The Best of all Possible Worlds
Take, for example, the online game World of Warcraft. Here, players log on and take part in a sword and sorcery role playing game. In addition to being able to thump each other with a Hammer of the Naaru or a Multidimensional Sock, players can talk to each other, form guilds, go on raids together, chit chat and exchange messages. I bet some of them go like this:
Bolroth: Hey man, I see you've acquired new armour since our last encounter! [Casts spell]
DarkLord: Yes - this is the good stuff. [Swings axe] How's the wife and kids?
Bolroth: Great! Jimmy's just finished grade four. [Ducks, throws fireball]
DarkLord: Congrats! [Puts up shield, makes stabbing motion.] Sally starts high school this year.
Bolroth: [Dodging sword.] Time flies! [Throws lightning bolt. Waits.] Wow, dude, that armour was really conductive.
DarkLord: [Disintegrating into cinders] Next time, I am going to chop your head off, I swear. Say hi to Cindy for me, will you?
The game provides so much interactivity that many people have formed long lasting friendships with people they've never met in person. There are even reports of players holding weddings online. If you have a hard time wrapping your head around the concept of gay marriage, orc and troll unions are really going to weird you out.
One of the more fascinating aspects of World of Warcraft and other games like it is they have created entirely new and quite real economies. People have begun buying and selling "objects" from the games - things that will help you do better when you play, like weapons, or maps, or potions - for real money.
There are even people who make a living by playing the game, improving a character to a certain point, and then selling the character for real cash. Yes, you read that right, these people earn money by playing video games, making that reason number 4,758 why *your* day job sucks.
Then there are the hybrid universes - based in reality, but still completely virtual. A good example is Facebook.
Facebook is one of those now ubiquitous "social networking" sites that allows you to hook up with people online. First you set up your own profile, and then add people you know to a "friends" list; they in turn set up their friends lists, putting you in touch with friends of friends... and so it goes.
This is one of those wildly popular phenomena that I did not understand until I signed up for it myself. My conclusion: the makers of Facebook have found a way to push an intoxicating gas through the Internet and out through your keyboard.
Okay, not really, but the site is incredibly addictive. Part of the fun is searching for people you know, or that you once knew. This is like having a high school reunion, but because it's online, you don't have to worry about how to lose the 30 lbs. you've gained in the intervening years. You can post only the most flattering [read: Photoshopped] pictures of yourself, and only connect with the people you're most interested in.
Another key tool is the Status Update. That is, you can tell everyone in your friends list what you're doing at any given moment, and the announcement appears in your friends' news feeds.
Why would your friends care about your daily life? The truth is, they probably don't. But *you* get to see your name in the news feed, and by telling the world (or a least this particular alternate universe) what you're up to minute-by-minute, you can be your own paparazzi. This can be a most gratifying egotistical experience.
This must mean that there's a little Paris Hilton in all of us. And that's a scarier thought than an entire universe of missing socks.
Mail Bag:
I hear ya about those garden catalogs! (Un)fortunately I've been perusing them quite a bit lately. Because trees have grown and brought more shadow, my once full-sun front yard has become perpetual dusk and my mostly-sun back yard has gone to darker than night. Ergo, all the lovely colorful blooms (ha!) have been transplanted to right around the mailbox, for that, as the irreparably brown grass will testify, is the only sunny spot left.
So I've been searching and perusing and buying more shade plants than I ever imagined. Mostly hostas. They look so colorful in the catalogs, but when you actually get them in the ground, they're green. Light green, medium green, navy green, but green. Bo-ring. So I'm thinking about just giving up, going to the craft store, and buying as many plastic flowers of all colors and sizes as I can, and just sticking them in the ground. After all, they're deer proof, weatherproof, never have to be cut back or lifted, and keep their radiant blaze year round!
And if someone says I'm crazy for doing that, well, I'll have the receipts to prove it!
Lloyd W., St. Louis
(at 6'10", your biggest fan in North America!)
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Hi Chandra.
You know the line - "say it with flowers?" I'm sending a bunch of triffids with this email. Honestly, you are such a girl!
My wife tells me she hates flowers. So I don't get her any. Which makes her hate me more than the flowers she does not get! I am still trying to figure this out. Any helpful suggestions? By the way she reads all the mail order and local junk mail catalogues. I think they make good bin fodder - but that's another story.
Cheers from chilly Brisbane - almost as bad as a Canadian summer at the moment!
(dr) Paul D
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And you thought I was kidding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml
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