It's been quite a while since I played any online games but I got into the beta test for Tabula Rasa recently. It looks like a nifty online game, part shooter, part magic. I'm slowly leveling my character, knowing full well it's going to get wiped when the game is officially released later this month.
The thing with it is, even though it's multiplayer and even though it's online, I don't really see much of anyone else. Excepting as players who run around and never talk. Tonight, I got stuck in an area I couldn't figure out how to get out of. Lighting was poor and I wandered around trying unsuccessfully to get out. Finally, someone else wandered into my area. I sat patiently as he consulted some NPCs (probably doing a mission/quest) then I followed him, hoping he'd know the way out.
Good idea, right? Nope.
Turns out he's lost too. I followed him around for half a minute or so before it became obvious he's lost. I tried talking to him and he never responded. So I sat in the centre of the village watching with some amusement as he ran all over the place trying to find a way out. Eventually I saw him head into an area that's a cul-de-sac. He never came out, so I assume he logged off.
Multiplayer games are meant to be *multiplayer*, as in you are expected to talk to people, interact with them. This game doesn't seem to have that interactivity, which I think is a shame. Granted, it's still in beta and given that our chars are going to be wiped, I suspect people aren't getting too attached to their chars. Still...you'd think people would talk.
*sigh*
The Internet's made people more in touch with other folks globally but in doing so, we've lost a little of our humanity. I know so many people (myself included) who form fast friendships with people on the 'net that we've never met in real life. Our natural responses are dulled because the other party never sees or hears us. You don't believe me? When was the last time that you laughed as you typed "lol" into your instant messaging conversation? Why do I say we're losing our humanity? Well, because we're not all intellect - laughing, crying, emotional responses (as opposed to cyber-emotes) are all part of who we are. Given that most forms of electronic communication have no traditional cues in them, we're losing our ability to interact with other people as human beings. Why do you think smilies were invented? It's to encode an extra channel of communication during electronic messaging that acts like the context we get in a face-to-face meeting - smiles, frowns, anger, sadness, etc.
We already gather in virtual chat rooms and adventure together in cyberworlds. We are in touch with more people on a regular basis than before the Internet era. But that connection is incomplete; it's an intellectual connection. Our minds will touch...but we are still alone.
That's part of the reason why I'm rejecting telecommuting job offers. I need an office environment to survive. I need to see people. I need to see smiles and frowns, enthusiasm and boredom, happiness and anger. These are honest emotions. Not smilies.
Popular sci-fi was wrong. Technology will destroy us not through self-sentient robots or machines turning on us. It will destroy us by isolating us from one another.
If you have a chance, smile at someone. The way things are going, it may be the only smile s/he will ever get in the entire day. And that makes me sad.
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2 comments:
Good points, all of them. I've recently been doing a lot of introspection about my social wanes and ebbs over the years, and it occurred to me that I stopped being as social when I started online gaming. Over the space of about a year my social life went from 100% human interaction to about 80% cyber interation. Now, all these years later, I feel uncomfortable with real people I don't know very well; but I can still turn on a cyber persona in a cyber room full of strangers. It's alarming how isolating it is, especially when you truly believe you're getting all the social interaction you need. Anyway, you said it all better than I did! xoxoxo Jeannie
Yes, exactly! Since I started rediscovering who I really was after years of hiding from myself, I realized to my surprise that yes, I actually *am* a social creature.
Or as one of the most introverted members of my D&D group described it, "It's no longer an Intelligence saving roll, it's a Charisma-based one now."
Every time I start leaning towards how nice and sterile and safe the online world is, I go give one of the kids a hug. Nothing in cyberspace will ever come close. :)
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