Yes indeed. I actually won the Mischief Makers contest on Gaia Online! It feels a little odd, but it’s pretty cool. Virtual fame and fortune! You can see the winning entries here: http://www.gaiaonline.com/mischiefmakers/?action=gallery . I chose an “Ancient Katana” item, which is worth hundreds of thousands of Gaia gold. I just think it looks badass.
Reading these articles got me thinking about the capability of virtual reality. I think virtual reality is the next big leap in video games and it can use the web for interaction with other people, like MMORPGs. There is a book by Piers Anthony that is all about the dangers of a virtual reality game called “Killobyte”. It’s kind of cheesy and at times sex-obsessed, but it was my first introduction to the idea of a virtual reality game. The three main characters are players in this game. One is a diabetic young woman, one is a parapalegic ex-cop, one is a psychotic teenage boy. The teenager is a hacker who got mentally scarred by a virtual sex program and makes a game out of trapping and messing with players in the game. The debate about violence in video games reminded me of this and it’s interesting to look at how players react to shooting and killing other people’s characters, especially in a virtual reality setting, where you are making the motions with your body and will actually feel the recoil and see the person bleed to death before you.
