So, I've read this before...like, three times. I'm running out of energy to give it.
There's surely things to talk about, but compared to my other obligations talking the same thing to death isn't very energizing.
HOWEVER, because I simply can't let my professor down, I did pick up on something I don't think I've talked about before.
Would this instance have been more or less traumatic if it had occurred in something more visual?
I'm going to use World of Warcraft as an example, not because I like it (I don't), but because there is a good chance everyone can relate.
So, what I'm personally debating, is whether this woman would have been more or less hurt had she been accosted in an engine that provides a distinct avatar rather than one wholly constructed in her mind.
In my experience as a writer, well, as a person really, the ability to distance the self from events is considered a good coping mechanism. In video games, many people have debated which is more effective for the player of a shooting game, first or third person. Do you feel more for the character you can see or the player you are supposed to "see through?"
I empathize with the victim with consideration towards the mental energy, the time put forth into constructing a persona within the MOO and feel that, maybe, it would not have hurt so much if she had been working, instead of with a purely mental construct, with a more visible avatar like a WoW character.
Granted, she would still have been "the player," but maybe a jump would have been easier to "my character" rather than "me."
Then again, maybe visibly seeing it would have been that much worse.
I just think it's easier to say "something terrible happened to my character" than "something terrible happened to me" if you can actually see said character rather than view them in your head.
*shrug*
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Con't Notes for the Day:
Emotional Investment...impact via a made-up place.
There is investment in watching a character...is there a different one in "being" a character?
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I think you're definitely correct in wondering if it would have been a slightly different issue if there was more visualization involved in the MOO. This issue could go either way though: a worse crime in that it seems a violation against mind and "body," or less horrible as you can clearly see it is a separate character online and not the person in front of the screen.
ReplyDelete-Sorry you had to read it again :-)