A friend of mine has become a self-professed Farmville addict. In case you don’t know what that means, it involves sitting in front of her computer for copious amounts of time as she tends her virtual farm. She plants crops, raises animals, and builds her farm – even though all of her crops, animals and buildings are only composed of electrons.
Some of her family and friends feel that this is a waste of time. Instead of spending time in “real life”, she spends all of her time in a make-believe world. Instead of real dollars, she’s concerned with Farmville “coins”. Instead of real soil, her crops emerge out of imaginary soil. Instead of real problems, she’s dealing with fictional problems created by the programmers who made the game.
From my conversations with her, I think she feels vaguely guilty about all the time she spends in Farmville. “But it’s FUN!” she tells me, and guilty or not, she keeps playing.
Of course, the strange thing about Farmville is that it’s not all that different from another fictional game. This one’s called Realville. In this game, instead of real goods like food, players are concerned with fictional Realville “dollars”. Instead of emerging from real soil, players’ crops emerge from the Realville “SuperMega Grocery Store”. And just like in Farmville, players are entangled in fictional problems created by the programmers who made the game, and all of the crops, animals and buildings are composed of electrons. Of course, most of us are so immersed in Realville that we think it really is real, but just because almost every human on the planet agrees on a delusion doesn’t mean it’s truth. It just means it’s a very effective delusion.
This is one of the first teachings of Awakening – to stop and look around ourselves, to see through the illusion of Maya and realize that our world bears an uncanny resemblance to Farmville. Dollars have no real value unless you and I agree they do, and yet people starve and die for lack of dollars. Daily, we deal with problems that have more to do with human convention than with actual realities. We feel compassion for homeless people when almost all of us live in houses that could shelter many. Our SuperMega Groceries throw away boxes and boxes of food every day – not because it is rotten, but because it makes “financial sense”. All around us, if we stop to look with fresh eyes, we will see human actions that border on the ridiculous, and many of these actions cause genuine pain and suffering in others or in ourselves.
What would happen if we saw the nature of this Realville game we’re all playing, and began to question some of its rules? Does it really make sense to let people starve so that we can have more dollars? Does it really make sense to experience frustration and stress because the game isn’t going the way we want it? Or might we find a certain liberation if we recognized the workings of the game, and began playing with a sense of adventure and curiosity?
This is Realville. What will you make it?
A friend of mine has become a self-professed Farmville addict. In case you don’t know what that means, it involves sitting in front of her computer for copious amounts of time as she tends her virtual farm. She plants crops, raises animals, and builds her farm – even though all of her crops, animals and buildings are only composed of electrons.
Some of her family and friends feel that this is a waste of time. Instead of spending time in “real life”, she spends all of her time in an imaginary world. Instead of real dollars, she’s concerned with Farmville “BLANKS”. Instead of real soil, her crops emerge out of imaginary soil. Instead of real problems, she’s dealing with fictional problems created by the programmers who made the game.
From my conversations with her, I think she feels vaguely guilty about all the time she spends in Farmville. “But it’s FUN!” she tells me, and guilty or not, she keeps playing.
Of course, the strange thing about Farmville is that it’s not all that different from another fictional game. This one’s called Realville. In this game, instead of real goods like food, players are concerned with fictional Realville “dollars”. Instead of emerging from real soil, players’ crops emerge from the Realville “SuperMega Grocery Store”. And just like in Farmville, players are entangled in fictional problems created by the programmers who made the game, and all of the crops, animals and buildings are composed of electrons.
This is one of the first teachings of Wild Zen – to stop and look around ourselves, to see through the illusion of Maya and see that our world bears an uncanny resemblance to Farmville. Dollars have no real value unless you and I agree they do, and yet people starve and die for lack of dollars. Daily, we deal with problems that have more to do with human convention than with actual realities. We feel compassion for homeless people when almost all of us live in houses that could shelter many. Our SuperMega Groceries throw away boxes and boxes of food every day – not because it is rotten, but because it makes “financial sense”. All around us, if we stop to look with fresh eyes, we will see human actions that border on the ridiculous, and many of these actions cause genuine pain and suffering in others or in ourselves.
What would happen if we saw the nature of this Realville game we’re all playing, and began to question some of its rules? Does it really make sense to let people starve so that we can have more dollars? Does it really make sense to experience frustration and stress because the game isn’t going the way we want it? Or might we find a certain liberation if we recognized the workings of the game, and began playing with a sense of adventure and curiosity?
This is Realville. What will you make it?
Kenton,
I always like when you talk about video games on your blog. Very interesting stuff…
But are we still allowed to occasionally throw our controller or keyboard in frustration?
Ha! Love it, Geoff =) Throw that controller anytime you like!
Sweetwater,
Kenton
Great pointer. If only we had the same sense of play in Realville that we do in farmville…
Hello Kaushik,
What a marvelous experience that would be . . . =)
Cheers,
Kenton
Great post Kenton!
I’ve worked in the gaming industry for three years and I’ve played computer games for most of my life. I’ve often felt a misguided sense of guilt, too, and I’ve been at the receiving end of cynical comments and a general distrust of emmersion in virtual worls. As you so point out though, virtual worlds aren’t that different from the ‘real’ world. Both are potential delutions and potential playgrounds and they can be equally real and not real and which is the case is really up to us.
I love how you point out how the rules of the game called Realville is not so much natural laws as they are engrained habits and systems of belief and how these very structures – if believed to be real – at their very root are generators of of suffering, injustice and how deeply bizarre much of it is when we step outside the grid and look at it all with fresh and sobre eyes.
Virtual or non-virtual, I say: WOPEDIDOOOO!!
What a great way to see it, Magnus! WOPEDIDOOOO indeed! =) As your own blog suggests in its title, “World Play”, magic happens when we see through the veil and understand our ‘reality’ for what it is.
Hugs,
Kenton
Farmville is a completely exciting Facebook game and I play almost every day.