I have been hearing and reading about how people that don't understand SL think its JUST a game.
For those of us who know better, I am not gonna rehash all of those discussions, because not only do I not want to be redundant, but for those of us who know, its like trying to explain love to someone who has never been in it, or sex to someone who has never had it. You just cannot explain it.
So, why am I writing all of this? Well, because there is one aspect of this "game" that I have touched on before, but always seems to get overlooked.
This "game" elicits REAL emotions in people. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes between. I cannot tell you how many times I have come into SL, and not been in the best of moods, but either something, or someone inworld, made me laugh, smile, and genuinely raised my spirits.
I am not saying that SL is the ONLY "game" that does this. Emotions are a big part of any game, usually to the players detriment (i.e. poker, if you show your emotions, you lose). But on the other hand, the rush of winning a game, is nothing to shake a stick at..(nudge nudge)
In its simplest terms, SL is enough of an environment to connect with our emotional selves. The visual, audio, textual inputs all touch us in many many ways. It can be as simple as playing with a SL pet, to make a RL smile appear on a otherwise frowny face.
So for all those people who don't "get" it, try not to worry about it. They might someday, but till then, you can take solice in the fact, that you know something they don't. And that in itself, should make you smile.
Now go out, RL or SL, and have some FUN!
For those of us who know better, I am not gonna rehash all of those discussions, because not only do I not want to be redundant, but for those of us who know, its like trying to explain love to someone who has never been in it, or sex to someone who has never had it. You just cannot explain it.
So, why am I writing all of this? Well, because there is one aspect of this "game" that I have touched on before, but always seems to get overlooked.
This "game" elicits REAL emotions in people. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes between. I cannot tell you how many times I have come into SL, and not been in the best of moods, but either something, or someone inworld, made me laugh, smile, and genuinely raised my spirits.
I am not saying that SL is the ONLY "game" that does this. Emotions are a big part of any game, usually to the players detriment (i.e. poker, if you show your emotions, you lose). But on the other hand, the rush of winning a game, is nothing to shake a stick at..(nudge nudge)
In its simplest terms, SL is enough of an environment to connect with our emotional selves. The visual, audio, textual inputs all touch us in many many ways. It can be as simple as playing with a SL pet, to make a RL smile appear on a otherwise frowny face.
So for all those people who don't "get" it, try not to worry about it. They might someday, but till then, you can take solice in the fact, that you know something they don't. And that in itself, should make you smile.
Now go out, RL or SL, and have some FUN!
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