold” or “rarities” to other players. Some players would even create and sell entire character profiles to new users as a way to make a buck. I didn’t understand the shock of learning there is an economy lurking within the game. It was designed for players to create their own worlds where the money is, truthfully, no object. You run out, you go mine somewhere or kill something. Financial supply is infinite, only the space wasn’t. So people got plenty of money and needed places to put things. So like in the real world, people began to collect virtual junk which they would then buy and trade in the real world as well. My thinking – if we can charge people to use the airwaves, which are supposed to be free to the public, then why is it so strange for an economy to emerge like this? I guess because people assume that games aren’t to be taken seriously. Games have rules, which, in order to be successful, you must follow to the letter. But if you make a virtual world, you can’t help but expect it to begin to form a reflection of the real one.
Dibbell mentions how the reality of UO blurred into reality in odd ways, much like The Matrix, but I thought of it more like Phillip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? More commonly known as the movie Blade Runner, the story is about a man who hunts Replicants, or androids that can pass as humans. Though Ridley Scott’s version of the story toys with the idea that Harrison Ford’s Deckard(the Blade Runner) was a replicant himself, the book makes it clear that not only is Deckard human, but killing the androids is a good way for him to get an authentic pet since his robotic one broke down. The world of Deckard is a mish-mash of machine and reality clashing until it’s hard to tell the difference between the two with humanity clinging to the idea that it’s still in control. As thinking, breathing people, we should know what happens when you give something life – it takes on it’s own natural course. Such was the case with the Replicants who wanted freedom from enslavement from the humans and such is the case with those who enter into UO or ARG’s like Second Life. These are places that were built to entertain, but from within birthed their own ecosystems.
Well, I didn’t keep it near 500 words like I’d originally intended, but that often happens. I’ll try ignore the irony of discussing real world matters on this machine that sends the bites of data across the metaverse for anyone to read. This is my new reality. These are the rules by which we play now. Though, to be honest, I haven’t had much time for games since I started at JHU, I do still enjoy a good game and I, for one, don’t think I’ll ever step foot in a MMORPG. I don’t like the lack of rules. It took me long enough to win a game of Monopoly. I don’t think I’d like to try something where I don’t know how to judge my progression….but that, my friends, is for another day.
On a side note, the CBS show Numb3rs recently did an episode in which a ARG MMORPG was featured and discussed. I highly recommend that anyone with cable On Demand check it out. It was called Primacy.
I know give you the trailer to WarGames:
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