Online games = Better then life

Better then life if you don’t know is the machine the Red Dwarf crew where stuck in, this machine like the Matrix produced a program that all the player thought was real. Unlike the Matrix which had to be programmed to make life dull and boring, because the human psyche couldn’t cope with everything being pleasant and nice (am willing to give it a try, any programmers doing this programme, a nice lottery win please). But the better then life machine was much cleverer then the matrix as it brought into its reality what your subconscious wants, not what you think you want (me and my subconscious really want that lottery win).

In Red Dwarf this brings mishaps galore to poor old Rimmer as his subconscious hates him. Lister lives a quite life and the cat is worshiped like a god, on his island of Valkyrie (warrior women). Now I play online games more then I should, but I use the games as entertainment like other watch the telly. 3 hours a night of television (6pm – 9pm) is not extreme but play online for 3 hours a night and your almost classed as a hardcore gamer. You might not watch telly but loose yourself to a good book or listen to your favoured albums, all none constructive, all considered a good waste of our own time. So what is the point of this blog I hear you ask? Well crawling to work the other day stuck at juc10 on the M62, my mind got to wondering what the next couple of years the next big MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game), and how far away from the first Matrix or Better then life game. I personally play World of Warcraft, before that Everquest. Other people play the Sims or second life. Don’t let the Role playing fool you, it’s very rare anybody actually role plays in these games, real people present themselves to complete strangers probably more openly then work colleges and family members, I have seen friendships grow and flourish and also hate campaigns against people that are no more that pixels on a screen. World of Warcraft has 10million active accounts. Also I have seen addiction to the games just the same as any drug and the reason for this is they produce the same reaction, they are an escape from reality, just like so many people are addicted to the TV. Addicted to the TV, there is a statement, but try and go a full 2 week with out watching it. Being at home with the blank box, missing your soap or top gear, it’s not as easy as it sounds. When I recently moved I was without a TV and Internet, by the end of the week I wondered why I bothered with it, then the virgin box arrived and the modem and little by little just like a cigarette pack being left with an ex-smoker you switch it on and just take one last pull.

So anyway back to the Better then life, when I first sat down I considered the argument for people refusing to be sucked into such a machine, how we would miss the human touch, our family and friend, but I honestly don’t know if as a race we would, after all in our heads we are all a lone when we think, we only know what we think and we choose what we communicate to the outside world, we only know what makes us really happy or sad, we can share/express most things, but we can’t give ourselves 100% to another person because we wouldn’t be what we are. We are limited by social reasons in the way we act to others. But we all have Yin and Yang, darkness and light, maybe seeing what the subconscious needs would be enough to make you not want to enter into such a machine or make you want to enter it more and more. I personally believe that if such a machine arrived in 40 years time, people would either fall under a player or none-player. But most would play it, which of us wouldn’t want a perfect life without a worry, unless you’re subconscious hates you.