Critical Response #9 11-8-07

The section that my group was assigned to read was Chapter 7: Aspects of the Self. This chapter talked about how people have used internet based games called MUDs to help them figure out who they are and what their identity is, or to help them try and change the person that they are into a person that they would like to be. I thought that Turkle addressed the use of MUDs as a type of therapy in an unique way. She presented different cases of people who used MUDs to help them conquer a character flaw or get over a tramatic incident in their past. One example was about a boy named Stewart, who really didn't have many friends, had a heart disorder, and didn't have a really good relationship with his parents. Turkle described how in the MUD, his avatar gained friends that were from foreign countries, had respect from his fellow player, and even courted and married a fellow avatar. She leads you to believe that playing on this MUD has helped Stewart overcome his social anxieties, but she was doing exactly that leading you on. Come to find out, playing on the MUD, according to Stewart only made his life worse and increased his social isolation. However, once Turkle described the type of person that Stewart was, you realized that it wasn't the game that made things worse, it was his unwillingness to change. It brings up the question of whether or not, these games can be therapeutic or if they just make the problem worse. I believe that the MUDs can be therapeutic, if the person playing them is willing to make a change. Having someone to talk to that you never have to see face to face can be easier than talking to someone face to face; it takes away the anxiety and frees up inhibitions. But if the player is only playing to boss people around and fish for compliments to make themselves feel better for the moment, then nothing positive is going to come from playing.

I have never actually played a video game where you can create your character and wander around a virtual world, interacting freely with other people, so I can't relate fully to how therapeutic they can be. However, I do play role-playing games quite often and can say from personal experience that they help me deal with stress, but I dont think they have helped me change my identity or get over a tramatic event, they are more of a stress relief. Sure they may help me take out my anger in a way that doesn't harm anyone and I may sometimes wish that I was like the characters that I play as, but it has never made me consider changing my identity. As many other people do, there are certain things about my personality that I would like to change, but I don't think that playing a video game would help with that. I believe that it would be something that I would have to decide to do on my own and something that I would try out in the real world. I think an identity change can only happen when it is practiced in the real world. Changing your identity in a game is only a temporary thing and just shows in a way that the person doesn't have the courage to attempt that change in their real life.