Virtual World

The virtual world is a new interesting subject that is finding a way into everyday life; however, I wouldn’t want to live in a virtual world. The virtual world is a computer generated environment that is copying the real world by giving people the opportunity of making things that were impossible possible. In this case it is evident in Julian Dibbell’s essay, “Alter Egos: Avatars and Their Creators”. Therefore, if I could live in a virtual world, I wouldn’t because it causes gamers to lose a sense of reality, creates violence, and promotes anti-social behavior.

First, the virtual world causes gamers to lose a sense of reality. In fact, the virtual world gives gamers an opportunity to travel to other places in the world without gamers physically being there. For instance, traveling in the virtual world is not the same as the real world, you do not get the same feeling as in real life. Further, you can’t get to smell the air from a different country, the excitement of site seeing, and experience the cultural change in the other country. However, a lot of gamers think the virtual world gives them the same feeling. In addition to this, gamers lose a sense of reality thinking the virtual world is the real world since it is based on the real world images.

Page 2

Second, the virtual world can also cause violence to others. Actually, Julian Dibbell writes, “We say they’re only games, these little worlds, but often we end up devoting more time to them than to any other realm of our existence, until it starts to make less sense to think of our avatars as fictional characters than as second selves” (Dibbell 54). For example, there was a Korean couple that was obsessed with raising a virtual baby while their real infant daughter lay abandoned and unfed (News Article). In addition to this, a 22-year-old Korean man was charged with murdering his mother because she nagged him for spending too much time playing games; then, after killing her the man went to a nearby...