on the loss of the online "home"
Apr. 7th, 2008 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearfrom a discussion on the announcement that Disney was likely to close VMK in a few weeks:
as for me on VMK, well, I was very annoyed at having lost everything I had just 'cause I went one week too many without logging in (faire's a busy season). made me lose my appetite for online games (to the point of nausea) just as strongly as i had lost it over muds back in the early 1990s when every single mud I had a character and "home" on disappeared in a matter of weeks, from Mbongo to ToonMush to TinyTim. VMK was the first non-violent social game i'd joined since the death of the muds, and when i was dissed by it, I just gave up all over again.
With this generation being so addicted to online games, I wonder how over the long term they'll react to the heartbreak that comes from losing a "home". will they find somewhere else? will they be able to stay together elsewhere (as LJ managed to keep many of us AFR netizens together)? will they actually stop and start playing with the people around them in person rather than hide in a new online world?
how many teens on the verge of serious (and unnoticed) depression will decide its better to end it all because some beloved online "home" is no longer there to hold them together and they simply can't imaging life in a new "home"?
the reality of virtual reality is going to sting a great many before we as a society finish adjusting to it.
as for me on VMK, well, I was very annoyed at having lost everything I had just 'cause I went one week too many without logging in (faire's a busy season). made me lose my appetite for online games (to the point of nausea) just as strongly as i had lost it over muds back in the early 1990s when every single mud I had a character and "home" on disappeared in a matter of weeks, from Mbongo to ToonMush to TinyTim. VMK was the first non-violent social game i'd joined since the death of the muds, and when i was dissed by it, I just gave up all over again.
With this generation being so addicted to online games, I wonder how over the long term they'll react to the heartbreak that comes from losing a "home". will they find somewhere else? will they be able to stay together elsewhere (as LJ managed to keep many of us AFR netizens together)? will they actually stop and start playing with the people around them in person rather than hide in a new online world?
how many teens on the verge of serious (and unnoticed) depression will decide its better to end it all because some beloved online "home" is no longer there to hold them together and they simply can't imaging life in a new "home"?
the reality of virtual reality is going to sting a great many before we as a society finish adjusting to it.
