Going batty over role-playing
I am co-editing a book with my friend Bala Musa on ethics of the social media, and one of the essays to be included in the book caught my attention when its title came across my desk the other day:
Racing the Vampire: Exploring Race & Identity in Second Life .
The essay is being written by Franklin Nii Amankwa Yartey, of Bowling Green State University.
German actor Thomas Borchert, seen as Graf von Krolock, left, and German actress Lucy Scherer, seen as Sarah, right, participate in a dress rehearsal of the Musical "Dance of the Vampires" directed by Roman Polanski in Berlin, Monday, Dec. 4, 2006. The piece premiered in the Theater des Westens in Berlin on Dec. 10, 2006. Vampires have always been popular, and today is no exception. (AP Photo/Franka Bruns)
Now, I know the good folks in Ohio and – from what I’ve seen – they all grew up on this planet. So I figured there must be a rationale understanding of this title.
And, of course, there is.
Young interests
The references are to two popular interests that young people have these days:
- Vampires.
- Virtual online fantasy sites like SecondLife.com.
For those of you who have not inhabited Earth the past three or four years, you may have missed out on the “Twilight” phenomenon, which originated from the printed page of books by Stephenie Meyer but which morphed into the movie series (three so far) starring heartthrobs Robert Pattison, Taylor Lautner, and Kristen Stewart.
(Swoons are appropriate now for teen and even early 20-something readers).
Buffy reborn
The movie series picks up on the popularity of the TV series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and takes things a step further down the darker path.
The second reference of SecondLife.com is a site we have discussed before – maybe a year or so ago – in this blog. Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat.
Second Life is one of many “role-playing sites” or RPG’s that have arisen over the past few years.
Chasing dreams
For those over 50, it is the old TV series, Fantasy Island, transported to the 21st Century interactive Web. You not only watch other people pursuing their dream; you can do it yourself. Sort of. As long as you’re willing to do it in the virtual online world.
As Mitch Wagner, of Information Week notes:
“Second Life roleplaying is popular. It’s kind of a mix between World of Warcraft, improv comedy, and live theater. Users create characters and then improvise scenes involving those characters.
“Popular roleplay communities include Roma, based on ancient Rome; the The Road to Deadwood, based on the historical cowboy town of Deadwood, South Dakota; the Independent State of Caledon, based on Victorian Britain with a Jules Verne flair; and the vampires-and-monsters-themed City of Lost Angels.”
Vamps welcome
The last of these sites suggest there are “destinations” on Second Life involving vampires. In fact, there are a lot of them. To name just three:
- Genesis Order Horde. “Home of the Genesis Order vampire horde, a friendly, safe haven that welcomes all. It’s role-play friendly, with several active social-oriented venues including Club Se>en, a shopping area, a pier and member of several support organizations oriented toward new residents.”
- Vampyr Empire. “Transylvania, one of Second Life’s longest running communities, features a thriving, tight knit family who can offer support for new people coming into this lifestyle. You’ll find towering castles, dark corners and high-class Gothic-style shopping in this popular area.”
- Vamporium. “As soon as you land in Vamporium, you’ll feel a cold wind upon the back of your neck. There’s a whole region and shop of horrors to explore, including dark corners, haunted castles, Hell Maze, crypts and all manner of gruesome creatures. A truly dark adventure awaits!”
An old fascination
A lot of folks wonder why young people are finding vampires so fascinating today. Some parents are shuddering at the thought of their kids going any more goth than – well – they did, not too many years ago and of being sucked into the vampire world.
This undated image from the video game "Auto Assault" was provided by its publisher Ncsoft Corp. It shows one of the many battles in this multiplayer online role playing racing game. (AP Photo/Ncsoft Corp.)
But then again, haven’t vamps always been fascinating to us, young and old? Today’s parents probably devoured large tubs of popcorn over 1994’s Interview with a Vampire (with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the capes), and their parents and grandparents got to know Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney as earlier-day bat-men. And of course, there was always the TV sitcom, The Munsters.
Back to that essay
If you haven’t forgotten the initial spark that opened this stroll down Nightmare Lane, it was the question of the essay’s title, Racing the Vampire: Exploring Race and Identity in Second Life. It is one of many essays that takes communication studies into new areas.
In this case, with the advent a few years ago of these popular, virtual fantasy sites like Second Life, a lot of communication researchers and psychologists have been wondering what might happen to the individual identity of a young person who winds up spending so much time living an online life as someone else.
Like, oh, a vampire.
What’s important here?
Is race important when you’re a vampire? Is gender? Can some of the problems swirling around those descriptors be eliminated by simply living your life in fantasy land? If so, what kinds of personal identity problems are young users facing? Are sites such as Second Life causing any re-entry problems for the young cybernauts navigating them?
With the popularity of these RPG sites, others have arisen to transport users into faraway places and very strange territories. A few of them are:
- Dreamworld
- Swords and Potions
- Ministry of War
- Kaliedoscope Dating Sim
- Always Remember Me
- Fatal Hearts
- Crush the Castle
And the list goes on and on. So do the questions: what happens to the question young people deal with of, “Who am I,” when they might spend so much time breaking hearts or crushing castles in the virtual world?
Could be that critics of these sites are tilting at windmills themselves.
Familiar turf
Perhaps there is no more danger lurking here than Grandpa faced when he forced his mom and dad into buying much more Ovaltine than they ever needed just to collect enough product labels to send off for his very own Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring.
As in most questions regarding the virtual unknown, only time will tell. In the meantime, Beam me up, Scotty!
Thank you for joining our conversation on A Virtual Unknown. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.
Comments
I never really got into the twilight or vampire rampage, and didn’t really understand how something with such a simple concept turned into such a trend and desire of many people in our society. I remember seeing something on the Internet about someone reading twilight books and watching movies and imagining they are vampires themselves. Once twilight hit theaters and got such a good response from the audience, so many television shows now are written around the idea of vampires. I think they are overdoing vampires with the hype that it is at right now and just until something else comes along, it’s going to be the topic of conversation for many people.
Since the whole twilight saga came out vampires have become very popular.Vampires have become very popular among the new generation since Twilight came out. It is interesting how people are imaging themselves as vampires.The virtual world can benefit those that are outsiders in school because they can be able to socialize with those that share the same beliefs. At the same time it can affect them because they are living in a world of fantasy. Some followers are even changing there appearance to look like vampires.
I want to focus on the role playing part of this article simply because the aspect of those imagining and acting as vampires in their everyday life is a whole can of worms that would just take too much space to discuss. In terms of the role playing online, as Alex stated it could be benificial for those who are very introverted and have trouble being “understood;” however, if this openess does not transfer into the real world it will only have a negative effect which brings to mind stories of those kids who have locked themselves in their room refusing to go out into the real world because no one understands them out there and on the computer is where they can “live” a comfortable life. And this even going as far as kids committing suicide over these issues. I think it can be used for entertainment but should be closely monitored, especially for those who are young, and be sure that it isn’t inhibiting their real daily life.
Good response, Aisha. I agree that there are only certain people who would confuse these games with the real world.
I can see where one might think virtual identity can be threatening to one’s literal identity but at the same time there are positive side effects of living in the virtual world. For example, take a young boy or girl who is introverted, maybe misunderstood and often times alone. To them, when they get on that virtual portal they can be who they want without the fear of rejection and the possibility of failure. This idea of “immortal life” can be a glimpse of hope for many people because they think there might be more out there for them. At the same time its spreading an ounce of hope it is effecting their literal identity which can be very harmful to a person’s life.