Reality becoming Virtual

There was once a time when gamers took on the role of a vertical white line, reflecting a ball towards their opponent to score points.

Since then gamers have raided tombs, recreated the D-Day landing, won the World Cup and fought robots, zombies and madmen from future Worlds.

Sony Entertainment are rumoured to release the game ‘Home’ in Autumn 2008, were gamers take on a second life.

Gamers can create their own image and socialise in a virtual world through their Playstation Three console.

With games taking over roles and responsibilities we take on everyday, will our lives become immersed into a virtual reality?

Gamers have always been encouraged to engross themselves, to learn and become the main character or characters of a story driven game.

Games have always had a boundary. You are restricted to the size of a level, you are guided around the game by the storyline and there is eventually an ending to it.

This is known as static game content, in which games are powered by all the software being contained in a disc.

Home

In Sony’s Home, gamers can simply log onto their console and socialise with other users from around the World.

Gamers can design their character to their liking and they can design their own virtual apartment were their characters live.

Gamers can watch films together; challenge each other on the latest games and display their achievements in the hall of fame.

Speaking at the Tokyo Game show; Kazou Hirai, Head of Sony Computer Entertainment said: “With Home, we are looking to take advantage of the social network market.

“Websites have made a huge success with Second Life, MySpace and Facebook.”

Designer point of view

Many game designers and developers see what the internet has achieved through social networking as the foundation to take gaming onto a new level.

Phil Harrison, keynote speaker at Game Developers Conference 2007, said: “There was a magazine cover last year that was a pivotal moment in the Internet age in which Time magazine said that you were the person of the year.

“Democratising the internet and putting you in control of your entertainment experiences and allowing you as users to share with an entire universe around you.

“We want to take what the web has achieved into our own industry and develop it over the next ten years.”

Phil Harrison sees Home more of a service than a game and explained that Home will already be installed on Playstation Three consoles.

What to expect

A tutorial of Home was given by its producer Scott Walker, who described what gamers will experience when logging into Home.

Scott Walker said: “Home is really a 3D community; it’s a 3D social networking service that allows you to express yourself and your personality.

“People around you will be communicating to one another and we can use a variety of different technology to talk to one another

Phil Harrison explained that users will be given their own private space away from the public spaces in the form of a virtual apartment, in which users can customise everything from the size of the room to the colour of the furniture.

Previous work

Its concept challenges the PC download ‘Second Life’, a virtual World that was tipped to take over real life in 2003 but has since failed to attract consistent users.

Second Life was designed by American company Linden Lab, founded in 1999 to create revolutionary 3D experiences for consumers who pay £9.95 a month.

Their creation was tipped to become virtual reality with real money being used as Linden dollars to buy land, clothing and needs for your character. For $1 you can get $270.

Success has been isolated only in America but it is slowly attracting internet users in Europe.

Lewis, a PR spokesman for Linden Lab in Europe said: “Second life is four times the size of New York City. We like to think of it as a continuously growing community.

“We’re pleased with the success of what’s happened. Many users are socialising with their friends on Second Life as there are more exciting opportunities and risk free adventures than in RL. (what Second Life users call Real Life)

“We’ve recently given IBM its own space in Second Life to help the company build up relations with its staff. It’s a huge success and we want to encourage more companies to do the same.”

Future of social gaming

In April 2007, Garter research said: “80% of Active Internet Users will have a ‘Second Life’ in the Virtual World by 2011.”

A year on I do see virtual worlds being used as a tool that will be as necessary of owning a television or cooker.

Gaming is definitely moving towards online content. Encouraging gamers to play as themselves and play with other active users.

I can’t see people merging themselves with virtual worlds so much that they will turn away from real life to seek a dream utopia.