silly title, right. silly subject, eh?

i just watched a video about Warcraft, one of my favorite series of games ever. World of Warcraft has gained such popularity and praise that it is known even by people who never touch videogames, or even rarely computers. however, it has been given it’s negative connotations as well, ofcourse. anything popular will. even sex, food, and love, probably the three most popular things of all time in any species (save perhaps love) are hated and fought against in certain ways. muslims wont eat this, christians wont have this kind of sex, and as we all know recently, the mormons will only allow heterosexual love.

but that isnt the point of this little babble. the point is this: world of warcraft has over 11 million players. lets look at that. 11 million.

everyone knows the kingdom, some of the history, the culture, the achievements of scotland, right? 5.2 million people, give or take a hundred thousand.

ireland. the emerald isle, with the story of the leprechaun, banshee, and lots of drinking abd being catholic?

6 million people.

the city of new york. 8.2 million

what this means is a fake world, one made up by a few dozen writers, artists, programmers, and millions and millions of players outnumbers more than a few countries on the planet. it outnumbers new york city, beijing, tokyo, mexico city. in fact, only 2-4 cities in the WORLD have a higher population, according to wikipedia.

the land mass of world of warcraft, before its two expansions (which have easily double the overall size) was estimated by a blizzard employee at being roughly 200 square km. let us say it is now at around 400. that is larger than the city i am writing this from aurora, co. that is, a fake world, made up of polygons. 0’s and 1’s, is larger than my city. (this is all assuming that the characters in the game run at the same speed as a marathon runner, which is how the total was figured).

all in all, what does all this say? all these little statistics and comparrisons? simply put, we are adding land. fake land. fake place. WoW is one of hundreds of MMORPGs(massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) out there, and while likely the largest in landsize, and by far the largest in population, if each MMO is even 1/4 the size of wow, we have added considerable amount of “land” to the earth. sure, each human needs a living space at the very least (or only roughly 6′x6′x4′ or so according to tolstoy), but give it time and maybe the only necissary space a human will need is place for them to sleep, bath, eat, and use the restroom. the rest could all be in cyberspace. which terrifies me, but it is indeed possible someday.

i guess my overall point in this is, we have reached a turning point in entertainment. where videogames are not simply just that. I have been playing WoW since the night before it hit store shelves. that is 4 years this month. I have taken breaks, i have stopped playing for months at a time, i have gone from playing hours on end to not playing more than a few hours a week, as i do now. But i have been here, creating it, changing it, shaping it. I have been here giving ideas and input, writing to programmers and designers, to fellow players, and former players, and will-be players. i have been a part of warcraft since warcraft 2, fighting as an orc, a troll, a human, an elf, a goblin, a dwarf, a skeleton. and clicking sheep until they blew up.

WoW has evolved past being a game. I have friends from the game, and several others, that in a time of need i could turn to. they have helped me with homework, with philosophy, with my writing, and with my life’s troubles. they have made me smile and laugh, made me angry and feel all around like shit. we have built an economy where things are valueable because WE give them value. if you never play WoW, you will not know that i could sell a purple gem (let alone know what i meant by purple gem) for several dollar. real dollar. USD. green, cash, bills. we have made leaders, and we have made outcasts. we have formed stategies to take down virtual foes, and other players. we have honed our abilities to hear, and see, and listen to others. I can hear when a rogue goes stealth, and with my sound system i know where in the playing field they did. i tell the difference between which spell an enemy is casting simply by the color of the sparkles in their hand, and from this i can tell how best to survive, and indeed beat them.

friends, family, and even people i hardly know have given me more crap for playing videogames than i care to relate. but in reality, videogames have enhanced my ability to read and write. they have given me more insight into philosophy, psychology, anthropology, literature, cinema, musica. Indeed, it is because of videogames that i am as in to history as i am today. without dynasty warriors, i would never have known the history of china i do today. sure, i may have learned it at a later point, but i know it. now. because videogames piqued my interest.

i learned about the Id because of Xenogears. I learned about the Han dynasty because of dynasty warriors. i learned about samurai because of probably 3000 games ive played (samurai are in everything). i know about computers largely so i could get my games running the best way they could on my machine. i have taken apart and rebuilt my playstation numerous times to clean it, to learn it, to understand it. and because i get bored.

videogames are not just games. they are so much more for one single reason. they are made by people whos interests vary just as much as books, movies, shows, plays, discussions and anything else you can think of. if you like it, someone has made a game about it, or included it in a game, or has been influenced by it in the making of the game.

videogames are shaping the planet as much as literature has. the fights of “they corrupt our kids!”, the business that has boomed. japan is forever changed by this. the US is certainly changing, and even european developers, later to jump on ship in a big way, will be forever altered. i suspect in 100 years, children in history class, students in economic classes, and people all over the planet will note 3 things about our time. globilization of economy. the rise of the internet. and the rise of new media, most notably videogames.