living with virtual worlds

Why do we care? If play only serves its purposes when it is play and therefore not serious why do we care? When we have a predisposition not to care, why take it seriously? Castronova suggests that we should not care about games at a micro level, meaning particular isolated games, but that we should care about games at the macro level. You should not care about who wins the world cup or the ogres and elves running around in cyberspace but you should care that there is a World Cup and that there are millions of ogres and elves running around in virtual worlds. “It is the phenomenon that deserves interest, not its manifestation per se” (Castranova, pg. 251). These games and virtual worlds are a huge part of many lives, including coping with and escaping the real world, recreation, expressing creativity, and making a living, among other uses. “These computers on our desks are turning into portals to other realms of existence, realms of our own creation according to idealized standards of fun and personal validation, realms that will one day be preferred to Earth by who knows how many people” (Castronova, pg. 251). So many already prefer these virtual environments as an alternative to the reality of the physical world. They care because the games and virtual worlds are there reality.