It was just a couple of days ago, I was asked, “Why do you play virtual worlds?” Trust me when I say I was stumped by the question. Although I am an enthusiastic gamer at heart, I have never really considered this. “It’s fun, I guess.” Little did I know, after actually giving that question some serious thinking, I’ve just given the most understated answer of all time.

Well, in my opinion, one of the major reasons behind why virtual worlds are so attractive for me is because they offer a way to escape reality! The real world can be a pretty harsh place and virtual worlds offer an escape from all the frustration, the pain, the turmoil of emotions – they offer a place of peace and calm. A cocoon, if you will, of safety that shields you from all those negative thoughts and emotions… even it’s just for a few hours every night.

Not to mention, a lot of people, including me sometimes, wear ‘masks’ to hide their true self from others in the real life. Perhaps they are just trying to fit in with the masses or maybe they are ashamed of being who they are, but all these ‘masks’ can be easily discarded away in virtual worlds. In there, you won’t need your masks since internet offers anonymity. You can just relax and be yourself. No one will be any the wiser. Therefore, it is here you can find people who truly appreciate who you are instead of the person that you acted out to be in real life.

I for one, however, like virtual worlds not just because I can be myself when I choose to be, I can also be someone (or something) else if I choose so! The freedom of choice offered by virtual worlds can be extremely enticing. Let’s just say you may have two left feet in real life and will probably trip over your own feet if you ever tried dancing, but in a virtual world, you can drop some jaws on the dance floor with your sexy moves. Now, how cool is that?

We are human, so it is impossible to be good in everything, but virtually? Well, yeah, you can be anything and everything you want. Have always wanted to try the ‘thug’ life? Well, you can try it in one of the many virtual worlds available! You can also be a diva in one of the fashion virtual worlds, but be someone else entirely in another world. It doesn’t even matter if you are a male or a female! You can actually be both in virtual worlds! How amazing is that?

This is why you’ll often hear that gamers (virtual world gamers included) choose not to have just one life, we choose to have many. This sort of freedom is not exactly easily attained in the real life. From a humble nobody in real life, you can become a somebody in virtual worlds. You can be the idealised version of you if you wish it to be!

Furthermore, I like it that virtual worlds give me a certain amount of control over my character and my surroundings that I may not be able to control in real life. I can easily customise my avatar from top to toe with just a click of the mouse and this includes facial features, hairstyles, and even the size of your feet! Or perhaps your parents may have a very strict ‘Spartan room’ policy whereby you are not allowed to decorate the walls of your room with posters of your favourite bands for example.

Well, you needn’t worry about that in your virtual home. If you like, you can wallpaper the entire room in posters! For me, I would like to make the walls of my room a huge masterpiece of art, but of course, in real life… well, I suck at art.

Another great reason to why I play virtual worlds is because they encourage creativity. In virtual worlds, the worlds can easily be your oyster – you are free to express yourself! By playing virtual worlds, you can let your creative juices flow! You’ll be amazed at what you can create when you’re not constrained by real life concerns, like the cost of all the material needed to create your ideal home. I myself have personally built my perfect gaming room.

There are people who have created beautiful gardens or decorated their virtual homes to look like mansions. There are also people who love to mix and match clothes that have started the next fashion wave in their respective virtual worlds. In my opinion, virtual worlds are like Legos - they provide you the building blocks. You are then free to take them and create a masterpiece that you can be truly proud of and, along with it, a sense of achievement and a right to brag about your fabulous décor.

For a gamer like me, I’ve seen plenty of breathtaking graphics offered by virtual worlds and I would say that those graphics are one of the factors that had attracted me to play in virtual worlds. Being someone who is living in the city and is not very fond of traveling because of the hassle that accompanies it, virtual worlds can be a place for me to rest my eyes on astonishing sceneries. It is in these synthetic, digitalized worlds I could even experience stunning landscapes that may look out of this world since, hey, it is a virtual world after all!

And yet, most virtual worlds also offer me things that real life has, like jobs or professions, shopping, taking care of pets, driving around the neighbourhood or tending to my garden. I can meet new and friendly people, people with similar interests, albeit virtually, through virtual worlds. In other words, virtual worlds are both fantastical as well as realistic and that is why I love to play in virtual worlds.

In short, virtual worlds can have what real world has and what real world hasn’t, both at the same time, and that is what I believe has reeled players across the globe, including me, into these amazing and colourful worlds. However, there is a thin line separating real life and the virtual world. It is until when people went overboard and made the mistake of wholly embracing virtual worlds as their life instead of the real world, which had given virtual worlds a bad name.

Therefore, a quick word of advice - when playing, we should always bear in mind that no matter how attractive virtual worlds may be, we still need to live our own lives. These worlds can be a place for you to escape to from time to time, but it is not a place for you to stay permanently.