Getting around in the virtual worlds

There’s a lot to learn when you first visit a virtual world (Second Life) or MMORPG world (eg. Norrath or Azeroth). Being able to move around is one of the most important factors. It’s usually done with a combination of using your keyboard, for the general direction (forwards, backwards, right, left) and the mouse (pointing for finer nuances of direction and to look around). One criticism I have of Second Life is that you don’t seem to be able to change the movements your keys are mapped to – you have to use the default keys (tell me I’m wrong!). And using the mouse for movement is something you have to toggle on and off, rather than a natural function. I suppose this is something to do with the fact that the mouse in SL is used to interact with objects.

With moving, the only way to get less clumsy is to practise, practise, practise. It can get very frustrating when your character is constantly running into walls or off cliffs because you can’t control them.

Getting around the world can be a challenge, too. Game worlds can be so big that in some cases it would take many many Real Life hours to get from one spot to another. Most game worlds now have built-in modes of transport. The original EverQuest used to be very challenging to get around as the only means of transport, besides running, was to beg or pay a character with teleporting skills to take you somewhere. Eventually they added portals anyone could use which simplified travel significantly.

In WoW and EverQuest II you can take a “bird” from place to place. Azeroth, the WoW world is traversed by numerous flight paths from location to location.

In SL each avatar can fly from place to place. Rochelle talked about flying in SL:

I hightailed it out of that area by “flying,” and found myself over a body of water, which freaked out my virtual self as much as my real self is freaked out being in an airplane over water.

I could really relate to this statement. I don’t have a fear of flying but in Real Life I can’t swim – can’t even doggy paddle – and in all game worlds I always have a fear of swimming/drowning. In-game swimming is not difficult once you get the hang of it – you just have to remember to move UP so you don’t run out of breath and drown – but I never ever relax when I have to “swim” in-game. M can tell you about my first ever character drowning in the moat in Kaladim in EverQuest, and how stressful that was for me even though it wasn’t a real drowning. I fixed that by eventually becoming a very proficient swimmer in EverQuest (where your swimming improved the more you swam). Once I learned how to swim in EQ, swimming in other game worlds came naturally (even if the mechanics might be slightly different in each world). If only RL swimming were that easy!

Speaking of fears and phobias, game developers seem to love to create giant spider monsters. All I can say is, I’m glad they don’t seem to bother with giant cockroach monsters. I don’t think I would be able to get over my cockroach phobia enough to play if there were such beasties in any game world.