You know what I like about games, about virtual universes? They are just. They make sense. Sure, there is the occasional run of bad luck. There are difficulties. But for the most part you receive what you put into the experience. Knowledge is rewarded. Positive interaction is reciprocated. Hard work and planning pay off. Nobody votes on whether you get to live, or whether you get to do well. No spoiled savages who won the lottery of birth decree your success or failure. The NPCs, or even the data points in 4x strategies, are usually more fully realized than most of the people I’ve met in real life. It’s telling when a living soul can get more from a simulated reality than from the real one. The real world we have made is so artificial, so superficial, as to render itself largely irrelevant to those searching for any kind of sense or meaning.
by achrilock