Continuing on the theme of Star Wars Galaxies, just in case I haven't bored you to death enough yet...

I've been having a riot playing SWG EMU on Liberator (Trandoshan called Rissk if you want to hook up.)

The thing is, I'm finding myself doing different things than when I played before.  Back in the day, I had a few alts, Rissk used to be Master Carbineer / Creature Handler, I had a Teras Kasi Master as an alt and a Master Dancer/Musician.

I never really got into the whole 'crafting' thing...

To be honest having started dabbling again, I'm starting to think that was a mistake.  My current plan is to go Master Rifleman/Master Weaponsmith.  I started crafting due to a lack of decent starter weapons and figured I could make some better ones.  I'm at Artisan 3 x x x now and I can make a CDEF Pistol 22 - 45 damage far better than the paltry 9 - 18 you get as a starter.  And there's something very satisfying about experimenting and finding ingredients, then branding and selling your wares to people... The idea that there's little virtual people running about shooting things with virtual weapons, virtually made by your little virtual crafter... 

I'm thinking - find a plot, buy a building and open up shop, stick a few vendors in and advertise it's location.

The thing is, I'm actually involved in a real life business, I design products, market them, sell them hire people, pay wages... And that sort of stuff is kind of neat as it means I can afford to live - but I wouldn't call it fun... Not in the long shot...

So why is this?  How can it be fun to open a virtual business in SWG EMU, when it isn't in real life?

I think the answer is in how easy and accessible it is in a game.  Crafting is very easy, if you have ingredients, you open up the crafting tool and within 8 mouse clicks you've experimented and built a working example.  To do so in real life would take a long time, require the use of tools and be quite physically and mentally demanding.  I wonder in ways if this is what made rythym games like Guitar Hero fun, playing a Guitar is fun to a degree - I used to be in a rock band called the 'Liability Crisis' (Cue embaressing 'Gig video': - Silcon & Soda ) There are more songs but I doubt you'll spend too much time looking for them, even the iconic 'Two Girls One Bed' song... After having heard one...

But playing guitar hero is more fun... I think again it's because it isn't as taxing, it isn't as hard work.

There's maybe an element of risk in business, and that might be a factor, when you've got cash flow issues and sales are down - things might be out of your control and it may have a major impact on your standard of living.  That might also apply to other games, for example FPS war simulations.  We all find the likes of Call of Honour, Medal of Duty and Battlefield Company fun... But would it really be that much run running into a rebel town in the middle of the desert with an SA80 and a few rounds of ammunition - and Taliban guerilla's emerging and raining fire down upon you, injuring you... Possibly forcing you to watch someone you consider a friend die in front of you?

I suppose there's an arguement that making something which simulates this quite macabre and a little vulgar... That's probably why some people are overly sensitive to video game violence, because they don't understand 'the magic circle'.

The subject matter of the game does not matter within the magic circle, within a framework of rules which have no bearing on the real world, the real world shouldn't have any bearing on the game-world.  In the game world you respawn and go frag the person who sniped you... And that's the reality of world in which you play.

Don't get me wrong, I think there's an arguement against making gratuitously violent games, partly because it harms the legitimacy and respect of the video games industry and partly because - let's face it, it can't be that healthy to be simulating certain things even 'within the magic circle' some contenders would be the Manhunt games possibly?  Definately that bizarre Japanese 'Go out and Rape girls' RPG simulator... Whose name eludes me - I find it disturbing that such a game exists.  Is this a double standard?  Maybe it is a little.

I suppose it can be considered in other media too - for example films.  I find the existance of the 'Torture Porn' genre disturbing (Saw Series anyone? Hostel?) but fascinating at the same time... Fascinating not just that these things exist - but they are so inexplicably popular.  I've seen 'The Human Centipede' in some ways it's an awful film, but it's also mesmerising at times...

I believe this is partly why humans take harmful recreational drugs, do extreme sports and play games... It's a scientific fact that humans crave new, exciting experiences...

And that makes sense, a philosopher once said, you can't aspire to have a happy life - but you can aspire to have an interesting one....

I suppose the trick is moderating yourself and making sure it doesn't get out of hand.