“The price is that it changes your personality in the real world.” The anime Sword Art Online, which is about the virtual reality online games of the near future, supports the school of thought which we may call “habituation”, that our behavior in online games gradually affects our behavior in the real world. The opposite, the “catharsis” theory, says that people in games get an outlet for tendencies that might otherwise build up and be expressed in real life. It would be nice to know which was true right now.

OK, I have now actually tried Champions Online, and it is very similar to City of Heroes. It is more cartoonish in style, both the graphics and the atmosphere are closer to a comic book than the more realistic terrains of CoH. The control system is a little more confusing too. But overall, it is probably the closest thing, which is not so strange since it was made by the same developing house (although many of the artists and developers stayed with CoH when NCSoft bought it up.) And it does have the clear-cut morality, you know right away who are the good guys, and you get to rescue civilians from the clutches of evil. (For some reason, only evil has clutches? And cars, I guess, but I never hear of the clutches of good.)

Anyway, I should probably solemnly consider whether I should continue to fight imaginary evil on my free time or choose a more peaceful way to employ my mind for whatever time I may have left. I guess each has its benefits. Having my favorite crime-fighting game disappear beneath me may have been a helping hand from Heaven, or at least an opportunity from fate. Then again, it may be said that this self-satisfaction of the justice instinct may also contribute to strengthening it, and to maintain a lawful good self-image that will hopefully spill over into everyday life.

I mean, it is widely assumed by the populace that if someone satisfies their sexual drive by computer animation of child molestation, even though no actual children are involved, this person is probably capable of doing the same in real life, and may even become gradually more intent on doing so. (Scientists are not so sure of this, but then there is a lack of test subjects, for obvious reasons.) Logic dictates that by the same measure, people who derive pleasure from doing good in a virtual world, may be inclined to do good in the real worlds as well. I can’t say I have seen a lot of that in my life, but hey. At least I am not much of a force for evil, which is pretty good considering my youth.

That said, I wonder whether I should follow through with my original plan of limiting my game time to The Sims, a very peaceful and constructive single-player game. Or even cut out gaming to spend my time reading and writing good books. But the latter would be rather a big shift. I think I would have to feel very sick to stop gaming altogether…