[rescue] replacing an Ultra2

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 @ 00:44 -0400, der Mouse said:

> > Modern games aren't providing immersion.  [...]
> > What I'm talking about is game systems that deliberaly shut off
> > external stimulus and sensor input, to favor the game system instead.
> 
> This is a difference of degree, not of kind.  We already deliberately
> shut off external stimuli, as when finding a dark quiet room to play in
> to reduce distractions.

The idea is to remove the sensor input that currently tells us that
the game isn't real. Controllers, keyboards, flat screens... those are
constant reminders that we are outside of the game world.

If you could remove the things which tell you the game world is
artificial, it is no longer the same as just isolating yourself in a
quiet room.

At that point, the main thing telling you the world isn't real will be
that it doesn't match the one you spent most of your life in.  It will
be "lower resolution", and have all kinds of silly limitations and
also incredible power in other areas.

Then again... a "bag of holding" really would be useful at the next
Hamfest in town...

> > Imagine a game system where you lie on a sensory negating couch with
> > noise isolation, and you see the game world through your own eyes.
> 
> > It might push people over the edge, to where their conscious mind
> > sees that world as real.
> 
> And, wouldn't it be?  "Reality" is a slippery notion; the game world
> would be at least as real as software constructs like the processes and
> files most OSes support.

I don't view files and data structures as the same as a game world, so I
don't see that as the same thing.

I use data structures, processes, and files as tools of the real world,
not an imaginary world.  In fact, they specifically tie abstractions to
the real world.

For a game, I want abstractions that detach me from the real world.

> > The difference will be that the subject won't be in a lab with people
> > to take them out of it, they'll be sitting alone in their gaming
> > room, perhaps with no one checking on them.
> 
> Evolution In Action.
> 
> (Half joking.  But only half.)

Well, people have already been hurt just with current game technology.

Of course, those people might have other issues too, don't know.

Even if playing in a world I might prefer to this one, I can't see
putting that much time into it.



-- 
shannon           | Castles are sacked in war, Chieftains are scattered far, 
                  | Truth is a fixed star, Eileen aroon! 
                  |         -- Gerald Griffin