Places to visit, the possibilites of virtual worlds
If you could pick anywhere to go, anywhere at all, where would you rather go? To me the answer is clear as day, Alfheim Online (ALO). The real world has many interesting and wonderful places that I would like to visit as well, but I’ve always had a soft spot for fantasy worlds. Alfheim Online is a virtual world full of Green, magic and mystery, it's part of the Sword Art Online series created by Reki Kawahara.
Image source: Sword art online wiki uploaded by user VoN
In this world all player inhabitants are part of a subspecies of fairy, with wings and magic, and they fly in the sky, explore, and enjoy this world together. Virtual worlds offer us completely new worlds, full of riches, hope and desires; we can slay dragons or chat under the light of two moons, travel through wonderful evergreen pastures as well as dive to unexplored depths, there really is no limit to what we can create. In modern day, both virtual reality and BCI (brain control interface) research suggest that these worlds may be closer than we think by creating interfaces to stimulate our senses and read our thoughts and convert them into actions.
Alfheim Online, a world without barriers
Image source: Maxpixel.net
Amongst the many advantages of virtual worlds, the possibility of creating an avatar who is different from the real you and whose actions are guided by your thoughts instead of your body limitations is one of its greatest assets. In fact, during the series the protagonist and his companions become friends with a group of players who are gravely sick in the real life and cannot leave the hospital. A world like Alfheim Online allows anyone to be “free”, free from society’s rules and free from our body’s limits; there is no race or gender discrimination and everyone starts equal, as a level 1 player.
Meet up no matter where you are
Image source: Maxpixel.net
People from all the world can meet inside Alfheim Online and join together in multiple activities. I’d love to join my friends and go to a cafeteria and eat virtual cheesecake (and avoid the weight gain from eating real cheesecake) or give them a hug or a kiss or connect with them in several ways. All you need to meet your friend inside Alfheim Online is that both connect to the virtual world, and no matter the physical separation between you in real life, you can be together and interact.
Today, many people play MMORPGS to interact with their friends, form guilds, join hands and take out the bad guys in the world, while also competing to be the best player. And while better players get better rewards, everyone has an equal chance to make their dreams true in this world, as diligent effort is always rewarded.
Your imagination is the limit
Image source: Maxpixel.net
A true virtual world like Alfheim Online allows players to be creative and gives them millions of activities to perform: want to eat in a café?, no problem; fly in the sky with your friends?, we’ve got you covered; Face huge monsters for incredible loot and bragging rights?, go ahead and face them; want to have a man to man conversation with some fisticuffs included?, go nuts; the possibilities are endless.
So, once this world becomes a reality and I manage to create an avatar and login I’m going to call all my friends and go sightseeing; first target: the top of Yggdrassil: the world tree.
Image source: Mitologia.info uploaded by anonymous redactor
After that I’m going to travel to some underwater ruins and walk in the bottom of the sea, I love scuba diving and the feeling of quiet and peace you’ll find there. Once I get bored of exploring the ocean of ALO I plan on going back to town, gear up and develop the courage necessary to face the big bad demons and other nasty creatures in the world.
Did you enjoy letting your imagination fly and visualizing the world of ALO? If so, you may want to read other entries to the writing contest hosted by nuoctuong [here], and maybe submit your own entries, I would love to read other steemians’ entries.
Kind regards
Eilder Jorge
Don’t forget to show your support to your communities and to the other steemians that work hard. Together we are stronger, together we can do what alone we can’t.
Congratulations with your win @ejgarcia. Loving your story! :) I'm not playing any games anymore, but from my younger days I still know how I could get lost in those worlds game creators present to us. That's also the reason I'm not gaming anymore. To sensitive for it! 😂
Enjoy your price!
Hey thanks! I wasn't around Steemit since I didn't have internet but now I'm back...
It's a shame that you don't play games anymore, but I guess that I understand what you mean, only 24 hours a day and too much things to do... and these games kind of suck us in and makes us lost inside, I've seen days go by focused on a great game like King's bounty or Persona, not to mention MMO where people interact inside the game itself.
See you around steemit!
Hehe just a precaution against the addiction to playing games. So for my own safety not playing!
Did you got lost in your world of ALO? 😉
What are those games about your mentioning?
Well, unfortunately I can't play MMORPGS in my country since we have censored internet (I'm from Cuba), so I haven't played ALO, and besides the ALO I depict is the one that is depicted in the series, not in the game itself, since our VR technology hasn't reached that far yet.
Well, King's bounty is a tactical RPG game that is insanely hard, especially when playing it on impossible, I like challenging games and King's bounty is at the top of the list... I've needed to evolve my thinking patterns in order to deal with some very fearsome enemies...
Persona is part of the Shin Megami Tensei series... and that's one series I would recommend everyone to play, even if you don't like gaming much. Shin Megami Tensei is one of the oldest series made by ATLUS and it's mostly RPG games. The two great things about the whole series is that they use actual myths, angels and demons from all cultures to represent your allies and your enemies; and that the story and the choices you make in the game are always "grey" choices instead of clear good or bad choices. For example, in Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Survivor 2 you play as a university student who gets dragged into a fight between two main social systems, meritocracy and socialism (or egalitarism); you do go through both sides of the conflict while fighting legends from different countries like Suzaku, Byakko, Michael, Lucifer, Shiva, Asura, Amaterasu and so forth. By the time you reach endgame you'll need to make decisions and choose which side of the conflict you support, but by then you've seen that both sides have their good points and their bad points and compromise is almost impossible... it's really interesting. Shin Megami Tensei Persona focuses on social interactions and the depth of human hearts, how there exists a confluence of emotions inside all of us, the balance between darkness and light. You do conquer demons and myths like Beelzebub or Osiris too, but the demon interactions take a secondary role while the main focus is the interactions between the characters and society. I played Persona 5 for about 112 hours... and I beat the game quite quickly, trust me. One of these days I need to make a post for the whole Shin Megami Tensei series, it's worth it...
Hahahaha SAO, one of my all time favorites. Hello there fellow otaku! I too would really love to go there :D Goodluck on the contest!
Thanks man, they said to be original and creative... not many things are more original than virtual worlds in my point of view... if you're interested in otaku games, check out one of my posts about Kamidori Alchemy Meister, it's a great japanese RPG.
To avoid cluttering the post itself I'm writing this here as a comment. For all of you who watched and enjoyed SAO, I highly suggest that you search on youtube for SAO:abridged, a parody version that WILL make you laugh for several hours.
I have been wanting to check this show out for quite a while now, and the way you described this world has more than enticed me. Excellent writing :) Please keep it up
Thanks, it's fun, honestly, the original series was pretty good and touched some serious points we need to consider carefully while moving towards this technology, I'd recommend it if only because they give interesting viewpoints into the whole virtual world business. After that the series became more lighthearted and while it still kept the action, it had softer themes so some people criticized them, but I found them enjoyable as well. It's also a good starting point if you play games but have never watched anime or if you've seen many animes but never played games. Have fun joining!
ramdom comment i told you about lmao
Just wanted to let it be said. Thanks to all the guys of the MSP and PAL community for being so nice!!!
Thank you for taking us into this fantasy land of yours, @ejgarcia! It is a great ride.
@ejgarcia, Congratulations! You're the 1st place winner of the Contest!
I didn't have internet during all these days, so when I came and saw this, I was really suprised!!! Thanks for taking the time to read my entries, all 3 of them... this one is the one that I loved the most and I'm also doubly happy for it being chosen as the winner!!! Thanks and see you on steemit on another post!