Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

I love the concept of an alternate reality. As an American, I'm a big fan of choice and having the volition to exercise my free will or not. Video games have been an outlet for me to indulge myself in that concept. I look at it as interacting "outside the box", experiencing outside the confines of our given reality. Of course, anyone can lose themselves in a reality they have more power over, it causes some people to actually lose their grip on the real world. We hear the sensationalist news stories of kids shooting up their schools and neighborhoods and their attorneys file suits on video game developers who allegedly influence them to commit these crimes. I can understand regulating the amount of exposure to adult situations to kids who frequently play video games but to completely shift the blame other than the parent or the child is a blatant abdication of responsibility. Alternate realities aren't deliberately made to be harmful to people. If a person can't distinguish between the realm they exist in and the other realm they interact through then there is something intrinsically wrong with them. This is solely my opinion.

Virtual realities have their pros and they are certainly worth their weight in platinum. For the sake of this argument I will now specify virtual realities as "video games". All video games were developed to entertain, some toward a specific market, others to the masses. Just like any other type of game, there's at least one objective and certain procedures and parameters to the game. One gains the reward of accomplishment when they complete the objective inside these parameters. Those who do it outside those parameters are called "cheaters" or "hackers"; they are usually frowned upon or ostracized for their unfair play or unsportsmanlike conduct. However, most video games now have eased up on parameters giving the gamer more creative possibilities to achieve the goal. These scenarios improve problem-solving and critical thinking skills significantly in the real world. Most close-minded people would scoff at the idea of video games being anything more than a recreational, childish waste of time. Well, that's what they said about tanks, submarines, and planes, and look at what we did with that. I've read a CNN report (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText) about how people with autistic disorders use "Second Life" to counter their obstacles. "Naughty Auties", a virtual research centers with those for different types of Autism, including Asperger's syndrome, can interact with other people via their Second Life avatars without having to so much bear a "real-life" social situation.

Regarding the future of virtual worlds, I think in due time it will be frequent to visit one "reality" from another. Alternate forms of reality will be created for anyone to experience a new realm with all of their senses stimulated simultaneously as in the realm we live in now. People can customize their version of what they want reality to be and can immerse themselves in for as long as they like. Question is, would they ever want to go back to their original reality?