Fizzyglob

I’ve been eating and drinking “virtual worlds” lately. Not sleeping, mind you, that’s where I’ve found time to write this bit of floss. At work, I’m working on an article about educational computer-game design. This has led me to read article after article on games, from board games to role-playing games to computer games to MMORPGs. I’ve just seen the latest two fantasy movies. I’m working, in what spare time I have, on creating my own fantasy world (I have been for years). I play Dungeons & Dragons with “pen & paper” and World of Warcraft with an internet connection. Occasionally I even dabble in Second Life. The better part of my reality is focused on the unreal, I’m existing in a shared non-existence.

Virtual is no longer virtual. It was virtual, when it was a base concept being passed from one mind to the next to be mulled over in the possibilities of what could come to be, yet now the virtual is real, existing, affecting as much as it is effected upon by the mind. So, either virtual needs to be redefined in the light of what is, or we need to move away from calling them virtual worlds, they are now simply worlds where we exist, play, fight, flirt, and experience. Transcendence is a luxury of the dead; the virtual is laid to rest.