I've gotten to the point sometimes when I'm playing Sonic the Hedgehog where I don't feel my body anymore. I'm concentrating so hard on the screen and what I'm trying to I forget what time it is. When I die in a stupid manner (like falling on some spikes) I'm seriously annoyed...as annoyed as I'd be when my twin decides wake me up just to show me some sentence in a book that is totally hilarious (but not at 2 am).I've been completely immersed in the Sonic world and as a result detached from real life. It’s happened to me with books and movies too. There are different levels of immersion, and to be honest the better I think the game is the more immersed in it I will get. On some games, like Second Life, you can even create your own avatar. Does that aid immersion?
From some avatars my friends have shown me I've also seen that avatars don't even have to look like us or be in any way a true representation of our real selves. It all seems like harmless fun and if you want to be a huge Viking then go ahead. But what about when online trust issues converge with real life?
If your married in real life but have an 'affair' with someone on Second Life is that really cheating? I've read numerous articles where people have gotten divorced over such actions, and one article where a man found our he was getting divorced by his wife updating her facebook status. People have also been accused of bigamy
on facebook. Cyberspace seems to already be blurring the lines between real life and virtual reality, so I can only imagine the potential that 3D and virtual reality simulators where you will be physically immersed will have. I should hope this blurring is mostly positive for example giving people confined to wheelchairs a new chance to 'walk' around again. Again we will have to wait and see.
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