Similarly, to the debate on Religion in the 21st century, science has challenged much of what humanity has believed for centuries. Even if there is no God, and we truly did form from stars in the galaxy, the belief in God gave people a certain layer of security, and it allowed them to put the world in a perspective they could understand. Does it matter that God isn’t real? Does it matter if Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or Hinduism are real? Does it matter if Mercerism is real? Does it matter if the empathy box is real? Does it matter if video games are real? As games become more and more immersive, they do start to blur the lines between reality. With Rockstar Games massive wild west simulator, Red Dead Redemption 2, hitting shelves this fall, users can become an outlaw in America’s most dangerous and lawless era. They are free to interact with the world how they want, causing chaos, or becoming an outlaw hero. CD Projekt Red’s massive sci-fi adventure game, Cyberpunk 2077, users will be able to fully develop a character within a world very similar to that of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick’s sci fi novel has a lot to say about society, and a lot of it he had almost predicted in 1967 when the first copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? hit the shelves. He had almost predicted a world where people would turn to digitalization and the simulation of worlds, as an outlet for the increasingly dismal real world. His empathy boxes are very similar to the modern video games and VR consoles. His emphasis on a fake world generated for the sole purpose of meeting a human’s basic psychological needs, is very similar to the worlds and images generated by modern day video games. The faith the people put into Wilbur Mercer, their empathy “God”, gets turned upside down when it is discovered that he isn’t real. Or does it? With worlds stretching as far back as the wild west in Red Dead Redemption 2 to the far future in Cyberpunk 2077, where people are able to escape reality, and live a life that, as unreal as it may be, is real enough for them to live happy and long.
In Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? an ever-present theme of real vs. unreal exists. With the Rosen Corporation introducing the Nexus-6’s, and society using empathy boxes as a source of emotional and divine guidance, people are constantly at the mercy of what is real, and what is unreal. This is something that can be seen happening rapidly in today’s society with the advancement of digital worlds becoming so realistic and immersive through the platform of video games. Using the parallels in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? we can see how humanity is not far behind, in our own perception of real vs. unreal.
Video games are not a recent concept. They have been around since the 1970’s with Pong hitting the markets. Today the industry has a net market worth of 82.44 billion dollars, and is expected to be over 90 billion dollars by 2020 (www.wepc.com). The industry has taken the world by storm. But what is our fascination with games? Why are people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities playing games? What is their mass appeal? Its merely an evolution for our need to tell stories and grow as humans.
Humanity has been telling stories for as long as we’ve been around, hence our understanding of history. There were cave drawings before there were spoken words. Humans are innate storytellers, and it’s the same reason for the explosion of visual media in the 20th century. Stories are ways for humanity to pass what each generation has learned from one to another. This, especially includes empathy. An ibtimes.com article titled “Reading books and watching films makes you kinder in real life” written by Lea Surugue suggest that “because readers identify and sympathise with the emotions and ideas of the characters, a skill which they can reproduce in real life” (ibtimes.com). She states that fiction is just a simulation of the real world, and this prompts empathy and understanding in the reader (ibtimes.com). An insidehighered.com article by Allie Grasgreen reviews the results of a University of Michigan test that states this current generation is lacking empathy, stating college students are “40 percent less empathetic than those who graduated two or three decades ago” (insidehighered.com). A professor in charge of the experiment concluded that, people who were willing to change, were quite capable of change (insidehighered.com). Video games are enabling a generation of people who were quite willing to change, if it meant unlocking a new cosmetic item or piece of armor. Video games are no different, and this is exactly how they work in society. It is simply another medium for storytelling. Before games there was tv, before tv there were movies, before movies there was literature, before literature there were oral stories, and before oral stories there was drawings. Stories allow us an opportunity to empathize and learn, growing as humans.
The difference with video games is that they are more immersive. They allow you to assume full control of a character, or a world, and navigate it as you choose. Whenever you want through several platforms. The experience from movies and literature is always limited to the mind of the author and the creators. With games, you can be that author. The industry has taken great strides over the years, and I would argue that games have never been as expansive as they are now, but they’ve always remained immersive. You could see a Batman movie and see his story and learn through his experiences, or you could be the Batman and live his story and learn his experiences through the video game. I believe this is where the mass appeal comes from, and why we have such a large crowd playing games. Dick’s Mercerism, is exactly this, but replace the Batman with Wilbur Mercer, and introduce a connected network of other people, or players, who all can share the emotions as they empathize, or play the game.
The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic bounty hunter, Rick Deckard, who like most people in this world, lives a miserable life, and Van Ness Pet Hospital employee, John Isidore. A thin veil of radioactive dust covers the planet, killing all lifeforms, with the animals going first. The animals that live, are extremely rare and expensive, and are one of the few things worth living for in this world. John does not possess an animal, this keeps him miserable and is what drives him to use the empathy box to feel better. John uses the empathy box to escape the sad reality of his life. The empathy box is a device that is implied to be in the homes of all the individuals of this Earth, if not in their home, at least readily available. “He was not ready for the trip up those clanging stairs to the empty roof where he had no animal. The echo of himself ascending: the echo of nothing. Time to grasp the handles, he said to himself, and crossed the living room to the black empathy box” (Dick 10). The box allows you to experience the emotions of all the users of the empathy box, allowing individuals to share some of their sadness for others, while taking the happiness of others. John finally gets a new neighbor in his abandoned apartment complex, and when he asks if she brought an empathy box, she says “I assumed I would find one here” (Dick 31). The world is addicted to what empathy boxes can do for them, much like how our world is addicted to video games and what that can do for people.
A certain stigma still surrounds gamers and the gaming community. Often being called names, and exclaiming games as a waste of time. These stigmas are ironic because games are the same as movies. The same as literature. The same cave drawings. It’s a method for people to escape reality. To enter a world of unreal and be reminded of reality. In addition, the social connection that video games allows these people is unmatched. An argument could be made that cell phones and social media are a stronger social connection, but video games is essentially both combined, and then funneled into a niche market with thousands of other players who are learning with them. This is very much so what the empathy box is doing in Dick’s sci-fi novel. Somebody with too much sadness can share it with somebody who is way too happy, and everyone can keep their emotions in check, and resume capable empathy.
As we progress video games to higher and higher levels of immersion, we start to see a movement for games making it hard, to both physically and emotionally, discern the real, from the unreal. A question asked by Dick in his 1967 sci-fi novel, when people in the world live amongst hyper-real androids and enter an entirely digital world in order to experience emotion.
Another object that brings the debate of real vs unreal foreword is this idea of Mercerism, or the way in which humans experience empathy in Dick’s novel. When in the virtual world of the empathy box, users assume control of Wilbur Mercer, and can experience empathy and feel alive. The box also connects all users of the box to experience “the babble of their thoughts”, and connect to the other users of the empathy box (Dick 11). Mercerism is almost a theology, or a religion, for the remaining people of humanity. A set of rules to live by. Mercerism is constantly an argument of what is real, especially when it is revealed that its all fake. Buster Friendly announces on his TV show that Mercerism is a “swindle” and the whole experience of “empathy is a swindle” (Dick 94-95). Mercerism was something that everyone believed to be real, is suddenly revealed to be a huge fraud. This begs the question, if it being real even matters? Does it have to be real for people to be affected by it? Is the fact that its not real, suddenly mean that everything it was saying is invalid and also unreal? John Isidore argues that Mercerism is not finished (Dick 95).
In a dream like state, Mercer discuses with John Isidore, saying that “They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed. Because you’re still here and I’m still here” (Dick 96-96). He’s referring to the fact that androids won’t understand that chaos and disorder will not occur even after everyone learns that Mercer is not real. This is because Mercer does not need to be real for people to experience what they need to experience. This is also the case with video games. People understand that video games are not real and could never be real, but they are still real enough for people to connect and empathize. Video games, are in a way, the same as Mercerism.
Towards the end of the book Rick Deckard experiences fusion with Wilbur Mercer and for a moment he believes himself to be Mercer. After Deckard retires the six androids he heads out into the abyss. While out there he experiences what appears to be a real vision of himself as Wilbur Mercer. ““Mercer,” he said, panting; he stopped, stood still. In front of him he distinguished a shadowy figure, motionless. “Wilbur Mercer! Is that you?” My god, he realized; it’s my shadow. I have to get out of here, down off this hill” (Dick 105)! This is a real experience that Deckard falsely projects, because he now knows that Mercer is fake because John Isidore had just told him (Dick 99). So why does Deckard see this? Its because he needs something to explain his existence, he needs some comfort to explain the horrors he has committed. Deckard later states that Mercer isn’t a fake unless all of reality is a fake (Dick 106). He states later that he could never die, not in a thousands years, because he is Mercer, and Mercer is immortal (107). This is the same thing that gamers are doing when they progress through their campaigns. It’s the same thing that they are doing as they build their virtual version of themselves, the on that’s capable of incredible feats and actions. Gamers constantly see themselves as Wilbur Mercer, giving them an explanation and a purpose for their existence.
These are things that we can see in today’s society through video games. Video games, like the empathy box, provide the user a way to escape reality and experience empathy. The process by which an empathy box is turned on and utilized by a user, is almost identical to the process of video games. When Isidore uses the box it is described as “he grasped the twin handles. The visual image congealed; he saw at once a famous landscape, the old, brown, barren ascent, with tufts of dried-out bonelike weeds poking slantedly into a dim and sunless sky” (Dick 10). This sounds a lot like a user grabbing the two joysticks of a controller, and jumping into a world of generated images, connecting the user with millions of people online. It also sounds a lot like the process by which Virtual Reality games work. In addition to its physical process being almost identical, the reason by which you’d use an empathy box, or play video games, is also similar. John Isidore escapes the poor reality of his life, and enters a world that is much more comfortable for him. Games are simulated worlds and societies, allowing people to feel as though it really is them, and it allows for them to experience things as if they really were there. Wilbur Mercer stands as a character that any gamer would make. He is identical in purpose and structure to any RPG character ever created by a gamer. Video Games are a constant proponent of what is real and what is not real, and if any of it matters.
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