I have a confession and I’m actually a little ashamed of
it. In my final year of high school I
was addicted to… Farmville…
Well there you have it, out in the open for everyone to see.
Games such as Farmville, Second Life and The Sims use
simulacra which according to Plato is a term used to describe a false copy of
something (Mann). These games provide a
copy of society in an online environment where people are substituted with
avatars. thefreedictionary.com describes an avatar as a moveable character the user controls (Farlex Inc. 2013)
In Farmville I created an avatar in my likeness and through
my avatar I built my farm from the ground up, building fences, acquiring
animals and planting and harvesting crops.
The crops themselves depending on the plant would take from a half-hour
to three days to grow.
Theorist Baudrillard argues that ‘in a world dominated by media and the internet the idea of a ‘true’ or
‘false’ copy has been destroyed and all we have left now are simulations of
reality which aren’t any more or less ‘real’ than the reality they simulate’
(Mann).
Though I was quite addicted to the game I didn’t feel the
need to push my obsession to the next level and actually pay for additional
things for my avatar. It is argued that
these hyper reality games are simply replicating our consumer driven society,
however I think it is a little more complex than that. It’s not uncommon in these games for people
to exchange their hard earned cash for the equivalent of the game’s
currency. Julian Dibbell (in the
documentary You Only Live Twice) (2007)
states that people become that invested in the game socially and
psychologically that they are willing to pay for these fake things and actually
perceive it as an investment (Four Corners 2007).
You Only Live Twice
explores this social and psychological investment in the game Second Life where
people become quite attached to their avatars living through them and value the
social relationships forged with other people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007). The documentary’s presenter, Ticky Fullerton experiments by adopting her own avatar and soon becomes attached to the avatar
taking the insults and compliments it receives quite personally (Four Corners
2007).
Businesses and chain stores are starting to move into games
such as Second Life taking advantage of people’s attachment to their
avatars. People such as Veronica Brown
have found Second Life to be quite lucrative for them and are able to draw a substantial
income from it (Four Corners 2007). Brown became quite successful designing bridal
and evening wear for people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007). Chain stores such as American Apparel have
also set up shop within Second Life where you enter the store, click on a piece
of clothing and two images appear, on your left a piece of clothing to purchase
for your avatar and on the right a version for you which can be purchased and
delivered to your door (Four Corners 2007).
As great as it is for
businesses to take exploit people’s attachment to avatars it’s important to
examine what this is doing to our real world relationships. On games such as Second Life, users’ avatars
can meet each other forging social relationships online (Four Corners 2007). Psychologist, Sherry Turkle (2012) explains the
implications of these online relationships she states that people are afraid of
intimacy and that ‘people can’t get enough of each other as long as they can
have each other at a distance in amounts that they can control and an effect of
this is that we sacrifice conversation’ (TED 2012).
One may argue that through games like Second Life people can
converse with other users however, these conversations can be edited and retouched;
Turkle emphasises that with conversations that take place in the real world you
can’t control what you’re going to say, you can’t edit or retouch (TED 2012).
Taking this all into consideration will we all end up living
a ‘Second Life’? Will the way people
work, play, socialise and develop relationships all move online? In a way I think this has already occurred people
often work and communicate through email, people shop online, play virtual games with each other and socialise
and develop relationships through Facebook and Twitter. Conversely, my job (in banking) is customer
centric and internet banking has not eliminated my role (for now) and I much
prefer the instant gratification of shopping in a store and I communicate with
family, friends and my partner through technology but I will annoy them if I
haven’t seen them face-to-face in a while.
I can’t imagine living in a world where people all live a ‘second life’
to be honest I have a hard enough time navigating my first life with work,
university and different relationships I haven’t even been on Facebook today.
***The author of this blog would like to disclose that she
does not use Farmville anymore and this was just a phase***
(iPad News Daily 2002)
