This week’s question is all about: How important are the people you spend so much time with online?
Destiny is described by the developers as “The game where you shoot aliens while discussing the Oscars with your friends.” A good story? Strong characters? Yes, somewhat important, but: The main characters should be your friends! Your companions with whom you are on the journey.
You might dismiss it as: “I would say that too if I couldn’t tell a story or draw characters to save my life!”, but there’s some truth to it, isn’t there?
When Fantasy Characters Become Real People
After all, behind the delicate healer who has saved our noble hero’s body from lying lifeless on the ground so many times, is some person (or an extremely intelligent cat that somehow learned our language!).
If we know the player only fleetingly, play with them once, and never see them again, we quickly forget them.
But if we spend time with them more often, see them almost daily, and they belong to our raid group, to our guild, then the healer becomes a part of our life. A fantasy character becomes a person, someone with whom we can talk not only about tactics and strategies, but over the years also learn what they do for a living, how their relationship is, what kind of person they are. We learn just as much or even more about them than we do about colleagues; classmates, acquaintances from “real” life.
The healer becomes our online friend. Our question this time: How important are such acquaintances to you? Have you experienced this yourself? Are you playing with an entire clique? Or are you primarily interacting online with friends you know from real life?
I Didn’t Want to Hear Other Players Back Then
Schuhmann says: When I started with MMORPGs, it was actually important to me to maintain the “immersion.” I didn’t like TeamSpeak, I didn’t want to know that the guy I was hanging out with every day wasn’t a “noble bard” but someone with a heavy Saxon accent who can’t pronounce “ch” and turns everything into “sch.” Or that the cool chick with the huge scythe was actually an annoying 15-year-old who probably has ADHD.
As long as they were only in the “chat,” just writing, I could somehow ignore that; with TeamSpeak, that no longer worked. It appealed to a different “sense”, the people became “real” – that’s what I wanted to avoid at the beginning.
Even After Years, I Will Never Tell Them My Real Name!
However, this has changed over the years, and I have made acquaintances and friendships. However, I no longer keep in touch with people from the early days, but later joined a guild in WoW , met “new people” who, in turn, knew each other from real life because they are neighbors or childhood friends. And I have been in contact with them for years and, of course, learn a lot about their lives.
These are indeed people who are important to me. Although none of those folks will ever learn my real name!
How about you?
