When decisions in games get intertwine with real life agenda...

I was alerted to this news report from a post in joystick101. The MMOG is maple story. How wrong I am to think that maple story is only played by tweens. It is great to see countries acknowledging that virtual worlds is fast becoming very much part of our life and are including in their legislation, laws that look into crimes related to virtual worlds.

Players play out their own stories when they play games and that is how it has always been with all things we do. Narrative is in our nature and it is how we remember, reflect and relate our experiences to others. MMOG is another window for us to experience existence. So it follows that game play in MMOG be viewed in and around MMOG within cyberspace but also beyond it, into the realm of real life.

MMOG is situated in the sociocultural domain of our real life and such it is only natural to find decisions made in games are intertwined with real life agendas like the news headings here. All these news have unfolded nicely for me a theoretical concern that I need to think about when I draw my theoretical sampling. I have met players who themselves are leaders in their workplace (real life) and they create their own factions to test and enhance their leadership abilities. While decision like this is likely to have taken place very early when they stared playing games, I wonder what would spark other decisions in games that are likely to have links with real life. When are such decisions likely to happen? What conditions in game and in real life that may motivate these decisions?

I think my research has potential to reveal something very interesting. Said that, it could also be too colossal and beyond my means to do it. If that is the case, I have to draw perimeter and declare early what I will do and what I won't do. Anyway, I end my post with a video of a news report Hell hath no furry like a "Second Life" scorned: Women accused of real-life kidnap plot after online relationship end. Very interesting. Worth your time to check it out.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy