Play Money- 1st section

Well, I just finished reading the first couple parts of Play Money, and I really dont understand what all the fuss is about concerning the video-gaming phenomenon. I've taken a look at some of the class debates and I really have never felt that video games are such a negative thing. I've never been one to really play them myself and, don't get me wrong, I am not in support of games that teach violence and criminal activity to young children, however, I think that they can be a very good thing for kids and for adults. My cousin was always playing video games throughout his teen years, constantly, and my whole family was worried about him because that was all he did all the time, literally. He is now 23 and going to school for game design. He is taking something that he was passionate about and loved and making it into a career, and with the way the video game industry has taken off over the years, it looks like it will be a very lucrative career. As long as someone enjoys what they do for a living and are not engaging is some illegal activity while doing it and they are making enough money to support themselves... who cares whether they play video games or crunch numbers in a cubicle all day like a robot. Video games are engaging, and the couple times I have played them, I find them to be a way of relaxing, "blowing off steam" I guess you could say.

I was really interested when Dibbell started discussing psychology and why people play video games. In these games that he describes he says that there is no ultimate goal and no winner or loser to speak of. If there is no winner and loser and no huge prize or accomplishment to aspire to, then why do people keep going back? I started thinking about reinforcement, something that they never fail to bring up in ANY psychology class you take, and think that is what Dibbell may have meant in all this talk of psychology. People are reinforced on a small scale regularly throughout the game. They are able to raise certain scores or obtain certain goods, and while they are only small gains, they make you feel productive. Your rewards are small but constant, unlike the daily grind where your reward comes once a week or once every two weeks when you get your paycheck. I think it fills a void in a lot of people's lives. People who engage in everyday work that truly has no meaning to them. They don't have jobs they love and they work simply for the check and because that is what society expects us to do. I think it's like Pink's idea. We need to use the right side of our brain to be fulfilled. We need to connect with what we are taking part in emotionally and it needs to have meaning to us for us to truly love it. Video games connect with the right side of the brain and give individuals an outlet that they wouldn't normally have.

I also really liked his talk about economy. The idea of scarcity. I have never really heard of this theory before, if it even is a theory, but I thought it was really new, refreshing, and true! Sure, we always think the grass is greener on the other side and we complain about work and school and responsibilities. I think most people, including myself, would describe their paradise is a place where they do nothing all day and night and have everything they need laid out before them. It seems great right? But actually think about. Sure, that would be great for a couple weeks or so, but what happens after that? What do you have to keep you going? What gets you out of bed in the morning. I think of it like stress. I am a very stressed-out person. But when I have 4 tests, a research paper, and about a million pages of reading to do in one week, yes, I am ready pull my own hair out and completely break down but I don't, the stress of the situation, being right there on the edge is when I do the best. My highest scores on tests are when I have had at least 2 other tests in the same week or when my blood pressure was at its highest. I know, it sounds a little crazy, but people don't thrive in a paradise where they do nothing all day, they thrive in a world where they have expectations, responsibilities, and a reason to roll out of bed each morning. No one wants to be bored all the time. So I guess, in a twisted way, we bring about our own stress and we do enjoy scarcity and the stress that comes with it. We have learned to love it, we have learned to thrive under it's conditions. It makes us productive, but this is the world that we have created and its not going to change any time soon.

As far as making real money selling fake goods is concerned, yeah it is a little crazy. I had trouble wrapping my head around the idea in these first few chapters. I immediately thought of a recent addition to Facebook. There is this new thing now where everyone has a 'gift' they can give someone. Its like a little clipart picture you can send to someone. You get to pick your own out of ones that the company has designed so they are tailored to the individual you would like to give the gift to. Its a cute idea, someone has a birthday, you can send them a little pic of a cupcake with a candle on it. When you are picking out your 'gifts' though, there is a little line... the first gift is free, after that they cost $1 each. At first, it made no sense what so ever to me now, but now that I see how the virtual world is becoming reality, it doesn't seem that crazy.

Video gaming is becoming a way of life just like any other job is, things are changing as Dibbell said from 'manual to mental labor.' It only makes sense that the concept of money and what y0u can buy with it would change too. It is an abstract concept to buy fake good for real money, but when you think about it, money is an abstract concept in its own way. Maybe I'm going a little too far out there but, to me, money only has meaning and value because we give it meaning and value. The only reason that we think money is so concrete is because we have assigned it to paper and coins. What is to say that these goods don't have value, just because we don't have something that we can hold in our hands that represent them? Virtual reality is becoming a real place to us, no matter if it's in front of our faces or in our minds. We have created it and made it what it is, it is real to all those people out there who love to play these video games, so why can't we encorporate a way for people to make a living in this other new world that is becoming part of our culture?