Quantum Dice or Random Connections?

"God does not play dice with the universe," quipped Einstein.

While we now know this statement is patently false, I was reminded of the sentiment lately, as I was experiencing a little trouble with a creation I was trying to build in my SL home in Discordia. I find that the name of my home region is quite appropriate on occasions. The fnords of Linden Labs often cause uneasiness and outright consternation; try as I might to figure out why they've set up this or that script function in such a manner as to not work intuitively.

Anyhow, as I was saying, before the fnord led me off down the yellow brick road of doom, Dice, and their use, was the project I was working on. You see, I was building a dice popper. Yes, basically the exact same type of item one finds in the center of the boardgame "Trouble" (Milton Bradley/Hasbro games). Only mine is bigger than avatar sized, and contains -two- dice. One pink, and one blue.

So without returning to the problems I was having with the script, I basically, finally got the thing to work. The first iteration took two dice and continually bounced them around and around like a lotto machine on meth. I hadn't gotten the command structure included to actually control on and off, so this was the mesmerists dream of a swinging pocketwatch. The only problem was everytime I logged back on I got the message: "Your item D6 has been returned to your inventory lost and found from region so-and-so because it went offworld."

What the hell?

So one night I was determined to get to the bottom of the problem. I sat and watched the Popper. I was in IM's with people so it wasn't as big an ordeal as it might have been. Suddenly, from the corner of my screen I caught the sight of one of the dice flying -through- the popper's semi-transparent, virtually-plexiglass walls. Was it lag? .......Nope, sure enough, the message came through chat. D6 has been returned yada yada yada.

Damn.

Apparently, the dice hypnosis machine that I was planning to take over the world with, was subject to bouts of quantum tunneling on a macroscopic scale. Who knew the physics engine was that detailed?

So, this leads me down another of many myriad pathways that oft keep me from sleeping. I have spoken briefly to Maggie about interconnections before. If we are to assume matter and energy are interchangeable, or time and space, or any of a whole host of other symmetries, and that the concept of entanglement holds true (read or see 'The Elegant Universe' by Brian Greene for further information. or Wiki it ;) ), then we are all interconnected.

Carl Jung espoused this as the collective unconscious. The transfer of information, archetypes, feelings, (energy? data?) through unconscious means to others. So....if you believe that an energy pattern, a 'soul' is reincarnated beyond this shell we use in this lifetime, in this particular universe or dimension (hmmm...are we trapped in this universe of 11 dimensions or can the pattern exist and traverse within other multiverses with differing sets of physical laws?) then, by the concept of entanglement, we must have come across some of the other Patterns that make up other 'souls' several times before.

Which brings me back to SL and the internet in general. The world itself, through the means of this global connectivity, has become somewhat smaller. The possiblities of meeting 'souls' interconnected to your own through shared energy (love, hate, friendship, death, sex, etc. . .) is real and easier, since the energy is connected regardless of physical distances, although the physical bodies of the people are not. Therefore, to get to my point in a rather roundabout way, could we not send and receive energy-connections; friendship, love, what have you, to others through an analogy of quantum tunnelling called Second Life? I believe the souls with the connections know the answers to that.

Musings on the Role of MMO's

Second Life.....an interesting place. A place to explore, to build, to meet new people, to create both friendships and virtual items. I wouldn't call it a game as most are fond of pointing out. It is a simulation, though differing from life within life, as the rules are much less stringent there.

Forgive me as I ramble. As most of my SL friends know, I have insomnia and may not always be in the most coherent state of mind. Anyhow, I came to SL from EQ by way of EQ2, NWN, CoH and Vanguard. While I still visit those games once in a while, even WoW when one of my old guildmates drags me over, it is SL that has been occupying my time. A friend once told me they had tried it, but 'there was nothing to do there,' he put forth. I disagree, although it is more the finding of what you -want- to do there that may be the dilemma.

As I said above, there are many who wouldn't call SL a game. It's not set up like WoW or any of the plethora of MMO's hitting the market where you visit and there's quest after quest or certain goals for you to attain. The goals are yours to set. The game is yours to make (if you deem it as such). The whole setup is much more subtle than 'go forth and bring me 5 large candles, and I'll reward you with yonder bigassswordofkoboldslaying_00013'. However, it is just as addicting and just as much of a time drain to those of a certain mindset.

I suppose I should explain my own mindset. You see in the games I mentioned above, I was always a social gamer. Not that I wasn't good at my role; I'm much too competitive for that, but for me it wasn't -about- having the biggest sword or the best armour or even being in the uber raiding guild that made the game more like work than work itself, it was about the people. To me one-hundred or, hell, even sixty plus people I'm -forced- to interact with just to accomplish something drives me crazy. I want a smaller group of close friends I can spend time with. Chatting, goofing off, talking about whatever comes up, even sometimes going and killing monsters.

So that's the mindset, I suppose, of a P&P roleplayer, which is of course my background. Try bringing sixty people to a table with a Dungeon Master and watch as the hand of (insert deity here) comes crashing down upon them until there's about six or eight left. "Ahh now we can get down to business," he laughs, searching for the stats for the dragon encounter as the crushed outcasts wander away dejectedly.

In olden stories it took -one- special person to slay the dragon. Sure the Jabberwock would take more than a few to their doom, but in the end it was always just one who brought it down. Then came the concept of the fellowship.....the party of adventurers, aiding and assisting one another, but still very small in number. The party was the mainstay of P&P games of old. I suppose it was both for management reasons as well as roleplay that the setup was party-sized, but it still worked well. A party of six to eight -could- bring down a dragon.

Now we have graduated, or perhaps de-evolved to a system whereby it takes hordes and hordes of people to bring down a single dragon in the fallacy that this creates an epic scale.
This doesn't even take into account the near absolute lack of any role playing, other than the choice of class and race, apparent in the games now. I've been told that WoW and DDO both support smaller 'raid' sizes now. In DDO that makes sense, going back to the whole party based model -of- that game's parent. WoW.....well if it builds community beyond l337 uber kiddies calling each other n00b then I'm all for it.

Anyhow, I've strayed a bit, but I suppose some background was necessary. The lure of actually building something in SL, the act of bringing it to life through scripts, the having others interact with your creations, is what has been the impetus of my time spent here of late. Also I've met some of the most fantastic roleplayers to further drain my time spent there. I'm a decent builder now, and I'm -getting- better at scripting. My RP has been edited by the sale of Fullton, but that is a post for another time. I've met many friends and hope to continue to meet more and to spend time with them. So for now this rambling is at an end and I'll see you in SL! :)