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| Ch. 11, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville |
In light of our study of Moby Dick, this is an especially pertinent topic, for in some sense, the leviathans of Melville's work live in a world that is to us likewise unknown and unseen--a place that's neither understood nor appreciated by the vast majority of people. We perhaps catch a tiny glimpse of that world every now and then in our brief encounters with its strange inhabitants, but we otherwise remain blissfully (and sometimes sanctimoniously) ignorant to these worlds lurking just beneath the threshold of our perception. Well, I want to change that.
One particularly interesting 'world' is that of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Eve Online. Eve is set in a sci-fi space universe and emphasizes free play in a world that for its immensity and seeming impenetrability dwarfs even the white whale's watery abode. Though this game has been around for only 10 years, already it has developed complex social and economic structures, boasting everything from sophisticated trading systems and stock markets to broad corporations composed of thousands of individuals and small collectives. It has developed its own policing systems, criminal rings, trade cooperatives, transport companies, and to top it all off, the game has an elected council of 14 representatives who meet in real life to discuss the stability and progress of the internal world. In short, this is no child's play.
The question is, I suppose, are interactions within these 'figmentary' worlds any less real than those that we carry on within our everyday lives? Is talking over a video game's real-time voice chat in any way inferior to, say, talking over the phone, and does such communication inhibit or enable certain modes of expression that might or might not otherwise be available? Does the fact that people interact in deep space rather than at a table or on the street in any way change the nature of the communication itself, or does it simply place it within a different context?
When I read this post and your questions, it makes me think of communes where like-minded people live and create their own space and "world" in which they want to live. In a way, we can all create our own virtual worlds even in real life. Any group of people with similar interests, a vision of what they want their world to be like, what philosophies they want to accept, what social norms they live by, and with a common purpose sort of do the same thing as this MMORPG it sounds like. So I guess to answer your question, no these figmentary worlds in a way are not less real than those in real life. I would argue that there are differences, and those differences can be significant. But despite the restrictions of real-world life, people seem to like to create their own world within their groups of friends and family.
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