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From the article here,
( the author compares high school football to online games )
( in which the author rips apart analogies to addictive substances )
( and in the conclusion, we cut to some interesting perspectives )
And picking up where the author draws his conclusion-- I think, as I've said before, that people need a home. "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in." It's one of the devastating parts of various forms of dementia, that the brain chemistry changes and even if you're in the same place, home doesn't feel like your home emotionally; that's one reason why a lot of dementia sufferers are very tense and upset.
AOL used to survey its employees every year. One of the questions on the survey asked employees to rate on a scale how afraid they were that they would make a mistake and get fired for it. Every year, the number went up. I don't think AOL is alone (although I do think they're getting what they deserve, because they're shutting their call center here and their company's worth is dropping like a rock)-- people don't feel "at home" at work.
Because of the price of housing and continuing education, a lot of people stay with their parents or in ever-changing school housing during their young adult years. But despite the ability to personalize their rooms to some extent, there's no real stability; their parents and everyone else expect them to move out at some point, even pressuring them to do so, but expect that they'll be able to provide themselves with all the same material benefits immediately-- not always the case. So people don't always feel at home where they live, either.
Is it any wonder that some people know the NPCs of Neriak or Ashenvale better than they know the neighbors who only wave (if that) as they go out the door? That they know more about their guildmates than their co-workers?
The greatest relief I've ever felt in my life was the moment I converted to Christianity, the moment that I felt I'd been asked to "come home." But seeing from that point of illumination, there are a lot of things that give me the comforting, homey feeling-- and gaming is one of those, maybe one of the biggest.
I wonder where most people's homes are?
( the author compares high school football to online games )
( in which the author rips apart analogies to addictive substances )
( and in the conclusion, we cut to some interesting perspectives )
And picking up where the author draws his conclusion-- I think, as I've said before, that people need a home. "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in." It's one of the devastating parts of various forms of dementia, that the brain chemistry changes and even if you're in the same place, home doesn't feel like your home emotionally; that's one reason why a lot of dementia sufferers are very tense and upset.
AOL used to survey its employees every year. One of the questions on the survey asked employees to rate on a scale how afraid they were that they would make a mistake and get fired for it. Every year, the number went up. I don't think AOL is alone (although I do think they're getting what they deserve, because they're shutting their call center here and their company's worth is dropping like a rock)-- people don't feel "at home" at work.
Because of the price of housing and continuing education, a lot of people stay with their parents or in ever-changing school housing during their young adult years. But despite the ability to personalize their rooms to some extent, there's no real stability; their parents and everyone else expect them to move out at some point, even pressuring them to do so, but expect that they'll be able to provide themselves with all the same material benefits immediately-- not always the case. So people don't always feel at home where they live, either.
Is it any wonder that some people know the NPCs of Neriak or Ashenvale better than they know the neighbors who only wave (if that) as they go out the door? That they know more about their guildmates than their co-workers?
The greatest relief I've ever felt in my life was the moment I converted to Christianity, the moment that I felt I'd been asked to "come home." But seeing from that point of illumination, there are a lot of things that give me the comforting, homey feeling-- and gaming is one of those, maybe one of the biggest.
I wonder where most people's homes are?
