Online Gamers Look For Missing Life Online

from the NY-Times-discovers-online-gamers dept

In a bit of a weird feature article from the NY Times, they spend the entire article talking about a single guy who spends 40 hours a week playing in an online multiplayer video game. It's unclear how they picked this particular guy, and what they're really saying about him (though, there is a quote in the article from someone saying, "it becomes a way to replace parts of your life that you don't have in real life.") Basically, the article seems to be showing how some people who are having difficult times in "the real world" can now escape online into a world where they can act much more like the person they believe they are.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2003 @ 2:04am

    What is reality?

    Some people think they are somehow in better touch with the real world because they "get out more". But then, there are the losers who play basketball all day. Being a computer hack gets one further up in the real world than being a basketball thug.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2003 @ 2:19am

    Why is the net considered not real?

    I've received death threats before during heated exchanges on the net. There are very real net-based abductions and murders out there.

    I haven't yet seen headlines for international murders in which chatter in country A pissed off someone from the other side of the world, so person from country B comes to kill him. The world is getting smaller all the time. Perhaps the new model of international terrorism will consist of more personal vendettas, instead of devotion to abstract causes.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    thecaptain, 12 Jun 2003 @ 7:54am

    No Subject Given

    Socializing is socializing, whether on the net or in the so called "real world"...if anything, in a lot of net exchanges people open up quicker further and more honestly because they feel semi-anonymous (I'll ignore the idiots who run rampant everywhere being jerks because they think they ARE anonymous).

    However, that being said, there is something to be said about face2face time and human contact. I wouldn't want to go 4-5 months without so much as a handshake or hug (or more than that from my SO)...I don't think we'll get rid of that anytime soon.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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