Lost in Virtual World: Identity and Power in Cyber Games
Lost in the Virtual World: Identity and Power in Cyber Games
by Naushin Rehman
M.Phil. Semester I Course: MP 1 “Introduction to Literary Theory” Course Coordinators: Dr. Simi Malhotra & Dr. Mukesh Ranjan Second Paper Presentation December 7, 2010
Department of English Jamia Millia Islamia
Lost in the Virtual World: Identity and Power in Cyber Games It is not virtual reality, because when our symbolic environment is, by and large, structured in this inclusive, flexible, diversified hypertext in which we navigate every day, the virtuality of this text is in fact our reality, the symbols from which we live and communicate. (Castells, p.403) Instead of a greeting, the first thing you hear when you meet a friend these days, is “ Why didn 't you comment on my wall post yesterday?” or “Add me to your gang on Mafia Wars.” One ignorant of the context of these terms would wonder when or how one became a gangster or since when has one started scribbling on walls. But it is common language now. This is the terminology that we have borrowed from the virtual world and made it into real. Or, perhaps, we are living in that virtuality and take it for real. One instance of such an illusion is the development of social networking sites, like Facebook and computer-generated cyber games that have become popular over the last few decades. People have become addicted to them to such an extent that it 's effects can be felt in the real world. The present paper aims to understand the significance of virtual reality in terms of the concept of identity as shaped and affected by cyber games. This paper also attempts to analyse how cyber games cannot be viewed only as a form of entertainment but as sites of contesting for power and creation of identities. Physiologically, man in the normal use of technology (or his variously extended body) is perpetually modified by it and in turn finds ever new ways of modifying his technology. (McLuhan, p.46) We call the present one a
by Naushin Rehman
M.Phil. Semester I Course: MP 1 “Introduction to Literary Theory” Course Coordinators: Dr. Simi Malhotra & Dr. Mukesh Ranjan Second Paper Presentation December 7, 2010
Department of English Jamia Millia Islamia
Lost in the Virtual World: Identity and Power in Cyber Games It is not virtual reality, because when our symbolic environment is, by and large, structured in this inclusive, flexible, diversified hypertext in which we navigate every day, the virtuality of this text is in fact our reality, the symbols from which we live and communicate. (Castells, p.403) Instead of a greeting, the first thing you hear when you meet a friend these days, is “ Why didn 't you comment on my wall post yesterday?” or “Add me to your gang on Mafia Wars.” One ignorant of the context of these terms would wonder when or how one became a gangster or since when has one started scribbling on walls. But it is common language now. This is the terminology that we have borrowed from the virtual world and made it into real. Or, perhaps, we are living in that virtuality and take it for real. One instance of such an illusion is the development of social networking sites, like Facebook and computer-generated cyber games that have become popular over the last few decades. People have become addicted to them to such an extent that it 's effects can be felt in the real world. The present paper aims to understand the significance of virtual reality in terms of the concept of identity as shaped and affected by cyber games. This paper also attempts to analyse how cyber games cannot be viewed only as a form of entertainment but as sites of contesting for power and creation of identities. Physiologically, man in the normal use of technology (or his variously extended body) is perpetually modified by it and in turn finds ever new ways of modifying his technology. (McLuhan, p.46) We call the present one a
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