I don’t believe virtual worlds create a false environment that doesn’t equal, the “real world”. In Baym’s conclusion she mentions how quickly people have adapted to new technology such as the internet that weren’t meant to be used socially, but have turned into tool we use to interact with others. She also states “I am optimistic that we will navigate through innovation without losing hold of one another.” Meaning that no matter what new technologies comes out we will still have a sense of humanity. I agree with this because even language itself is an invention used to communicate with each other more effectively just like the internet. Benjamin Franklin had love affairs through writing letters to women far away even though they never engaged physically.
Castronova apparently has a different viewpoint he believes virtual worlds can stress a relationship, because one person may be in the virtual world more then the other. The same can be said in real world relationship if one person is always working and the couple isn’t spending time together. If couples aren’t spending time together it’s most likely because they don’t want to not because they are so far away. You can contact people instantly nowadays with technology so saying someone is far away isn’t a good reason.
I also disagree with Castronova when he says trades in virtual worlds are hard to track, when in reality they are much easier to track then real life cash trades. Virtual Currency can be easily logged and every transaction can be recorded digitally that is how gold sellers and buyers are caught when large amounts of gold are given to people for nothing at all. Virtual currency isn’t much different then using debit or credit cards we use virtual numbers nowadays there’s not nearly enough cash in the system to account for how much money there is out there.
