Munira Omari

July 6, 2013

Are Video Games Experimental Utopias?

In the beginning of the semester, I had to read and present two previous research posts. I had chosen Nichole Wheatly’s “Social Media web-based utopias—do they exist?” because I found it to be an interesting topic. It revealed the many possibilities of the web and provided alluring questions concerning utopias. How can something physically untouchable be considered a utopia? While deeply thinking about this, I have found it opened more questions about cyber utopias or virtual utopias, most commonly seen in video games. And amid my thinking, I remembered my two nephews. They are obsessed with video games and seem to get lost while they are playing it. While playing, they feel like heroes fighting evil zombies or saving the universe from alien attacks. It fascinated me to think of how happy they are doing it, and I being the type that does not play, had a difficult time understanding its excitement. Thus leading me to question whether or not utopia exists in video games, in killing zombies and having unlimited lives?

In order to find out exactly how this could work, we need to understand utopia and its reasons for its initiation. Utopia is a perfect imaginary place, where everything is available and there are no problems. It is known that the word was first coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516 (Wikipedia). He was a lawyer and King Henry VIII’s advisor. He believed in the freedom of humans and their right to live a happy and fulfilling life. And thus he wrote Utopia and detailed what he believed to be a perfect life. There have also been many examples of utopian communities throughout history, mainly in literature. However, with the improvement of technology and since the inception of the internet, the possibilities have gone beyond the physical world to include video games, social media, and shopping.  

In the process of my research I stumbled on an article about internet and utopia “The Internet as Utopia: Reality, Virtuality, and Politics” by Joshua Cowles. He sets a standard to virtual utopia by fully explaining the vision of utopia and its connection to utopian thinking; thus, to understand the later need for virtual utopias.  “[U]topia acts as a critique of, and sometimes a blueprint for, reality by using an imaginary place to portray an ideal society”(2). With that in mind, video games do have a utopian feel. For one, they are mirrors of our world. Second, they portray a society that is not individual in itself, a perfect society. All the characters do the same thing and act the same way. They were not created to each perform an individual thing.

 In another article written by Cameron Richards, “Computer Mediated Communication and the Connection between Virtual Utopias and Actual Realities”, discusses how virtual utopias and dystopias are an alteration of the main functions of human culture i.e. representing a better future or an ideal past. Furthermore, he says that virtual utopias are mainly considered dystopian; on the fact that it is based on rules and regulations. Now, in the world of video games, there is no ideal and perfect future, there is simply chaos that is in need of repair. At the same time, video games have no sense of moral righteousness. Teenagers are able to murder, rape and steal at no expense playing these games. So, is it really a perfect place?

 Cowles explains an important point about the results of having a virtual utopia and its effect on the community. He says, “The ability of individuals to experience utopia in a virtual setting may offset the felt need to bring these utopian features into reality. Conversely, being at least partially controlled by the 'rules' of reality, the utopian critique may be diluted and offer little beyond what is already real outside the virtual world. To an extent, the outside world is replicated within the virtual one” (6). In a way, he is saying that virtual utopias act as a release for the need to actually create a utopia. With that being said, it is quite understood from Cowles’s opinion that virtual utopias exist in the internet, as a double of our own world i.e. with all its rules and prohibitions, because after all, it is a replica and the rules must be followed. It is also understood from Cowles’s point of view that virtual utopias are a way of fulfilling the society's need for an actual utopia, thus limiting utopian communities today. But how do teenagers feel about video games?  When I spoke to my nephew about video games, he explained to me that it is a means of escape from reality, an escape from a plain world to a world of power, where he can be a hero. Most of the video games today are an apocalyptic world, where everyone is dead or turned into a flesh eating zombie. And the player is supposedly trying to save the world by completing missions.

 In this dystopian world, there is a hero and that hero is the player. The basic rules of society are not followed in this dystopian world of video games. There is no penalty for killing another player or raping a woman in video games; however, there is in our real world. I believe that teens lose themselves in video games because they will not be judged on who they are. I have learnt during the course of taking this utopia class that real utopias are experimental (objective 3). They exist as examples, especially if they fail; they become a step forward to creating a better one without the flaws of the previous one. And with new technology we are able to experience different results to different utopian ideals.  They are safer means of experimenting without destroying the world and causing real damage to real people. It is, in my opinion, a release for the younger generation from committing dangerous acts with consequences. As a result, we have controlled people, especially teenagers, from wandering the wrong way. Isn’t that partly utopian?

                                                                            Works cited

Cowles, Joshua. "The Internet as Utopia: Reality, Virtuality, and Politics." (2009): n. page. Print.

Omari, Jafar. Telephone Interview. 03 Jul 2013.

Richards, Cameron. "Computer mediated Communication and the Connection Between Virtual Utopias and Actual Realities." (1998): n. page. Web. 5 Jul. 2013. <http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac98/pdf/12_richards.pdf>.