Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Experiences? "Virtual World" vs. the "Real World" - or Life In An MMORPG

I posted a call-out to the forum members of an MMORPG I play at called "Dofus."  

(BTW, it's a French-originating site and online gaming presence, so it's pronounced "Doe-fooz.")



Experiences? I'm Writing A Short Story About "Virtual Life"
In An MMORPG Like Dofus....
"...the story is about someone (perhaps like someone we know?) who is living more of a virtual life in an MMORPG (i.e., a massively multi-player online role-playing game based loosely on Dofus) and doesn't realize (or care) that they are withdrawing almost completely IRL.

"I'm very interested in how you relate to Dofus and MMORPGs in general. Do you find yourself mentally/emotionally living in the World of Twelve sometimes?

  • Do you ever find you've played far longer than you meant to, and lost track of time?
  • Do you ever dream you're in the World of Twelve and running in the fields of Dofus killing or running from mobs? Like you're dreaming of "Inception" levels of Dofus in your sleep?
  • Ever see something IRL and say to yourself immediately, "Well, if this were Dofus...."?
  • Have you, or have you known, anyone who abandoned all else for a while just to live virtually?
  • Do you write, or read, MMORPG fanfic; and if so, what have you to say about the "alternate realities" fanfic affords and extends to the online experience?
"Please jump in if you have anything to say about the "virtual world" vs. the "real world." I know that I've found myself playing Dofus around the clock when I've been ill, or had time off, or was depressed at how reality suxorz and the MMORPG world was beyond soothing...and very seductive, too.

"Although I have written a only a few "fantasy" tales of the "Science Fiction and Fantasy" genre; what the Fantasy authors I know teach about the art form is that "a Fantasy is bringing a complete world to life."

"Here's the thing: Once, in the prior millennia (about 30 years ago!) the majority of creation of fantasy worlds happened in short stories and novels. Now, the "complete world" of fantasy is created by artists in the interactive gaming Fantasy field.

:I'm an alumni of the Clarion Professional Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop, and I'm writing this story for the annual Write-A-Thon, which begins again this year in June of 2017.
"Here's my page at Clarion for all previous years, and will be the same for this year's Write-A-Thon submissions, including my short story about MMORPG vs. IRL.

"During my year at the live-in workshop the instructors were Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Chip Delany, Kate Wilhelm, and Damon Knight. (Yes, if you're thinking it was a while ago...it twas, and nearly at the inception of Clarion!) George Alex Effinger was a student there on one of the two coastal Clarions around the year I attended, and just about any luminary in the SciFi world (including George R.R. Martin) was at one time either an instructor, a student, or in some cases both at Clarion. Yes, almost any sci-fi or fantasy author you can think of...don't believe me?...I dare ya...look it up!

{This year's workshop instructor lineup includes Cory Doctorow, Dan Chaon, Linda Berry, C.C. Finlay, Andrea Hairston, Nalo Hopkinson, and Rae Carson.
 
"BTW, if you are a serious fanfic writer, and you think your worlds and words are hard worked on and you would like to see them made manifest in publishing, you might look into submitting to Clarion for next year's class. They also have scholarships. It's not a pay-to-play workshop, all students are chosen on the merit of their submissions. So, it's a bit daunting to vie for one of the around 20 workshop slots and have illustrious authors in the SciFi world vetting your work. But...! You get an experience of a lifetime and have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live and work in an intense day-night long six-weeks of total immersion with well-known, rather brilliant, sci-fi and fantasy authors.

"Your art (and you) will come out of the experience transformed into professional-level craftspersons; ready for prime-time! And I'd be happy to discuss Clarion with anyone interested in the workshop.

"By that you can guess that it's a serious writers' venue, so I want to do the subject justice, but the part about gathering research on how people really interact with the virtual world should be fun.
"So, this is the question: How much of the virtual and the real overlap? How do online worlds change us, and how do we affect the online MMORPG world?
"What do you think?
"Please, jump in!...I'd be very interested in hearing about your experiences in Dofus and how you integrate and navigate online and off-line "life."  
"You can hit me up, and the other Clarion authors, in mid-June at the Write-A-Thon, or follow my Clarion blog, and see the story I'm creating about living between two worlds, one virtual and the other real life, as both are sometimes all too real. Or, are they...?"