17. The Virtual World

poem and the movie both allow multiple readings and interpretations. Their actions can be argued in the terms of psychoanalysis or passion, reality or fantasy. There is hence ‘reason in madness’ and ‘madness in reason’. But as Derrida and Nietzsche suggest, it is all subject to perception.

We can attempt to define the boundaries of sanity as much as we like, yet they are easily blurred. In different centuries, writers have dealt with the concept and perception of madness. When Foucault finally published his extensive works on the parameters of these ideas, it became clear that men are more easily termed mad than driven insane. It becomes essential to understand and accept that madness exists and operates in alternate realities.

Vidisha Khaitan

II Year

The Virtual World

Alternate reality has become part and parcel in every individual’s life. This subject has found a new space in the field of research. Digital ethnography is one such research revolving around the theme of alternate reality. Digital ethnography is the process of studying people and their culture in the virtual world. It looks at the ways of representing real life situations through storytelling within the digital world. Through this, it allows the audiences to engage and experience a different culture through a digital based community. Here, it is worth looking at the impact of video games on our life – virtual and real.

Games, for a while now have served as a means to release stress, get rid of boredom and to pass time leisurely. One’s memories of childhood, is filled with playing around various games with friends. The best days of childhood were the recreational activities. Games like kho-kho, kabaddi, gilli danda, have been replaced by video games that provide us with a world full of fantasies, impossibilities, adventures, excitement and entertainment. They not only provide a means to pass our time but also open doors to a whole new world. Games like Tom Raider, God of War, Last of us, Prince of Persia, Grand theft Auto series etc. create a new concept of alternate reality where we become part of a new world without laws, or limits to our actions, where we are our own masters, where magic exists, and exploring the impossibilities of the veritable world is a possibility. Video gaming has brought in a new era in the field of gaming: an alternate world where we are not alone but with a spectrum of personalities.

The popularity of electronic gaming is ever increasing but it has both positive and negative outcomes. To begin with video games require smartness, intelligence and experience. It increases the IQ of the player through the ability to solve various problems in the course of the game. The mind processing and analytical abilities become very active and quick. On the other hand, it restricts our mobility. creating health related problems and reducing the individual to a ‘couch potato’, much like television. Our social interaction is limited to people of the phantasmagoria. One is isolated from the world around him/her. These games are extremely addictive as they provide an escape from the eternal verities of our daily life. The gamers are in a state of virtual hangover which they find it difficult to get rid of.

Tuba Firoz

I Year