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{"id":795,"date":"2005-09-24T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2005-09-24T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2005\/09\/24\/reality_vs_fict\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T18:40:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:40:58","slug":"reality_vs_fict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2005\/09\/reality_vs_fict\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality vs. Fiction in online gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Just now, I came across a Wikipedia article MMORGS <\/a>(massively multi-player online role-playing games) that really blew me away.\u00a0
[As usual, I\u2019m amazed at how useful Wikipedia is.\u00a0 Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that people contribute to and maintain anonymously and without being paid.]<\/em> <\/p>\n

Aside from the occasional shoot-em up game with my friend and sometimes unnervingly intense gamer Arman [*], I rarely play computer games.\u00a0 It\u2019s been quite a while since I played any computer games with any regularity.\u00a0 \u00a0 The last computer-based RPG (role playing game) I played seriously must\u2019ve been \"Bard\u2019s Tales\" and \"Ultima\" (on Nintendo) in the late 1980s.\u00a0 As far as online games go, I think I once tried out an early version of \"Ultima Online\" in the mid-1990s, but that was it.\u00a0 So I\u2019m not very with the trends in this area of computing, even though I work in the IT field.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The article mentions that MMORGs are getting a lot of academic attention today, and I can see why.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how technology, engineering, sociology, psychology, economics and storytelling interact in these game systems.\u00a0 The complexity of these systems, the subcultures they spawn, the way they interact with reality (and how reality interacts with them\u2013there is at least one MMORG, Entropia<\/a>, where players can convert money earned in their virtual world into US dollars\u2013somebody even sold a virtual island from this game for $26,000<\/a>)\u2013 and the sophistication of these games\u2019 business models (these businesses which must cater to a wide variety of types of players and balance many conflicting needs) is really fascinating.<\/p>\n

As one article<\/a> put it, \"MMORPGs have become enormously popular in the last 10
\nyears with hundreds of thousands of gamers living out alternate lives
\nin fantasy worlds.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost enough to tempt me to get back into gaming.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Luckily for me and my marriage, my current PC\u2019s graphic card isn\u2019t new enough for the latest MMORGs\u2026<\/p>\n

[*] He has 2 XBoxes synced up in his home.\u00a0 We don headphones and mikes and play Tom Clancy\u2019s \"Rainbow 6\" in separate rooms.\u00a0 I play upstairs in front of
\nhis huge TV, while he plays\u00a0 in his cellar.\u00a0 A unique setup, but the best detail is yet to come:\u00a0 he plays while running on a treadmill!\u00a0 It adds a lot of intensity to a shooting game when the voice in your ear is constantly out of breath.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"