Well I did want to get round to this question in another thread which I started out trying to compare the politics and psychology of real life to the politics and psychology of the game, but that didn't go well.
So instead I will just get straight to the point from the start this time and try to avoid most of the political ideas that I wanted to use to set up the context before.
In real life, in this complicated modern world we are faced with many psychological problems and challenges that we didn’t have, even just a few hundred of years ago. In those days, prior to high technology, the abundance of cheap energy together with the mechanisation of laborious tasks that we currently enjoy, and possibly also despise in equal measure sometimes, our lives would have been simpler, our freedoms would have been less, and actually more in certain ways, but also we most likely would have been less well-educated, and more likely to conform and comply to the systems of government and control that on the whole was also a lot less complex than it is now.
In our modern world of plenty we are faced with an awful lot of psychological pressure to succeed, with success generally being measured by our material belongings and the surroundings that we own together with our bank balance. So we see and read of others living around us who have more things, like bigger houses and bigger cars, more money and more power, and we feel that it is our right, perhaps because we also work hard, to also own those things, or have more power. We take on massive mortgages for homes and loans for cars that we can’t afford, and spend half our lives paying off these debts, just like Imperial slaves must in the game but because this is expected of us, and we feel the need to comply with these social expectations because that’s what everyone else does.
It’s these modern world pressures that make many more of us suffer from depression and anxiety. We simply did not evolve for this way of life. Even if we are able to see in context that we actually, in the developed world have far more than those in the developing world the irony is that on the whole we are still not happy with our lives, and those with less who live surrounded by others in poverty are more often than not happier and saner people than those of us who are surrounded with riches and richer people.
So my question for gamers here is this: Do you think, if you are honest with yourself, that you find gaming to be therapeutic in some way, not just a way to escape the real world and relax, but also a way to make up for your own lack of control, lack of material possessions and lack of wealth and power in your real life?
If you are, in this game a griefer, ganker, a multi-billionaire miner, a manipulator of the BGS or just a collector of ships, do you think that these virtual activities are able to actually fill a void in your real life? Does the virtual feeling of power or riches or owning many belongings make up for these things lacking in reality? And do you, like me, consider this beneficial and healthy for your psyche and mental wellbeing, rather than unhealthy, as some might suggest?
Thanks - Si
So instead I will just get straight to the point from the start this time and try to avoid most of the political ideas that I wanted to use to set up the context before.
In real life, in this complicated modern world we are faced with many psychological problems and challenges that we didn’t have, even just a few hundred of years ago. In those days, prior to high technology, the abundance of cheap energy together with the mechanisation of laborious tasks that we currently enjoy, and possibly also despise in equal measure sometimes, our lives would have been simpler, our freedoms would have been less, and actually more in certain ways, but also we most likely would have been less well-educated, and more likely to conform and comply to the systems of government and control that on the whole was also a lot less complex than it is now.
In our modern world of plenty we are faced with an awful lot of psychological pressure to succeed, with success generally being measured by our material belongings and the surroundings that we own together with our bank balance. So we see and read of others living around us who have more things, like bigger houses and bigger cars, more money and more power, and we feel that it is our right, perhaps because we also work hard, to also own those things, or have more power. We take on massive mortgages for homes and loans for cars that we can’t afford, and spend half our lives paying off these debts, just like Imperial slaves must in the game but because this is expected of us, and we feel the need to comply with these social expectations because that’s what everyone else does.
It’s these modern world pressures that make many more of us suffer from depression and anxiety. We simply did not evolve for this way of life. Even if we are able to see in context that we actually, in the developed world have far more than those in the developing world the irony is that on the whole we are still not happy with our lives, and those with less who live surrounded by others in poverty are more often than not happier and saner people than those of us who are surrounded with riches and richer people.
So my question for gamers here is this: Do you think, if you are honest with yourself, that you find gaming to be therapeutic in some way, not just a way to escape the real world and relax, but also a way to make up for your own lack of control, lack of material possessions and lack of wealth and power in your real life?
If you are, in this game a griefer, ganker, a multi-billionaire miner, a manipulator of the BGS or just a collector of ships, do you think that these virtual activities are able to actually fill a void in your real life? Does the virtual feeling of power or riches or owning many belongings make up for these things lacking in reality? And do you, like me, consider this beneficial and healthy for your psyche and mental wellbeing, rather than unhealthy, as some might suggest?
Thanks - Si
