The global on-line gaming experience has
quietly exploded into a a bandwidth python of multi-hour, multi-kingdom
game spheres. Whether it is the team combat arena, or the total simulated
fantasy genre, more and more men and women are using their free time to
escape to a virtual world.
Entertainment is an acceptable means of
escape from the boring, trivial, and work septic tank dumps of the daily
grind of a repetitive job. Instead of $9.50 movie for two hours of escape,
one can sit at home in front of the computer screen and create their own
movie storylines.
It seemed harmless until word hit the mainstream
press that an individual paid six figures to acquire a unique hunting-resort
property in a fantasy world. The purchaser explained that he spent more
than $100,000 US to acquire a piece of a property which in the game could
generate visitors who in turn pay him for rights to hunt or stay or shop
(in game currency) which then could be converted into millions in real
currency.
But . . . it's not real.
The blur between reality and gaming can
be a serious issue. If you use your movie money, disposal entertainment
dollars, for member fees to play on-line that is like plugging quarters
into a pin ball machine --- user fees. But to spend hundreds to thousands
of dollars to acquire virtual material goods? Are these the same people
with no net worth buying studio apartments in the city for $300,000? At
least you get a real world property deed at closing.
What if the game sponsor quits? What if
the virtual world crashes? Caveat emptor?
Now children's board games were designed
to expose them to analytical skills: math, risk, objective strategy, goals,
and application of rules. There was a carry-over to the formula education
in school. It was a diversion from the strict textbook and lined paper
approach to learning.
Education has been stressed by modern civilizations
as the means to succeed in Life. (Remember the game of LIFE?) Before education,
society was self-reliant, agricultural based, subsistence living. Once
groups banded for permanent settlements, excess time led to the development
of crafts and skills which were used to better the village's lot in life.
When people began acquiring permanency, stability in food resources, and
material goods, trade between groups began as another means of bettering
the village's lot in life. With interaction, there was jealousy; and new
classes developed: the haves and the have-nots. Those with power skills,
warriors, conquerors invaded and took the unskilled's means and property.
an artisan class developed to chronicle the exploits of powerful; the
symbolic words mixed with pagan religion to explain the differences between
the powerful, the weak, and the forces of nature. Once territories were
established, the kings needed to tax their domain in order to keep their
armies well stocked; scribes had to be educated in business of collecting
and documenting these tribute collections. In relative terms, a scribe's
life of scratching ink on parchment in a drafty castle was better than
a serf's back-breaking unskilled labor in the rutty fields. Society's
many levels of interdependence had one goal: to sustain the people. If
one did not contribute physically to the sustenance, they were cast out
to die. Or the dark forces of famine or disease would wipe out those segments
who failed in their responsibilities. There had to have some concept of
hope, or change, or the humanity would have stalled, curled up in a ball,
to be eaten by wolves. The next generation always took the opportunity
for a better life if the chance made it to their imagination. The migration
from the hard life of the rural fields to the industrial jobs in the city
continues to today. It was not the promise of an “easier” life,
but of a different life.
Can the on-line world replace the Real World?
There are people making a living on eBay buying and selling goods (like
a virtual attic-garage clearance sale). But those persons have a foot
in the real 3-D world; they ship goods to real addresses and get paid
in real currency. The virtual shopkeep is just the distribution channel
for an owner's current inventory.
There is a growing number of gamers, obsessed
with their virtual fantasy worlds, who have become addicted to the lure
of the UnReal World. And with any addiction, the need for MORE can cloud
judgment. There will always be those in the wings that will profit off
of those clouded judgments. From patent snake oil salesmen, chain letter
writers, to pyramid Ponzi schemes, there will be scammers preying on the
weak. The concept of buying and selling virtual property WITH REAL MONEY
instead of keeping the Game within the Game is a troubling trend. Just
like the underground economy affects all of us in the real taxpayer world,
a cyberground economy would also affect us by diverting resources to a
segment of society that does not really exist in the same time, space
and plane.
So this is the personal background-philosophy
of the current on-line gamer experience. So there was no personal stake
in the jumping into this cyber-swimming pool. Then Rocky, our tech guru,
emails me about something he has stumbled across in the net world. This
time he tried to bait the lure with a personal diss like dumping an entire
beef shank into shark waters. He says he has formed three new NATIONS,
an on-line game, and he wants me to take over one and report on its progress
each month in cyberbarf.
NationStates
is based upon a novel called Jennifer Government. Never heard of
it.
The novel was written by Max Barry.
Never head of him. Never heard of Nation States, either.
You see, Rocky likes to see if he can pull
the trigger and watch me over-explode on something. Like, man, you need
to get a web site - - - which immediately led to three web sites. Like
I have time to do some daily web game at work.
But he continued to prod, using my name
as a country - - which led me to say two can play at that duel. So I created
a Nation State with HIS name merged with one of his least favorite ex-president
sleazy public figures of all time. Thus, the return volley to his cyber-taunting
was the creation of the Sultanate
of Clintonia-Rogstaden.
I did not even read the premise, the rules
or how this on-line game works. I just created a new nation by making
a half dozen settings on a sign-in screen and the game generator spit
out a new nation geo-political biography. I don't think he was too happy
with the choice of this new world. It probably got worse because the evil
gene kicked in; working off the premise that I should use this on-line
game as a cyberbarf feature, I decided to
expand on the Cliff Note version of this nation state, to fill in the
character blanks. (If you are going to do something, you might well go
overboard.)
It was easy to flush out the character of
the Sultan. The game generates policy or political issues that the nation
leader must either make a decision or dismiss it without any action. As
part of the program, random names, titles and character quotes are generated
in forms of text story summaries. The Sultan of Clintonia-Rogstaden would
combine my graphics for Rocky and Bill Clinton. It was an easy morph.
Now that I had the ruddy face of the new leader, how would I play this
game?
Within hours of Clintonia-Rogstaden being
formed, there were message board (telegrams) from other players saying
welcome, and soliciting my nation to join another region or recommend
them for the UN. Apparently, part of the game is to answer issue questions,
grow internal points, then get elected to the UN or get recommendations
from other nations, which then bolsters your regional and world rankings.
One person telegram to say Hi! Nice Motto! (“I Feel Your Pain and
I Profit From It.”) Okay, so some people out in cyberspace are playing
this game, looking for alliances, attempting to climb the world rankings.
But, that would take some real work and real time to learn the game, find
the rules, read the rules, figure out what strategies are in the game,
whether they work, how things get done, what sort of one-to-one interaction
can be generated, can there be wars, conquest, trade?? Or is this just
political academia gone amok?
I did not have to address those questions
because I decided not to play the Game. Well, not play the game as I quickly
perceived it. There is an initial hint of creativity as players name their
countries, and make up mottos. The idea was to be more creative, to an
absurd extreme. As other players telegram about joining up with them,
moving to a new region, or joining their message boards, to gather votes
for world issues, ect., I decided to take the game out of the game (like
an out-of-body experience). For example, in response to the standard inquiry,
I wrote back:
Our Sultan is
busy preparing a palace luau after a day watching our national sport,
Killer Croquet, which combines British cricket with full contact croquet.
So he cannot answer any communication at this time. Once the bloated food
enzymes and alcohol blurs away, we will determine whether he wants to
deal with any politics.
They will probably not understand what the
heck is going on. That statement has nothing to do with game play. That's
the point. I will use the random game generator and interaction with the
gamers as a creative engine to make cynical, satirical backstories for
this fictional island nation. In other words, I will take their virtual
world reality and substitute my nation's own. The cyberworld will help
create a new literary world called Clintonia-Rogstaden.
For example, when I wrote within minutes of founding the nation about
the symbolism of the Clintonia-Rogstaden flag (Flag Symbolism: RED, Fertile
Island Women; YELLOW, Sunwarmth Happiness; GREEN, Lush Tropical Forests;
R, for the Royal Family Lineage, the Rogstadens) I did not realize that
the first part would actually come true in epic proportions!
So in this issue of cyberbarf, and in future
issues, you will have a running update of the status of this virtual country;
you can peek at the real game pages,
or get the backstories
outside the game's program. For example, check out the images of the national
currency. There will be inside jokes, satire, humor and pulse of a real
bizarre country. And if you see a grumbling guy with a rosetta nose wandering
around the Western United States in a Hawaiian shirt, be nice to him;
it may be Rocky, our tech guru after reading another one of his character's
monster's exploits that he helped create by accident.
THE NATION OF CLINTONIA-ROGSTADEN IS CONTINUALLY UPDATED
DURING THE MONTH. CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES ON YOUR FAVORITE PAGES.
iToon
