Is RMB City an arena for it’s members?
One of your friends was unfortunately died, but you suddenly found that she used another people’s name, education background, even her body. Keep chasing the truth, you finally unveiled the killer was ……
Does it sound like a detective story, as well as a Hollywood film?
In real world, Tracy Spaight, an experienced American game designer, declared such an interesting story. In his work with a virtual film, he found an identical virtual world case–a LegendMUD game Player, named Karyn, was killed instantly in a car accident. As a commercial group leader, Karyn not only gained respect from players (they built ‘The Garden of Remembrance’ for her in LegendMUD), but also received griefs from other virtual lands. Even Raph Koster, administrators and designers of many 3D games, wrote a well eulogy “A Story about a Tree”, praising her contribution and friendship to the virtual space.
If the story stopped at the phrase, anyone can imagine what Tracy just would talk was mainly the effect that virtual world acted in real world, or how permanent death made forever logout of avatar, or Karyn’s mine stone in the consciousness of the online community.
But it did not, plot went on. Tracy found that rarely any first life materials, such as picture, college, car accident, can match up with her second life: she may possible be a Norwegian, but she may also possible be a man, to be anyone. More seriously, he finally concluded that, Karyn killed herself, just the way she gave birth to herself, through fabrication.
Now the issue diverted it’s direction, for this “virtual” have a deeper definition. So how to deal with the loop, “virtual” virtual?
In Raph’s words, it’s nothing matter whether virtual is fake or not, the players and their social bonds give a live to the virtual world, just like the little boy make his toy real, LegendMUD players believed fake Karyn. Simply put, the real exist in people’s head, and this “real” will work in first life.
But there is still one question I can not find answer in Tracy, that is why Karyn need to give avatar a perfect retreat, using real death news to cease her virtual life? She can just simply quit without clue, uninstall the game software, turn off the computer like most people do, for no third-party as police or game controller will release Karyn’s real status.
Did she too dear her avatar to leave, did she regard virtual world as a arena? We can not get the real reason until Karyn tells us. But if we suppose RMB City is really a arena, then Karyn is quite welcome inside as a professional actor.
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Related info:
article: Who killed Miss Norway? http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/04/14/who_killed_miss_norway/
book: Alter ego