Living within Fantasy: Darkon, WOW, and Reality

Getting immersed in fantasy is nothing new to our society. From the time that parents told their children of far away lands and mythical imagery, we have yearned to live in another world. Most only live in this world for a short time everyday. Perhaps you read your favorite book, play an online game, or even dress in period attire and battle evil doers in an open field. Whatever it may be, all of these have at least one thing in common- escaping to that special place. A place where you can forget all of the ties that you have to this thing we call reality.

Darkon

I started thinking about all of this when I watched a documentary called Darkon on IFC. If you haven’t watched it then let me get you up to speed. In Baltimore, Washington, and I assume other parts of the world, a group of people enter a medieval world every other Sunday. Decked out in full clothing from that time period, these people speak in what sounds like old English and fight in battles with padded weaponry. To some this may seem silly, but I see something else below the surface. I see a group of people merging a fantasy world with the world we live in. At the same time, they are also living within a world that they have created. Unhealthy? – I don’t think so. How can it be unhealthy to create or explore something different?

World of Warcraft

If you have been living in a rickety old shack your entire life, only to have now come out to see the light, and by chance first read this article, then let me enlighten you. World of Warcraft is by far the most popular and played massively multi player online role-playing-game in the world. But why? The short answer is again that people need a fantasy world. In this computer driven age, it is only fitting that we use a digital medium to create our escape.

What is Reality?

How do you define the world we live in? Do you do so by explaining your job, car, or family? Is the world we call reality really just an overall observation we make from what we see? But what happens if you take away all these things you use to describe reality? Do you have anything left? At the end of this blurb, you are left with only questions and no real answers. I can’t tell you straight answer, because I really don’t know. Trying to define reality is almost the same as determining an afterlife.

Conclusion

Now that we have seen what some people do to find this fantasy in their lives, we can make a few conclusions. Even though there is a place for fantasy, there is also a place for social interaction in everyone’s life. Most of us have come to know people devoted to things such as Dungeons&Dragons, World of Warcraft, Darkon, etc… as nerds for the very reason that they seem to have largely neglected social interactions. On the other hand, people who devote their life to social interaction alone are also neglecting this need for fantasy. So it is easy to see that there is in fact a balance between the two. And I’m not saying that anyone should have to care what other people think. This is not a matter of labels, but rather just a balance.
Do you have any experience with the LARPG or MMORPG? If not, then feel free to let me know why…