My Digital Life : Real World MMO

I'm beginning to feel like i'm living in an elaborate MMORPG. Either that or the genre has been so groundbreaking that real life is taking on it's ideas.

In an MMO you move through a world which appears huge but is really pretty small. in real life we are bombarded by news and views from the entire globe while inhabiting a tiny sub world of home and work with the occaisional forays to another PvE server or vacations as we call them.

In an MMO you interact with NPC's to get things you want or need and to pick up quests and missions. If you've dealt with a call centre, helpline or govt department recently, or work in a white collar job with a boss you can relate to that.

In most MMOs, as well as your monthly subscription you can expand your enjoyment with microtransactions from an online store or swap things you have or have made in an online auction. well the most i spend on entertainment these days is either subscription TV services, LoveFilm and buyingshows, apps and comic books on iTunes and downloadable content, arcade games on XBox Live. Shame about online auctions though, oh, wait, hang on...

In an MMO you use IRC or Voip chat to speak to you friends, send them mail and meet up in the digital space. In real life i consistently interact with friends digitally and in many cases asynchronously far more often than in the meatspace. Facebook, twitter, this blog, skype, SMS and old fashioned email.

In an MMO, when you die you suffer severe penalties for a while but then carry on as normal. Ok, so perhaps not all of life is an like an MMO but hey, if you're religious, perhaps this counts too.