Does immersion mean that games become more real when we play them?

Video games are easy to get addicted to. When we play them we become so in touch with the characters and story lines or missions that we forget about our everyday lives. We become attuned to the problems that our character is facing and they become our priority.

When playing a first person game such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) you get to customize your character and it becomes the spawn of you. Throughout the game you complete the missions of that person. Also, because of the nature of Star Wars you can decide whether to enter the dark or light side of the force. In short, you become the character that you have created as you decide everything from the speech to their fighting style. When you become this close to the action does it allow you to become attached? Do we enter cyberspace?

In a third player game, where you control from a far away position and switch between characters, does it still have the same effect? In the case of something like The Sims, I would say it does. As with KOTOR, you can customize them to look how you want and chose their characteristics but they cannot be completely controlled. If you use the 'free will' setting then they'll do whatever they want to whilst you watch over them. So, even though we cannot completely control their destiny, it is still something to get immersed in- but why?

I think that video games are so easy to get immersed in because they represent lives that many of us would like to have. The younger audience that play them are more likely to get addicted because they'd like to be super heroes or drive fast cars and catch the bad guys. Games allow us to enter a place where our real life problems are put to one side as we look out for an avatar that isn't and will never be, real.

Do Xbox Kinect and the Wii make us cyborgs when we play their games?

New technologies have been developed which allow users to physically become part of video games when they play them. For example, the Wii  is a console is that controlled totally by the players movements. Each game allows the player to interact completely with the game. All the player has to do it move their arms and body's around as though they are the characters in the game.

Shortly after this, microsoft brought out Xbox Kinect as a way to try and compete with the Wii. However, this differs in the way that it has sensors which sense every movement that the player makes. Therefore, it takes game play to the next level as the slightest movement is mirrored byt the character on the screen.

Nintendo has also released Playstation Move which incorprates both elements of the Wii and Xbox Kinect but also uses a different technique as it includes a webcam so that it can see your movements. Furthermore, Playstation Move also uses 3D technology to make the player's experience even more realistic.

With all of these consoles bringing out games that allow us to be physically a part of them, do they turn us into cyborgs?

When we disappear into these video games, we are entering cyberspace and becoming a different being, therefore pointing towards us being cyborgs. With these technologies in our hands, literally, we are able to control the technology that is in front of us. Subsequently, this can be seen as us being a part of the computer or having a part of it in us.

Cyborgs are often seen as having super powers, or being indestructible. Gaming may not have gone that far yet, but who knows what the future may hold for video games. In the 21st century, technology is developing very fast. Will we all be able to actually transform into a cyborg in the next 50 years?

Do we become a different person when we're in cyberspace?

“On the internet nobody knows you’re a dog” –Peter Steiner, The New Yorker.

When we create a facebook profile or set up a twitter account are we becoming someone else or being the person that we are? “Should we post our age and marital status? Should we make our profile private or public? Should we reveal that we're gay? (Data-crawling programs can make a pretty good guess about it even if we don't.) Should we boast on Twitter that we applied for a grant? Should we talk about the ravages of chronic Crohn's disease?” (Andy Oram, 2009)

Nobody really knows who they're talking to on the internet or who's profile they'e viewing. You can be anyone you want to be because of the freedom that the internet offers. Unfortunately this can sometimes be bad because it can be a great place for people to commit crimes such as identity theft and online grooming, which is more common amongst the teenagers and younger people that use the internet. 

However, because of the freedom that the internet offers I think that we can be ourselves a lot more or become someone that we'd want to be. When someone posts a status on facebook or twitter they can write it in any style that they wish, be it formal or informal. You can chose how people see you and therefore you can create an image for yourself. 

So, we do become different people online. We either have the confidence to be ourselves because we have a screen to protect us or we can become a person that we'd like to be. 

Is the idea of cyberspace dead because it's all around us?

When the internet first became apparent no one really knew what it was or what it could do. When Tim Berners Lee created the World Wide Web he never thought it would amount to anything and therefore gave it away free. Would he still have done that is he had known the phenomenon that the internet and technology is now?

The notion of cyberspace is something that has become less alien to everyone because of the accessibility of technology and the internet. For example the introduction of the Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move means that you can now become a physical part of a video game as opposed to sitting down with a controller in your hand controlling an avatar on the screen.

So, because we can get inside a video game does it mean that the idea of cyberspace as a seperate place is dead? No I don't think so.

A new language has been created to use on the internet. The usage of words like LOL, ROFL and TTYL are not things that were would say in everyday life because it would be seen as odd, but when we're chatting on a messenger service or through messages on a website or forum it is seen as acceptable. Communities online communicate very differently to how they do in real life.

When we enter these communities we enter cyberspace. Therefore, it becomes a separate place to have an identity. But, so is being part of a video game. Even though the character's path could already be set out for you, it is your choice how to do the things that the game instructs you to do. Furthermore, you can create your own avatar on the Xbox and other gaming consoles which also connect to the internet so that you can play with other players.

I think that cyberspace is all around us but not in the way that it is becoming something that we're always in. There is still a distinct divide between the virtual world and the real world and we can still decide to be a part of either one at various times.