If our world is a virtual reality, then what? Virtual worlds are reality.

Empty schools, offices and hospitals, theaters, restaurants and supermarkets are closed, cars no longer stand in traffic jams for many kilometers, and the subway does not make noise underground. There are no people rushing to work in the bustle, there is not a single soul on the streets. According to futurologists, this is exactly what even the busiest megacities in the world will look like in the next century. And not because the apocalypse will happen on the planet. It's just that humanity will exist in a new virtual universe.

This is how the Cave virtual reality room created in the USA looks like. While inside, anyone can walk along the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids, look down from the roof of a hundred-story skyscraper, or wander along the ocean floor. To make this possible, the designers recreated the most interesting and picturesque places on the planet and combined them into one computer program. In fact, the magic room is a small room, on the walls, floor and ceiling of which a video image is projected.

The task of developers is to present the world to a person in the form in which he is used to seeing it. That is, we are used to perceiving the world at 360 degrees, we can turn in any direction and, due to this, imagine the space around us. This is a very important point not only in the perception of the surrounding information, but also a question largely related to our sense of self.

To interact with the virtual world, you need special 3D glasses, putting them on, the picture becomes completely three-dimensional, as in life. Infrared sensors are installed around the perimeter of the room, which track the position of the head. Thus, the image adapts to the person and changes along with his movements.

The virtual reality room, especially in such an advanced environment, allows a person to feel in the virtual world as in the real one. And it is much more efficient to enter into communication not only with the machine, i.e. computer, but also with other people.

True, scientists are sure that in a few decades such hi-tech will fade into the background. In order to get into the virtual world, a person will not need glasses, manipulators or other hardware. People will simply connect their brains to the computer universe, like a telephone cable. Then it will be possible to visit museums, dine in cafes and even fight without leaving home. All cities and countries will merge into a single virtual space. Citizens will be replaced by users without nationality and race. They will be divided into communities and will defend their interests in the vastness of the artificial world, create their own armies, write their own laws. The main resource will be a place in the computer's memory, for which people will begin to fight.

And now, in such a sharp growth of social networks, a huge number of people have already come to the Internet and mastered computer technology, only in order to master the possibility of communicating through social networks. Social networks have computerized a huge part of society that had never before been interested in computers and would never go to the Internet for scientific knowledge or anything else. Armed conflicts will exist on a fundamentally different level. To neutralize the enemy, neither guns nor tanks will be needed, only a set of electronic commands to disconnect it from the network. The army will turn into an association of hackers, snooping in search of a loophole in the protection systems of enemy programs. Although in the real world, members of the opposing factions can be right in the same room.

A fundamental breakthrough in interfaces will occur when a computer can directly transmit information to the brain. Such studies have been carried out for a long time and it is known that mental activity of a certain nature causes nervous excitations in certain parts of the brain. But this idea of dismembering a biological system, working on neural connections, and a digital system in its current form, it represents the main difficulty.

Users will be able to buy themselves not only cars and apartments, but even appearance. For example, an elderly man will be able to appear before society in the guise of a charming blonde. By acquiring endless visual images, people will lose their individuality, but in return they will receive complete moral freedom. A pianist, painter or scientist, having removed the mask, will turn into a cyber terrorist or thief, which will simply be impossible to track. To control such a world, the user will elect a supreme moderator, so the president of the entire virtual space will be called. It is he who will assign a personal code to the DNA of a real-life body. This monarch will filter out viruses and pirated data, in addition, he can restrict access to the network with one, and give privileges to others.

A person exists in a virtual world, where he has chosen his appearance, his personality, where he does not tie his whole life to one full name, which accompanies this reputation throughout his life, he can start many times to live from a new leaf based on his mistakes.

In this regard, we are talking about some new society of the future, which, of course, is largely different from the state that we know now.

To move people into the virtual universe, scientists will create special capsules with life support systems. Humanity in the outside world will be served by robots, which today are an integral part of society. They will keep the server running, containing information about the new reality and keep order when humanity plunges into a digital sleep.

It is obvious that a monitor, a keyboard, and even a virtual reality room, all this is a rather primitive transitional stage in order to download information directly to a person’s brain and read it out of the brain in the same way.

Art, science and other various important branches will exist in the form of program code. The world will become a huge tower of game levels to reach the top of which not everyone can. When the merger ends and absolutely everyone immigrates into the computer space, humanity will cease to be part of nature, it will become a single global network.

Humanity today has gone so deep into high technology and virtual reality that the first assumptions appeared (not from ordinary people, but from famous physicists and cosmologists) that our Universe is not a reality, but just a giant simulation of reality. Should we seriously think about this, or should we take such messages as another plot of a science fiction film?

You are real? What about me?

Once upon a time, these were questions of a purely philosophical nature. Scientists were just trying to figure out how the world works. But now the requests from inquisitive minds have gone to a different plane. A number of physicists, cosmologists and technologists console themselves with the idea that we all live inside a giant computer model, being nothing more than part of a matrix. It turns out that we exist in a virtual world, which we mistakenly consider real.

Our instincts, of course, rebel. This is all too real to be a simulation. The weight of the cup in my hand, the aroma of the coffee, the sounds around me - how can such a wealth of experience be faked?

But at the same time, there has been extraordinary progress in the field of computer science and information technology over the past few decades. Computers have given us games of supernatural realism, with autonomous characters that react to our actions. And we involuntarily plunge into virtual reality - a kind of simulator with great power of persuasion.

This is enough to make a person paranoid.

Life is like a movie

The idea of the virtual world as a human habitat was brought to us with unprecedented clarity by the Hollywood blockbuster The Matrix. In this story, people are so locked into the virtual world that they perceive it as reality. The sci-fi nightmare - the prospect of being trapped in a universe born in our minds - can be traced further, for example, in David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985).

All these anti-utopias gave rise to a number of questions: what is true here, and what is fiction? Do we live in a delusion, or is delusion a virtual Universe, the idea of which is being imposed by the paranoid of science?

In June 2016, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said the odds were "billion to one" against us living in "basic reality".

Following him, artificial intelligence guru Ray Kurzweil suggested that "maybe our entire universe is a scientific experiment of some young high school student from another universe."

By the way, some physicists are ready to consider such a possibility. In April 2016, the issue was discussed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Proof?

Adherents of the idea of the virtual universe give at least two arguments in favor of the fact that we cannot live in the real world. So, cosmologist Alan Guth suggests that our universe may be real, but so far something like a laboratory experiment. The idea is that it was created by some kind of superintelligence, like how biologists grow colonies of microorganisms.

In principle, there is nothing that excludes the possibility of "manufacturing" the universe with an artificial Big Bang, says Gut. At the same time, the Universe in which the new one was born was not destroyed. A new "bubble" of space-time was simply created, which could be pinched off the mother universe and lose contact with it. This scenario could have some variations. For example, the universe could have been born in some equivalent of a test tube.

However, there is a second scenario that can nullify all our ideas about reality.

It lies in the fact that we are completely simulated creatures. We may be nothing more than strings of information being manipulated by a giant computer program, like characters in a video game. Even our brains mimic and respond to simulated sensory inputs.

From this perspective, there is no "flight from" matrix. This is where we live and this is our only chance to "live" at all.

But why believe in such a possibility?

The argument is quite simple: we have already done the simulation. We carry out computer simulation not only in games, but also in scientific research. Scientists are trying to model aspects of the world at different levels - from the subatomic to entire societies or galaxies.

For example, computer simulation of animals can tell how they develop, what forms of behavior they have. Other simulations help us understand how planets, stars, and galaxies form.

We can also mimic human society with fairly simple "agents" who make choices according to certain rules. It gives us insight into how people and companies collaborate, how cities develop, how traffic laws and economies function, and much more.

These models are becoming more and more complex. Who's to say that we can't create virtual beings that show signs of consciousness? Advances in the understanding of brain function, as well as extensive quantum computing, make this prospect more and more likely.

If we ever reach this level, we will have a huge number of models working for us. There will be many more of them than the inhabitants of the "real" world around us.

And why can't it be assumed that some other intelligence in the universe has already reached this point?

The idea of a multiverse

No one denies the existence of many universes formed in the same way of the Big Bang. However, parallel universes are a rather speculative idea, suggesting that our universe is just a model whose parameters have been fine-tuned to give interesting results such as stars, galaxies and people.

And so we got to the heart of the matter. If reality is just information, then we can't be "real" either, information is all we can be. And is there any difference whether this information was programmed by nature or a super-intelligent creator? Apparently, in any case, our authors can, in principle, interfere with the simulation results or even "turn off" the process. How should we treat this?

Let's get back to our reality

Of course, we like the joke of the cosmologist Kurzweil about that brilliant teenager from another universe who programmed our world. Yes, and most adherents of the idea of virtual reality proceed from the fact that now is the 21st century, we are making computer games, and it’s not a fact that someone doesn’t make superbeings.

There is no doubt that many proponents of "universal modeling" are avid fans of sci-fi films. But we know deep down that the concept of reality is what we experience, not some hypothetical world.

as old as the world

Today is the age of high technology. However, philosophers have wrestled with questions of reality and unreality for centuries.

Plato wondered: what if what we perceive as reality are just shadows projected onto the walls of a cave? Immanuel Kant argued that the world around can be some kind of “thing in itself”, which underlies the appearances we perceive. Rene Descartes, with his famous phrase "I think, therefore I am," proved that the ability to think is the only meaningful criterion of existence that we can attest to.

The concept of a "modeled world" takes this ancient philosophical idea as its basis. There is no harm in the latest technologies and hypotheses. Like many philosophical puzzles, they encourage us to reconsider our assumptions and prejudices.

But while no one can prove that we exist only virtually, no new ideas change our understanding of reality to a significant extent.

In the early 1700s, the philosopher George Berkeley argued that the world was just an illusion. In response to this, the English writer Samuel Johnson exclaimed: "I refute it like this!" and kicked a stone.

The concept of virtual worlds is far from modern, although right now it has become most widespread, thanks not only to science fiction writers, but also, perhaps, to some demand for these worlds as such. Indeed, it is worth typing this query in a search engine - Virtual Worlds, as we get a lot of links to games, including online ones, pictures, books, Wikipedia, some presentations, etc.

However, the concept of "Virtual Worlds" itself has existed for a very long time. I heard it at the time of my youth, and in the very context in which I imagine to this day. There was a very interesting, in my opinion, hypothesis, which I want to talk about in this article.

There will be no statements here, only a pile of thoughts, so sensations should not be expected. So...

virtual worlds

Let's get back to search engines first. Let's start with Wikipedia...

Virtual world - wikipedia

Here is the definition I saw there:

Virtual world is a genre of online community that often takes the form of a computer-simulated environment. Being in this environment, users can interact with each other, use pre-created computer objects or create them themselves.

A rather strange bias towards computer simulation ... But if you look, then this is not quite a virtual world. This is just a computer simulation. However, for many computer simulation completely replaces the real world. But still, that's not it. Such a world is not entirely virtual.

Virtual worlds - games

Here, for example, is one of the invitations to such games:

Tired of gray and dull everyday life? It's time to escape from them in the virtual world! We bring you a selection of the best online games, both new and classic, which are full of epic adventures, battles with other users, peaceful affairs and other activities. Enjoy, but be sure to promise us to come back!

Or like this:

An amazing virtual world where your creativity is not the only limit! Play online, create your own world, make new friends, chat and more!

Create your own virtual world... Interesting? Enticing? Sure, at least for many. But again, this is not quite a virtual world... All this is stored somewhere on servers, users' computers in the form of quite real programs, scripts, images, megabytes. For everything, a certain logic is predetermined, there are some restrictions, and so on, and so on, and so on. It's more of a computer world. It also exists and lives by its own laws. Computer. But not virtual.

Again, not that.

Although ... Sometimes it seems to me that the characters of computer games live their lives in that world of their own. They do not know that they are computer characters, for them that world is quite real, just like ours is for us.

And the question arises... And here we are... Are you and I the characters of any such game? Maybe we're just computer models too...

By the way, that would explain a lot. For example, why we don’t really know who created us, why we can’t break out of the computer, from our point of view - to other galaxies or dimensions ... Well, and so on down the list ... Including why some died then previous civilizations... They just restarted the game.

Virtual Worlds - Internet

This is a special kind of virtual world. Every time we turn on the computer, sometimes without even realizing it, we plunge into the world of virtuality. Here we ourselves create a certain image of ourselves, represented by avatars, or carefully selected photos in social networks.

We try to appear smarter, we write and speak completely differently from how we do it in our real life. Even often in other words. Here we have the opportunity to think about the answer for a couple of days - in real life we have to answer right away, and this, you see, is not the same thing ...

We absolutely do not know those with whom we communicate, since we communicate with exactly the same images, drawing them in our imagination, supplementing them with some qualities that the real prototype may not have.

We feel likes and dislikes for those with whom we communicate, in fact, without knowing these people. We make some kind of relationship in this virtual world - we make friends, fall in love, quarrel, quarrel...

We try to surround ourselves with those who suit us and get rid of those who we do not like. We are trying to create our own comfortable virtual world.

Is it bad or good? Don't know. Analysis of the influence of such a world on us is not the purpose of this article. Maybe sometime in the future I will try it, but not now. After all, this world is so multifaceted ... I will only say about one danger that lies in wait for us here - all feelings, both positive and negative, caused by this world, we experience in reality. Not the image-character we invented, but we, alive and real. In many cases, reality and virtuality are mixed up, the line between them is erased, sometimes we ourselves can no longer distinguish one from the other, believing that this is part of our reality. It can be dangerous to health and even life...

Be careful! Although this is a caveat, I know no one uses it. Even myself.

Virtual worlds - hypothesis

The fashionable statement: "Thought is material" in my opinion makes much more sense than we usually put into it.

The hypothesis that I mentioned at the beginning of the article just describes the real virtual world. I repeat, it was a very long time ago and I don’t remember who first voiced it, just like the exact wording. Therefore, I will try to convey the meaning of the hypothesis in my own words.

When we imagine something, then all this is embodied in the reality of some parallel dimension.

Let me explain. For example, a science fiction writer conceived a new book. First, he creates a certain world, its nature, inhabitants, etc. in your head. He scrolls through the storyline options there, gives the characters characters, behavioral styles, and so on. And this world arises in a parallel dimension, lives according to the planned plot, according to all its options (or for each option there is its own world), but even after the end of the storyline it does not disappear anywhere, but continues to exist by itself. Developing according to its own laws, it lives its own life.

It's not about the fantasy writer. Any person, imagining something, creates such a parallel world. For us, this world is truly virtual. And for its inhabitants, it is the same reality as our world is for us.

How to create a virtual world

One should not think that in order to create such a parallel world, it is necessary to carefully model its details and storyline. It is enough to mentally imagine that, for example, you didn’t drive straight, but turned at the turn... That’s it, somewhere in virtual reality a world is already being created in which your double (or how to call it correctly?) turned at the turn. You have already forgotten about this thought, but there, in virtual or already parallel reality, everything continues, but already taking into account the turn...

Can you imagine how many such worlds already exist and how many are born almost every second? Probably their number is expressed by a number that is simply not available to us.

Yes, these virtual worlds can be different and initially depend on the imagination and thoughts of their, so to speak, author-creator. They can be miserable and ugly, bright and beautiful, be similar to our real world and completely different from it...

It seems to me that such worlds may well have common points of contact, that is, under certain conditions, intersect. And then we can see the inhabitants of such a world. It can be like some entity that is alien to us by nature, or it can be the same people. In the latter case, we may not even understand that we are seeing something from a parallel reality.

These are the worlds created by our imagination, I call - virtual worlds.

Are we real or where?

But what if our world is created exactly according to the same principle? Someone just made us up. We call this "someone" different names - the Creator, the Higher Mind, etc. It does not change the essence, just as it does not clarify anything. Why not? On what basis do we consider ourselves the starting point?

A fairly large number of circumstantial arguments can be cited in favor of my assumption. Let's remember at least the effect of deja vu... In a hodgepodge of worlds, we sometimes remember that we have already gone through this story and we can even say exactly what will happen in the next moments. But we can no longer remember beyond this particular point - the plot has changed and we simply do not know what's next. The author-creator decided to revise his story from this place, and at this very moment a new virtual or parallel world is being created. In other words, at the moment of the deja vu effect, we are witnessing the separation of the worlds!

Why not? If you think about it, you can still type enough such arguments.

And finally

Regardless of whether you believe in virtual worlds or not - they exist. Both for each of us, and in the form of parallel realities that no longer depend on us. This, of course, is my personal opinion. There is no point in arguing and arguing.

I have my own world. Starting this article, I wanted to talk about him, but then I changed my mind. This is of no interest to anyone but me.

But thinking about something, dreaming, fantasizing - remember, thought is material. And may your worlds be bright and beautiful.

It has been around for a long time in the modern world. But it's still not clear to everyone. In addition, it is difficult to imagine a person who has not mentioned virtuality at least once. So, this word has already become part of the life of society. Virtual - what is it? We will have to talk about this further.

concept

In general, many people like to fantasize. Imagine something that doesn't really exist. Basically, a virtual is a non-existent "object" in real life. Usually this term is applied to computers and computer fields of activity. In this case, its meaning is somewhat different.

Which one? Virtual is not existing in reality, but generally available. Something that replaces the analogue of real life. For example, there is virtual communication. In fact, this is the same dialogue, but in the form of correspondence or communication over the Internet. So, this term denotes something indirectly existing in the world, and not a simple fiction that "came into the head" of a person.

Reality

Recently, the term "virtual reality" has appeared in the world. What is it in general? As you might guess, this is an artificial, computer "life". That is, the world that was created through technology. It does not actually exist, but users have the opportunity and enjoy.

Consoles have become especially popular and they create the illusion of a person's full presence in a fictional computer world. This concept is most often applied to games. For them, virtual reality is a part of life. Do not confuse fiction with virtuality. And then you can not be afraid of this concept. Otherwise, virtual reality can "pull" you into its world, where the user has a lot of opportunities that are not available in reality. And this addiction will have to be treated.

Belozerov Sergey Albertovich

Keywords

virtual worlds / artificial reality / a virtual reality / avatar-mediated interactions

annotation scientific article on sociology, author of scientific article - Belozerov Sergey Albertovich

The socio-psychological, terminological, demographic and other aspects of a new socially active form of home leisure for adults and the elderly - avatar-mediated joint activity in virtual worlds entertainment purpose. Described origin virtual worlds MMORPG (eng. massive multiplayer online roleplay games) from desktop role-playing games, inherited and acquired properties, as well as the most popular types of entertainment and activities are considered. Under virtual world the author understands a vast three-dimensional territory constantly generated by the server part of a mass multiuser network application (or a system of territories complementing each other connected by teleports), filled with a multiuser quasi-material inhabited virtual environment, providing ample opportunities for productive labor and avatar-mediated life activity. Life activity here means activity aimed at satisfying basic psychological needs. The productive nature of labor in virtual worlds is confirmed by the presence of secondary markets that sell virtual items made in these worlds and provide services in these worlds for ordinary money. A serious terminological problem in the scientific discussion of the virtual sphere is the cardinal difference between the interpretations of the Russian word "virtual" and the English word "virtual" discovered by the author. The latter in the field of information technology should be interpreted as: almost the same, but not quite the same, not meeting a strict definition, being such in essence or effect, but created through software or computer networks. By the fact of use, contrary to the naming and classification, online MMORPG applications are not games, role-playing games or children's games. Surveys show that the average age of European and American MMORPG users is 30 years old, and no more than a quarter of them are minors. Only a small part of users are engaged in role-playing, as a rule, using specialized "role-playing" servers for this. The vast majority of popular types of entertainment in MMORPGs do not meet four or more of the six possible features of gaming activity in the formulation of Roger Caillois.

Virtual Worlds of MMORPG: Part I. Definition, Description, Classification

Social-psychological, terminological, demographical and other aspects of new socially active form of adult and senior hobby - avatar-mediated joint activity in virtual worlds, meant for entertainment, are viewed in the article. The origin of virtual worlds MMORPG from the board role-games is described, inherited and acquired characteristics, as well as most popular types of entertainment and occupations are analyzed. The author understands virtual world as a wide three-dimensional territory constantly generated by a server part of mass multiuser web-application (or territories, complementing each other and connected by teleports system), filled with multiuser quasimaterial inhabited virtual environment, which gives wide possibilities of productive labor and avatar-mediated lifesustaining activity. Life-sustaining activity is understood here as activity, oriented towards satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Productive nature of labor in virtual worlds is confirmed by the secondary markets, which sell manufactured in these worlds virtual subjects and render services in these worlds for regular money. A serious terminological problem in the scientific discussion of the virtual sphere is the discovered by the author drastic distinction of the word “virtual” in Russian and in English. In the sphere of informational technologies, the word should be interpreted as “almost like that, but not the same”, “not corresponding to strict definition”, “appearing like that in substance or in effect, but created by software or computer network”. Upon the usage, in contravention of name and classification the web-applications MMORPG are not games, role-games or child-games. The polls show that the mean age of the European and American users of MMORPG is 30 years and minors are no more than a quarter of them. Only a small part of users does role-playing, usually using special “role” servers for that. Overwhelming majority of popular types of entertainment in MMORPG does not account for four and more attributes of game activity out of six possible in formulation of Roger Caillois.

The text of the scientific work on the topic "MMORPG Virtual Worlds: Part I. Definition, Description, Classification"

Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics. 2015. V. 12. No. 1. S. 54-70.

MMORPG VIRTUAL WORLDS: PART I. DEFINITION, DESCRIPTION, CLASSIFICATION

S.A. BELOZEROV

Belozerov Sergey Albertovich - independent researcher, Arzamas. Research interests: cognitive psychology, cyberpsychology, psychological effects of avatar-mediated activity.

Contacts: [email protected]

The socio-psychological, terminological, demographic and other aspects of a new socially active form of home leisure for adults and the elderly - avatar-mediated joint activity in virtual worlds of entertainment purposes are considered. The origin of MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-play games) virtual worlds from desktop role-playing games is described, inherited and acquired properties, as well as the most popular types of entertainment and activities are considered. By the virtual world, the author understands a vast three-dimensional territory constantly generated by the server part of a massive multi-user network application (or a system of territories complementing each other connected by teleports), filled with a multi-user quasi-material inhabited virtual environment that provides ample opportunities for productive labor and avatar-mediated life. Life activity here means activity aimed at satisfying basic psychological needs. The productive nature of labor in virtual worlds is confirmed by the presence of secondary markets that sell virtual objects made in these worlds and provide services in these worlds for ordinary money. A serious terminological problem in the scientific discussion of the virtual sphere is the cardinal difference between the interpretations of the Russian word "virtual" and the English word "virtual" discovered by the author. The latter in the field of information technology should be interpreted as: almost the same, but not quite the same, not meeting a strict definition, being such in essence or effect, but created through software or computer networks. By the fact of use, contrary to the naming and classification, online MMORPG applications are not games, role-playing games or children's games. Polls show that the average age of European and American MMORPG users is 30 years old, and no more than a quarter of them are minors. Only a small part of users are engaged in role-playing, as a rule, using specialized "role-playing" servers for this. The vast majority of popular types of entertainment in MMORPGs do not meet four or more of the six possible features of gaming activity in the formulation of Roger Caillois.

Keywords: virtual worlds, MMORPG, artificial reality, virtual reality, avatar-mediated interactions.

Introduction

An urgent task facing modern society is the creation and development of various services that provide remote assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population, including through the global computer network. For these purposes, websites, audio and video conferences, webinars, as well as distance learning systems are used. Unfortunately, the unique opportunities provided by avatar-mediated joint activities in the so-called virtual worlds remain outside the field of view of Russian specialists. In our opinion, virtual worlds that already exist today can become one of the most effective tools for solving this problem. Based on the results of numerous studies and personal experience, we believe that the potential of such worlds to combat the problems of social disadvantage is comparable to the potential of antibiotics in the fight against pathogenic bacteria.

Of greatest interest are the virtual worlds of multiplayer network applications, referred to the group of role-playing games, the so-called MMORPG (English massive multiplayer online role-play games). The game component of these worlds is not as significant as it is commonly believed, and can be excluded without a significant loss of attractiveness for adults and older users. We will show this below.

Immersion in the virtual world for an average of twenty hours a week can significantly improve the quality of life of people suffering from social disadvantage. The results of numerous studies of this issue allow us to assert that avatar-mediated activity in virtual worlds is capable of satisfying the entire spectrum of basic psychological needs of a person. For people with mobility problems, disabilities, who are in a state of physical and/or social isolation, avatar-mediated leisure in the virtual world can become an effective tool for social self-rehabilitation.

Most of the studies mentioned were carried out with the involvement of residents of the United States and Great Britain. Where possible, we selected psychosocial indicators related to the age group of 35 years and above. The position of the author is based on many years of experience in the non-gaming use of the World of Warcraft network application.

I sincerely thank everyone who helped me in researching virtual worlds and discussed the provisions of this article. First of all, members of my family, as well as our avatar-mediated friendly company.

Classification and demography of virtual worlds

The abbreviations MMOA are used to classify virtual worlds and the applications that create them.

MMO, MMORPG, RP, PvP and PvE. The first three refer to applications, and the latter to varieties of virtual worlds and MUVEs. MMOA comes from the English. massive multi-user online application and stands for massive multi-user network software applications with MUVE. The acronym MMO (massive multiplayer online) means purely entertainment or gaming applications, and MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-play game) is entertainment applications of the MMO group, designed for role-playing.

The acronym RP (role-play) is used to refer to a variety of worlds or virtual environments where role-playing of the character's identity is required when communicating with other users. PvP (Player versus Player) indicates the ability of users to freely attack each other, and PvE (Player versus Environment) indicates the impossibility of users attacking each other without mutual consent.

There are several dozen applications whose virtual territories to some extent correspond to the features of the virtual world (Geel, 2014). The most popular among them are: World of Warcraft (WoW) - 7.6 million active users; Aion - 2.4 million; Lineage (I and II) - 1.8 million; Star Wars: The Old Republic - more than 1.3 million; RuneScape - 1.1 million; Second Life - 0.8 million (Ibid.). The total number of only officially registered active users of such worlds at the beginning of 2014 exceeded 18 million.

All of the listed applications, with the exception of Second Life, are

join the MMORPG group. Second Life is a general purpose application, i.e. does not have any specialization and belongs to the MMOA class. The best modern MMORPGs have such developed and functionally redundant worlds that the use of their virtual territories for purposes other than gaming is not difficult.

Of greatest interest are the application World of Warcraft, created in 2004 by the American company Blizzard Entertainment, and Second Life, created in 2003 by the American company Linden Lab. The last application allows users to fill the virtual territories themselves and create new types of virtual objects. This quality has made Second Life the premier research lab for the potential of multi-user virtual environments in a variety of fields. Unfortunately, its capabilities in terms of the physical realism of the simulated environment in comparison with the best MMORPGs, primarily World of Warcraft, seem hopelessly outdated.

Between 2006 and 2010, World of Warcraft accounted for 60% of all MMORPG users. Today it has dropped to 40% (Ibid.). Worlds of Warcraft are out of competition not only because of the highest technical quality of execution, but also because of the huge number of varieties of virtual objects (about 50,000). There are over 500 vehicles alone here (WoW Statistics, 2014).

An important advantage of avatars in WoW is the possibility of non-verbal communication using two dozen gestures.

Contrary to the prevailing stereotype that most MMORPG users are teenagers, no more than a quarter are minors (Schiano et al., 2011; Cole and Griffiths, 2007). The median age ranges from 26 to 32 years, with women being two years older than men (Yee, 2006; Griffiths et al., 2003). In the European sector of World of Warcraft - 29 and 32 years, respectively (Schiano et al., 2011). About 14% of men and 27% of women are over 35; one in four users has children, one in two is married or in a permanent sexual relationship (Yee, 2006).

Virtual world and virtual reality

Virtual

According to Russian-language explanatory and encyclopedic dictionaries, the word "virtual" has the following meanings: powerful; possible; conditional; not existing in reality, but capable of arising under certain conditions; existing in potency (Big Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, 2009). The closest in meaning in Russian are the words "illusory", "surreal", "imaginary".

We were extremely surprised to find that this is radically different from the interpretations of the English "virtu-

al", which is considered the lexical equivalent of the Russian "virtual". In English, "virtual" means "almost as described, but not exactly as described" (Oxford Dictionaries Online, 2014); “being so in essence or effect, but not formally recognized or generally recognized as such” (Merriam-Webster Dictionaries Online, 2014).

In the field of information technology in all languages, the general meaning is specified: "created by means of software or computer networks." In accordance with the semantic rules, the phrase "virtual mailbox" in Russian should mean a mailbox that does not actually exist; in English, it is a mailbox, which differs from the normative one, but performs its main functions. Obviously, it is the latter that corresponds to reality.

For a correct understanding of foreign texts translated into Russian related to the IT field, the word "virtual" should be understood as follows: almost like this, but not quite like that, not in accordance with a strict definition, being such in essence or effect, but created through software or computer networks.

International phrases and terms with the word "virtual", such as virtual world, virtual reality, virtual environment, virtual object, virtual space, do not mean an illusion, not a game of imagination or something unreal. In the IT field

a virtual object, when it is generated by a computer program, exists in reality, albeit in an intangible form. The essence and purpose of such a virtual object as a whole remain consistent with its name.

It should also be noted that the adjective "virtual" in Western literature is not used in relation to the term if its addition does not violate the strict definition of the term. In particular, it is not used in relation to the words "occupation", "consultation", "therapy", "pedagogy", "relationship", "love", "friendship", "psychology", etc. In these cases, the prefix "cyber" or the word "digital" (digital) is used.

virtual world

The term virtual world is used in two senses. Initially, since the 1990s, this was the name of a shared or multi-user virtual environment1. In this sense, virtual world is translated into Russian as the virtual world, denoting a certain sphere of phenomena (such as the world of high fashion or the world of contemporary art). After the advent of such MMORPGs as EverQuest and World of Warcraft, vast territories of which imitate a habitable surface

of the whole planet, other interpretations of this term arose (Belozerov, 2014), close to the basic meaning of the word “world”1 2.

Under the virtual world, we mean a vast three-dimensional territory constantly generated by the server part of a mass multi-user network application, or a system of complementary territories connected by teleports, filled with a multi-user quasi-material inhabited virtual environment that provides ample opportunities for productive labor and avatar-mediated life.

By vital activity we mean vigorous activity aimed at satisfying basic psychological needs. Habitability means both the regular avatar-mediated presence of users and the presence of mobile virtual objects - mobs that imitate not only the appearance, but also the behavior of living or intelligent beings. By quasi-materiality, we understand not only the external similarity with the material natural and technogenic environment, but also the reaction of its constituent virtual objects to external influences.

Critical in assessing the possibilities of virtual worlds

1 English. - collaborative virtual environment, CVE - collaborative virtual environment; multi-user virtual environment, MUVE - multi-user virtual environment.

2 The English word "world" means: 1 - the Earth, together with all its countries and peoples; 2 - a specific region, or a group of countries, or a particular period of history, or a specific group of living beings, or everything related to a particular field of activity; 3 - social relations of a person; 4 - another planet or the entire Universe (Oxford Dictionaries Online, 2014).

has an understanding that the intangible virtual environment that fills this world is quite real at the same time. It exists objectively, actual and changes in real time, where the cause always precedes the effect.

Each virtual world is generated by one copy of the software and usually has its own unique name. The terms synthetic world or artificial world are used as a synonym.

The virtual world is not required to have its environment perceived as material or appear to be so. All that is needed is ease of recognition and intuitiveness of using objects of the environment for their main purpose. Also very important is the absence of artifacts both in appearance and behavior, and in response to external influences. Such anomalies are perceived as a defect in technology and seriously reduce the psychological effect of presence (Witmer and Singer, 1998).

At the level of awareness, users are not deluded about the intangible and artificial nature of the virtual world, but they do not feel regrets about this. They will not pick up a virtual item with tactile gloves if it can be done with the push of a button. They will not move at a pace if they can run. Users even prefer to look at the environment not from the first person, but from the “third person”, moving the observation point to a more convenient place, usually behind and above the avatar.

A virtual reality

The term virtual reality (VR) has two completely different meanings. The semantic meaning of this phrase denotes the totality of all real (ie, objectively and actually virtual objects) that are generated by all copies of a certain software application. However, much more often this term is used in the sense of a virtual environment observed from the first person in the psychological state of physical presence (Belozerov, 2014). To maximize the effect of physical presence today, as a rule, a stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD) is used, which changes the field of view of the virtual environment in accordance with the tilt or turn of the head. Such displays are also called virtual reality helmets.

Tabletop RPGs

MMORPGs arose as a result of the development of the game mechanics of tabletop role-playing group games such as D&D ("Dungeons and Dragons") and its adaptation to the capabilities of computers in the global network. The essence of D&D is simple. Players play in the imaginary world of a hero invented by them, who has his own history, abilities, skills, as well as personal property earned in previous sessions of the game. Directs the game and determines the reaction of the imaginary world to the actions of the characters, the so-called

dungeon or game master ("dungeon master" or "game master").

First, the players take turns telling the GM what their characters are doing. Then the master artistically describes the overall picture, including both the actions of each member of the group, and the reaction to these actions of non-player characters. NPCs are inhabitants of an imaginary world controlled by the game master himself.

Player characters are free in their behavior. They can leave the group and travel on their own, they can side with the enemy, and so on. A mandatory requirement is only the compliance of the character's actions with his predetermined character, as well as the physical, social and magical laws of the world. In turn, the game master has the right to quietly manipulate the players, limiting the freedom of action of their characters with the help of secondary details of the environment.

When constructing an imaginary world, the master must adhere to the main details of the plot module and the same laws of the functioning of the world. In particular, a character cannot obtain valuables without labor, such as finding a treasure chest in the street. In D&D, you have to pay for everything, either in labor or in money. In the event of the death of the player's character, it is replaced with a new one with a minimum level of development and ammunition.

There is no end game in tabletop RPGs. The goal of passing a separate module is to defeat the main villain, and

The game as a whole has no end goal. The main motivation for personal success in this game is to increase or maintain one's group status. The more developed the character, the more skills, property and money he has, the more he contributes to the overall result. Accordingly, the more pleasant it is for them to play and the higher the group status of the player himself. The basic principle of a tabletop role-playing game can be expressed by the phrase: "everything is real, and nothing is free."

MMORPG worlds are virtual realizations of what the D&D game master constructs in his mind. In accordance with the traditions of desktop RPGs, they try to make the natural, man-made and social environment in the virtual world, as well as the physical, magical and social laws of its functioning, as plausible as possible. The world doesn't just have to look material. Avatar-mediated labor in it should make it possible to create and extract valuable items, be a necessary condition for the growth of virtual well-being. Without difficulty in MMORPGs, even a fish from a pond cannot be taken out. It is these qualities that distinguish MMORPG virtual worlds from other types of worlds, and this also determines their high attractiveness.

The first part of D&D's implicit principle of "everything is real" obliges MMORPG developers to fill the virtual world with a lot of frills that are completely unnecessary for

getting in-game achievements. This includes the details of everyday life, the interiors of any buildings encountered, the rich world of animals, birds, fish and insects.

In the best MMORPGs, mobs that fill virtual territories imitate a variety of living creatures not only in their appearance, but also in their behavior. They play, sleep, hunt, feed, guard, fight, etc. Predators attack weaker creatures, their victims, noticing the danger, try to escape. The warriors of the warring armies fight to victory or death, but sometimes they try to flee. Those who defeated their opponent rush to the aid of their comrades-in-arms, etc. Such details, by increasing the plausibility of the virtual world, increase the severity of the effect of presence in it (Witmer, Singer, 1998).

In a tradition that originated in tabletop role-playing games, avatars in MMORPGs are usually referred to as characters, regardless of whether the operator of the avatar plays any role or not. The user is forced to earn personal virtual property by avatar-mediated labor: craft (crafting), combat battles, performing various tasks, trading at the auction. Achieving a certain level of virtual well-being, improving the characteristics of an avatar and expanding its skills is a prerequisite for acquiring an acceptable social status in the virtual world.

The closest material analogues of the virtual worlds of the MMORPG group, given their

attractions are Disneyland or cities like Las Vegas. Since the persons who physically control the avatars are at home, such worlds can be considered as varieties of online home entertainment centers. The territories of virtual worlds occupy vast areas (from tens to thousands of conventional square kilometers) and contain many attractions and entertainment, both gaming and non-gaming.

Entertainment and motivation

The ideology of tabletop RPGs includes the freedom to choose the character's actions. MMORPGs are based on the same principle. The choice of activity of avatars and the freedom of their movements is not limited by anything other than user license agreements. However, the low level of the avatar, the lack of good ammunition and skills drastically reduce the number of territories where it makes sense to be at all.

The main motivation for the activity of users of virtual worlds is the development of an avatar, the acquisition of high-quality ammunition, skills and abilities. This expands the number of available territories, increases the value of the items mined on them and, accordingly, raises the social and group status of the user.

The real choice of tactics for the development of the avatar is small and limited to the paths provided in advance by the developers. Each of them requires a certain type of labor activity - handicraft or

military. The level of the craft is determined by the skill of the profession, and the combat skills are determined by the level of the avatar. The most popular is the development of an avatar through the completion of tasks (quests) issued by numerous non-player characters. Successful completion of tasks is well paid - experience points, internal money, valuable items. Those who don't like doing quests prefer to develop avatars through crafting activities, team battles, or through the so-called instances.

The term "instance" refers to a specialized virtual space created at the request of individual users and not related to the territory of a particular virtual world. In-stances exist actual only during the presence of users in them. Their territories are specialized for one specific type of activity. Most often, these are battlefields or difficult terrain inhabited by mobs. In PvE worlds, the most popular entertainment, as well as the most effective way to increase wealth and social status, is to go through difficult zones in groups. Their main highlight is the bosses - abnormally strong mobs, the victory over which brings the most valuable loot.

Campaigns on boss mobs are a virtual analogue of the ex-

tremal tourism or mountain climbing. To achieve success here, knowledge of the tactics of passage, preliminary work out of the coordination of actions and various specializations of the members of the group are necessary. A group is a "bundle", each member of which performs its own function. In difficult situations, error and "death", i.e. temporary deactivation of at least one avatar can lead to a fatal outcome for the entire group. An experienced team that knows the route well reaches the “top”, i.e. before defeating the main boss, in a few hours. However, it can take several months to prepare for a passage with regular training.

An important feature of the MMORPG virtual world is that its filling with the necessary goods and money supply is achieved exclusively by avatar-mediated labor of users. And since several tens or hundreds of thousands of users can simultaneously live in one virtual world, handicraft and fighting labor in them becomes productive. And this quality is very poorly compatible, if at all compatible, with recreational gaming activities.

In MMORPGs, items created by crafting or defeating mobs have a use value expressed not only in internal money3 of a specific application, but also in ordinary ones - rubles, dollars, etc. Despite

3 The internal money of entertainment virtual worlds is real (real) money, in the sense that it strictly meets the definition of the concept of money.

prohibitions of licensing agreements, thousands of Internet sites are successfully operating, providing services for the exchange of internal MMORPG money for regular ones and vice versa. In 2011, the exchange rate of 10,000 gold for the US sector of World of Warcraft was approximately $20 (Debeauvais et al., 2012). In 2014, the price of the most expensive goods in World of Warcraft reached one million gold (TCG buy/sell, 2014).

There is also an informal market for services. In 2013, in the Russian-speaking sector of World of Warcraft, including a user in a team of 25 people to complete all high-level raid zones with the right to choose loot for several hours cost 24,000 rubles (-$700).

The high functional redundancy of the virtual worlds of the best MMORPGs allows them to be used for other, including obviously non-entertainment purposes: training, consultations, organization of a network office, remote provision of various medical and social services, etc. The functions for which the Second Life application was created are performed.

social structure

The social organization of users of virtual worlds is not limited to informal friendly companies. The extraction of the most valuable and rare items requires a coordinated

activities of a large group. In World of Warcraft, such a command

consists of 10-40 people. Coordination of joint activities, necessary for successful completion, is worked out by regular training. To create and maintain such a team, MMORPG users are forced to organize themselves into formal, stable communities of interest, called guilds, clans, or corporations, depending on the specific application.

The maximum number of such communities can be several thousand active users, and the average is only 8-10 people. Research shows that such communities emerge, develop, and disintegrate according to the same laws as urban informal youth groups or gangs (Johnson et al., 2009).

The internal structure of formal user communities is hierarchical. At the top is the leader, below are his closest assistants and team leaders, then the permanent members of the teams, below are the rest of the community. The presence of a stable social structure differentiates users by social status, allowing them to satisfy the needs for respect and self-realization.

This quality is illustrated by the following interview fragment from Yi's collection (male, 19): “I am disabled and therefore unable to make friends as easily as healthy people. However, in<виртуальном мире>our opportunities are equalized. Here I can act freely and say what I feel without feeling the pressure that I usually feel around healthy people.

In the ordinary world, I feel like just a nineteen-year-old college student with a dubious future. Here, through sweat and blood, I can become someone who rules a great power, who deserves the respect of his comrades, whose actions have a real impact on what happens in the game world. It seems to me that in this world I have already accomplished much more than I will ever be able to accomplish in real life” (Yee, 2003). It can be seen that the young man is talking here not about gaming achievements, not about entertainment, but about satisfying basic needs - the opportunity to find friends, respect, belonging to a team, self-realization.

MMORPG - not for children, not role-playing, not a game

There is a common misconception that MMORPG applications, in fact, live up to their name and are really role-playing video games for children and teenagers. However, it is not.

Created in accordance with the implicit principle of tabletop RPGs - "everything for real, and nothing for nothing", the MMORPG genre has acquired many new qualities. The main one, in our opinion, is the productive nature of labor. Also, the need for role-playing a character has disappeared. The latter led to the fact that the vast majority of MMORPG users did not play anyone.

tear, preferring to remain themselves.

According to surveys, only one in 20 World of Warcraft users regularly role-play their character, and those who never play it at all are six more - 28% (Schiano et al., 2011).

Role-playing can be defined as "the practice of impersonating someone else" (Turkle, 1995, cited in Williams et al., 2011), where "players must interact with the world from the point of view of the character they control... speak and act as their character could” (Williams et al., 2011). In this sense, the vast majority of MMORPG users do not engage in role playing (Burn and Carr, 2003; Yee, 2006b; Taylor, 2006; Williams et al., 2011).

Similar is the case with the appeal of MMORPGs for kids and teens. According to surveys, only a quarter of European and North American MMORPG users are minors (Schiano et al., 2011; Cole and Griffiths, 2007).

In our opinion, the lack of division of virtual worlds into children's and adults is a danger to children and adolescents. The avatar-mediated nature of relationships gives adults the opportunity to maliciously manipulate minors, and teenagers the opportunity to get into teams that engage in extreme hardships as adults. The latter, due to the characteristics of pubertal

period, poses a risk to mental health4.

Game activity

The word "game" (game) has many meanings. They refer to activities of both entertainment and business nature (educational or business games), as well as the equipment necessary for such activities. Applications of the MMORPG group are classified as entertainment games (entertainment), which is directly stated in the texts of license agreements. Let's check if this is so.

Play is defined as an activity undertaken for recreation and pleasure without serious or practical purposes (Oxford Dictionary Online, 2014). The most famous definition of play activity was given in 1938 by the Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga (Husinga, 1992, p. 41), and in 1957 it was finalized by the French sociologist Roger Caillois. The latter defined play activity as:

“1) free, that is, it cannot be made mandatory for the player so that the game does not immediately lose

its nature of joyful-attractive entertainment;

2) isolated, that is, pre-limited in space and time by precise and pre-established limits;

3) with an uncertain outcome, that is, it is impossible to either predetermine its development or predict the result, since the need for invention leaves some freedom for the player's initiative;

4) unproductive, that is, not creating any goods or wealth, no new elements at all, and, except for the transfer of property between players, leading to exactly the same situation that was at the beginning of the game;

5) regular, subject to a series of conventions that suspend the operation of ordinary laws and, at some point, establish new legislation, the only one valid for the duration of the game;

6) fictitious, that is, accompanied by a specific awareness of some kind of secondary reality or simply unreality in comparison with ordinary life ”(Cayua, 2007, pp. 43-49).

Consider these signs in relation to MMORPG.

4 High performance of adolescents during this period is achieved due to significant physical and emotional stress. Violations of the regulatory mechanisms, hormonal and autonomic imbalance lead, on the one hand, to significant stress in the nervous system, susceptibility to physical and emotional overstrain, emotional stress and a high risk of clinical manifestations.

On the other hand, these same factors cause high emotional excitability and mental imbalance in adolescents, manifesting themselves as an inadequate attitude towards themselves and others. In MMORPG conditions, this provokes conflict, stressful situations, creating the risk of expulsion from the virtual world, with the loss of everything virtual property earned over the years of hard work.

1. The free nature of entertaining gaming activity suggests that “people play only if they want, only when they want, only as much as they want” (Ibid., p. 47). In MMORPGs, such users are in the minority. They are called ultra-casuals and treated like outcasts. Maintaining an acceptable social and group status in formal communities and friendly companies requires systematic work at the level of others, attending team events, and so on. Ordinary casuals (not ultra) are those who come to the MMORPG for several months and during the first period stubbornly catch up with the rest, raising the level of the avatar and ammunition, studying the tactics of passing, etc.

2. Avatar-mediated activities in MMORPG virtual worlds are not limited by time or the boundaries of a given world. It is possible to transfer the avatar to another virtual world.

3. Uncertain outcomes are typical only for a small part of MMORPG classes, with a high level of task complexity. However, the choice of complex tasks reduces the efficiency (productivity) of labor, therefore, to solve utilitarian purposes, users choose obviously easy and well-known activities. The pleasure derived from the performance of these activities is caused by the satisfaction of utilitarian needs, as well as friendly communication in the process of joint coordinated activity.

4. Activities in MMORPGs are productive because they create

My values have a use value. It is impossible to return the general situation “to the beginning of the game”.

5. There are no conventions on non-role servers, except for punishments for violation of public order.

6. Avatar-mediated activities in virtual worlds are not fictitious, and virtual reality is not surreal.

It can be seen that none of the key features of Caillois gaming activity is typical for MMORGS. If we take a snapshot of the activities that users of virtual worlds are engaged in and check them against this list, then full compliance will be established only for a very small part of users playing any regular game in the virtual world. Thus, attributing MMORPGs to the group of entertaining video games has no basis and must be recognized as a mistake.

Conclusion

Virtual worlds, including MMORPG worlds, are intangible entities that have such a set of properties that, in psychological, social and economic terms, allows them to be considered as an alternative to the physical world.

They meet the key features of real existence, since the virtual environment that fills them exists objectively, is actual and changes in real time. immersed in

virtual world users perceive virtual spaces as if they were physical spaces. Using anthropomorphic artificial bodies (avatars) to interact with the virtual environment and other people, users of virtual worlds psychologically perceive themselves and their partners as being present in the corresponding virtual territories (presence effect - see: Lombard, Ditton, 1997; Averbukh, 2010).

Communicating with each other in the "avatar to avatar" mode, users of virtual worlds have access to the same channels of information transfer as when communicating face to face: text, voice, facial expressions, gestures and poses of avatars. During avatar-mediated communication in virtual worlds, the body language of avatars is unconsciously used (Yee et al., 2007), and the appearance of the avatar affects the behavior of the person controlling him and the attitude of other people towards him in approximately the same way.

zom, as in face-to-face communication (Yee et al., 2009).

Virtual worlds of the MMORPG class, although they originate from tabletop role-playing games, in fact used by most users are neither role-playing nor entertainment games, but are intangible analogues of geographically extended entertainment complexes such as Disneyland, Las Vegas or resort towns.

In the "avatar to avatar" mode, people have rich opportunities for remote joint manipulation of environmental objects, similar to the possibilities of direct object-manipulative joint activity. Avatar-mediated activity in virtual worlds is productive, which makes it possible to use virtual territories to satisfy not only psychological, but also material needs through the exchange of virtual labor products for ordinary money.

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Virtual Worlds of MMORPG:

Part I. Definition, Description, Classification

Sergey A. Belozerov

Independent researcher Email: [email protected]

Social-psychological, terminological, demographical and other aspects of new socially active form of adult and senior hobby - avatar-mediated joint activity in virtual worlds, meant for entertainment, are viewed in the article. The origin of virtual worlds MMORPG from the board role-games is described, inherited and acquired characteristics, as well as most popular types of entertainment and occupations are analyzed. The author understands virtual world as a wide three-dimensional territory constantly generated by a server part of mass multiuser web-application (or territories, complementing each other and connected by teleports system), filled with multiuser quasimaterial inhabited virtual environment, which gives wide possibilities of productive labor and avatar-mediated life-sustaining activity Life-sustaining activity is understood here as activity, oriented to satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Productive nature of labor in virtual worlds is confirmed by the secondary markets, which sell manufactured in these worlds virtual subjects and render services in these worlds for regular money. A serious terminological problem in the scientific discussion of the virtual sphere is the discovered by the author drastic distinction of the word “virtual” in Russian and in English. In the sphere of informational technologies, the word should be interpreted as “almost like that, but not the same”, “not corresponding to strict definition”, “appearing like that in substance or in effect, but created by software or computer network”. Upon the usage, in contravention of name and classification the web-applications MMORPG are not games, role-games or child-games. The polls show that the mean age of the European and American users of MMORPG is 30 years and minors are no more than a quarter of them. Only a small part of users does role-playing, usually using special “role” servers for that. Overwhelming majority of popular types of entertainment in MMORPG does not account for four and more attributes of game activity out of six possible in formulation of Roger Caillois.

Keywords: virtual worlds, MMORPG, artificial reality, virtual reality, avatar-mediated interaction.

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